Angela Rayner’s “New Deal for Working People” is set to be unveiled in parliament tomorrow after jostling over the finer details with Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds. Disgruntled union officials claim it will be a “skeleton” thanks to Labour’s promise to introduce it in the first 100 days of government…
The expectation is that a ban on zero-hours contracts will be delayed until the completion of a consultation on it and other measures. Labour has made a big deal of banning the popular contractual arrangement, claiming in its manifesto that an outright ban would be immediately enforced as one of the party’s “initial steps to confront poverty.” They might be surprised by the views of actual people…
New research from the Centre for Social Justice finds that what is dubs “precarious work” is actively sought out by 16-34-year-olds, who don’t want to see it banned and the vast majority of whom (75%) are fully satisfied with their working conditions. Satisfaction remains high at 68% among the very poorest groups surveyed and in total only 24% say they are dissatisfied. Meanwhile data newly released from the Centre for Economic Performance finds that zero-hours contracts actually attract 25% more applicants than “comparable permanent jobs.” It’s almost like having greater freedom in your work contract is progressive and popular. Labour and the unions will have to arbitrarily flood the consultation to get their preferred result…
Eyebrows have long been raised about the widely-cited “independent” Institute for Fiscal Studies report into private school VAT. It has been used to “fact check” widely-held worries that Starmer’s class war on private schools will 1) funnel unsustainable numbers of children into the state system, and 2) not raise enough money. The report has for many months been the only shield for Labour politicians seeking to bat away legitimate concerns over its tax plan…
Last week it was confirmed that already 10,540 fewer students are at private schools – and that’s before Labour’s tax is even introduced. The IFS claimed 17,000-40,000 students in total would shift to the state sector. Co-conspirators might wonder why their report is so sympathetic to Labour’s policy…
As it turns out the caveat-filled report’s only author Luke Sibieta has been close mates for years with the Labour minister responsible for its implementation. Sibieta and Matthew Pennycook lived together in the noughties – Pennycook was even Sibieta’s best man at his wedding. Details of which have been meticulously scrubbed from almost everywhere on the internet…
The government has confirmed that the business rates policy change, one half of the tax raid on private schools, “will be legislated for through a Local Government Finance Bill led by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.” Pennycook’s department…
Lobby journalists treat interventions from ‘independent’ tax-fanatics at the IFS – such as today’s new call to massively hike capital gains tax – as gospel. Maybe when hacks work out that these wonks might not be as impartial as they are so desperate to appear they will treat endlesss calls for tax increases with a little more scepticism…
Green Deputy Leader Rachel Millward said:
“The reality is that it’s Zack Polanski who brought the nation, Andy Burnham. And if we hadn’t had the success of the Green Party in this last year since Zack’s been leading, which has been unprecedented, phenomenal success and a growth from about 60,000 members to 230,000, if we hadn’t had that much pressure on Labour, then we’d probably still be in the Starmer regime, which was pretty much ushering in a Reform government with its lurch to the right. So actually, what we’re seeing now is that we’ve set the political agenda and the government is picking that up.”
