Lots of gold from the GMB Labour leadership hustings today.
Firstly, Andy Burnham was booed as he floundered around refusing to back the benefit cap.
The crowd wanted a no, but he knew the country would give a resounding yes.
And the banter did not stop there. He later got the price of litre of petrol wrong, declaring it was 160p:
It’s 116p.
Delicious…
Meet Alyessa. Vox-popped in Birmingham by the BBC this morning, she revealed why she’s voting Labour:
“Because Labour are the party that help people on benefits.”
Despite some vague tough talk from Rachel Reeves, Labour opposed every single one of IDS’s reforms and their client supporters are grateful. It’s the dirty little secret that the Labour Party refuse to accept: Benefit reform is hugely popular.
Polling by Ipsos Mori found that:
Being the ‘party that help people on benefits’ may soothe your base, but the public don’t like it…
Following her comments denigrating the unemployed, Labour’s grassroots have turned on Rachel Reeves:
Disgruntled Labour members can join the Green Party here…
What will Labour’s grassroots make of Rachel Reeves distancing her party from people receiving unemployment benefits? The Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary is talking tough in the Guardian today, in very un-Guardian-y language:
“We are not the party of people on benefits. We don’t want to be seen, and we’re not, the party to represent those who are out of work. Labour are a party of working people, formed for and by working people.”
Are Labour trying to get more of their supporters to follow in Jack Monroe’s footsteps? Slagging off their core vote is a bold move…
Phoning in to LBC, Benefits Street star White Dee tells Iain Dale she is voting Labour on 7 May:
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The celebrity endorsement Ed wanted…
The Reds are winning the power struggle at the top of UKIP if today’s reports that the party is set to unveil a raft of new left-wing policies are correct. Interestingly UKIP’s policy chief Tim Aker, who Guido always remembered as a sound as a pound right-winger, today condemns the bedroom ‘tax’ and calls for higher unemployment benefits. He tells May 2015:
“we’re firmly against the bedroom tax, but we do think you need a cap on benefits. We also support a higher Jobseeker’s Allowance, so we have a mix of left and right debates”
A UKIP source clarifies the party only proposes higher JSA “for people who have consistently paid in”, arguing “the money belongs to the people, and is therefore being returned to them rather than being kept by the state”. But where else can you find the exact same policy? Labour have pledged to pay more dole if you have worked for five or more years…
The European Court of Justice has this morning ruled that an unemployed Romanian woman living in Germany had no automatic legal right to access unemployment benefits. The Court found that member states “must have the possibility of refusing to grant social benefits to economically inactive Union citizens who exercise their right to freedom of movement solely in order to obtain another Member State’s social assistance.” The case related to a Romanian woman, Ms Dano and her son Florian, who took a job centre in Leipzig to court for refusing them benefits. After a messy trip to Europe last week and Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers up in arms after yesterday’s mess, this ECJ ruling is a massive boost to No. 10.
This can be implemented before the election – no more benefit tourists.
Labour wouldn’t dare oppose it, right?
UPDATE:
[jwplatform src=”http://content.jwplatform.com/players/o1GRqUnO-mCjhiWMJ.js”]
Regular readers will remember that Rachel Reeves told a meeting of ‘Christians on the Left’ that:
‘It will be much better if we can say that all of the changes that the Government have introduced we can reverse and all benefits can be universal.’
After Guido reported the comment back in March, Reeves went out of her way not to deny the quote when it was raised in the Commons by Mark Harper. Yesterday, during an exchange with IDS, she changed tact and flatly denied ever saying it:
IDS: A little while ago, in March, she is recorded as having said that, left to her, “all the changes that the Government has introduced” in welfare reform would be reversed “and all benefits” could be and should be “universal”. She has been asked this question before. It was a quote. I will give way to her if she wants to deny it.
Rachel Reeves indicated dissent.
IDS: There we have it—we now know what the policy is.
RR: The right hon. Gentleman did not read out a quote and I deny what he said.
IDS: I have to say to the hon. Lady that it is reported that she said that “all changes that the Government has introduced” in welfare could be reversed and “all benefits can be universal”. That is what she is quoted as saying. I will send her the quote if she likes. This is important.
RR: As I said, what the right hon. Gentleman read out is not a quote of what I said and I deny that that is my view.
Well guess what? There’s a tape, Rachel. Watch the video above to hear Rachel say the exact quote. She told the house she did not say it would be better if all benefits were universal, when she clearly did. Labour should realise there is always a tape these days.
Congratulations to Gita Lima, the Cameron children’s nanny, who Guido revealed in yesterday’s Sun is expecting a baby in early summer.
Usually Gita keeps in the background, hitting the front pages only when bungling immigration minister James Brokenshire claimed the rich, metropolitian elite get their nannies on the cheap because of mass immigration. It soon emerged that Gita had only been granted British citizenship after Samantha Cameron was named on the application as her employer…
Critics nevertheless will not be pleased to learn that Nepal-born Gita, having only got her passport in 2010, will soon be in receipt of maternity and child benefits.
The happy news means that the Downing Street nanny employment crisis is now becoming critical – George Osborne’s nanny is off as well…
Rachel Reeves just repeatedly refused to deny she told a gathering of socialists that “it will be much better if we can say that all of the changes that the Government have introduced we can reverse and all benefits can be universal.”.
The Labour welfare mask slips.
Mark Harper clearly stood down to spend more time reading the Guido Fawkes Blog ‘which one or two members are familiar with’…
Last week Rachel Reeves let her guard down at a meeting of Christians on the Left, formerly known as the Christian Socialist Movement:
‘It will be much better if we can say that all of the changes that the Government have introduced we can reverse and all benefits can be universal.’
Much better? Really? That’s not what the sums say…
Implementing working-age Universal Benefits alone after the next election would cost Rachel £180 billion a year, which is double the benefits bill now. If you then include reversing all of IDS’s savings made in this parliament – like £2.1 billion to Housing Benefit Reforms (this year alone) or £1.3 billion to Employment and Support Allowance – you’re looking at another £50 billion needed. That takes Rachel’s bill to £230 billion . How can that figure possibly be seen as ‘much better’?
The Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary admitting that she’s against the principle of Welfare Reform, but has been forced into it, hardly fills you with confidence about how she would act should she get her hands on the moneybags. Tomorrow Labour will finally back a welfare cap, something that they have voted against three times before, yet behind closed doors what has actually changed?
Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner:
“We have no plans to write off existing student debt.”
