BETA filters Key Facts (4) Liz Truss (5) Keir Starmer (3) Rishi Sunak (3)

Starmer dodges questions over whether Labor MPs should join picket lines

Keir Starmer sidestepped questions about whether Labor MPs should join striking workers in action in an interview during a visit to Walthamstow in London this morning. The issue has divided the party for weeks. Starmer argues that, as a future government, Labor should commit to resolving disputes, not simply siding with striking workers, and when the current round of train strikes began, he told shadow ministers and cabinet ministers not to join the strikes . However, some Labor MPs have ignored this order and left-wing group Momentum is trying to force a vote on the issue at the party conference. Starmer accused the government of doing “absolutely nothing” to resolve industrial disputes, including one involving criminal lawyers who have just voted to take indefinite strike action. He said: I understand a lot, whether it’s lawyers or otherwise, why people and how people struggle to make ends meet. What I want to see is for the government to recognize that… I want to see the government step in and help solve these issues, instead of having a government that does absolutely nothing. Asked whether Labor MPs should be allowed to join the picket lines, Starmer twice sidestepped the question. The second time he answered: The focus of my attack is on the government for doing nothing to resolve these issues. This morning, Momentum posted a message on Twitter praising Tan Dhesi, the shadow transport minister, for being photographed with RMT members on a picket line on Saturday. Keir Starmer said a Labor government would make a massive home insulation program a “national mission”. Speaking at a construction site in Walthamstow, he said insulating homes offered a “long-term answer” to the energy bill crisis. He said: We, the Labor Party, said we should have said we have to freeze energy prices, not let these bills go up and pay for it in part with windfall taxes on the oil and gas companies, who are making huge, huge profits. At the same time, we need a national mission to insulate houses, this is a long-term issue. We asked for it a year ago now, if the government had done it we would have insulated the better part of two million homes. Proper insulation could save a household more than £1,000 a year in energy costs, he said. Keir Starmer during a visit to the Juniper House housing development in Walthamstow, east London, this morning. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA

The Tories should end the leadership contest this week so the new prime minister can stop rising fuel bills, says energy boss

Liz Truss would use an emergency budget in September to announce (among other things) how her government would help people with rising energy bills. On Friday Ofgem will announce what the energy price cap will be from October and on the Today program this morning an interview with three energy company bosses proved just how dire the prospect is. Greg Jackson, founder and chief executive of Octopus Energy, said the government needed to help consumers because it was impossible for landlords to cover the rising costs on their own. He told the program: The big thing here is that we need more help for customers from the government. The reality is that customers are being asked to pay the price of gas, which is weaponized by Putin, and they should not be expected to do it themselves. Let’s put this into perspective. The UK’s energy bill has gone from perhaps £15bn in a normal year to £75bn this year. And that’s the equivalent of maybe 9p or more in the basic rate of income tax. No government would announce this, and by the same token, no government should leave this up to customers. Referring to the rise in wholesale gas prices, he continued: “Look, to put it in perspective, if this was beer, we’re talking about the wholesale price of £25 a pint.” Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, also said the government needed to step in. He told the program: This problem predates the Ukrainian war. We have a systemic failure in the energy market. The government must intervene. We should not expect customers to pay the cost of this failure and the Ukraine war… The government just needs to step in and take on that cost like it did in the pandemic. We need £40bn to get us through this winter. This is 10% of what was spent during the pandemic and this is the only thing that will really solve this problem. Jackson said one option for the government would be to freeze the energy price cap and use a tariff deficit fund to help energy companies cover their costs. Vince also voiced his support for the idea and Bill Bullen, chief executive of Utilita, said the Conservative party should introduce an end date for the leadership contest so the new leader can cancel the energy price cap rise which was announced on Friday. He told the program: Throughout the summer, we hear from customers who are at risk, customers who are worried that they won’t be able to heat their homes this coming winter. That’s why we say to the government, you have to take this decision to freeze the prices at their current level right now. That can’t wait until September 5th or 6th. The Conservative party must settle, decide who will be leader this week, so Ofgem’s announcement on 26 [the rise in the price cap for October] it doesn’t have to happen. This is so imperative. Frankly, for the sake of the nation, I think the Conservative Party needs to settle its leadership race more quickly than it currently plans to do. Then at least we will remove the stress of this coming winter for tens of millions of households. Updated at 10.56 BST Here’s the chart in the press release from the Rishi Sunak campaign released overnight that explains why it says Liz Truss is promising £61.5bn worth of unfunded tax cuts and spending pledges. (See 9.27am) Tax cuts promised by Liz Truss Photograph: Rishi Sunak campaign Right-wing website Guido Fawkes argues that by opposing the proposed tax cuts in this way, the Sunak camp is akin to Gordon Brown, and that what it is actually doing is inadvertently promoting Truss’s plan to save taxpayers more than £48 billion.

Criminal lawyers in England and Wales vote to strike indefinitely

Criminal lawyers in England and Wales have voted to strike indefinitely from next month, the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) has announced. And the BBC’s Ione Wells says OBC sources dispute suggestions from the Truss camp that he would not have time to make a new fiscal and economic forecast ahead of Liz Truss’ planned emergency budget. New: Travers allies defend her for not wanting an OBR forecast on public finances ahead of tax cuts – arguing it’s because she wants to act now and not wait for a forecast to do so. However, OBR sources said they could make early provision for an emergency budget. — Ione Wells (@ionewells) August 22, 2022 Truss’ team claims this would not be necessary for what it described as a “targeted fiscal event”, citing how financial support for households was announced in May 2022 with no new provision. Although it hasn’t announced any “targeted support” so far. – only universal tax cuts. — Ione Wells (@ionewells) August 22, 2022 Chris Giles, the financial editor of the Financial Times, says Rishi Sunak announced several emergency bailouts (for the Covid and energy bills) when he was chancellor without receiving a new economic forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility each time. But if Liz Truss tried to stop the OBR producing an independent fiscal and economic forecast twice a year, that would be worrying, he says. Good for Liz Truss to cut a tax and offer energy support without an OBR provision. Sunak has done the same over 10 times since 2020 But there will need to be an OBR forecast this autumn (defined in legislation) This review will be better with more time 1/ pic.twitter.com/W6QcwpLAgT — Chris Giles (@ChrisGiles_) August 22, 2022 But any suggestion (there hasn’t been any so far AFAIK) that Liz Truss wants to go back to the days of the Treasury complaining about forecasts rather than having independent oversight would be a bad move It could, of course, redefine its view of fiscal responsibility — Chris Giles (@ChrisGiles_) August 22, 2022

Thatcher’s former policy chief accuses Truss of a “complete loss of confidence” in her economic plans

Good morning. Two weeks today the Conservative Party will announce the winner of the leadership contest and the person who will become the next prime minister and it looks increasingly certain that it will be Liz Truss. But with Truss’s premiership looking increasingly likely, scrutiny of her plans is intensifying and this morning the Rishi Sunak camp has deployed a former chief policy adviser to Margaret Thatcher to support her (well-known) claim that her plans they do not add up. Brian Griffiths – now Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach – was head of the policy unit at No 10 between 1985 and 1990. He is quoted in a press release from the Sunak camp responding to a report saying that “Whitehall officials who have been in contact with the group Truss says she does not plan to ask the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to make a formal forecast of the public finances’ ahead of her planned emergency budget, which is tentatively scheduled for September 21. Commenting on this, Griffiths said: The Bank of England’s doomy outlook for the economy contrasts with Liz’s optimism – to prevent the OBR now from doing a proper analysis of the facts seems to show a complete loss of confidence in the policy it supports. The press release from the Sunak camp also states that Truss has already promised…