The Environment Secretary has suggested Labour could follow calls from Reform and now the Tories to scrap VAT on household energy bills. So far Labour has done all of… nothing…
Emma Reynolds deferred to motoring bodies on LBC this morning – the same strategy Bridget Phillipson pursued yesterday – to claim that everyone should go to the pump as usual. Diesel prices have risen substantially – Australia has just halved fuel duty for three months…
Asked if Labour would consider lifting VAT on energy bills, Reynolds provided no pushback:
“Well, as I said, the Chancellor keeps all options under review… I mean, you know, come the Budget in the autumn, she will consider, she keeps all fiscal decisions under review.”
Absent of any substantial action Reynolds was forced to tout Reeves’ shifting of energy bill costs to general taxation as a win for consumers:
“Thanks to the decisions that the Chancellor made at the last budget, energy bills are set to come down by on average £117 just this week, and the bills will be capped until the end of June.”
Labour will want to offer something substantial during the local election campaign. Starmer is hosting a meeting of fuel industry leaders in Downing Street today…
Phillipson said yesterday the government would “take a view closer to the time” on whether to axe the planned rise in fuel duty in September. Thumb twiddlers…
Economic Secretary to the Treasury Emma Reynolds has had a car crash interview on LBC when attempting to discuss Labour’s increased road infrastructure announcement this morning. Reynolds said “Dartmouth Tunnel” instead of “Dartford Tunnel” and failed to answer where the Lower Thames Crossing, which Labour says will get £590 million from a new £1 billion “structures fund,” will start and end. Gravesend, Tilbury…
Reynolds said she had a “very early morning.” When she rattled off some press release lines on the Thames Crossing Nick Ferrari said: “It’s almost as if you were reading from a piece of paper there isn’t it?” He asked her how much the crossing would cost – “quite a lot of money” was the answer. After Nick pressed harder Reynolds said “several billion pounds.” Actual answer: £10 billion. “Is there any point continuing this conversation” replied Ferrari…
The pair then argued about Reynolds being unable to say when any progress would be made on Hammersmith Bridge because she isn’t “a transport minister.” Reynolds couldn’t say if that bridge would even be one of the 3,000 to receive boosted funding from Labour’s new fund. Bring back Tulip…
Economic Secretary to the Treasury Emma Reynolds was on the morning round and tried to reassure viewers over the early release of prisoners. She was asked on Times Radio if domestic abusers or sexual offenders will be exempt from changes to the rules which will only recall licence-breaching offenders for 28 days. She said the change doesn’t apply to them:
“No, it won’t apply to sexual offenders and domestic abusers. It won’t apply to the most dangerous criminals.”
Reynolds had to be told that this was in fact wrong. Only terrorists and those at highest-risk of committing serious offences are exempt from Mahmood’s rule change. Reynolds backtracked:
“Well, look, we need to ensure that we have a prison system that works…We’re not going to endanger victims. This is a reform that the Conservatives brought in, that we are simply extending…We didn’t want to be in this position, but we need to do something to ensure that we have the prison places for criminals, and that’s why we are kick-starting a programme to build the places that we need urgently. But in the meantime, we can’t let the criminal justice system break down, so that’s why we’re having to extend some of these reforms, but we keep everything under review.”
The exchange goes on for some time. Gauke’s sentencing review due next week is set to widely loosen rules. When even your own ministers can’t believe the leniency…
Labour’s new City Minister Emma Reynolds has already come under some scrutiny for her very recent work as a lobbyist for financial services trade body TheCityUK. Despite lobbying for softer rules on China Downing Street says Reynolds won’t have to recuse herself from Sino-related issues…
Ground rent and leasehold reform falls partly under Reynolds’ remit. Interestingly TheCityUK’s leadership council includes investment manager M&G, a devoted pro-Leasehold campaigner which lobbied the previous government hard on legislation intended to introduce immediate peppercorn rents. Campaigners point the finger at the firm, which has Mandelson’s Global Counsel in its employ and sponsored Starmer’s investment summit, for encouraging Labour’s go-slow on its leasehold promises. M&G and TheCityUK both attended meetings with the last Tory City minister…
Labour has still not published the last government’s high-profile consultation on ground rent reform and ministers are deleting tweets claiming progress on its manifesto commitments is shortly inbound. Another minister with links to the pro-leasehold blob has raised eyebrows among campaigners…
Emma Reynolds is replacing Tulip Siddiq as City minister with the anti-corruption brief. Reynolds, former Treasurer of the APPG for China, has some eyebrow-raising form on Jinping’s regime. Bloomberg reported just last month that, as managing director of public affairs at banking trade group TheCityUK, Reynolds had recently taken part in a campaign to lobby ministers to keep China off the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme’s “enhanced tier.” That would have increased transparency obligations for dealings with China…
At the time Labour said Reynolds “was not involved in the government’s China policy.” Labour has so far failed to introduce the Tory-initiated scheme and Reynolds is elevated to City minister, a relevant brief. Some fingers are also pointed at her ‘multiple’ meetings with a Russian diplomat way back in 2012. She said at the time she wasn’t against setting up a “Labour Friends of Russia” group. Judging by the good that Labour Friends of Bangladesh did for the last City minister, now might not be the time…
UPDATE: Downing Street refuses to say whether the new City minister will recuse herself from any decisions on China.
Speaking to Sky News off the back of Rachel Reeves’ Air Passenger Duty hike, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said:
“Labour is dependent on those Red Wall seats, and yet every move she makes poisons economic growth and damages the UK’s recovery… it’s the Chancellor who stumbles from policy misstep to policy misstep… I think her policy decisions are incredibly stupid.”