Produced by the Normal podcast workforce, test again right here each week to discover a model new episode of A Week’s a Lengthy Time in Westminster.
Episode 7: US election fireworks…and tax hikes in Britain?
Whereas “Brat” Kamala Harris is all however confirmed because the Democrat presidential nominee, there’s hypothesis within the UK that Labour are planning to boost taxes regardless of their election guarantees.
Nicholas Cecil and Rachael Burford talk about the important thing moments of the week on the planet of politics, together with:
- Kamala Harris is celebrating “brat summer time” as she prepares to tackle Trump
- The candidates operating to switch Rishi Sunak because the Tory management contests hots up
- Will Keir Stamer’s honeymoon finish in Autumn as MPs trace the nation’s funds are worse than they thought?
- London’s housing disaster continues to chew
Episode six: West Wing or Relaxation Wing for Joe Biden?
As our new PM Sir Keir Starmer tries to unite Britain, Europe and the broader world, there’s loads of political drama within the US. Nicholas Cecil, Jitendra Joshi and Rachael Burford talk about the important thing moments of the week on the planet of politics, together with:
- IT “pandemic” hits Britain and the world
- Lengthy-range missile talks between Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelensky into No10
- Donald Trump tries (for half an hour) to unite America earlier than new assaults on Democrats
- Grandfather clock is ticking in opposition to Joe Biden
All eyes on the president, Labour’s nice reset, and is soccer coming house?
- Labour will get off to a flying begin
- Is Biden heading for the Relaxation Wing?
- Battle for the guts and soul of the Tory Occasion
- Beginner MPs at Westminster
- And….it’s coming house..how London’s getting ready for England vs Spain Euro 2024 remaining
Episode 4: Labour landslide and London’s new political panorama
Episode three: Time’s operating out for Rishi Sunak as July 4 looms
Indignant debates on either side of the Atlantic, unique interviews with Rishi Sunak and Sir Ed Davey, a calamitous ballot for the Tories, and the battle for Jewish votes in Finchley. Nicholas Cecil, Jitendra Joshi and Rachael Burford talk about the most recent drama within the run-up to the overall election. On this episode:
- Did the PM do sufficient in his remaining debate with the Labour chief?
- Simply how dangerous was Joe Biden’s personal debate with Donald Trump?
- Ipsos polling finds 72% of voters dislike the Tories.
- Sir Keir Starmer admits remarks about Bangladesh had been ‘clumsy’
Episode two: Bets off on subsequent drama hitting Rishi Sunak
A betting scandal, Starmer struggles to shake off Corbyn’s legacy, Boris returns and Ed Davey’s newest antics. Nicholas Cecil, Jitendra Joshi and Rachael Burford talk about the most recent drama within the run-up to the overall election. On this episode:
- Conservatives pressured to delete ‘playing’ submit on X
- Suella Braverman’s embarrassing TikTok posts
- The most recent Ipsos survey sheds gentle on London’s intentions
- Why a neighborhood Labour chief was discovered hiding in a hedge
Episode one: Three weeks to go till July 4 polling day…
- Forward of Euro 2024 kicking off, it is a sport of two halves on the marketing campaign path
- Labour, the Tories, the Lib Dems and Greens publish their manifestos
- Has Rishi Sunak recovered from his D-Day blunder?
- Sir Keir Starmer’s get together nonetheless on the again foot over tax plans
- Or is it actually potholes and NHS ready lists voters are most involved about?
- With Night Normal political editor Nicholas Cecil, deputy political editor Jitendra Joshi and chief political correspondent Rachael Burford.
Seek for The Normal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you stream.
Right here’s an automatic transcript for episode one:
From London, I am political editor, Nicholas Cecil.
I am chief political correspondent, Rachael Burford.
And I am deputy political editor, Jitendra Joshi.
And that is The Normal podcast’s, A Week’s a Lengthy Time in Westminster.
“We’re the get together of Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson, a celebration not like Labour that believes in sound cash.
So we are going to make sure that now we have decrease welfare in order that we are able to ship decrease taxes.” SUNAK
Recorded from our newsroom at Westminster, this can be a collection of particular episodes each Friday within the run as much as the election.
We’ll reduce via the noise and allow you to familiarize yourself with what’s actually happening in politics, each right here in London and throughout the nation.
Taking you thru the week’s political information, coverage gossip and scandal.
And we’ll be with you on outcomes day to unpack all the things.
“I do not consider it is honest to boost taxes on working individuals once they’re already paying this a lot, notably in a value of residing disaster.
We won’t increase earnings tax.
We won’t increase nationwide insurance coverage.
That could be a manifesto dedication.” STARMER
So this week was a sport of two halves within the election marketing campaign, forward of England’s first sport at Euro 2024 on Sunday.
At first of the week, it was the Tories with that manifesto, however they’re doing so badly within the polls.
It was like they had been beginning the sport 5 nil down.
The second half of the week was Labour’s manifesto.
And for Sir Keir Starmer, it is the other.
He is an enormous soccer fan, and he is aware of he’ll be in quantity 10 in simply three weeks time, until his get together scores a string of spectacular personal objectives.
So to begin the present, let’s kick off with the Tories.
So on Tuesday, we had the Tory manifesto, and that was very a lot tax cuts, tax cuts, and extra tax cuts.
They proposed to chop an extra 2p off the principle price of Nationwide Insurance coverage by 2027.
And they’re additionally proposing ditching the principle price of Nationwide Insurance coverage for the self-employed.
There have been fairly just a few different pledges of their manifesto, for instance, constructing 1.6 million extra houses within the subsequent 5 years, stamp obligation for first time consumers being abolished on houses as much as a worth of £425,000.
They repeated their pledge to get Rwanda flights, deportation flights off the bottom, although to date they very clearly failed to attain that.
They pledged to spice up spending on protection at 2.5% of GDP by 2030.
They are saying they will make £12 billion of financial savings from welfare cuts.
And so they additionally declare that they will discover £5 billion via closing the tax hole, which is cracking down on tax avoidance and so forth.
Nonetheless, the problem they’re going through there, as we have seen right this moment, Nick, is with regard to these tax cuts, is that they’re open to assault from Labour, who’re accusing them of not having the funding to fill the outlet that these cuts would go away.
We’re listening to right this moment from Wes Streeting, for instance, who’s saying that this manifesto quantities to what he calls Liz Truss on steroids.
And that is a wound that Labour are notably eager to maintain punching at, reminding voters of the latest chaos, as they name it below Tory rule.
But it surely’s arduous to say that the manifesto itself, with all the small print and all of the reduce and thrust and the details and the figures, to what extent that actually cuts via with voters.
I believe what we have seen over the week, what actually does have an effect on them are self-inflicted objectives.
As an illustration, every week in the past, final Friday, we woke as much as Rishi Sunak having to difficulty a reasonably devastating apology coming hours after he’d left the D-Day ceremonies in Normandy early to document an ITV interview.
There was nothing notably urgent about that interview, however there was a sense that conservatives felt they had been on the again foot in opposition to Labour and so they wished to regain the initiative.
That is backfired horribly after Rishi Sunak got here below fairly withering hearth, together with from some aged veterans themselves who felt they’d been deserted on their day on what realistically is gonna be the final vital anniversary given the age of these heroes.
After which it turned out in that self-same ITV interview, we now study Rishi Sunak was once more reinforcing this sense that he is not fully in contact maybe with individuals on the market.
He was requested, phrases to the impact, what was the largest hardship you confronted rising up?
And he mentioned, properly, we did not have Sky TV.
And I believe for individuals like the lady who kicked off the primary ITV debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, she defined in fairly upsetting element how badly the price of residing disaster has affected her and much and plenty of households up and down the nation are gonna relate to tales like that.
So to listen to a multimillionaire who’s already being accused of being out of contact and simply failing to know what individuals are going via, to listen to that that is the worst he can give you, properly, that does not actually assist, does it?
Yeah, the Tories are undoubtedly obsessive about tax cuts.
And actually that is as a result of it is type of the one factor they have that they will type of latch onto on this marketing campaign as a result of they have been in energy for 14 years, immigration is at document highs, NHS ready lists at document highs.
It is very arduous for them to come back out and say, properly, we’ll type this out once they’ve been answerable for sorting it out for over a decade.
So they are going in on tax cuts and this type of repute that they beforehand have being the get together of fiscal accountability, however they’re actually type of shedding that.
I imply, after the catastrophe that was Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak’s full incapability to type of pull that again, I believe all they have now could be him to exit and say, properly, we’ll reduce your tax.
We’ll offer you just a few further pennies in your pay packet.
However there are individuals going through clearly large mortgage hikes, big meals payments, big power payments.
So it is a large, large drawback for them.
And I do not suppose there’s something that Rishi Sunak can truly do now to persuade folks that, sure, I need to vote Tory at this election as a result of I believe they’re those which are gonna be capable to type the nation out.
The Conservatives at all times had a type of base of normal voters, folks that exit and vote for the get together each time as a result of they do like low taxes.
They do suppose they’re the get together of fiscal accountability.
However now you’ve got bought, I believe, reasonable Tory voters who suppose there’s lots of two proper wing.
You have bought proper wing Tory voters who suppose there’s lots of two left wing.
And you have the sensible Tories who simply suppose they’re ineffective.
So it is arduous to see who’s truly gonna come out and vote for them at this election.
Simply sticking on tax for a bit longer as a result of that was the primary blow struck by both the leaders within the first TV debate that we had between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer.
So the Prime Minister got here out with this line that in the event you elect a Labour authorities, you may get hit with a £2,000 tax invoice.
In order that’s a £2,000 per family.
Keir Starmer, fairly surprisingly, did not have a correct reply to that.
And that was seen as actually fairly a Tory success to have landed an early blow on the Labour chief who on the core difficulty of tax appeared to be stumped.
Effectively, that is the place it will get actually fascinating as a result of this £2,000 determine began to unravel fairly shortly.
So first the Treasury, which compiled some figures which went into the Tory calculations.
The Treasury, essentially the most senior civil servant within the Treasury distanced himself from a few of these figures.
Then we had unbiased reality checkers being actually fairly important about it.
After which we had the UK Statistics Authority declaring that this £2,000 determine is a determine over 4 years.
And ministers, Tory candidates and so forth, they’re actually not making that clear.
So voters are being left with the impression that that is £2,000 a yr.
Now you’d have thought perhaps that the conservators would pull again a bit then as a result of they thought, properly, truly, perhaps that is getting a little bit of tough territory for us.
However truly it is the other.
They’ve doubled down on this declare.
In order that they carry on repeating it.
Labour will tax you extra.
It will be £2,000 extra tax, despite the fact that this determine is trying more and more uncertain.
But it surely did lead, although, arguably to Rishi Sunak’s D-Day blunder.
So the day after that debate, the day after the Prime Minister made that fairly questionable declare, Labour had been hitting him from each quarter, saying, you are a liar.
He was in Portsmouth after which in Normandy, feeling like he could not punch again.
Ultimately, when he did hit again, properly, we noticed what occurred.
It actually, actually unraveled in a short time as a result of he’d left D-Day early.
So there was a conspiracy idea doing the rounds that really Labour, this was all a crafty ruse.
You understand, Keir Starmer let him make that false assault as they noticed it through the debate in an effort to pummel them the subsequent day.
I believe that is a little bit of a stretch.
This stuff are typically extra cock up than conspiracy.
However by way of who gained the narrative over these days and since, as a result of this week once more, Rishi Sunak is pressured to apologize in each TV look.
This D-Day factor simply will not go away.
And that’s actually the type of factor the voters do bear in mind.
Effectively, these are very very like the headline battleground engagements.
However there’s additionally loads occurring on the native stage in London.
I believe, Rachael, you’ve got bought some particulars of that, have not you?
Yeah, so I have been out and about in just a few seats in London this week and final week.
Clearly, with this being Manifesto Week, there have not been as many visits.
However final week, there was definitely some ministers out, eager to get individuals out on the bottom and be seen campaigning.
I went to Sutton and Cheam, which is a seat that the Tories at the moment maintain, however is below menace from the Lib Dems, mainly.
The Lib Dems have gotten it on the high of their goal record just about.
The Tory candidate there, Tom Drummond, was fairly eager to speak about potholes and the way Sutton Lib Dem Council is ineffective at filling in potholes.
We bought all taken out to this type of deepest, darkest Sutton, to this street.
And James Cleverley, the House Secretary, got here alongside as properly to marketing campaign the Tory candidate.
And sadly, although, Sutton Council, I am certain they’d deny they bought wind of this go to, however the Council had been filling within the potholes as we had been there.
So all we had was type of James Cleverley stood in entrance of some council diggers, and so they had been fairly unable to type of go on about how horrible the Lib Dems are at filling in potholes and the way you undoubtedly should not vote for them.
However clearly, James Cleverley was, , nonetheless did his bits to digital camera, and he would speak to us about crime in London and issues like that.
And so they had been clearly utilizing Sadiq Khan nonetheless as a little bit of a punching bag.
Every part is his fault. It is Labour’s fault. That is what town is like below Labour.
That is what’s going to occur.
So it was a type of missed alternative on the piles, however a factor the place they may go on about crime a bit.
Proper, let’s go to a fast advert break.
Developing within the second half, the Labour manifesto.
Hit comply with within the meantime.
Welcome again to A Week’s A Lengthy Time in Westminster.
So, Labour’s manifesto, it was very a lot Sir Keir Starmer attempting to win over Center England.
He was saying, we might be pro-business, pro-workers, we are going to give attention to getting financial development.
That is the core of our technique, he was saying, and that we’re now a celebration of wealth creation, which was 1,000,000 miles from the Jeremy Corbyn years.
The issue with Labour’s new technique is that it’s extremely, very closely depending on getting wholesome financial development again in Britain.
And we have had the COVID pandemic, we have had the Putin’s conflict in Ukraine, after which we have had the political turmoil, financial turmoil as properly of latest years, notably below the Liz Truss administration.
So in the event you’re banking on getting wholesome financial development going and you do not get it, what do you do to pay in your public companies in your 40,000 extra appointments to get the NHS backlog down, to pay in your 6,500 extra lecturers?
So with that wholesome financial development, you’ve got bought two choices.
So that you both go for tax rises otherwise you go for borrowing.
And with regards to tax rises, so Keir was very eager to rule out quite a lot of tax rises or potential tax rises.
So he mentioned there’d be no earnings tax rise, no nationwide insurance coverage tax rise, and no VAT rise.
However he wasn’t so clear about, for instance, capital positive aspects tax.
And there are a selection of tax rises.
They’re much less controversial than the principle ones, however nonetheless fairly controversial that Labour are already continuing with, together with placing VAT on personal faculty charges, ending the non-dom standing.
That clearly advantages the very rich and shutting loopholes within the windfall tax on oil and fuel giants.
In order that they’re saying we are able to get all the cash from there for what we have to do and some different issues, however there’s nonetheless a giant query over that.
There’s clearly been lots of column inches devoted to this VAT on personal faculty charges, however in all probability greater than it warrants, to be sincere.
I do not suppose most people care in regards to the very small variety of individuals that really go to non-public faculty, clearly do.
Clearly Rishi Sunak did go to a non-public faculty and has been very anti it, saying it is anti-aspirational, however no, it is not working in any respect.
Persons are feeling, we have got no aspiration different than simply paying the payments and getting via the week and the month.
And when you’ve got a spare 30,000 kilos a yr for personal faculty charges, in the event you’re attempting to plead poverty within the present financial local weather, I believe the sympathy is proscribed from regular individuals.
That could be a battle that Labour are very glad to have.
The place the Tories have been pushing again, they suppose extra successfully maybe is taking a look at precisely what you had been saying there, Nick, about the place’s the cash coming from.
If we do not turbocharge the economic system with this elusive development that each single authorities that is ever been needs development, properly, what occurs if you do not get it?
The Tories right this moment are alleging that Labour have gotten 18 tax rises within the works.
That is mainly as a result of each time they ask a Labour individual, are you gonna do that?
Except they are saying completely not, they’re going to say, ah, you are not ruling it out.
In order that they’ve totted up the variety of occasions that is occurred.
A few of these claims are fairly debatable.
When even final night time, we noticed Angela Rayner truly ruling out a few of these issues.
However they suppose there’s mileage in suggesting that Labour are gonna go after issues like capital positive aspects tax in your major residence.
So in the mean time, once you promote your own home, your important house, you do not pay tax on that.
If that had been to alter, you talked about Center England, which Keir Starmer is clearly focusing on.
Effectively, that type of factor is gonna go down like a bucket of coal six, to be sincere, in these type of Tory heartlands.
In order that’s presumably a preview of what is to come back between now and election day in Labour’s defence, or at the very least to place their viewpoint throughout.
The place is the expansion coming from?
Effectively, they’re saying they have varied methods of unlocking that development that the Tories have actively been blocking, reminiscent of planning restrictions to unleash new house constructing, get individuals off ready lists, carry down property costs and leases specifically, that are simply taking on a lot extra of everybody’s earnings in the mean time.
They’re speaking about bringing down NHS ready lists, getting 3 million individuals off sick lists and again into work.
That in itself could be pretty transformative for tax receipts.
Effectively, truly one factor which we have not talked about but truly is Nigel Farage.
That is actually fairly attention-grabbing.
So Nigel Farage, having mentioned he was off to America mainly to assist Donald Trump, immediately simply turned to alter his thoughts and have become chief of Reform UK.
They surged within the polls.
They’re inflicting all kinds of issues for the Tories.
However on the identical time this week, we have had some analysis out exhibiting belief in politics plummeting.
And the explanation for that is fairly attention-grabbing that it’s go away voters who had been mainly promised the earth through the 2016 referendum, tighter border controls, financial prosperity.
And shock, shock, this miracle world that they had been promised hasn’t materialized.
However on the identical time, the person who made all these guarantees, Nigel Farage, he noticed within the polls.
So it is actually very counterintuitive that the person who mainly instructed lots of people to say a pack of untruths for the 2016 referendum is immediately now again as a preferred politician.
Effectively, he can distance himself from all these guarantees which had been actually made by Boris Johnson as a result of Nigel Farage was by no means in authorities.
He failed seven occasions to turn into an MP.
That is his eighth try in Clackton.
So he can type of distance himself from these guarantees that had been made and type of say, properly, if I used to be in cost, it will have been good.
It might have been sensible.
And that is, I believe, what he is happening.
I believe reform, we noticed a ballot yesterday, which was actually devastating for the Tories that confirmed that reform has truly jumped them now into second place.
Whether or not that can play out with truly getting MPs on the election stays to be seen.
I believe clearly Nigel Farage does have an excellent probability in Clackton, it appears.
If we settle for that Brexit was actually pushed about by discontent about excessive ranges of immigration, that is Farage’s case, is that, properly, what’s occurred since?
It is solely gone up and up and up ever since 2016.
These guarantees had been by no means delivered upon.
If we’re mentioning Farage on Europe, we have to look on the opposite facet and Ed Davey.
How do you suppose his ways are working, Rachael?
Ed Davey’s simply having a beautiful time whereas everybody else is out preventing, water snowboarding, happening water slides.
I imply, he is getting column inches, is not he, by protection, by being a bit wacky and doing these type of stunts primarily, which, , it is good.
It is type of refreshing when everybody’s simply speaking about how a lot they hate one another actually and the way terrible all the things is.
You have simply bought Ed Davey having a whale of a time taking place a water slide.
And that is episode one in all A Week’s A Lengthy Time in Westminster.
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