A flagship cost of living policy and the first to be announced by Burnham is falling apart less than two hours after it was announced. Start as you mean to go on?
At 6 a.m. No10 said:
“Government is tackling rising bills with a tax cut to remove VAT from domestic electricity bills from October 1 in time to impact the next Ofgem price cap. This immediate action applies and is funded for this financial year. The cost of this immediate action for this financial year – taken now, before the next price cap – is being funded from the cancellation of the (£1.8bn) Digital ID programme.”
Removal of the 5% VAT rate is set to cost £850 million and last for one year – Burnham’s government says longer term measures will be explored at the Budget. In a policy release No10 said it would be funded by scrapping Digital ID, a policy which the OBR said was still unfunded. No10 snuck in a line at the end of its release: “Savings were due to be identified from within existing budgets through reprioritisation, which will now be redirected towards this measure.” But one backbencher was not satisfied…
Darren Jones, who had responsibility for Digital ID until he was sacked yesterday, has tweeted this morning:
“Good news that VAT will be cut on electricity bills. It’s a simple way for families to save a few quid, and to mechanically help to keep inflation that little bit lower.
But the DigitalID program was unfunded.
The government will have to set out how it will pay for its new policies at the budget.”
That troublesome old PLP…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”