Minister defends incapacity profit cuts, saying you possibly can’t ‘tax and borrow your means out of have to reform state’ – UK politics reside | Politics
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Pat McFadden defends incapacity profit cuts, saying you possibly can’t ‘tax and borrow your means out of have to reform state’
Good morning. Nothing is everlasting in politics. This yr would be the tenth anniversary of Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour chief, in a contest the place Liz Kendall, seen because the rightwing, Blairite candidate, got here final, on a humiliating 4.5% of the vote. A decade on, Morgan McSweeney, who managed her marketing campaign, is now kind of operating the nation because the PM’s chief of employees, Kendall herself is figure and pensions secretary and he or she is about to announce cuts to incapacity advantages which will horrify lots of the 59.5% who voted for Corbyn in 2015 (a few of whom will now not be social gathering members).
Right here is our in a single day preview story, by Pippa Crerar, Heather Stewart and Jessica Elgot.
Yesterday Diane Abbott, the Labour leftwinger, was saying the federal government ought to introduce a wealth tax as a substitute and this morning Sharon Graham, the Unite basic secretary, is making the same argument in an article for the Each day Mirror. She says:
That isn’t the form of society that we need to reside in. I can’t perceive why we’re making these kind of choices, whether or not it’s winter gas cuts or taking a look at taking Pip away from individuals with disabilities.
Why are we making these choices previous to us taking a look at issues like a wealth tax, previous to us taking a look at issues like a income tax? The richest 50 households in Britain are value £500bn. That’s the identical as half the wealth of Britain. That’s the identical as 33 million individuals in Britain.
It isn’t simply the Corbynites who’re pondering like this. Final week, in an interview with Matt Forde’s Political Celebration podcast (right here, at 57:30m in), whereas not fairly advocating a wealth tax, Alastair Campbell did describe it as an inexpensive coverage “onerous alternative” fairly than a wild leftwing fantasy – which might be how he would have responded to the proposition in his No 10 days.
This morning Pat McFadden, the Cupboard Workplace minister, has been giving interviews. Echoing the road utilized by Downing Road yesterday, he mentioned the modifications being introduced at present weren’t nearly saving cash, however have been meant to repair a damaged system that may go away sick individuals trapped on advantages after they can be higher off returning to work. Requested why the federal government wasn’t simply taxing the wealthy extra, he replied:
Effectively, there are at all times going to be individuals who say [find the money] elsewhere.
We’ve a progressive tax system. The highest 1% pay a few third of tax.
I don’t suppose you possibly can, in the long run, tax and borrow your means out of the necessity to reform the state.
The prime minister spoke about reform of the state in a serious speech final week. We’re reforming the state in additional methods than one, and a part of a necessary reform of the state is to make it possible for the welfare state that we imagine in as a celebration is match for the twenty first century.
And we can not sit again and calm down as hundreds of thousands, actually hundreds of thousands, of individuals go on to those advantages with little or no hope of labor sooner or later.
(McFadden’s determine concerning the prime 1% paying a 3rd of tax is true of the share of revenue tax they pay, however not the determine for his or her share of all the tax burden.)
In interviews, McFadden additionally insisted that the cupboard totally helps the Kendall plans. “Sure, I imagine the cupboard is united behind taking over the difficulty of the rising advantages invoice,” he informed Occasions Radio.
At the moment will probably be dominated by the publication of the illness and incapacity advantages inexperienced paper, however we’re getting a speech from Kemi Badenoch first. It’s one other instance of how nothing is everlasting in politics. Six years in the past the Conservative authorities handed laws making lowering carbon emissions to internet zero by 2050 a legally binding intention. There was a robust, cross-party consensus in favour of the goal. At the moment Badenoch is dismantling that, with a speech saying “internet zero by 2050 is unimaginable”.
Right here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs cupboard.
10.30am: Kemi Badenoch offers a speech launching the Conservative social gathering’s coverage renewal programme.
11.30am: Downing Road holds a foyer briefing.
11.30am: Ed Miliband, the power secretary, takes questions within the Commons.
Morning: David Lammy, the overseas secretary, meets Kaja Kallas, the EU’s overseas affairs chief, in London.
After 12.30pm: Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, makes an announcement to MPs concerning the inexperienced paper on modifications to illness and incapacity advantages.
If you wish to contact me, please publish a message under the road or message me on social media. I can’t learn all of the messages BTL, however in case you put “Andrew” in a message geared toward me, I’m extra prone to see it as a result of I seek for posts containing that phrase.
If you wish to flag one thing up urgently, it’s best to make use of social media. You possibly can attain me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X however particular person Guardian journalists are there, I nonetheless have my account, and in case you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I’ll see it and reply if mandatory.
I discover it very useful when readers level out errors, even minor typos. No error is just too small to appropriate. And I discover your questions very fascinating too. I can’t promise to answer to all of them, however I’ll attempt to reply to as many as I can, both BTL or typically within the weblog.
Key occasions
Badenoch denies altering her thoughts about internet zero goal
Q: Why have you ever modified your thoughts on this?
Badenoch says she has not modified her thoughts. As a member of the federal government, she abided by collective accountability. She says in authorities she recurrently questioned the case for internet zero.
The one that’s been constant in all that is me.
Q: What do you say to your critics who argue that the social gathering made a mistake choosing you as chief?
Badenoch says:
I’m not going to fake that I received’t have critics … That is politics. Being a politician is about being criticised.
What I’m asking individuals to do is hearken to what I’m saying. I’m not doing what all the opposite events are doing. We’re altering the way in which we do issues.
The Conservative Celebration is below new management, and we’ve to make it possible for we predict issues via and don’t simply give bulletins with out the right plan to again them.
Badenoch is now taking questions.
Q: You don’t wnat to get to internet zero by 2050, however what’s your date? What do you say to individuals who argue that, with no date, you don’t have a plan?
Badenoch replies:
That’s not the way it works. You possibly can’t simply pull [a date] out of the air. And what we did was choose a goal after which begin pondering of how you can get there.
We have to begin desirous about it otherwise. How does this influence households? How is enterprise going to assist us ship? And that’s what the coverage commissions are going to do.
Badenoch says Claire Coutinho, the shadow power secretary, will evaluate coverage on this areas.
Labour will not be thinking about these questions, however we’re, we have an interest as a result of as Conservatives, we need to shield the environment, we need to safe our power and ship a greater world for our kids.
Somebody has to avoid wasting these noble goals from the zealots who’ve hijacked this agenda.
She says this wlll be the beginning of what she describes as “the UK’s largest coverage renewal programme in 50 years”.
Badenoch explains three the reason why she’s ‘internet zero sceptic’
Badenoch says reaching internet zero by 2050 is unimaginable.
Internet zero by 2050 is unimaginable.
I don’t say that with pleasure.
Or as a result of I’ve some ideological need to dismantle it – in reality, we should do what we are able to to enhance our pure world.
I say it as a result of to anybody who has performed any critical evaluation is aware of it could’t be achieved with no critical drop in our dwelling requirements or by bankrupting us.
Badenoch says she has three truths about internet zero.
First, the revealed plans are utterly muddled.
It’s true that the UK has made the best progress on carbon emissions within the developed world, but we’re solely chargeable for 1% of world emissions. Even when we hit absolute zero, we is not going to have internet zero world wide …
Second, even the place there’s a plan we’re behind.
Let’s take a look at one simple instance. By 2040 the Committee on Local weather Change says greater than half of UK houses want to tear out their boilers and substitute them with a warmth pump. There isn’t any means we are able to do that shortly sufficient.
On that point scale, 17m homes must be fitted with an costly warmth pump in simply 15 years. What number of homes have one now? Fewer than 300,000 as a result of warmth pumps one solely a lot of costly electrical energy, and it seems many individuals simply don’t like them …
Third … we’re massively exposing ourselves to international locations who don’t share our values.
Take photo voltaic panels. The excellent news is that prices have dropped within the final decade. The much less excellent news? 10 years in the past, we have been closely depending on China for the entire key parts. At the moment, we’re much more dependent.
Have a look at the highest dozen makers of photo voltaic panels. They’re almost all Chinese language. That’s a unprecedented dependency, given what we realized throughout Covid about over reliance on these provide chains …
These three truths are why I name myself a internet zero sceptic.
Badenoch claims parliament legislated for internet zero with out plan for how you can obtain it
Badenoch is now talking about internet zero.
Let’s begin by telling the reality on power and internet zero.
Each single factor we do in our every day lives relies on low cost, ample power. When power grew to become low cost and ample, dwelling requirements started to rise, well being and life expectancy grew.
Low cost, ample power is the muse of civilization as we all know it at present. We mess with it at our peril.
However that’s precisely what’s been taking place for 20 years, and it’s now beginning to trigger actual ache for on a regular basis individuals and companies.
However power prices at the moment are too excessive, she says.
She says authorities coverage is making an attempt to do two issues – carry power prices down, whereas defending the atmosphere.
She says when the Commons legislated for internet zero in 2019, it did so after a 90-minute debat with no vote. She goes on:
Of the 22 MPs who spoke that day, solely two sounded notes of warning. I used to be certainly one of them.
I requested for the plan. I requested for it that day. I requested for it many days after and I waited and waited and waited. 840 days later, a plan got here, and it wasn’t sufficient, a lot in order that environmental our bodies are taking the federal government to court docket and profitable, as a result of there isn’t sufficient element.
We’re closing down oil fields in Scotland that we’d like from transition from fuel to renewables, as a result of the plan doesn’t make sense.
Let’s give it some thought for a minute. We’re already a sixth of the way in which via internet zero, 2050, that we deliberate that day, and we’re nonetheless arguing about what the plan is to get there.
And all of the politicians who gloss over the shortage of a plan will probably be lengthy gone when these targets are missed sooner or later and our kids undergo.
Badenoch says that, when Nick Clegg was deputy PM, he dismissed the concept of constructing extra nuclear energy stations as a result of they might not be prepared till 2022. “That call has value us billions,” she says.
And he or she says Ed Davey, the present Lib Dem chief, was power secretary on the time.
Badenoch says Britain ‘stagnating or going backwards’, and folks mistaken to imagine prosperity at all times assured
Kemi Badenoch is talking now.
She begins by saying that we live off the inheritance of our ancestors.
That led to an assumption that prosperity was assured, she says.
We’re a rich nation, however we have gotten weaker via complacency. We’re shedding our resilience. We will’t make issues like we used to. We don’t construct as shortly. We’re spending an excessive amount of on debt, an excessive amount of on welfare and too little on defence. We’re not rising like we needs to be …
in case you take a look at actual disposable revenue or GDP per capita or house possession, you will note that issues are stagnating or going backwards. In 1974 you could possibly save up for a deposit to purchase a home in lower than six months. Now, the common time is greater than 11 years.
She can also be displaying graphs to her viewers, together with ones displaying different international locations rising extra shortly.
Environmentalists say it is mistaken and self-defeating for Badenoch to say internet zero cannot be reached by 2050
Kemi Badenoch will probably be giving her speech shortly. She is launching the Conservative social gathering’s coverage renewal programme, however she has made splash headlines (not less than within the Mail and within the Telegraph) by briefing in a single day that she’s going to say reaching internet zero by 2050 is unimaginable.
Environmentalists have strongly criticised the transfer.
That is from Mel Evans, head of local weather at Greenpeace UK.
The previous few years have taught us the surest path to falling dwelling requirements is staying hooked on risky, costly and polluting fossil fuels. Falling by the wayside on our local weather targets means giving up on making life higher for British individuals now and sooner or later. With inexperienced industries rising 3 times sooner than the remainder of the UK economic system, it additionally means giving up on the financial alternative of the century.
That is from Sam Corridor, director of the Conservative Atmosphere Community.
It’s a mistake for Kemi Badenoch to have jumped the gun on her personal coverage evaluate and determined internet zero isn’t attainable by 2050. This undermines the numerous environmental legacy of successive Conservative governments who offered the define of a reputable plan for tackling local weather change. The necessary query now’s how you can construct out this plan in a means that helps development, strengthens safety, and follows conservative, free market rules …
The online zero goal is pushed not by optimism however by scientific actuality; with out it local weather change impacts and prices will proceed to worsen. Abandon the science and voters will begin to doubt the Conservative Celebration’s seriousness on the clear power transition, damaging each development and the struggle towards local weather change.
That is from Alasdair Johnstone from Vitality and Local weather Intelligence Unit, a analysis organisation on local weather points.
Given that we have to attain internet zero emissions to cease greenhouse gases rising and so the ever worsening floods and heatwaves pushed by local weather change, any sense of giving up on the purpose 25 years earlier than the end line, notably when the UK has made good progress, appears untimely.
It’s actually technologically and economically possible for the UK to hit internet zero emissions and the clear majority of the British public again the web zero emissions goal seeing renewables and clear know-how as the highest development sector. The UK’s internet zero economic system grew by 10% in 2024, and momentum in direction of renewables and electrification globally is simply going in a single route, so any sign of a slowdown is a recipe for investor uncertainty and financial jeopardy.
It was a Conservative authorities that offered international management in setting a internet zero emissions goal since which greater than three-quarters of world GDP is now lined by a internet zero dedication.
And that is from Shaun Spiers, government director of the Inexperienced Alliance, a inexperienced thinktank.
As the general public proceed to expertise the catastrophic impacts of an financial disaster pushed largely by the value of fuel, it’s disappointing to see Kemi Badenoch flip her again on cleaner, cheaper, homegrown power. And given the proud document of the Conservative social gathering on the environmental agenda, it’s much more disappointing to see the chief of the opposition take cues from local weather deniers throughout the pond.
McFadden says Labour has ‘responsibility’ to reform welfare system as a result of it was elected ‘on platform of change’
In his interview on the At the moment programme, Pat McFadden, the Cupboard Workplace minister, advised Labour MPs had an obligation to help the modifications to illness and incapacity advantages being introduced.
Requested what he would say to backbenchers minded to vote towards the plans, he replied:
Look, I’m not going to disclaim that within the historical past of the Labour social gathering, these points about welfare and help have typically been troublesome.
However while you get elected on a platform of change, and while you inform the general public, the citizens, that you simply imagine you could have inherited a state of affairs which wants change, then my message to any colleague in that place is, we’ve an obligation to make these modifications. It was the phrase on our manifesto.
And a part of the change that we’d like is a welfare state that’s higher suited to the twenty first century, that’s sustainable for the long run, that’s there for individuals who want it, and that places work on the coronary heart of it.
And that’s totally in keeping with the values of the Labour social gathering.
McFadden suggests individuals with most extreme disabilities will not must get their Pip reassessed
Pat McFadden, the Cupboard Workplace minister, hinted that one change being introduced at present will spare individuals with essentially the most extreme disabilities from having their Pip (private independence fee – a incapacity profit) reassessed.
In a report for the Occasions, Chris Smyth says the present reassessment course of (when Pip entitlement will get reviewed, to see if it ought to proceed), will change. He experiences:
It’s understood that these with situations that don’t have any prospect of bettering will probably be assured PIPs and informed they want by no means be reassessed. Moderately than a listing of situations, this will probably be utilized case by case to disabilities which can be both everlasting or worsen.
For these with different situations, nevertheless, [Liz] Kendall is predicted to sign extra frequent reassessments. At current claimants are given awards of as much as ten years, however there are not any clear guidelines about when they are going to be reassessed, and ministers need to see a big improve. It stays unclear whether or not extra critiques will probably be nose to nose. A swap to distant assessments since Covid has been advised as a purpose for extra individuals having funds maintained fairly than diminished.
Kendall hinted that she favoured this strategy within the Commons yesterday.
Requested if essentially the most severely individuals needs to be assessed many times, McFadden informed BBC Breakfast:
I don’t need to pre-empt what the announcement will probably be however I feel for individuals in circumstances the place it’s clear they’ll by no means work and should not going to get higher, and in reality it is perhaps a degenerative situation that will get progressively worse, then individuals ought to look out for a way that’s handled in at present’s announcement, as a result of I feel these form of situations will function at present.
And clearly you’re not going to deal with any person in these circumstances the identical means as somebody whose situation is perhaps non permanent and with a little bit of help they may go into work.
Pat McFadden defends incapacity profit cuts, saying you possibly can’t ‘tax and borrow your means out of have to reform state’
Good morning. Nothing is everlasting in politics. This yr would be the tenth anniversary of Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour chief, in a contest the place Liz Kendall, seen because the rightwing, Blairite candidate, got here final, on a humiliating 4.5% of the vote. A decade on, Morgan McSweeney, who managed her marketing campaign, is now kind of operating the nation because the PM’s chief of employees, Kendall herself is figure and pensions secretary and he or she is about to announce cuts to incapacity advantages which will horrify lots of the 59.5% who voted for Corbyn in 2015 (a few of whom will now not be social gathering members).
Right here is our in a single day preview story, by Pippa Crerar, Heather Stewart and Jessica Elgot.
Yesterday Diane Abbott, the Labour leftwinger, was saying the federal government ought to introduce a wealth tax as a substitute and this morning Sharon Graham, the Unite basic secretary, is making the same argument in an article for the Each day Mirror. She says:
That isn’t the form of society that we need to reside in. I can’t perceive why we’re making these kind of choices, whether or not it’s winter gas cuts or taking a look at taking Pip away from individuals with disabilities.
Why are we making these choices previous to us taking a look at issues like a wealth tax, previous to us taking a look at issues like a income tax? The richest 50 households in Britain are value £500bn. That’s the identical as half the wealth of Britain. That’s the identical as 33 million individuals in Britain.
It isn’t simply the Corbynites who’re pondering like this. Final week, in an interview with Matt Forde’s Political Celebration podcast (right here, at 57:30m in), whereas not fairly advocating a wealth tax, Alastair Campbell did describe it as an inexpensive coverage “onerous alternative” fairly than a wild leftwing fantasy – which might be how he would have responded to the proposition in his No 10 days.
This morning Pat McFadden, the Cupboard Workplace minister, has been giving interviews. Echoing the road utilized by Downing Road yesterday, he mentioned the modifications being introduced at present weren’t nearly saving cash, however have been meant to repair a damaged system that may go away sick individuals trapped on advantages after they can be higher off returning to work. Requested why the federal government wasn’t simply taxing the wealthy extra, he replied:
Effectively, there are at all times going to be individuals who say [find the money] elsewhere.
We’ve a progressive tax system. The highest 1% pay a few third of tax.
I don’t suppose you possibly can, in the long run, tax and borrow your means out of the necessity to reform the state.
The prime minister spoke about reform of the state in a serious speech final week. We’re reforming the state in additional methods than one, and a part of a necessary reform of the state is to make it possible for the welfare state that we imagine in as a celebration is match for the twenty first century.
And we can not sit again and calm down as hundreds of thousands, actually hundreds of thousands, of individuals go on to those advantages with little or no hope of labor sooner or later.
(McFadden’s determine concerning the prime 1% paying a 3rd of tax is true of the share of revenue tax they pay, however not the determine for his or her share of all the tax burden.)
In interviews, McFadden additionally insisted that the cupboard totally helps the Kendall plans. “Sure, I imagine the cupboard is united behind taking over the difficulty of the rising advantages invoice,” he informed Occasions Radio.
At the moment will probably be dominated by the publication of the illness and incapacity advantages inexperienced paper, however we’re getting a speech from Kemi Badenoch first. It’s one other instance of how nothing is everlasting in politics. Six years in the past the Conservative authorities handed laws making lowering carbon emissions to internet zero by 2050 a legally binding intention. There was a robust, cross-party consensus in favour of the goal. At the moment Badenoch is dismantling that, with a speech saying “internet zero by 2050 is unimaginable”.
Right here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs cupboard.
10.30am: Kemi Badenoch offers a speech launching the Conservative social gathering’s coverage renewal programme.
11.30am: Downing Road holds a foyer briefing.
11.30am: Ed Miliband, the power secretary, takes questions within the Commons.
Morning: David Lammy, the overseas secretary, meets Kaja Kallas, the EU’s overseas affairs chief, in London.
After 12.30pm: Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, makes an announcement to MPs concerning the inexperienced paper on modifications to illness and incapacity advantages.
If you wish to contact me, please publish a message under the road or message me on social media. I can’t learn all of the messages BTL, however in case you put “Andrew” in a message geared toward me, I’m extra prone to see it as a result of I seek for posts containing that phrase.
If you wish to flag one thing up urgently, it’s best to make use of social media. You possibly can attain me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X however particular person Guardian journalists are there, I nonetheless have my account, and in case you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I’ll see it and reply if mandatory.
I discover it very useful when readers level out errors, even minor typos. No error is just too small to appropriate. And I discover your questions very fascinating too. I can’t promise to answer to all of them, however I’ll attempt to reply to as many as I can, both BTL or typically within the weblog.
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