Conservatives assault Labour over public sector pay settlements – UK politics reside

Conservative management candidate Mel Stride is constant the Tory technique of utilizing current financial information to counsel that the nation was doing nicely underneath Rishi Sunak’s authorities. He has posted to social media to say:

Our progress stays the strongest within the G7. But Rachel Reeves continues to put the bottom for damaging tax rises. Labour can’t preserve concocting excuses – the details communicate for themselves. In the event that they increase taxes it’s not out of necessity, it’s as a result of they all the time deliberate to do it.

Yesterday Labour’s chief secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, stated “The last Conservative government left this new Labour government with the highest tax burden since the 1940s, the highest debt burden for over 60 years and a huge cost for just paying the interest on that debt every single month.”

Rebecca Lengthy-Bailey, who was elected in July as a Labour MP however is at the moment suspended having voted for an SNP modification to the king’s speech, has reminded everyone that at this time is the 205th anniversary of the Peterloo bloodbath. Me typing this all for you at this time is one very lengthy distant consequence of that.

Sadiq Khan is about to shut London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) scrappage scheme in three weeks.

PA Media studies the mayor stated it should shut on 7 September. The scheme allowed those that personal a automobile that doesn’t meet minimal emissions requirements to use for money – or a mix of money and a public transport move – to have them scrapped.

A complete of greater than £186 million has been dedicated to just about 54,000 candidates to the scrappage scheme because it opened in January final 12 months.

In a single day Conservative management candidate Priti Patel has defended the earlier authorities’s report on migration, saying it was “lazy” to counsel internet migration was too excessive.

Talking on GB Information, she stated:

In the course of the pandemic our borders have been successfully closed. There was no journey. What about all these worldwide college students they got here in after the pandemic? Are we saying that they need to not have come into the nation?

What did the federal government select to do? I feel that is the appropriate factor to do. We completely made certain we gave the NHS the help that it wanted by way of well being and social care visas.

Are we going to say that was the improper factor to do? I imply, knock on doorways and ask your listeners, your viewers. Would they are saying we should always not have had extra medical doctors and nurses? I feel they’d not. Plenty of these individuals are additionally high-rate taxpayers. In order that context issues.

Should you don’t need so many individuals to return in to work in our nation, then there’s a wider dialogue available there about having a labour market technique

Retail gross sales volumes rose by 0.5% in July, the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics studies this morning. That follows a fall of 0.9% in June when households reduce amid poor climate, and election uncertainty.

Shops and sports activities tools shops reported a lift in gross sales “following summer discounts and sporting events” final month, the ONS says.

Gross sales volumes have been 1.4% increased in contrast with July 2023, when dangerous climate hit the excessive streets. However, volumes are nonetheless 0.8% decrease than pre-pandemic ranges.

Paymaster normal Nick Thomas-Symonds additionally appeared on Occasions Radio this morning, the place he stated he didn’t assume it was honest to characterise public sector staff as queueing as much as make massive pay calls for after the federal government tried to settle long-running disputes with junior medical doctors and prepare drivers.

He instructed listeners:

I feel that’s an unfair characterisation. I feel what is totally essential right here is we’re a authorities once more that’s sticking to the guarantees we made in opposition. We promised we might sit down and discover options, and folks expressed scepticism about that, however truly that’s exactly what we now have carried out in Authorities.

Thomas-Symonds additionally disputed a declare that Labour was not searching for productiveness enhancements or reform of the railways, saying “We are absolutely looking to deliver a better service for passengers and, frankly, it’s a low bar given the state the railways have been in recent years.”

The paymaster normal has defended pay provides to public sector staff from the brand new Labour authorities, saying they’re “settling disputes, the continuation of which is costing the economy hundreds of millions of pounds”.

Responding on the BBC Radio 4 programme to criticism that the chancellor couldn’t sq. the get together’s willingness to fulfill pay calls for sq. with “the difficult economic inheritance the new government keep telling us about”, Nick Thomas-Symonds stated:

It squares as a result of we’re settling disputes, the continuation of which is costing the economic system lots of of hundreds of thousands of kilos.

He stated he hoped Aslef would settle for a proposed pay deal for prepare drivers, saying:

The dispute isn’t settled, by the way in which. A proposal has been made that’s over the three 12 months interval from 2022 to 2025 that may now be put by Aslef to its membership. I sincerely hope that it’s accredited and that that’s accepted,

We wish to transfer ahead with a greater passenger expertise on the railways and higher worth, frankly, for taxpayers, as a result of we’ve seen the estimates the disruption since 2022 of as much as £850m of misplaced income on our railways. We are able to’t proceed like that.

The final authorities’s rail minister didn’t even meet the commerce union leaders from January of 2023. We all the time stated we might interact, and we now have.

Making an attempt to spotlight a distinct tone from the final administration, he continued:

I got here on programmess like this after I was an opposition spokesperson, and sometimes stated that Labour in authorities would sit down, get across the desk, do that arduous work of discovering in every particular person space the place the frequent floor was to discover a answer. And that’s precisely what the federal government has carried out, whether or not its junior medical doctors [or] Aslef.

Permitting these disputes to proceed is damaging the economic system. That’s what the Conservatives did. This authorities takes a distinct strategy. We interact. We work onerous. We discover that frequent floor. And doing which means the disruption doesn’t proceed.

Conservative MPs have been persevering with to assault the brand new Labour authorities over public sector pay settlements.

Chris Philp, shadow chief of the Home of Commons, has claimed “it has taken Labour barely a month to lose control of state sector pay.”

He posted to social media to say “they will all now demand double digit rises. None of the increases come with commitments to reform or improve. All the public gets is a much bigger tax bill – or cut winter fuel allowances for 10 million pensioners”.

Kevin Hollinrake, the shadow enterprise secretary, whereas conceding “of course it’s true that there is a ‘direct cost to the economy’ if workers go on strike” stated “there’s a much bigger cost of capitulating to the unions. 40 years after Thatcher sorted them out, the unions are now back in charge and the country will pay the price”.

About 6.25 million folks within the UK out of a workforce of about 33 million are members of a commerce union.

Welcome to our rolling protection of UK politics for Friday. Listed here are your headlines …

• Paymaster normal Nick Thomas-Symonds has defended public sector pay settlements, saying the Labour authorities is ending long-running disputes and disruption that had been costing the nation hundreds of thousands

• Conservative shadow minister Chris Philp accused the federal government of already dropping management of state sector pay

• Angela Rayner has been instructed Labour’s new cities plan dangers lacking England housing targets

• The UK authorities has stated contaminated blood scandal payouts are to begin by the top of 12 months

• Retail gross sales volumes rose by 0.5% in July, the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics studies this morning. That follows a fall of 0.9% in June when households reduce amid poor climate, and election uncertainty.

• The UK’s Nationwide Crime Company says it’s “not scared” of PPE Medpro’s legal professionals

It’s Martin Belam with you at this time. Do e mail me should you spot typos, errors or omissions – martin.belam@theguardian.com.