Inside Politics: Sunak’s spring statement

Chancellor under pressure to intervene as Britons face worsening cost of living squeeze, writes Matt Mathers

Monday 21 March 2022 08:44 GMT

(PA)

Spring may have sprung but the political weather between 10 and 11 Downing Street remains unchanged, with reports over the weekend suggesting Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak are locked in a battle over spending on investments to shore up Britain’s long-term energy security.

It is, however, concern about short-term energy costs and how to respond to them that’s most troubling the chancellor, who is putting the final touches to his mini-budget set to be unveiled on Wednesday. And these discussions about how to intervene are reopening old wounds, emblematic of wider divisions between the two camps; as one Whitehall figure told Saturday’s Times: “There is a fundamental conflict with the Treasury about what kind of country we want to be, what kind of state we want to have and what sort of spending we want to have.”

Amid sky-rocketing fuel prices and a broader cost of living squeeze, Sunak is coming under increasing pressure to intervene to help Britain’s least well-off families, but he has warned that government can’t protect against “all the challenges that lie ahead.” On this point he is right. But the government can certainly do more than it is doing now.

Inside the bubble

Commons action gets underway with work and pensions questions at 2.30pm. After that is any post-weekend urgent questions or statements. Later, Labour will use a debate to force a vote on calling for the government to outlaw fire-and-rehire practices following P&O’s mass sacking of workers.

Coming up:

– Shadow work and pensions secretary Jon Ashworth on Sky News Breakfast at 8.05am

– Health secretary Sajid Javid on BBC Radio 4 Today at 8.20am

Daily Briefing

‘MOMENT OF TRUTH’: Several of today’s papers and news websites carry reports that Sunak will move to slash fuel duty by 5p. That follows his appearance on the Sunday Morning show with the BBC’s Sophie Raworth, in which he said the government will help “where we can make a difference”, adding that he did not want costs at forecourts to be “prohibitively expensive”. Labour has said it would support a 5p cut in fuel duty and again repeated its calls for a one-off windfall tax on the “big profits” being made by North Sea oil and gas companies to subsidise household bills. The price of petrol and diesel have soared to record levels following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and have continued to rise despite oil prices stabilising somewhat in recent days. Sunak has ordered last-minute changes to his statement after being warned he faces a “moment of truth” this week on the cost of living crisis. The Independent has learnt that the Office for Budget Responsibility has been told to recalculate fiscal forecasts to take into account amended Treasury plans, a highly unusual move. There are major concerns among MPs across the Commons and from leaders in business that if Sunak fails to act, the consequences for families and firms across the country will be catastrophic.

UKRAINE LATEST: Officials in Ukraine have rejected Putin’s demands for them to surrender the besieged port city of Mariupol in the southeast by 5am Moscow time. The devastated city, described by one local MP as “hell on Earth”, has been completely devastated by an indiscriminate bombing campaign by Russian forces, with some estimates saying that 90 per cent of buildings have been damaged or destroyed. Russia’s Ministry of Defence had said it would allow safe passage for people out of the city in exchange for defenders laying down their arms but this was rejected. About 300,000 people remain trapped in Mariupol without power or water, and little food. In its latest update, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said that heavy fighting is ongoing north of Kyiv, but that Russian forces are stalled and still around 25km away from the centre of the capital. Four people are reported dead following shelling on a residential area and shopping centre in the city. We’ll have all the latest updates on our liveblog.

‘BREAKING POINT’: Anti-poverty campaigners have warned that war in Ukraine is stretching the UK’s overseas aid budget “to breaking point” . Researchers from the ONE Campaign said the Russian invasion has destroyed the government’s rationale for cutting aid spending from the level of 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent of gross national income in 2020. The non-profit group has called on the chancellor to bring forward the planned restoration of the 0.7 per cent figure, warning that failure to do so will mean life-saving programmes will be withdrawn from some of the world’s poorest nations.

PUTIN CONDEMNED: Foreign secretary Liz Truss has condemned the “abduction and deportation” of Ukrainians from the besieged city of Mariupol, following reports of a move that has been likened to Nazi Germany. An MP from Ukraine claimed that her countrymen and women were being forced to relocate to “distant parts of Russia” to work in conditions akin to slave labour. Truss said she was “appalled” by the reports and vowed for Russian president Vladimir Putin to be “held to account” for his treatment of civilians during the invasion.

P&O ROW LATEST: The fall out from P&O’s scandalous sacking of some 800 workers continues and Labour will today use a debate in the Commons to force a vote demanding that the ferry company reinstates all those who were made redundant with no warning. Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said the incident should be “a line in the sand” for workers’ rights. “This scandalous action must be a line in the sand,” she said. “If P&O Ferries can get away with this, it will give the green light to other exploitative employers. It is the consequence of the Tory assault on workers’ rights. A Labour government will strengthen employee protections and ban fire and rehire to give people the security they deserve for an honest day’s work. has confirmed that a review is under way into all government contracts with the company, whose decision to replace long-serving personnel with cheaper agency staff he described as “appalling”. Unions, who will stage a protest outside parliament on Monday, said that new crew on board ships are likely to end up on “poverty pay” well below the minimum wage and are urging MPs on all sides of the Commons to vote with Labour.

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.

On the record

“We have told the chancellor that this isn’t business as usual any more. This isn’t just a cost of living crisis, it’s a cost of doing business crisis.It is essential to delay the National Insurance increase. It’s not too late. The autumn is absolutely too late. We need action now.”

British Chambers of Commerce director general Shevaun Haviland.

From the Twitterati

“We can’t stop smiling!! Incredible to have my brave constituent Nazanin back home. She’s eternally grateful to all of you for campaigning so hard for her release.”