Rachel Reeves morphs into Liz Truss

Labour’s economic U-turn sparks fears of betrayal

• Amit Roy
• 02 August, 2024

By: Amit Roy

AFTER the promise of a new dawn and how Labour would fix “broken Britain” after 14 years of Tory rule, it is sad how quickly the new chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is going about wrecking the economy and morphing into Liz Truss.

During the election campaign, then Conservative prime minister, Rishi Sunak, did warn the country that £38 billion of uncosted Labour spending would “amount to a £2,000 tax rise for every working family”.

Sir Keir Starmer said this was a “lie”, but the country can now see Rishi was spot on.

Rishi said Labour told the public “over 50 times” that they had no plans to raise taxes, and added: “Now they’re laying the ground to break their word. Raising taxes will be the ultimate betrayal of working people and the mandate Labour were elected on. The British people will not forget it.”

Jeremy Hunt, who has gone from being chancellor to shadow chancellor, wrote on social media: “Labour told us they wouldn’t raise taxes – yet they have laid the ground to break their word and betray working families.”

During the campaign, Reeves said: “The prime minister lied in the debate about Labour’s tax plans. Labour will not be increasing taxes on working people.”

Neither Starmer nor Reeves had warned the electorate they would scrap the £300 winter heating allowance for 10 million pensioners not on pension credit. As elderly folk are compelled to save on heating this winter, perhaps they will reflect on whether they were wise to trust Labour. The party insisted there wouldn’t be extra taxes on working people and that increased spending would be funded by “growing the economy”.

Reeves claims she discovered a “black hole” of £22bn only after becoming chancellor. But few people are convinced. In any case, half that figure comes from the above inflation wage increases offered to the unions. As many commentators have said, this was a political decision. A touch of Truss here.

Higher capital gains and inheritance taxes are also thought to be in prospect, the Daily Mail said. The chancellor is also considering removing some tax relief from pension savings.

It has also been a political decision to impose VAT on private school fees, which will mean parents seeking places for their children in the state sector. The former justice secretary, Emily Thornberry, who had admitted class sizes would increase because of the expected flood of children whose parents could no longer afford private schools, has been punished by Starmer. He has left her out of his cabinet. He’s certainly made an enemy.

Reeves has also cancelled a number of infrastructure projects which could have boosted the economy. These include A303 Stonehenge tunnel, an important bypass on the A27.

The dangers of giving Labour a supermajority by electing 411 of its MPs in a Commons of 650 have quickly become apparent. Without the system of checks and balances, Starmer and Reeves will now do pretty much as they please.

They’s off! Tories seek Rishi replacement

Wanted: New Tory leader as replacement for Rishi Sunak. Candidates must be as charismatic as BoZo; previous experience of high office not essential, but inclination to fascism would help with getting the support of 170,000 members of the Conservative Party. Candidates don’t have to be white, but that would be a bonus. Any criticism of Nigel Farage would immediately disqualify the candidate. Must be willing to attack anything that is woke. Must also commit to slashing net migration to zero and deport immigrant parents, if necessary. Must believe the British Empire was a civilising force for good and that Britain did not benefit from the slave trade in any way. Must also sign a document stating Winston Churchill in no way aggravated the effects of the 1943 Bengal Famine.

When the nominations for the next Tory leader closed on July 29, there was weeping and gnashing of teeth that Goan girl, Sue-Ellen Cassiana “Suella” Braverman (née Fernandes), had decided not to stand. She has been campaigning against Rishi from the start and indeed helped Labour to win the election, in the opinion of many Tory MPs. She struggled to get 10 MPs needed to go on the ballot. She acknowledged fellow Tories thought she was “mad, bad and dangerous”, a description once given to the poet, Lord Byron.

The candidates in the running are Dame Priti Patel, born in London of Gujarati parents who came from Uganda; Olukemi (Kemi) Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch (née Adegoke), born in London of Nigerian parents; Tom Tugendhat, who rightly thinks China poses a danger to world peace and is hence my pick; Mel Stride; James Cleverly, born in London to an English father and a Sierra Leonean mother; and Robert Jenrick, a one-time Rishi ally who has become obsessed about immigration.

My solution would be to ask Rishi to stay on as Tory leader. Five years in opposition will help him to understand how politics works. He took Britain through the pandemic with his furlough scheme, and reduced the rate of inflation from 11 per cent to two per cent and stablished an economy trashed by Truss.

Filing from foreign parts

Warm tributes have been paid to Kim Sengupta, foreign correspondent with the Independent, who died suddenly at the age of 68.

Chris Blackhurst, former editor at the Independent, said: “In many years of working with Kim Sengupta I never came across anyone so fearless.”

The list of countries and conflicts he filed from included Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, the Balkans, Ukraine, Georgia, Kosovo, Mali, Sudan, Somalia, Israel, Gaza and Northern Ireland.

It is not very often that Indian-origin journalists get to cover foreign stories, especially wars, often considered as the glamorous end of reporting and safeguarded as the exclusive preserve of white reporters. Journalists dream of having picture bylines wearing a tin hat or the kaffiyeh.

I knew a different Kim.

On one occasion, the taxi driver taking me to Heathrow to catch a flight to Beirut asked me: “Do you know Kim Sengupta?”

“Yes.”

“Never mind,” he said. “If you play your cards right, you can be like Kim Sengupta one day.”

The remark was amusing, because at the time I was editor David English’s “blue eyed” boy at the Daily Mail. Kim and I sat opposite each other in the newsroom. He made me laugh because he would address women as “luv”, not a habit which comes naturally to Bengali boys.

I once heard him do a telephone interview with a woman in a pub: “Can I call you, Linda luv? No? Why not? Oh, I see, your name isn’t Linda.”

I attended his wedding, but like many foreign correspondents, he was married to his work. Covering war after war changes human beings so that they find it difficult to return to the humdrum of the weekly shopping at Sainsbury’s. On a few occasions I persuaded Kim to attend Indian Journalists’ Association dinners, but he never got round to becoming a member.

With journalists, life in the end is reduced to just a box full of yellowing newspaper clippings. With online-only titles – the Independent sadly scrapped its print edition in 2016 – it’s not even that. However, I will retain fond memories of Kim. It’s hard to think we will not be able to compare notes again.

Mittals take gold

Surina Narula, who is in Paris to see the Olympics, has written in her online article for Eastern Eye: “A particularly proud moment for those of Indian background, including myself, was when the Mittal family carried the Olympic flame.”

That’s only fair since steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal’s company, ArcelorMittal, has provided the metal for the slimline Olympic torches. There is a little video of Lakshmi Mittal on a yacht on the Seine, happily passing the torch to his son and heir, Aditya Mittal, who passes it to a young girl (perhaps his daughter?), who passes it to Lakshmi’s wife, Usha Mittal.