Torsten Bell, ex-director of the left-wing Resolution Foundation turned-Labour MP, tried his best to spin Reeves’ invented justification for tax rises by arguing that Labour is only now “learning of completely irresponsible management of public spending/services“, which is somehow different from being able to read Office for Budget Responsibility public finance forecasts. Guido wonders how exactly Bell thinks the OBR calculates its forecasts then…
Bell himself was more than a few times able to chat to the OBR about all this while Resolution Foundation director. A Freedom of Information request has revealed that the think tank has had a whopping thirteen meetings over two and a half years just with the OBR. Torsten was present at the latest tête-à-tête this year…
The OBR has kept details of the meetings, which took place on average every two months, secret. Its own advisory panel is filled with tax-raising fanatics. Labour is in the awkward position of claiming the OBR doesn’t have full information while simultaneously giving it oversight of major budget decisions. Spinning itself into absurdity…
The current director of the Resolution Foundation, Torsten Bell, has been selected as Labour candidate for Swansea West this afternoon. He was told that Starmer’s team were desperate to have him. Co-conspirators may remember Bell, Labour’s Director of Policy under Ed Miliband, touring the news studios applauding the Chancellor for breaking the Tory manifesto promise not to hike NI contributions. Maybe he can serve as Labour minister for breaking tax pledges in a new government…
Bell’s Resolution Foundation released a landmark report in December called “A New Economic Strategy for Britain“. Its recommendations are:
At the same time Bell was arguing that ISAs should be abolished because they “work for the top“. His underlings at the Resolution Foundation have gone on to staff high-level positions at the Office for Budget Responsibility. Richard Hughes, the chairman of the OBR’s Budget Responsibility Committee, and Laura Gardiner, its Deputy Chief of Staff, are ex-Resolution. While Reeves pledges to hand the keys to the Treasury to the OBR, Labour MP Bell will have the ear of its top staff…
Another day, another example of the UK thriving outside of the EU. Real wages have grown at a faster pace in the last year than they have in the last 16 years, according to Resolution Foundation. No doubt Rishi will be homing in on this one later today…
Despite moans from the Labour party of the Tories “crashing the economy“, workers’ wallets have actually grown by about 2% in the year to February, after adjusting for inflation. An economist at the Resolution Foundation pointed out that this has “protected household incomes”, and marked an end to a decade and a half of wage increases barely outpacing inflation. Good news that Remoaners and the left won’t like to hear…
Today at an event hosted by the Resolution Foundation, Hunt blamed Brexit for more than half a decade of political instability, which led to economic instability. Blaming Brexit is supposedly against the government’s position and it’s unlikely Sunak would agree with his Chancellor on this. It’s a major u-turn on Hunt’s previous stance earlier this year that Brexit is “not a drag on the economy“. Shifting the blame…
Speaking at the Q&A, Hunt said:
“We had Brexit. That led to a hung parliament; that led to a politically incredibly challenging time,” he said. “British people had voted to leave the EU but parliament couldn’t agree how; and ultimately we had the fall of Theresa May’s government. And then we had the pandemic.”
He skipped the part where Boris Johnson won a massive majority in 2019, arguably creating political stability, in what many dubbed the “Brexit election” due to voters wanting to get Brexit done. Still not over being runner up in the leadership contest…?
Starmer has outlined Labour’s so-called “securonomics” at an event hosted by the Resolution Foundation today, vowing to be “ruthless when it comes to spending every pound wisely”, whilst promising to not “turn on the spending taps”. However, during his long speech about what Labour would do with the economy, there was no mention of Labour’s £28 billion a year black hole…
Until he was pushed in the Q&A, Starmer didn’t discuss the flagship policy, perhaps because multiple people on the left and right have said the “sums don’t add up“. Even when asked what the difference was between Hunt and his economic policies, he merely pointed to the past 13 years of Tory government, avoiding the obvious difference that is Labour’s plan to borrow the £28 billion a year. Squirming in his seat, Starmer told the audience that Labour will only ramp up to the figure in the second half of parliament if it is in line with their “fiscal rules“. Looks like the borrowing taps won’t be turned off if Labour enters Downing Street…
Fresh calls for the Chancellor to cut taxes in his upcoming Autumn statement have resurfaced, as according to Resolution Foundation’s analysis of new economic data, Hunt’s so-called “fiscal headroom” is twice as much as it was back in Spring. The amount of money the Treasury can spend whilst hitting the target of getting debt falling within five years was expected to be £6.5 billion. However, the new figure is estimated to be £13 billion. This means Hunt has more taxpayer money to spend on a levy cut between now and the next general election…
Tory MP David Jones called upon the Chancellor to take advantage of the new figures, saying: “The increasing headroom gives Jeremy Hunt the opportunity to realise his ambition to be a tax-cutting chancellor.” Now the Tories have a chance to actually stick to Conservative policies…
