Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Alex Burghart took to the stage at Tory centrist HQ Onward this morning, declaring that the “dominant story” of this Parliament will be the economy. With 30-year gilt yields hitting their highest since 1998, he’s probably right…
Naturally, Guido asked whether the Tories rule out ever imposing a wealth tax – and, if Labour goes ahead with one, would they commit to reversing it? Burghart’s answer:
“I can’t see a Conservative government ever supporting a wealth tax. You’re asking me to commit to reverse a policy that hasn’t yet been introduced. But I can tell you what we think in principle, which is that we don’t like wealth taxes.”
Not quite a hard no…
Burghart went on to warn that the risk of civil unrest in the UK is “underpriced”, adding that Labour views flashpoints like the Ballymena and Southport riots as “aberrations, freak events. I’m not sure that that is true anymore. I hope that that is the case.” Punchy…
Keir Starmer is cosying up to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in London today ahead of May’s EU-UK summit. Tory MP Alex Burghart asked EU Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds in the Commons this morning whether he’d rule out dropping the UK’s right to annual negotiations on fishing quotas – one of Brexit’s cornerstone victories. He refused:
“We will of course negotiate in the interests of our fishers and indeed implement our rights in terms of marine protections. I’m not going to give a running commentary on the negotiations.”
Currently EU boats are only allowed to catch 75% of what they could pre-Brexit in British waters – an agreement set to expire next year. As reported earlier this week, Starmer’s backing a multi-year deal that scraps annual talks and freezes quotas – opening the floodgates for EU boats to flood British waters once again. Burghart also grilled Thomas-Symonds on whether EU AI regulations would apply in Northern Ireland. Again he refused to rule that out. Starmer’s handover of British sovereignty continues…
Paula Barker, Liverpool Wavertree MP backing Andy Burnham, told Times Radio there wouldn’t be trouble from the markets under Burnham:
“The markets will have to fall in line.”