Truss says she remains committed to not planning cuts to public spending
Starmer says freezing energy bills was Labour’s idea in the first place.
During the leadership contest, Truss said he had no plans to cut public spending. Will he stick to it?
“Absolutely,” says Truss.
He says he wants to spend public money well.
Key events
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Key events (11)Liz Truss (35)Keir Starmer (9)Jacob Rees-Mogg (8)
Starmer says voters will never forgive Tories if they continue to defend ‘kamikaze budget’ ‘madness’
Here’s PA Media’s story on PMQ.
Voters will not forgive the Conservative Party if it continues to “defend” the madness of Liz Truss’ “kamikaze” mini-budget, according to Keir Starmer.
The Labor leader issued the warning to Tory MPs as she accused the Prime Minister of being “lost in denial” and “shrinking responsibility” for the consequences of her government’s economic policies.
Truss said Britain would see “higher growth and lower inflation” as a result of his plan and insisted he would keep his promise not to cut public spending.
He also said Starmer had undergone a “Damascene conversion” to back legislation to repeal a rise in National Insurance, even though Labor – under his leadership – opposed the move in the first place. ‘increase.
Starmer, in his closing remarks at Prime Minister’s Questions, asked: “Who voted for this? Not landlords paying £500 more on their mortgages. Who voted for this? Not working people paying for downpayments tax cuts to the biggest companies. Who voted for this? Not even the majority of MPs behind her who know you can’t pay for tax cuts anytime soon. She thinks the public will ever forgive the party conservative if he continues to defend this madness and goes ahead with his kamikaze budget?
Truss replied: “What our budget has delivered is security for families over the next two winters. It has ensured that we will see higher economic growth, lower inflation and more opportunity. The way we will grow our country is through more jobs, more growth, more opportunity, not through higher taxes, more spending and their friends in the unions preventing working people from working.”
Sky’s Beth Rigby says Liz Truss went to the Commons tea room after PMQs to meet Tory MPs.
You hear from an MP that the Prime Minister has gone to the tea room after PMQs
— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) October 12, 2022
Prime ministers often go to the tea room when they feel the need to shore up support.
PMQ: Quick Verdict
Conservative MPs will not have found Liz Truss’ performance reassuring. In politics, as in life, to solve a problem you first have to face what it is, and Truss still mostly argues that the UK interest rate problem is primarily or overwhelmingly global (it is not (see 11.48am) and that the mini-budget was not to blame because it mainly included an energy saving package (it did, but it wasn’t that element of the package that alarmed the markets). All politicians use talking points to defend the her position, but they only tend to work if they are at least 50% plausible Truss didn’t sound as out of touch with reality as Jacob Rees-Mogg did this morning, refusing to back up what she said, but mostly trusting in denial, and it’s hard to see how that would persuade anyone.
This meant that Starmer had an easy target, and she hammered home her political position quite effectively. Truss’s attempts at retaliation were relatively weak. Starmer ridiculed the suggestion that he had had a Damascene conversion to the health and social care charge (which Labor voted against last year, when the Tories were in favor) and rightly pointed out that he called for a price freeze on the energy before she did. Most voters can understand why an opposition party might propose a spending commitment for only six months, not two years, and Sajid Javid’s comments this morning (see 11.24am) suggest there may be many Conservatives who believe that Starmer’s version of this policy is more responsible than Truss’s.
The most intriguing line of the Truss/Starmer exchanges was that he asked her if she was still opposed to public spending cuts. For the record, here’s the exchange:
Starmer asked:
During her leadership contest, the prime minister said, I quote her exactly: “I’m very clear, I’m not planning cuts in public spending.” Will he stick with it?
And Truss answered:
Absolutely. Look, Mr President, we spend almost £1 trillion on public spending. In 2010 we spent £700 billion. What we will ensure is that in the medium term the debt is reduced. We will do this, not by cutting public spending, but by making sure we spend public money well.
As the Institute for Fiscal Studies said in a report earlier this week that Truss could only keep his tax cuts and have credible deficit reduction plans if he announced £60bn of spending cuts , at first glance sounded its message of “no cuts”. as the first shift into a U-turn.
But this is almost certainly a misreading. The IFS said cuts worth £60bn would be needed in 2026-27. It is not the same to promise not to cut public spending (the Truss pledge) as to promise to increase it in line with inflation. Over the summer, when he made the original comment, Truss may have been anticipating a cut in real terms, if not an actual cut, and that is what the IFS is expecting ahead of the general election. “Maintaining existing cash spending plans is essentially imposing a rather hidden form of austerity on departments,” he said in his report. And in the final minutes, at a lobby briefing, No 10 suggested there could be cuts in specific areas anyway. This is from Adam Bienkov of the Byline Times.
Liz Truss’s spokesman backtracks on ‘absolute’ pledge at #pmqs today not to cut public spending.
He says overall government spending will rise (largely due to subsidies on the energy bill), but says “there will clearly be tough decisions to be made”.
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) October 12, 2022
The pressure to turn around the mini-budget remains intense. But according to the current PMQs, Truss is still in “plow independently” mode. It’s hard to see it ending well.
Updated at 1.26pm BST
Matt Western (Lab) says we’ve had five weeks of crunch. The country has longed for divorce, he says. Polls show that 60% of people want an election. Will Truss call one?
Truss says: “I think the last thing we need is a general election.”
And that’s the end of the PMQs.
Sarah Olney (Lib Dem) asks if Truss still runs a third runway at Heathrow. Olney represents Richmond Park in London, where residents are strongly opposed.
Truss says he’s in favor. But she wants the airline industry to be more environmentally friendly, she says.
Miriam Cates (Con) asks about allegations about transgender charity Mermaids. She calls for a police investigation.
Truss says these matters need to be properly investigated.
Justin Madders (Lab) asks if Kwasi Kwarteng was right to say that fracking won’t lower energy prices anytime soon.
Truss says he is using all the levers to improve energy security. That includes solar panels “in the right place,” he says.
Updated at 1.20pm BST
Rebecca Pow (Con) asks if the government can promote growth while supporting farmers to look after the environment.
Truss says Pow did a good job promoting the environment as minister. He says the government wants to generate growth in an environmentally friendly way.
Updated at 1.21pm BST
Truss says the government should not tax businesses. If it did, it would raise less revenue, he says.
Rosie Cooper (Lab) asks Truss to explain how he will ensure fracking only happens where communities want it.
Truss says fracking will only go ahead “in areas where there is support from the local community”.
Gagan Mohindra (Con) asks if Truss agrees that only the Conservative Party is on the side of the company.
Truss says the Tories understand who pays our wages. It’s the people who go to work. She says it will be unashamedly pro-growth.
Natalie Elphicke (Con) is asking Truss to confirm that he offered joint patrols with the French on French beaches. And will the government agree not to pay the French any more until they agree to this?
Truss says he discussed this with President Macron last week. She hopes to reach an agreement on that, she says.
Ian Lavery (Lab) says nurses have gone from being seen as heroes to being portrayed as villains by this government. He says they deserve a better raise.
Truss says the nurses do a fantastic job. The pay review body recommended a pay rise of £1,400 on average, and that’s what the government will deliver, he says.