Sunak: we can afford to cut taxes during a recession
Rishi Sunak has insisted that his government can afford to cut taxes, despite the country having entered a recession, because “economic conditions have improved”.
Speaking to the media, he said “our plan is working” and he can “give everyone the peace of mind that there is a better future for them and their families”.
He said tax cuts were possible “because of our plan to halve inflation, which has been successful over the past year, and because economic conditions have improved. We have already been able to start cutting taxes for people.”
He continued:
We delivered a significant tax cut at the start of this year, cutting the rate of national insurance from 12% to 10%, now that means someone on an average earnings of about £35,000 is seeing a tax cut worth £450 that hit their payslips in January.
Now that will benefit everyone in work, it demonstrates that our plan is working. And if we stick with that plan, I can give everyone the piece of mind that there is a better future for them and their families ahead, and we can all have a renewed sense of pride in the country.
Sunak is in Harlow today, where he has been meeting the local police force.
He told the media that he was making progress on his five key pledges. He said:
We’ve clearly been through a lot over the past couple of years as a country, but I genuinely believe at the start of this year we’re pointing in the right direction.
Now we’re not out of the woods yet, but across all the priorities that I set out we’re making progress.
Inflation has been more than halved, the economy out-performed expectations last year, debt is on track to fall, we’ve cut the number of illegal migrants coming by a third and we’re making progress on the longest waits in the NHS.
Key events
On energy policy, Anas Sarwar has said:
Let me be clear, oil and gas will play a role in the energy mix for decades to come – we will not turn off the taps – but we will also accelerate the transition to net zero.
We will upgrade the UK energy grid, invest in Scotland’s ports, capitalise on new technologies, and use Labour’s “British jobs bonus” to create quality supply chain jobs right here in Scotland.
We will make our country the winner in the race for the next generation of clean energy jobs and cheaper energy bills – not sell off our seabed on the cheap.
Anas Sarwar, the Labour leader in Scotland, says that the devolved government in Scotland has for twenty-five years mostly been a social policy government rather than an economic policy government. He describes the SNP as an “anti-business” party, and the Green party as “anti-growth”.
Anas Sarwar says that a Labour government for the UK would deliver “a race to the top” rather than a “race to the bottom”, and “the most transformative change in conditions for working people for a generation.”
He criticises the SNP for not making the best of devolution, saying:
A quarter of a century on from when our party created the Scottish parliament, our opponents have failed to make devolution work for the people of Scotland
Devolution was never meant to be about two governments fighting with each other. Devolution was always meant to be about Scottish solutions to Scottish problems. And two governments working together when in our national interest to actually deliver for Scotland.
Scottish Labour will be “responsible” with public money if elected to be the Scottish government in 2026, Anas Sarwar said.
He told Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow:
The SNP is being reckless with your money, and Scots shouldn’t be forced to pay the price for their incompetence. Because people work hard, pay their taxes, and expect government to be responsible with their money – it shouldn’t be too much to ask.
We will end the culture of financial mismanagement, we will end the secrecy, and we will open the books to public scrutiny, to restore people’s trust in our politics. We will be responsible with every penny of public money – that’s what change means and that’s why change matters.
Turning his attention back to the Conservatives and London, Sarwar said “I don’t support independence. And I don’t support a referendum. But I understand why people want to run a million miles from a Tory government”
He implored people to go “on this part of the journey” together to end the Conservative government in Westminster as the first step.
Anas Sarwar, the Labour leader in Scotland, has attacked the Conservative government in London for being in thrall to a “right-wing crankfest” and culture wars, and promised that a Labour government would end corruption and get back money lost during the pandemic and through cronyism.
He said:
The Tories are so mired in scandal and division and chaos, that their MPs are too busy trying to find a way to save their own skin rather than focusing on the huge challenges facing our country.
And while they seek to divide communities from each other, they also seek to divide us between haves and have-nots. They have crashed the economy – and put the UK into recession.
Imagine five more years of Jacob Rees-Mogg, Priti Patel, Lee Anderson, Liz Truss, Suella Braverman and Rishi Sunak. What an unbearable nightmare.
He has also been highly critical of the SNP, saying a culture of cover-up and secrecy has enveloped the Scottish government. He said that by voting Scottish Labour, Scotland would be at the heart of the next UK government.
Anas Sarwar has said statehood for Palestine is “not the gift of a neighbour”.
Here are the quotes from slightly earlier in the speech with have just appeared on PA:
The loss of innocent life in Israel and in Gaza is an absolute travesty.
On 7 October, we saw the largest loss of Jewish life in any single day since the Holocaust – it was unimaginable, unforgivable, and unjustifiable.
And we were right to show our solidarity with the Jewish people, and with the people of Israel in the face of that terror.
And as I have been clear, the collective punishment of 2.2 million innocent citizens of Gaza is not – never can be – a justifiable response to the horror inflicted by Hamas.
Describing himself as a “proud son of Glasgow”, Anas Sarwar, the Labour leader in Scotland has introduced his children, and said he is proud to be bringing up his children there. He has criticised the Scottish government for concentrating too much power in Holyrood.
He says that two years ago conference paid tribute to those in Ukraine, and says they do again. He says they also show solidarity with the people of Israel after the 7 October attack which he described as “unforgiveable”, going on to say the collective punishment of 2.2 million people in the Gaza Strip cannot be the right response. He says “the fighting must stop now”, calling for the end of fire going into and out of Gaza, the release of all hostages, the delivery of humanitarian aid, and for world leaders to work on an enduring path to a two state solution.
Sarwar says a collective failure of the international community to strive for peace has led to this situation because only when there is a safe and secure Israel side-by-side with a safe and secure Palestinian state will there be peace.
He says that people must separate Hamas from the Palestinian people, and separate the Israeli people from the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, and that the peaceful aspirations of the people of both Israel and Palestine are being poorly served by bad faith actors.
He says there must be a zero tolerance for antisemitism and a zero tolerance for Islamophobia, and that the Labour party will always stand shoulder-to-shoulder with both communities.
Anas Sarwar, the Labour leader in Scotland is opening his Scottish Labour conference speech by saying Scottish Labour is “back on the pitch and winning again” after the year they’ve had since their last conference.
Sarwar has described this year’s vote as “the most important general election for a generation”. He appealed to activists to remember the goosebumps they felt when Michael Shanks was elected, and talks of watching Labour MP after Labour MP being elected and the electoral map turning red and a Labour prime minister being elected.
“That’s the change we are fighting for, and the change our country so desperately needs,” he said.
Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP Michael Shanks is warming up for Anas Sarwar at the moment in Glasgow at the Scottish Labour conference. He is telling conference it is great that “Labour gain” is back in their vocabulary in Scotland, has made jibes at the SNP’s leadership election and iPad expenses scandal, and joked about Ian Murray, Labour’s only other MP in Scotland, having to now share his office in Westminster after Shanks was elected in October last year.
Labour’s leader in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, is about to address the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow. You can watch it here.