Healey, like Burnham, is refusing to rule out further tax rises at the Budget. For all the talk of growth and deregulation at his snooze-a-thon speech this morning, here is the most telling quote:
“You were trying to take me onto questions of tax, questions that are part of anticipating the Budget I will deliver on 28th October.
And I say to you, look, if I respond to speculation now, that will only fuel more speculation. And it’s quite right, and every Chancellor will say, that’s for the Budget. And I’ll set out my plans and the future route for the Government, for this country, at that Budget.”
He did at least vow to stick to the moribund 2024 manifesto pledge not to raise VAT, national insurance, or income tax. Of course, Rachel Reeves already took a bazooka to that promise in her first Budget…
Lucy Powell told Sky News that the Ed Miliband-Russell Brand interview happened in part because the ‘social media age’ had not begun by 2015:
“Look, I mean, he approached the Labour Party, he approached the campaign team, and we’re in very different times now. We weren’t in the social media age at the time – where you could maybe search things up and see allegations about somebody at the time. and as I say, if there was any suggestion at all, we were dealing with someone who was a known sexual predator at the time, then, of course, you know, no one would have done that. But as I say, he was a well known public figure. Lots of people from Hollywood to the BBC to many others gave this person a very, very powerful platform. And we didn’t know at the time, unfortunately. It was a different era.”