Ex-Chancellor Hunt told Laura Kuenssberg:
“We have one million people not in employment, education or training. The government says it is serious about getting them back into work. To suddenly say you are prepared to negotiate allowing people from all over Europe to come and take those jobs would be a hammer blow to those plans to get people off welfare and into work.
Whatever your views are on the European issue – and I voted Remain – going back to that old model where employers were giving jobs to people from all over Europe and we were parking people on welfare here must be a step back.
When you have to have these big, constitutional debates you have to have an unwritten agreement that you are only going to come back to them once in a generation. Otherwise it is so divisive.
I was at the top of a government that was paralysed for several years while we were trying to wrestle with the implications of that vote. I think that having made a decision we should stick with it.”
Rayner said this morning:
“Where are we today, how has that affected our economy and how do we go into the future. That has to be based on fact.
We can’t go backwards. We have to go forwards. And therefore we have to look at what that future relationship will be like.
I have been a politician since 2015. I remember the Brexit debates. I remember the promises that were made to the British people – leave the EU, more money coming into the NHS, better economy – people haven’t seen that realised.
What I want is an honest conversation about what the facts are to get the best deal for Britain going forward. I want to see the best deal for the people of my constituency and for Britain.
We haven’t got the best deal. I would like to have an honest conversation about what the trade offs will be and then put that to the British people at the election.
You can’t take anything off the table when you’re having a conversation”
This week 943,732 visitors visited 974,662 times viewing 935,225 pages. The most read and shared stories in order of popularity were:
You’re either in front of Guido, or you are behind…
John Healey will use the budget to let HMRC take money straight out of taxpayers’ current and savings accounts, with no judge involved. Debts as small as a few pounds will be fair game…
The taxman already has this power, but only where the debt tops £1,000 and the account is left with at least £5,000 afterwards. Healey wants to scrap both limits for anyone who fails to “engage” and taking monthly instalments plus fines and interest until the bill is cleared. HMRC reckons 4.8 million people and firms owe under £10,000 each, around £4 billion in total, with an average debt of £950. Average Joes…
There will be no need for a court order. Instead, the taxpayer will have to challenge the withdrawals once the money has already gone. HMRC is also looking at pulling income and spending data from credit reference agencies to judge what people can afford, having previously floated taking up to 50% of disposable income. Guilty until proven innocent…
A senior government source promises “rigorous” safeguards. Anyone who has tried to get HMRC on the phone or has been at the wrong end of an incorrect calculation by them knows how this ends…
Robert Jenrick on the Today programme:
“Can you now give a guarantee to your listeners this morning that no BBC presenter in the future will be exposed as a paedophile, as a number have been in the recent past? No, of course you can’t…”