Reeves will need ‘Corbynist catalogue' of tax rises to back up spending

Ms Reeves denied the Treasury would produce a 'repeat' of last October's budget and said the Government had 'already drawn a line under the Tory mismanagement'.
But shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride told MPs that Wednesday's spending review was a 'fantasy' and 'not worth the paper that it is written on'.
Responding to Ms Reeves's spending plans, the Conservative frontbencher told the Commons: 'This is the spend now, tax later review, because (the Chancellor) knows she will need to come back here in the autumn with yet more taxes and a cruel summer of speculation awaits.
'How can we possibly take this Chancellor seriously after the chaos of the last 12 months?'
Sir Mel labelled Ms Reeves 'the tinfoil Chancellor, flimsy and ready to fold in the face of the slightest pressure', who he said was 'weak, weak, weak'.
He added: 'She is constantly teetering on the edge of blowing her fiscal rules, which she already changed to allow even more borrowing.
'And the only way she can claim to be meeting her rules is by pretending that she can control spending over the coming years.'
As part of the Government's plans, departmental budgets are forecast to grow by an annual average of 2.3% across the period 2023/24 to 2028/29.
Ms Reeves also promised a 'record cash investment in our NHS', with an extra £29 billion per year for day-to-day running costs, plus money for rail projects including £3.5 billion additional funding for the TransPennine route upgrade between York and Manchester, and £2.5 billion more for the Cambridge-to-Oxford East West Rail.
'The Chancellor knows she will have to come back in the autumn with more tax rises to fund these plans,' Sir Mel said.
'Or can she assure us right now that this is not the case? Yes or no?'
Referring to the former Labour leader and now independent MP for Islington North Jeremy Corbyn, Sir Mel said: 'We know that the Deputy Prime Minister (Angela Rayner) has helpfully provided her with an entire brochure of tax rises that she will no doubt be perusing over the summer, the 'Corbynist catalogue'.'
He told MPs: 'Her tone today suggests that all is well, the sunny uplands await.
'What a hopeless conceit. A masterclass in delusion.'
Ms Reeves hit back that Sir Mel was 'Stride by name, 'baby steps' by nature'.
She said he had 'welcomed our nuclear investment of £30 billion' and continued: 'But he said it's not enough. He welcomed our defence investments of £11 billion, but he said it was not enough.
'He and his party opposed the decisions that this Government has taken to make those announcements possible, by voting against the budget in October last year.
'You can't spend the money if you won't raise the money. Now, that's a lesson from Liz Truss that he has already forgotten.
'He complains about the level of investment that I've announced, ignoring the fact that the reason this investment is so important is because his party oversaw 14 years of cratering investment, stagnating wages and public service collapse.'
She said the more comprehensive budget later this year will 'set out in the round all of the fiscal plans' and added: 'We have already drawn a line under the Tory mismanagement with tax rises last year.
'And we will never have to repeat a budget like that again, because we will never have to clean up after the mess that the party opposite made.'

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The Independent

15 minutes ago

• The Independent

Why the ‘individual conscience vote' of MPs had its own assisted death last week

Two votes in the Commons split by four days laid the ground for a seismic shift in British social policy making last week one of the most significant in the modern history of Parliament. But while the votes on abortion (Tuesday) and assisted dying (Friday) were officially matters of individual conscience the evidence from both suggests that the UK is now closer than ever to a US-style party politicisation of moral issues. If you vote Labour or Lib Dem you are much more likely to get a pro-choice MP, if you vote Conservative or Reform you are more likely to get a pro-life MP. This is not an accident, it is increasingly by design. How parties voted on life and death On Tuesday the decriminalisation of abortion up to birth amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill laid down by Labour Gower MP Tonia Antoniazzi won by 379 to 137. Of this 291 Labour MPs voted in favour and just 25 against while 63 Lib Dems were in favour and just two against. On the other side 92 Tory MPs voted against and just four in favour. Another four abstained by voting in both lobbies. No Reform MPs supported and four voted against. The split is not as stark on Friday's assisted dying vote but nevertheless reveals a trend. Kim Leadbeater 's bill had the support of 224 fellow Labour MPs with 160 against and 56 Lib Dems with 15 against. On the other side the Tories split 92 against to 20 in favour while Reform were three against and two in favour. Kemi Badenoch put a two line whip on the abortion vote rather than allowing a completely free vote. This indicated a party position without the threat of disciplinary action which would come with a three line whip. But, remarkably, after the abortion vote senior Tories were complaining that Ms Badenoch had not withdrawn the whip of the four MPs who voted for decriminalisation. It was different in 1967 The last time the UK saw Parliament vote on such seismic social change was back in 1967 with Liberal MP David Steel 's abortion legislation and Labour MP Leo Abse's Sexual Offences Act which decriminalised homosexuality. In both those cases parties split down the middle on conscience votes which saw the odd alliance of rightwing Tory MP Enoch Powell and leftwing Labour MP Tony Benn coming together to support legalising homosexuality. The Ed Miliband effect The erosion of the conscience vote in the UK has actually come more from a hardening of positions from progressive leftwing parties in Britain and exacerbated by the so-called culture wars. In 2012 Ed Miliband imposed a three-line whip on gay marriage on Labour MPs. LGBTQ+ matters ended there as something of individual conscience for the first time. Then in 2019 former MP Roger Godsiff was dropped as a Labour candidate for supporting parents in his Birmingham constituency who were protesting over primary school children being taught about same-sex relationships. This year we see Reform UK banning LGBTQ+ flags from county halls where they have taken control of the council and attempting to purge councils of diversity, equity and inclusion officers and policies. While abortion officially remained a matter of conscience a comment by the now home secretary Yvette Cooper in 2017 about Jacob Rees-Mogg being unfit to be a party leader because of his views on abortion was enlightening. What has happened over a number of years is that the majority of socially conservative, mostly Catholic tradition in Labour has been removed through selection processes. David Campanale versus the Lib Dems An ongoing legal case involving the Liberal Democrats and one of its former candidates has highlighted an apparent major shift in British politics to the party politicisation of conscience issues. Former BBC journalist David Campanale was kicked out as the candidate for Sutton ahead of the last election because, he claims, of his Christian beliefs. According to documents presented in the case, Luke Taylor, who replaced him as the candidate, is alleged to have claimed that 'the party of past prominent Liberal Democrats with Christian beliefs, such as Shirley Williams and Charles Kennedy, was 'over', and that he and others were building a 'secular party' which would have no place for Christians expecting to 'hold to their religious or conscientious opinions'. Mr Taylor was the teller for the votes in favour of the abortion amendment on Tuesday, who also described the assisted dying vote, which he supported, as a good way to 'neatly bookend the week.' If Mr Campanale wins his case it will for the first time provide evidence that selection is taking place on conscience issues as well as other matters. The Lib Dems have denied the claims and pointed out that their leader Sr Ed Davey goes to church. But the Christian Lib Dems including former deputy leader Simon Hughes have voiced concerns and the party has been condemned by two bishops. and a former Archbishop of Canterbury. Added to that Tim Farron, who voted against abortion and assisted dying last week, was ousted as leader over his Christian beliefs in 2017. During the assisted dying vote a number of supporters of the bill suggested that religious belief had no place in deciding such issues. A real departure from conscience. But a brand of conservatism is emerging in the UK which openly embraces traditional Christian values. Reflecting on the assisted dying vote, Tory MP Danny Kruger, a leading opponent of the bill, said: 'If we are to withstand our enemies, bring our society together, and tame the technium (somehow ensure that human values govern the new age of machines), we are going to need values that are up to the job. 'I don't think humanist atheism or progressive liberalism or whatever the new religion should be called, is up to it. Christianity is. Only Christianity is.' A warning from America In America, the conscience vote rapidly became more party-politicised as a result of the Roe vs Wade abortion ruling in in 1973. Social conservatives gradually began to take over the Republicans on the right and social progressives the Democrats. It has played out ferociously in the selection of Supreme Court justices, who recently in effect overturned Roe v Wade with a conservative majority. The most interesting US development is the way that a man like Donald Trump, previously ambiguous over abortion, has adopted a strong anti-abortion line to please his base. This played out in the 2022 midterms to the detriment of the Republicans with the Democrats using the threat to abortion rights to great effect. But it did little to help Kamala Harris in 2024. What that shows though is that parties with very strong views one way or the other can be elected largely on economic grounds but bring with them a great deal of baggage on conscience issues. After this week some would argue the same thing has happened in the opposite direction in the UK.

Wales Online

an hour ago

• Wales Online

Dame Esther Rantzen urges Lords not to block assisted dying legislation

Dame Esther Rantzen urges Lords not to block assisted dying legislation The Terminally Ill Adults (End Of Life) Bill cleared the Commons with a majority of 23 votes, but opponents have vowed to continue their resistance in the unelected chamber (Image: PA Archive/PA Images ) Dame Esther Rantzen has called on the House of Lords not to impede the progress of pivotal legislation in relation to assisted dying. The Terminally Ill Adults (End Of Life) Bill passed the Commons with a majority of 23 votes on Friday, yet it faces staunch opposition in the Lords, where critics are ready to propose amendments that would introduce additional restrictions and safeguards. Welsh Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson has said that she hopes there will be some amendments when it comes to the Lords to "make it stronger". ‌ Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Dame Esther remarked: "I don't need to teach the House of Lords how to do their job. They know it very well, and they know that laws are produced by the elected chamber. ‌ "Their job is to scrutinise, to ask questions, but not to oppose." She continued, highlighting the role of the Lords: "So yes, people who are adamantly opposed to this bill, and they have a perfect right to oppose it, will try and stop it going through the Lords, but the Lords themselves, their duty is to make sure that law is actually created by the elected chamber, which is the House of Commons who have voted this through." Dame Esther, who celebrates her 85th birthday on Sunday and is living with terminal cancer, conceded that the bill is unlikely to be enacted in time for her own benefit, suggesting she may have to travel to Zurich's Dignitas clinic instead. Article continues below Baroness Grey-Thompson told BBC Breakfast about the upcoming debate in the Lords: "We're getting ready for it to come to the Lord's and from my personal point of view, about amending it to make it stronger. "We've been told it's the strongest Bill in the world, but to be honest, it's not very high bar for other legislation. "So I do think there are a lot more safeguards that could be put in." ‌ Conservative Lord and disability rights advocate, Lord Shinkwin voiced his opinions on the close margin in the Commons and emphasised the importance of scrutiny by the House of Lords. He expressed to Today: "I think the House of Lords has a duty to expose and to subject this Bill to forensic scrutiny" and noted that "I don't think it's a question of blocking it so much as performing our duty as a revising chamber". Lord Shinkwin further commented: "The margin yesterday was so close that many MPs would appreciate the opportunity to look at this again in respect of safeguards as they relate to those who feel vulnerable, whether that's disabled people or older people." ‌ Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who guided the Bill through the Commons, shared with the PA news agency her hopes that the Lords would not obstruct the legislation, which risks running out of time if delayed in the upper chamber. She remarked: "I would be upset to think that anybody was playing games with such an important and such an emotional issue." A faction of 27 Labour MPs who opposed the proposed law stated: "We were elected to represent both of those groups and are still deeply concerned about the risks in this Bill of coercion of the old and discrimination against the disabled, people with anorexia and black, Asian and minority ethnic people, who we know do not receive equitable health care. ‌ "As the Bill moves to the House of Lords it must receive the scrutiny that it needs. Not about the principles of assisted dying but its application in this deeply flawed Bill." On the other hand, one of the staunchest critics of the Bill, Conservative Danny Kruger, described the current period as "these are apocalyptic times". The East Wiltshire MP, whose stance diverges from his mother's, Great British Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith—who backs the legalisation—took to Twitter on Friday evening. In his dispatch, he labelled proponents of assisted dying as "militant anti-Christians" and criticised them for their lack of engagement with "engage with the detail of the Bill". Article continues below

Wales Online

2 hours ago

• Wales Online

'I didn't sleep. It was constant. I could turn the notifications off, but they were still there'

'I didn't sleep. It was constant. I could turn the notifications off, but they were still there' Welsh MP Alex Davies-Jones has spoken out about being harassed and threatened in a bid to help others Pontypridd MP Alex Davies-Jones was the victim of harassment (Image: Alex Davies-Jones ) Just over two weeks ago, Alex Davies-Jones stepped into a courtroom at Cardiff Magistrates' court. An MP, and government minister, she is used to speaking in formal settings, but this was different, because she was asked to place her hand on a bible, give an oath, and then give evidence to a courtroom as a victim of harassment. Switching the Commons for a witness box was something the UK Government's victim minister didn't want to do, but after a number of incidents she had endured, she felt it was important to do, for herself, for colleagues, for others who one day might enter politics. ‌ She was out campaigning in Treforest in Rhondda Cynon Taf, on June 26, just a few days before the general election when she saw two people waiting at the place she was due to meet campaigners. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here ‌ Before that day - as with many of her colleagues - her office had been targeted with protests held outside, posters stuck to the walls but she also knew leaflets were being posted around the constituency about her. "They were quite insulting and just not very nice, for want of a better description, accusing me of genocide and accusing me of things that weren't true and it was hard to see that," the Labour MP said. After the October 7 attacks on Israel, protests stepped up, and ahead of votes in the UK Parliament there was co-ordinated action by campaign groups but she says that became "sustained" once the general election was called. Article continues below Before this, there has been online or email abuse, but this was the first in-person incident she had experienced, which felt more acute as it was in her constituency. "The vast majority of abuse or threats you have to are not necessarily from real people or they don't seem to be real people because they're online," she said. "The day it happened we had scheduled our campaigning sessions in advance and this was the last one of the day, and it had been published on the Labour Party website where we were going to be for Labour members to join. "I was with a group of about five or six members and more were joining. We met up at the meeting point and they were there, both of them, at the meeting point. They had put up posters on the lampposts surrounding where we were meeting at Hoffi Coffi in Treforest and were handing out the leaflets that I had seen previously about myself so I knew what it was. ‌ "I thought there's two things I can do here, I can either try and engage and try and be the grown up and speak to them about potentially de-escalating it and get them to chat to me about this because they tend to be very passionate, or I can just walk away and ignore them. "I made the decision to to go up to them and try and speak to them." Asked if she regretted that now, she said no. "No, I don't, because I still think that trying to engage with people is always better, especially in person. ‌ "I immediately realised that one of them was filming the interaction so I was obviously very careful of my actions and what I was saying and was aware that it was being filmed. I tried to engage in a conversation, I tried to explain to them that they were wrong, that I hadn't abstained on the ceasefire vote because I wasn't even in the country at that time. "I tried to articulate all of the action I had taken to support conflict free resolutions in the Middle East, the work I'd done to support Palestinian women who had allegedly been raped by IDF soldiers, the work I've been doing support Jewish women who'd been raped on October 7. I pointed them to debates that I've spoken in Parliament, and I was like talking about what I had been doing in terms of diplomatic work. "It was clear that they didn't agree with me, and it was clear that it wasn't going to be resolved. So I said, look, 'we'll stop it there'. ‌ "We walked away from where we were due to be campaigning, and then they started following us down the street. "The interaction was getting more inflammatory, more aggressive, more frustrated, I suppose from their point of view, because they weren't getting what they wanted out of me necessarily. So they started following us down the street. It was awful, it was scary. They were shouting, 'Do you support genocide' and 'You're responsible for murder'. All of this was being screamed down the street as we were walking down the street. They were continuing to hand out leaflets to people as they were passing and screaming this to us. "We tried to get away from them, so we took a different route," she said. ‌ Ayeshah Behit leaving Cardiff Magistrates Court after being convicted of harassing Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones (Image: PA ) As they began knocking on doors in a different area, the pair - Ayeshah Behit and Hiba Ahmed - found them. "Every door we were knocking, they were then knocking and speaking to the people about why I was a genocidal baby killer. "It was just awful and I felt responsibility to my team, to my volunteers. I had quite a number of young volunteers never done this before that have been campaigning, and I didn't want them to be exposed to risk." She cancelled the session. ‌ "I think if that had been it, I would have said 'it was awful, but it's sadly part and parcel of being an elected representative or standing for an election. People have the right to speak to you and disagree with you'," she said. But that night, she said her office was defaced with stickers, which were highly adhesive and ripped the paintwork off. They were also put on local bus stops, local landmarks, monuments saying she supported genocide and was a "murderer". The Pontypridd MP continues: "Then they posted footage of the interaction that we had in person on social media but they did it in a way that was manipulated. They didn't put our full conversation on but amplified it, made it look like I was lying and that hurt me more than anything because people can say I'm many things, you can disagree with me, but I am not a liar. That really, really got to me because then that was when the huge amount of abuse started, because they incited a pile on for people to contact me, and it was relentless." ‌ As a candidate, she felt she couldn't withdraw from social media. "I didn't sleep. It was constant. I could turn the notifications off, but they were still there. I was doing a general election campaign and social media at that moment is key in terms of engaging with local voters and it was it was a bombardment which became terrifying because the escalation of abuse was awful." She has a young family, who has she spoken about publicly, but she said what didn't come out during the court case was that the pair broke bail conditions by emailing her. "One of the emails that was sent to me did make reference to the fact that I have a child and that really scared me because the words were used were 'I know you have a son ' and the way it was conveyed and it was really scary," she said. Hiba Ahmed, 26, (centre), leaving Cardiff Magistrates Court after being convicted of harassing Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones (Image: PA ) ‌ "It's really hard because I have chosen to be open and honest about my personal life because I think my personal experiences of being a mother going through IVF, having pre-cervical cancer, going through all the difficulties I have done, some of my colleagues have chosen not to open themselves up and not appear more human because of the risk that the more you open yourself up, the more then you become a target to potential attacks," she said. For the year before her case reached court, she said it was "hanging over me". "You know it's coming. and you psyche yourself up for it. You prepare yourself to go through that process. "I think about it all the time and now, I think about how will my interactions in public with constituents or whoever, what will that be like now? And I do feel like sadly, politics has become a lot more inflamed in recent years. ‌ "That's why it's also really important to humanise this, because people think we're just these people on screen or doing things rather than actually real human beings and that's why it's important to humanise this but then that does make me feel conscious of activity when out and about." All MPs have enhanced security offered to them after the killing of Sir David Amess. "I would say it is a different level of threat being a female MP because my male colleagues aren't necessarily subject to the misogynistic abuse that we are, which is more sustained. Research shows we are more prone to abuse compared to male colleagues and I would stress BME MPs are even more open to abuse." The risk factors into her day-to-day decisions. "Every time you plan to do something in person then you have to think about the safety implications. I'm not just responsible for myself. I'm responsible for my team. I'm responsible to whoever else may be coming to an event. I'm responsible for my family if they with me at an event, so you have to be aware and I think that's only responsible to do that of what security implications might mean about advertising your attendance something in advance, or opening something up to everyone to attend, or going to something that could be deemed to be controversial. ‌ "There's two sides of this. I've had a lot of praise and thanks from colleagues for pursuing the case because they have said thank you for being brave, because it's important that people realise that this is unacceptable and this did cross that threshold of holding your Member of Parliament to account and harassment and that's what the judge found in the case. "But then there's also the other side of this that I don't want what has happened to me and the normalisation of abusive of elected politicians to put anyone off from doing this job either. I have that responsibility to the next group of MPs coming forward, male or female, because this is still the best job in the world and I don't want that to influence anybody's decision into 'Gosh, this is awful. Why would anyone do that?' However, she does believe her experience of being a victim and having giving evidence in court will shape her experiences. "Now I've got that lived experience of having gone through it all, waiting for the trial to get to court, having been through the witness liaison officer scheme, speaking to police, the different agencies, being treated as a witness in court, giving evidence while your perpetrators in the dock and how that is all played out. ‌ "I have that experience now, which has helped me in terms of looking at, 'well, how can I make this experience better for victims and survivors?'. UK Government victims' minister Alex Davies-Jones has spoken about her own experiences of appearing in court (Image: Alex Davies-Jones ) "Ultimately, I don't want to diminish my case in any way, harassment happens to to individuals every day and it is awful and it is terrible, but also there are a number of victims and survivors all waiting years for their trial." ‌ She said she wants victims to be at the heart of the system. "One of the things I'm responsible for is the victims code, we are looking at how we give more power to the victims commissioner, so that they're able to hold agencies to account in our Bills coming forward and all of this is now feeding that work and giving me that perspective I didn't have before." Ms Davies-Jones said it has shaped her wanting to make sure victims can "take part in the justice system and do so safely and make them feel like they're able to represent the best version of themselves, so that we have an opportunity for justice to be heard in a courtroom" "Is there more we can do to make sure that victims actually stay engaged in the in the criminal justice system? Because we know court backlogs are so long, and we know that it can be quite difficult and traumatising to actually revisit that crime or your perpetrator in court," she said. ‌ There was a protest outside the court on that day, and protestors came to fill the public gallery. The courtroom had to be moved three times to accommodate all interested parties. "I just wanted to tell the truth, and I wanted to explain how all of this had happened. What's happening in Gaza is horrific. It's intolerable. It's awful and likewise, what happened on October 7 and the hostages still being held is awful and for people to think that I am in support of genocide or of murdering children is is it just terrible. I wanted to put that over that of course, that isn't the case. "We can have a difference of opinion about how you approach things and politics and policies but there is a line and when that line is crossed, then the action should be taken." Article continues below