There will be tax rises in the Budget, the Chancellor confirmed after she revealed that there was a “£22bn hole in the public finances”, accusing the Conservative Party of covering it up while in Government. She listed a number of actions that would be taken immediately in order to try and reduce public spending, including: removing the Winter Fuel Allowance from those not in receipt of pension credit or other means-tested benefits; scrapping plans to introduce an Advanced British Standard; and stopping a range of road and rail schemes from going ahead. Each Government Department has also been asked to find savings in back-office costs and to stop non-essential spending on consultancy and communications. But all this isn’t enough, and the Chancellor said on The Newsagents podcast, “I think that we will have to increase taxes in the Budget” - but also reiterated that National Insurance, Income Tax and VAT would not be changed… All eyes now look ahead to the Budget on October 30, when we’ll see how the Government aim to reduce that “£22bn hole” further.
Planning and housebuilding took centre stage on the last day before Parliament broke for Summer Recess, with Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner outlining the Government’s plans to build 1.5 million homes over the course of this Parliament. As part of the proposals put forward in the revised National Planning Policy Framework, housing targets for local authorities will be made mandatory rather than advisory, while a new method will be used to calculate the housing need for each area. All councils have (once again) been told to ensure they have up-to-date Local Plans, while the proposals also include making it easier to build laboratories, digital infrastructure, and gigafactories; changes to Right to Buy; and a call on councils to build on the ‘Grey Belt’.
A National Violent Disorder Programme has been launched, after acts of violent protests were seen in Southport, Hartlepool and London over the course of the week, following the atrocious attack in Southport that killed three young girls on Monday. The programme will bring together policing capabilities from across the country, with the sharing of intelligence on the activities of violent groups. It also involves British Transport Police alerting authorities where they see a spike in the sale of train tickets, as it is believed that many of those taking part in the violence were not from the area where the violence happened. Increased use of facial recognition technology, the deployment of ‘surge teams’ when forces need them, and an increased use of local insight and data are also part of the plan to clamp down on criminal and violent disorder. With it reported that there are more plans for protests in eight cities in the UK tomorrow, Keir Starmer’s honeymoon period as Prime Minister is well and truly over.
In the short Parliamentary session before summer recess, Keir Starmer appointed 150 MPs and Lords to Government. We’ve been taking a look at the make-up of the new Government, comprised of Secretaries of State, Ministers and Parliamentary Private Secretaries…
Quick Stats: 150 – members of Government (125 from the Commons). 1,142 – cumulative years of experience in the Commons. 13.5% – LGBTQ+ members of the Government, compared to 10.3% in the House of Commons. 50 – the average age of the Government’s members.
Age: Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn is the oldest Cabinet member, followed by Leader of the House of Lords Baroness Smith (although the next oldest member is Starmer himself); whilst Transport Secretary Louise Haigh is the youngest Cabinet member at age 37. Looking at the whole Government, former Baby of the House of Commons Keir Mather is the youngest at just 26 (Editor’s note: 8 Ministers have been an MP longer than he has been alive…). Meanwhile, the oldest member of the Government is Lords’ Deputy Chief Whip Baroness Wheeler at 75. Splitting them out by department, the HM Treasury comes in the youngest, with an age of just 41.8 years; whilst the oldest department is unsurprisingly the House of Lords Whips, with an average age of 65, followed by the Northern Ireland Office, at 60.
Gender: Of the 150 members, 70 are male and 80 are female. The Cabinet is made up of 13 women and 14 men, and every department has more than one woman, aside from the Northern Ireland Office and Attorney General’s Office, both comprised of only three people. Meanwhile, the Wales Office is made up entirely of women.
Minority Ethnic: There are 20 people in Government that come from minority ethnic groups, three of whom are in Cabinet. Eight departments have no minority ethnic representation, including all the devolved offices, DEFRA, Transport, Defence, Work and Pensions and the Attorney General’s Office.
Parliamentary Experience: The average Commons experience of our new Government is just 7.6 years. The Home Office has the most experience in the Commons, totalling 140 years. The Scotland Office and Attorney General’s Office tie for least experienced department, with 14 years of Parliamentary experience each. Looking at individual experience, Home Office Minister Angela Eagle has the most Commons experience in Government, serving as an MP for a total of 32 years (longer than 7 Government members have been alive). In second place is Work and Pensions Minister Stephen Timms, who has been in the Commons for 30 years. Excluding Peers, 33 in appointed positions have no experience in Parliament (primarily PPSs) at all, and four have less than one year.
3 – the number of faxes Number 10 has received from the general public since the General Election according to a WPQ answered this week!
6 – the number of MP’s officially in the race for the next Conservative Party leader after Suella Braverman confirmed that she would not run last weekend
0.25 – percentage points decrease in interest rates following a vote by the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee on Wednesday.
3 – the number of committees the Liberal Democrats will chair, just trailing behind the Conservatives, who will chair 5.
£22bn – the tax hole that Chancellor Rachel Reeves MP revealed was left by the previous Government.
20 – working days left of recess.
The Bank of England cut interest rates from 5.25% to 5%, the first drop since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. However, Governor Andrew Bailey has indicated it is unlikely there will be a flurry of interest rate cuts over the next few months.
Junior doctors were offered a 22% pay rise by the Government to end strike action, with the BMA agreeing to put the offer to its members. Teachers are also set to receive a fully funded 5.5% pay award and Armed Forces personnel will receive a 6% pay rise – the largest in 22 years.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband chaired the first Energy Mission Board to accelerate the UK’s efforts towards clean power by 2030; and announced a record budget for this year’s renewable energy auction which is being increased by £500m to over £1.5bn.
Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Renyolds confirmed that trade talks are expected to begin in the Autumn, starting with the Gulf Cooperation Council, India, Israel, South Korea, Switzerland and Turkey.
A New Towns Taskforce has been established to help the Government create new, large-scale communities with at least 10,000 homes each, with Sir Michael Lyons appointed as its Chair.
£1.3bn promised by the Conservatives for tech and AI projects has reportedly been shelved. DSIT said the money was promised by the previous administration but was never allocated in its budget, with Secretary of State Peter Kyle notifying those affected.
Robert Jenrick launched his Conservative leadership campaign, saying the party has a “mountain to climb” but could still win the next election if it restores voters’ trust.
And the Scottish Conservatives confirmed that a new leader will be elected by the end of September, with Russell Findlay, Michellle Gallacher and Brian Whittle currently in the running to replace Douglas Ross.
The Government ploughed forward with the second reading of its Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill, racing against time to pass the legislation before major rail contracts come back up for renewal under private ownership. The Budget Responsibility Bill, which will empower the OBR, also received it second reading. It was a truncated week in Parliament, which rose for its Summer Recess on Tuesday and will return on 2nd September.
We also learnt which parties will chair the House of Commons’ various Select Committees, which scrutinise Government departments and advise on areas such as procedure and standards within Parliament. The number of chairs reflects Parliament’s overall makeup, meaning Labour has an overwhelming 18, while the Conservatives will take just 5 and the Liberal Democrats have 3. The European Scrutiny Committee, which has scrutinised EU legislation since 1998, has been scrapped.
Rachel Reeves “softened up” the public this week for tax rises in the Autumn… that’s the conclusion reached by the IFS’ Paul Johnson, who added that the new Chancellor had made “a choice” to fund £9bn of public sector pay increase even though this hasn’t been budgeted for. The IFS noted however that they didn’t know there was a £6bn hole in the budget to house asylum seekers, or that some of the announcements by the last Government eg on road projects, hadn’t been funded. The IFS has a great podcast episode out this week asking the question ‘Is Labour’s inheritance really worse than expected?”
The Chancellor should go even further in her plans for a regular spending review cycle, and run a more in-depth spending review that sets cross-departmental spending plans for each government mission, as well as each department – that’s the recommendation in the Institute for Government’s detailed report published this week on how to run a spending review.
76% of Brits believe the country is divided, so concludes a gloomy Ipsos poll out this week – although this is down from the 85% of Brits who felt the same in 2018 (just two years after the Brexit referendum). The poll also notes that generally Brits are less concerned than Americans about political violence in their country – although this was conducted before the shocking events in Southport and the far-right protests that have since taken place.
Liz Truss was spotted at the Goodwood horse racing, alongside racehorse owner Jim Hay, whose family was the biggest donor to Truss’ Tory leadership campaign two year ago. Enjoy this clip of commentator Richard Hoiles quipping “this market could crash any minute”.
And Baroness Jenkin of Kennington was found to be submitting some rather interesting WPQs (1, 2, 3) on fetish clothing, bondage, domination, sadism and masochism… hopefully she’ll get the answers she’s looking for!
