Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson was asked this morning on GB News how many billions Labour’s Net Zero plan would cost. She refused to answer the question, instead spinning the costly plan:
“The answer is how we move to a position of decarbonising our economy, creating more jobs, is through private investment, not just public money. So you can invest relatively modest sums of public money and that brings in real returns.”
It comes after The Telegraph leaked a recording of Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones admitting that their energy plans would cost “hundreds of billions” of pounds. He dubbed the original £28 billion black hole – already an eye-watering figure – a “tiny” amount compared to the reality. It’s clear they’re hiding the true cost of the plans, which will ultimately be shouldered by taxpayers. Labour will do as they always do: tax and spend, tax and spend…
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has taken to the stage to defend the Tories’ record and bash “Labour’s tax rises“. In a negative campaign, Hunt warned that Labour were playing “playground politics” and are taking the public for fools over the cost of the pandemic – before drawing a line in the sand over numbers. If Guido were in the room, he would remind the Chancellor that it was the Tories who decided to shut down the economy whilst handing out the cash for two years…
Hunt hit out at Labour’s unfunded policies which, according to “independent official costings“, will cost a total of £59 billion over the next four years, with the gap between what they will spend and what they will raise from their announced tax rises standing at £38 billion, or £2,100 per working household. Guido asked Labour to send the costings over for Starmer’s “fully costed and funded” six pledges, announced yesterday, and received no comment. Tax-raising Hunt is on the attack – the pot and kettle will now argue over which is blacker…
Read Hunt’s “scorecard” below:
Rachel Reeves thought that by scrapping the £28 billion a year figure on their green spending plan, the problem of their sums not adding up would go away. As Guido has said before, it hasn’t…
Analysis by Aurora Energy Research has found that Starmer’s pledge to decarbonise Britain’s electricity grid by 2030 will cost £116 billion over the next 11 years. More than double the cost of the government’s current target of 2035. If Labour take the keys to Downing Street, that means higher taxes and more borrowing in order to pay for their eco-zealous plans…
The report concluded that even if Labour scraped the funds together, the policy is still “unfeasible” due to the supply chain constraints, skills shortages and lead times. No one believes going green is possible by 2030, though Starmer will bankrupt us trying. As Bim Afolami said, “Labour’s unfunded spending commitments just got bigger”…
Labour have scrapped the headline figure of £28 billion a year in their green spending plan, attempting to pull the wool over voters’ eyes on how much their plans will cost the country. As Guido has said before, that won’t stop them borrowing, spending and hitting taxpayers’ wallets…
Rachel Reeves has said millions of families will save an average of £445 on energy bills under their plans to insulate 5 million homes in 5 years. That all sounds well and good. The only problem is that, true to form, the sums don’t add up…
To insulate a home and bring them into the efficiency ‘band C’ costs an average of £7,500. So if Labour are committed to their pledges, it will cost the government £37.5 billion. Which means it will cost you…
After weeks of tortuous confused lines from different shadow cabinet ministers about the soon-to-be-retired £28 billion pledge, Rachel Reeves’ antipathy to the policy won out against Starmer’s defence. Over on Labour’s home turf the decision hasn’t gone down so well…
LabourList readers have declared their overwhelming disapproval of the decision to scrap the pledge. They are firmly on Team Starmer. One contributor says: “Dreadful. Makes him look uncommitted and indecisive. Too important to drop. Makes Ed Miliband and others look stupid. Makes me feel like voting Green“. Cue grumbling from local activists ahead of doorstep campaigning…
There have been better weeks for Laura Trott. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury yesterday ploughed on in an interview with Evan Davis in which the pair argued whether debt as a percentage of GDP would be falling in five years. In that same interview Trott called Labour’s £28 billion U-turn a mess, “the likes of which we haven’t seen in many years“. Davis listed off a few recent government U-turns in response…
- Betrayal of pledge to not raise National Insurance.
- Health and social care levy scrapped.
- Social care reform scrapped.
- HS2 scrapped.
- Electric car mandate shifted back by five years.
- Immigration reform was reformed. “A U-turn on a U-turn”…
- Railway station ticket halls now staying.
- Fines for missing GP appointments
- A bonfire of EU laws and regulations. Still with us today…
Guido also noticed Trott claiming on Politics Live this week that inflation is an indication of better quality of products and services in an economy. Inflation is a monetary phenomenon, something which Guido would hope the minister responsible for public expenditure would know. Laura is one of the government’s more capable ministers on media – this does not bode well for the rest of them come the campaign…
