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…
The Green Party’s Deputy Leader spoke to LBC yesterday about defence spending. Asked if it should go up, Rachel Millward said: “I think we need to spend more on diplomatic relationships across Europe, across working out who our allies really are. You know, we can’t take peace for granted. I think this is this this is a serious an incredibly serious and dangerous time.” Genius…
Asked if more needed to be spent on defence, Millward said: “Well, I think we’re seeing, aren’t we, that we need to look at alternative structures and alternative ways of keeping the peace across the world and that needs to take massive amount of effort. So, but this is certainly not, you know, the focus of my daily role.” Starting to fall apart here…
Asked if she agreed with the Defence Select Committee’s view that an extra £29 billion must be spent on defence, Millward said: “I don’t know. I’d have to look at that and we’d have to think about what our position is.” And there you go…
Millward – who sits as a deputy leader of Wealden District Council – was previously mocked by the public in Crowborough for claiming that incoming asylum seekers are “doctors, engineers, and surgeons.” Guido also hears Millward skipped a meeting held by the MOD with local army and Air Force cadet representatives last week to sort their accommodation after being kicked out of Crowborough training camp. Which now contains asylum seekers…
James O’Brien has demeaned himself again on his LBC phone-in with Sadiq Khan. He begged the London mayor to give him the story when he decides whether to run for a fourth term or not:
“Can I have that scoop – because I’ve had you in the studio for 10 years and I’ve never had one big story from you. Can I have the story about whether or not you’re going to run for Mayor of London? I want you to promise now – this is entirely unprofessional, self interested, and a little bit needy, but I want that story… I want that. Stick that on a post-it note or something like that.”
Khan offered no such promise. Sad…
Now seems like an appropriate time to reveal David Lammy’s reputation as a shock jock is about as strong as his reputation as a Minister of the Crown. During his days as an LBC presenter between 2022 and 2024, Lammy is said to have frustrated producers for often absorbing ‘nothing’ from his briefing notes and being a bit of a ‘slowcoach’. It was, apparently, a frustrating and bemusing experience to work with him. He left the broadcaster in 2024 to fight the general election and eventually become Deputy Prime Minister. There’s hope for everyone…
Foreign Secretary David Lammy appeared on James O’Brien’s LBC show this morning despite calls for O’Brien to resign over an antisemitism row. On Tuesday, O’Brien uncritically read out a claim alleging Jewish children in the UK are taught that “one Jewish life is worth thousands of Arab lives” and that “Arabs are cockroaches to be crushed.” He added he’d read the comments in “good faith”…
The Board of Deputies of British Jews branded the remarks “unacceptable and highly offensive,” and demanded LBC take O’Brien off the air. Despite the furore, Lammy has gone ahead with his appearance. He told O’Brien he was “reassured” the UK isn’t complicit in Israel’s actions in Gaza, insisting “we aren’t sending anything the IDF could use.” Probably not the wisest media choice for the Foreign Secretary…
James O’Brien has today apologised on LBC after he yesterday uncritically read out a claim that Jewish children attending “Shabbat school” in the UK were taught that “one Jewish life is worth thousands of Arab lives, and that Arabs are cockroaches to be crushed.” The now-deleted clip has received global coverage…
He has now said on air:
“At this time yesterday on the show, I read out a message from a listener called Chris who said that his wife had been brought up in the Jewish faith and had attended what he described as a Shabbat school. He went on to make further claims about what he said she had been taught in that school. As with all the texts and messages that I read out on the program, I did so in good faith. But the message has understandably upset a lot of people and I regret taking those unsubstantiated claims at face value and I’m genuinely sorry for that. Um, and it is very important that I get that out there and and thank you for your um, attention.”
LBC has not released its own statement. A Campaign Against Antisemitism spokesman said the original comments were “amplified by a host who likely wouldn’t think twice about cutting off the caller were he promoting such grotesque falsehoods about another minority.” Not pretty…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”