Labour suggests Sunak might have to means test pensions to fund £46bn national insurance cut – UK politics live | Politics
Labour suggests Rishi Sunak might have to means test pensions to fund £46bn national insurance cut
Good morning. The Commons rises for the Easter recess at the end of today, but before that happens Rishi Sunak has meetings with two of Westminster’s more high-profile bodies: cabinet, and the Commons liaison committee. Cabinet is no threat to Sunak, because the Tory MPs working hardest to force him out of of his job are on the backbenchers (which was not always the case with this predecessors. In theory the liasion committee – best thought of as 35 MPs who think they should be in cabinet – ought to pose more of a threat, and the 90-minute session at lunchtime is the best news prospect of the day. But this liaison committee is less ferocious than it has been in previous parliaments, and Sunak normally gets through it without being seriously rattled.
Sunak has been told that today’s hearing will include questioning on three topics – scrutiny of strategic thinking in government, economy and public services, and global issues – which in practice could mean more or less anything.
Ahead of the hearing the Labour party has sent out a list of 15 questions it thinks Sunak should answer. The most important was probably this one:
The chancellor told Conservative party members he plans to scrap national insurance in the next parliament. How does the government plan to pay for this projected cost of £46bn?
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, was doing the the media round for Labour today and he said this was a question Sunak had to address. On Sky News he suggested that Sunak’s plan could lead to the state pension being means tested, as a means of allowing the Tories to find the £46bn cost. He said:
[Sunak has] committed his party to a £46bn [tax cut] which either means more borrowing, putting up mortgages, or it means a new tax rise on pensioners. Or it severs the link between contribution and the state pension, it is threatens the state pension in the future. Silver Voices, an organisation who campaigns for pensioners, in the Daily Express a couple of weeks ago said this could mean to the means testing of the state pension. Rishi Sunak has got to answer questions on his £46bn bombshell.
It’s not often that you hear a Labour frontbencher quoting the Daily Express approvingly, but Ashworth was referring to this article, and this quote.
Silver Voices director Dennis Reed said that although state pensions are not reliant on the amount of NICs collected by the government, abolishing it could lead to problems.
He said: “When national insurance was set up, it was intended to fund the state pension and benefits.
“It has become muddled up over successive governments.
“But if there is no national insurance at all it opens up the doors to means testing of the state pension in future.
“If everything comes from the taxman it becomes a benefit rather than the deferred payment it is.”
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
1pm: Rishi Sunak gives evidence to the Commons liaison committee.
3pm: Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, and Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, are due to make an announcement about crime policy.
3.15pm: Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, gives evidence to the Commons defence committee.
If you want to contact me, do use the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line; privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate); or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.
Key events
The Today programme presenter Nick Robinson will carry out the BBC’s main TV interviews with party leaders at the general election, Ben Riley-Smith reports in the Telegraph. Robinson will perform the role taken by Andrew Neil for the BBC at previous elections.
In 2019 Boris Johnson, the then prime minister, refused to be interviewed by Neil, leading to accusations that the BBC had unfairly persuaded Jeremy Corbyn to submit to a ferocious grilling by Neil by letting him think Johnson would get the same treatment too. This time all party leaders are expected to agree to an interview, Riley-Smith reports.
Teaching unions have complained that the extra money announced for special educational needs (Send) in schools in England today (see 10.35am) does not go far enough.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said while investment in education is always welcome, the latest figures are “a very long way short of the level of funding that is needed”. He added:
The special educational needs system is on its knees, with many local authority high needs budgets in deficit, children waiting for assessments and lack of money in schools for provision.
And Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said:
It seems everyone, even the government, now accepts we are in the middle of a full-blown crisis when it comes to Send.
However, this hasn’t just come out of nowhere – we have been warning about this for years and it is immensely frustrating just how little progress the government has made on actually tackling the issue.
Successive secretaries of state have acknowledged the scale of the problem but none have seemingly been able to find the solutions.
After more than a decade, talk of ‘long-term plans’ and ‘record levels of investment’ will carry little sway with parents and school leaders who are trying to navigate their way through this crisis.
If the government does not get a grip, vulnerable young people will continue to suffer.
As PA Media reports, figures published earlier this month showed there were approximately 4,000 more pupils on roll in special schools than the reported capacity. There were 148,000 special school places reported across 1,077 schools in England as of May last year, but there were around 152,000 pupils on the roll during the same period.
Gove to chair first session of East-West Council to strengthen links between Northern Ireland and Great Britain
A new body to improve business and educational links across the UK, which was created under the deal that restored powersharing in Northern Ireland, will meet for the first time, PA Media reports. PA says:
Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, will chair the inaugural session of the East-West Council in Dover House in London.
The establishment of the forum was pledged in the UK government’s Safeguarding the Union command paper.
Published in late January, the paper was the product of months of negotiations between the government and the DUP that ultimately convinced the region’s largest unionist party to end its two-year blockade of powersharing at Stormont.
Sinn Fein first minister Michelle O’Neill and her DUP counterpart and deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly will attend the council meeting, as will Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris and a number of other ministers from the Stormont Executive.
The Safeguarding the Union command paper said the council would seek to harness “significant potential” to strengthen cooperation between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK to “address shared challenges and to grasp shared opportunities”.
It will comprise representatives from the political, business and education sectors.
The council’s priorities include tackling economic inactivity; improving east-west trade flows; increasing international investment to Northern Ireland; and bolstering institutional connectivity and enhancing professional development by leveraging academic and skills expertise across NI and GB.
Minister told to name sources in Afghan inquiry or face potential jail term
The minister for veterans’ affairs, Johnny Mercer, has been given 10 days to reveal the source of allegations British troops engaged in war crimes in Afghanistan, or face a potential prison sentence, Ben Quinn reports.
And here is Mercer’s witness statement to the inquiry in which he explains why what he was told led him to believe that there was a “culture of omerta” within special forces and why allegations about the SAS being involved in unlawful killings were not properly investigated.
Keegan says parents of children with special educational needs too often have to ‘fight to get right support’
Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, was doing an interview round this morning to promote a government plan to create more special needs places in schools in England. In its press release, the Department for Education says it is creating 60,000 more places – although it says this figure also includes school places being created by a free schools programme. It says:
A record annual investment of £850m is going to councils to create new places for young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and in Alternative Provision (AP) in mainstream and special schools, and to improve the accessibility of existing buildings.
This will provide specialist support for children with autism, learning difficulties, mobility difficulties and more to meet their extra needs, including extra encouragement in their learning, help communicating with other children and support with physical or personal care difficulties, such as using the toilet or getting around the school safely.
The government is sticking to the plan to ensure every child can receive the education they need to succeed, where hard work is rewarded and aspiration is celebrated. The funding is part of the £2.6bn investment between 2022 and 2025 – more than tripling the previous levels of investment – to help to put an end to families having to fight for the right support for their children.
When combined with the places already being created by the special free schools programme, this funding is creating over 60,000 new places across the country.
In a statement included in the news release, Keegan says parents of special needs children too often have to “fight to get the right support”. She says:
All too often I hear from parents with children who have special educational needs having to fight to get the right support. That’s why this government has a plan to deliver 60,000 more places that meet the needs of these pupils and their families.
China ‘obviously a security threat’, says Gillian Keegan, education secretary
Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, said this morning that China was “obviously a security threat” to the UK.
Speaking to Times Radio, she said:
As I’ve said before, I’m not in the diplomatic service or the Foreign Office but it is obviously a security threat.
We take all security threats seriously, whether that’s cyber security or other security threats.
This is significant because the government has been criticised for not formally describing China as a threat in security policy statements. That’s why Keegan stressed that she was not speaking on behalf of the Foreign Office; she was just giving a personal assessment.
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, was being interviewed by Kay Burley on Sky News this morning when he challenged Rishi Sunak to explain how he would fund his proposal to axe national insurance. (See 9.34am.) In an interview with Burley three weeks ago, Ashworth bet her £10 that the general election would be on 2 May. For an election on 2 May, parliament would have to be dissolving today.
This morning Ashworth acccepted he had lost, and he paid up, with the money going to a charity for the children of alcoholics. Burley asked him if he wanted to bet on an election in June, but Ashworth declined.
Labour suggests Rishi Sunak might have to means test pensions to fund £46bn national insurance cut
Good morning. The Commons rises for the Easter recess at the end of today, but before that happens Rishi Sunak has meetings with two of Westminster’s more high-profile bodies: cabinet, and the Commons liaison committee. Cabinet is no threat to Sunak, because the Tory MPs working hardest to force him out of of his job are on the backbenchers (which was not always the case with this predecessors. In theory the liasion committee – best thought of as 35 MPs who think they should be in cabinet – ought to pose more of a threat, and the 90-minute session at lunchtime is the best news prospect of the day. But this liaison committee is less ferocious than it has been in previous parliaments, and Sunak normally gets through it without being seriously rattled.
Sunak has been told that today’s hearing will include questioning on three topics – scrutiny of strategic thinking in government, economy and public services, and global issues – which in practice could mean more or less anything.
Ahead of the hearing the Labour party has sent out a list of 15 questions it thinks Sunak should answer. The most important was probably this one:
The chancellor told Conservative party members he plans to scrap national insurance in the next parliament. How does the government plan to pay for this projected cost of £46bn?
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, was doing the the media round for Labour today and he said this was a question Sunak had to address. On Sky News he suggested that Sunak’s plan could lead to the state pension being means tested, as a means of allowing the Tories to find the £46bn cost. He said:
[Sunak has] committed his party to a £46bn [tax cut] which either means more borrowing, putting up mortgages, or it means a new tax rise on pensioners. Or it severs the link between contribution and the state pension, it is threatens the state pension in the future. Silver Voices, an organisation who campaigns for pensioners, in the Daily Express a couple of weeks ago said this could mean to the means testing of the state pension. Rishi Sunak has got to answer questions on his £46bn bombshell.
It’s not often that you hear a Labour frontbencher quoting the Daily Express approvingly, but Ashworth was referring to this article, and this quote.
Silver Voices director Dennis Reed said that although state pensions are not reliant on the amount of NICs collected by the government, abolishing it could lead to problems.
He said: “When national insurance was set up, it was intended to fund the state pension and benefits.
“It has become muddled up over successive governments.
“But if there is no national insurance at all it opens up the doors to means testing of the state pension in future.
“If everything comes from the taxman it becomes a benefit rather than the deferred payment it is.”
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
1pm: Rishi Sunak gives evidence to the Commons liaison committee.
3pm: Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, and Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, are due to make an announcement about crime policy.
3.15pm: Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, gives evidence to the Commons defence committee.
If you want to contact me, do use the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line; privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate); or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.
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