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Spectator
an hour ago
- Politics
- Spectator
Starmer takes Labour whip off rebels
After a week of brooding, Keir Starmer has decided to strike. Like Michael Corleone, today he is settling all family business. A series of Labour recalcitrants have been summoned to the Whips' Office this afternoon. So far four MPs – Neil Duncan Jordan, Chris Hinchcliff, Brian Leishman and Rachel Maskell – have lost the whip. All have reputations of being 'troublemakers', having led respective revolts on winter fuel, planning reform, Grangemouth and the welfare changes. Rosena Allin Khan, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Mohammed Yasin have all lost their trade envoy roles too. What is behind today's bolt from the blue? Among Labour MPs, there is some surprise at the timing of the purge. 'Why now?' was one veteran's snap reaction, pointing to the fact that a six week recess begins on Monday. Clearly, after the debacle of the welfare U-turn, Starmer's aides believes that it is important to 'send a message' in mafioso speak, rather than allow dissenters to stir up trouble throughout the summer. While it is the Whips' Office who are delivering the punishment, most believe the No. 10 political operation are behind it. It is striking how much Starmer has been seen on the estate in recent days. As I reported last week, there was an amusing incident in the Smoking Room. The PM and his entourage arrived on a charm offensive, only to be greeted by Tory MPs at the bar. Messages had to be sent on group chats, ensuring that a deluge of Labour loyalists came to greet him. Starmer then spent two hours in parliament after PMQs today, meeting members of his party. He will hope that such visibility will enable him to mend the broken bridges between his No. 10 team and the parliamentary party. For a man who has always disliked the theatricality of politics, Starmer has today offered his colleagues a stark and visible choice. Work with him and feel the love. Or rebel and enjoy a semi-public execution on one of Alan Campbell's black sofas.
Spectator
3 hours ago
- Business
- Spectator
Life is good in Starmerland. It's a shame about Britain
It was clearly hot in the House of Commons today. The Lib Dem benches were a sea of pastel colours, light pinks and summer suits. They looked like the LGBTQIA+ sub-committee of the Friends of Glyndebourne. Which, in many ways, they are. Rachel Reeves, in contrast, was wearing severe black, as if she were going to a funeral. Presumably for the economy. Members on the Labour backbenches fanned themselves with order papers and squirmed. Given that these are people who give the impression that they are kept in tanks needing only a coco fibre brick, a heat lamp and the odd handful of dried locusts to keep them going, then it must have been warm. A generous explanation of the fever dream which Sir Keir inflicted on the House in his answers at Prime Minister's Questions would be that the heat had gone to his head. Sadly, however, the picture painted by the PM – of an unrecognisable nation – is consistent with the government's constant and singular inability to realise just how much trouble Britain is in, and just how much its people now hate them. Sometimes I wonder which country the Prime Minister thinks he is leading – Lilliput? Barataria? Oz? Certainly, it isn't Britain, but rather a Utopia that exists exclusively in his head. In Starmerland, working people are finally able to prosper due to the generous rise in National Insurance placed upon them, businesses are confident, public services are thriving and immigration is a side issue that barely needs to be mentioned. The Leader of the Opposition tried to drag the PM into reality, quoting rises in unemployment and inflation as well as drops in market confidence. How, she asked, were they going to go back to their constituents and explain what a complete hash they'd made of things? Sir Keir actually took this as a spur for confidence. He was looking forward to placating a country poorer and angrier than it's been in generations with some extra NHS appointment slots, thank you very much. He tried to rouse some cheers from his backbenchers with limited success. Behind him, the bug tank looked glum. Some of them weren't looking forward to a summer with the electorate at all. From the Tory backbenchers came a cricketing theme: Sir Desmond Swayne's MCC tie shone almost as brightly as his eyes as he directed a furious question about prosecutions of veterans to the PM. Lincoln Jopp asked Sir Keir if he would take some inspiration from the England cricket team and deploy 'more pace, less spin'. The Prime Minister, who does not strike me as someone you'd want even doing the scoring at a cricket match, did not find it funny. 'He needs a break', oinked the PM. Then the full horror dawned on me: these people would now be at large. Imagine, feeling into the chest freezer to grab a Cornetto and finding Kim Leadbeater taking her annual cryogenic death rest amongst the Soleros. Or going abroad with the lurking knowledge that your safety there is technically in the hands of David Lammy. Or, perhaps worst of all, going to the beach and finding the Prime Minister himself, fanning his trotters in the gentle sea breeze. Surely, with this high risk of encountering members of the worst cabinet on record, there can only be one piece of advice for the British public: stay indoors.
Spectator
3 hours ago
- Business
- Spectator
Bayrou will regret his plan to scrap French bank holidays
The Prime Minister of France announced his plan on Tuesday to balance the country's books: his most eye-catching intention is to scrap two public holidays. In addressing the nation, Francois Bayrou warned that France's out-of-control public spending has left the country in 'mortal danger'. It was imperative to reduce the public deficit by 43.8 billion euros by 2026, explained Bayrou. 'It's the last stop before the cliff, before we are crushed by the debt. It's late, but there is still time.' The holidays Bayrou wants to jettison are Easter Monday and 8 May (VE Day), two of the eleven annual public holidays in France. Britain has eight. Mr Bayrou said Easter Monday 'has no religious significance', a view that might be contested by some. Meanwhile, his desire to scrap VE Day was denounced by Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally, who said it was 'a direct attack on our history, our roots, and on working France'. This is a familiar theme for Bardella. In a speech on 1 May this year, he declared that 'the France that works feels like it is being sacrificed'. He is attempting to pitch his party as the one that represents the hard-working, law-abiding, tax-paying people of France, as opposed to the left, which props up the welfare state, and Emmanuel Macron's centrists, who are interested in keeping the rich and the retired in the manner to which they have become accustomed. Certainly, a growing number in France believe that too many people are milking the country's generous social welfare model. A survey earlier this year found that 76 per cent agree that 'there is too much welfare in France', and that the model 'does not encourage people to make an effort'. On Tuesday, Bayrou said everyone must make an effort to save the country from going the same way as Greece fifteen years ago. 'We must never forget the story of Greece,' he warned. France's public debt has reached 114 per cent of the country's GDP, nearly double the 60 per cent limit set by the EU. Only Greece and Italy have more debt among the 27 EU nations. Bayrou's objective is to reduce the public budget deficit from 5.8 per cent of its GDP in 2024 to 4.6 per cent in 2026. As well as scrapping two public holidays, Bayrou announced a freeze on the scales used to calculate taxes, welfare benefits and pensions in 2026. There will also be a freeze on government spending, except for the military budget. On Sunday, Macron unveiled a plan to boost defence spending in the next two years by €6.5 billion (£5.6 billion). Bayrou has also told local authorities to reduce their spending in 2026 by €5.3 billion (£4.6 billion) and there will be a €5 billion (£4.3 billion) reduction in the country's healthcare budget. The Prime Minister also said that the retired would be required to do their bit. This will entail abolishing the 10 per cent tax allowance for pensioners and instead introducing a deduction of €2,000 (£1,730) for all pensioners. The Finance Minister, Eric Lombard, appeared on television last night to explain in more detail some of the new measures: For all pensioners who are at the beginning of the tax scale…their taxation will drop. To compensate, the taxation of pensioners earning more than €20,000 (£17,300) a year will be slightly increased, which is a measure of social justice. Lombard reiterated Bayrou's warning about the gravity of the situation, blaming it on the fact that 'we haven't had a balanced budget in fifty years'. This situation has benefited baby boomers, who in recent years have come to be increasingly resented by millennials. They are held responsible for overseeing the economic, social and cultural decline of France, now enjoying lives of luxury while their children and grandchildren suffer the consequences. This is a generalisation but one with a kernel of truth: this resentment has crystallised in recent months into a social media meme: 'It's Nicolas Who Pays'. Nicolas is a millennial in full-time employment who pays exorbitant taxes in order that boomers can enjoy a comfortable old age. This has led to what many in France now describe as a 'war of generations' between the two age groups. Is it boomers who are to blame or successive governments who have pandered to the most powerful demographic? One in three registered voters in France are retirees, and one in two are those who vote in elections. In the last two presidential elections, the over 65s have been key to Macron's success; in 2017, 80 per cent voted for him over Marine Le Pen. It would be political suicide to alienate this demographic. But Bayrou has also taken a huge gamble in once again demanding a sacrifice from 'Nicolas' and his generation. The National Rally and the left have both expressed opposition to his plan and threatened to pass a vote of no confidence in the government. It's not just France in 'mortal danger'. So is Bayrou.
Spectator
3 hours ago
- Business
- Spectator
Keir Starmer is taking Boris Johnson's approach to PMQs
Keir Starmer joked at Prime Minister's Questions today that Tory MPs seemed to be on recess already. But he wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders either, giving automated answers to Kemi Badenoch's questions about tax and the economy. Having complained volubly about prime ministers not answering the questions he asked as leader of the opposition, he now has a stock set of his own personal flannels with which to dodge giving real answers as Prime Minister. Starmer started the session with a line on the Afghan data leak, telling the Chamber: 'Yesterday, the Defence Secretary set out the full extent of the failings that we inherited – a major data breach, a superinjunction, a secret route that has already cost hundreds of millions of pounds. Ministers who served under the party opposite have serious questions to answer about how this was ever allowed to happen.' Funnily enough, Kemi Badenoch chose not to focus her questions on that matter, instead asking Starmer whether he agreed with the Office for Budget Responsibility that higher levels of tax would be bad for growth. Out came the first flannel, which was that what was bad for growth was 14 years of Tory government. Then we were treated to the same list that we hear nearly every week about the highest levels of growth, record investment, trade deals and so on. Politicians like to be repetitive as it gives them a better chance of making a message stick with the public. But the thing that's being repeated needs to bear some relation to the way voters feel about their lives and what's important. Tax levels will naturally have far greater bearing on that feeling than intangible statements about higher growth rates than other countries. Badenoch did a bit of her regular defending of the stories' economic record, and then pointed out that inflation was up and the budget 'had high taxes: that's why the economy is contracting'. She asked him what someone on a modest income was. Starmer produced flannel number two as he told her that she was talking the country down. His definition was: 'I think of the working people across this country who put in every day and don't get back what they deserve, and that's who we're working for.' The Tory leader felt this suggested the government was coming for self employed people, but Starmer claimed that 'the self-employed are the very people who suffered on their watch'. He accused her again of talking the country down – a line he always found infuriating when boosterish Boris Johnson used it against him at PMQs. Badenoch then said the Chancellor was considering a raid on pension contributions, adding: 'A tax on pension contributions is a tax on working people'. Starmer flannelled some more with lines about Labour making 'absolutely clear commitments in our manifesto'. It wasn't long before he dropped Liz Truss and the £22 billion black hole in there too, just in case anyone was getting anxious that he'd forgotten to mention them. His payoff was another list of intangible and disputable achievements, and then 'Mr Speaker, we are only just getting started.' More revelatory was the exchange the Prime Minister had later on in the session with SDLP MP Colum Eastwood, where he gave the clearest justification yet for the government's approach to the Legacy Act. Eastwood asked for assurances that 'no murderer is seen as above the law'. Starmer replied with a tribute to military veterans, saying he had the 'most profound respect and debt' to them. He then added that: 'Veterans are at risk because of the false promises of the last government. Let's be clear they made a false promises of immunity that does not exist. It was unlawful. It was struck down, and it was undeliverable. Their failed Legacy Act leaves veterans exposed with no settled process.' With veterans' minister Al Carns still apparently on resignation watch over the issue, the Prime Minister was talking as much to his own side as he was to the MP asking the question.
Spectator
4 hours ago
- General
- Spectator
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