Sunaks astonishing failure on climate as Labour brands Budget con game

Inside the bubble

DEFRA questions from 9am followed by the weekly business statement from Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Commons leader. Main business is a Budget debate later.

Coming up:

– Rishi Sunak on BBC Radio 4 Today at 8.10am

– Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves on Times Radio at 8.30am

Daily Briefing

CLIMATE FAIL: One area where this Budget definitely did not deliver was on tackling climate change. With just days to go until the crucial Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, Sunak announced a cut to air passenger duty (APD), leading some observers to jokingly question whether the teetotal chancellor was actually drunk. Environmentalists said that a statement that spent longer on the reform of alcohol duty than the government’s net zero targets would effectively “extend the age of fossil fuels” in the UK. From April 2023, APD on flights between airports in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be reduced from £13 to £6.50 per leg, offset by increased rates for long-haul routes. Sunak claimed the policy – costing the Treasury £275m between now and 2026-27 – would “help cut the cost of living, with 9 million passengers seeing their duty cut by half”. But the move will incentive people to fly rather than take trains, which has infuriated activists. Sunak also continued the practice of all Conservative chancellors since 2010 by freezing fuel duty, a policy that has made it increasingly cheaper to travel by car than to use more environmentally sustainable alternatives. More on the key announcements here. 

‘CON GAME’: So what is Labour saying about the Budget? Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, branded Sunak’s plans a “a classic con game”, saying that the 1.25 per cent hike in national insurance rates for employers and employees, intended to pay for the NHS and social care, was announced in advance to make the Budget itself seem more generous. Sunak told the House of Commons that Budget “delivers a stronger economy for the British people.” But Reeves said “bankers on short-haul flights sipping champagne will be cheering this budget today.” “And the arrogance, after taking £6bn out of the pockets of some of the poorest people in this country, expecting them to cheer today for £2bn given to compensate. In the long story of this parliament, never has a chancellor asked the British people to pay so much for so little,” she added. Britain’s sharper-than-hoped-for recovery from the pandemic’s assault on the economy increased the amount of borrowing available to Sunak within his new fiscal rules, meaning that he could afford some rabbits to pull out of his sliders –   as well leaving himself wriggle room for tax cuts before the next election, writes our economics editor Anna Isaac.

BREXIT BOTTLENECKS: Yesterday was all about the Budget but the consequences of Brexit continued to bubble away in the background. The Office for Budget Responsibility, the body which gave a rosier economic outlook than predicted, allowing Sunak to splash the cash yesterday, had some less positive news for the government, declaring the UK’s exit for the EU made the shortages hitting the UK economy worse compared to the rest of the world. In documents released alongside Rishi Sunak’s Budget the fiscal watchdog said: “Supply bottlenecks have been exacerbated by changes in the migration and trading regimes following Brexit. Energy prices have soared, labour shortages have emerged in some occupations, and there have been blockages in some supply chains.” 

BREXIT WARS LATEST: The UK has said it will retaliate in “an appropriate and calibrated” manner if France follows through with its threats to impose sanctions amid a dispute over fishing licences.

Downing Street responded angrily to a warning from the French government that it could ban British seafood imports and could even cut the supply of energy to the Channel Islands. The fishing row has escalated with news just in this morning that French authorities have detained a British trawler fishing in waters off its coast, amid an escalating dispute over fishing rights.Two English ships were fined during checks off Le Havre, a port in France’s Normandy region, French maritime minister Annick Girardin said in a tweet on Thursday. “This Wednesday, two English ships were fined during classic checks off Le Havre. The first did not comply spontaneously: verbalisation. The second did not have a licence to fish in our waters: diverted to the quay and handed over to the judicial authority,” the tweet said.

‘DANGEROUS MYTHS’: Priti Patel has been accused of “peddling dangerous myths” after claiming that people crossing the Channel are not genuine asylum seekers but are making the perilous journey because they want to live in UK hotels. Speaking to MPs on Wednesday, the home secretary said that single men arriving via small boats were “economic migrants” and that the Home Office’s use of hotels as asylum accommodation had acted as a “pull factor” for people to enter Britain via unauthorised means.

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On the record

“Cutting air passenger duty on domestic flights is an astonishing move that completely flies in the face of the climate emergency. The chancellor should be making it cheaper for people to travel around the country by train, not carbon-guzzling planes.”

Friends of the Earth’s head of policy Mike Childs on Budget.

From the Twitterati

“Lots of talk today of a return to spending and a new Toryism. We are seeing a shift to a higher tax, higher spending Conservatism. But in departmental spending terms, across many depts, it doesn't come close to reversing the spending cuts of the last decade.”

BBC Newsnight policy editor Louis Goodall.

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