Labour’s plan to freeze energy bills for six months would tackle rising inflation, Sir Keir Starmer said as he prepared to formally propose the £29bn plan to stop the coming energy price rise. The plan is “fully costed and comprehensive” and will be part-funded by a tax extending the windfall tax on oil and gas companies, the Labor leader told ITV’s Good Morning Britain. Asked why Labor had chosen a policy that would stop price rises for all households instead of prioritizing the poorest, Sir Keir said: “By doing that across the board, we reduce inflation.” Meanwhile, overwhelmed food banks have told the Independent they are unable to cope with unprecedented demand and are being forced to turn away families in need as more people find themselves struggling due to the UK’s cost of living crisis. A coalition of 70 charities has urged Tory leadership contenders to more than double the level of emergency support for low-income families to avoid a “catastrophe” this winter.
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Tory ‘infighting’ distracting ‘lame duck’ government from real issues, says Starmer
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer said the Tory leadership contest was an “infighting” distracting from the cost of living crisis while the country is led by “lame” Boris Johnson. He told BBC Radio 5 Live Labor would keep some of the government’s cost of living support measures, including payments to pensioners and Universal Credit claimants, despite plans to scrap a £400 discount in favor of a plan to freeze energy bills. “We’re saying we’re not going to let the price go up in the first place and that’s how the £400 is covered,” he said. He added: “We need to get to grips with it because right now what we have are two Tory leadership candidates fighting each other in a sort of internal battle where their main argument seems to be about how awful their government record is there was also a prime minister who is dumb because he admitted there is a problem with energy bills but says “I’m not going to do anything about it”. Sir Keir had earlier used the lame duck pick on Mr Johnson at the weekend. Liam James 15 August 2022 08:31 1660547431
Freezing Labour’s energy bills “will reduce inflation”, says Starmer
Labour’s plan to freeze energy bills for six months would tackle rising inflation, Sir Keir Starmer said as he unveiled the policy to the nation. The plan to stop Ofgem’s planned energy price rise is “fully costed and comprehensive” and will be part-funded by a tax extending the windfall tax on oil and gas companies, the Labor leader told Good Morning Britain of ITV. Asked why Labor had chosen a policy that would stop price rises for all households instead of prioritizing the poorest, Sir Keir said: “By doing that across the board, we reduce inflation.” The plan’s costing represents £7bn in debt interest payments which the party claims will be saved through reduced inflation. The rest of the price freeze will be paid for using the £14bn the government had earmarked for extra support to cover rises in energy bills and £8bn from the tax extension. Liam James 15 August 2022 08:10 1660546457
Starmer says Labor has “costed” plan to freeze energy bills
Sir Keir Starmer is doing the media rounds this morning ahead of the official announcement of Labour’s plan to freeze energy bills for six months. Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, the Opposition Leader said he is proposing a “very strong, robust, costed plan” to tackle cost of living rises. He said: “Millions of people are already struggling with their bills, we all know that across the country and the increases expected this October … from a price cap of just under around £2,000 to £3,500 and then £4,200 and millions of people, millions of families say “I can’t afford it”. “We have a choice and this is really the political choice of the day. Either we allow the oil and gas companies to continue making huge profits, which is what is happening right now, or we do something about it. “We the Labor Party have said, we will do something about it. We will stop these price increases and extend the windfall tax to the profits that oil and gas companies did not expect to make. So we have a very strong, robust, costed plan here that will stop those increases this fall. “It has an added benefit that’s really important, which is because energy prices are a real driver of inflation, it also ensures that we can bring inflation down from what can be as much as 13 percent to about 9 percent ». Liam James 15 August 2022 07:54 1660545892
Three in four Tory voters support freezing Labour’s energy bill
Three quarters of Tory voters back Sirk Keir Starmer’s plan to freeze energy bills to tackle the cost of living crisis. The Labor leader will today formally announce a £29bn plan to freeze energy price rises for six months as ministers come under pressure to increase help for struggling households. Energy regulator Ofgem earlier this year increased the annual price cap for an average household on pre-selected tariffs paying via standing order from £1,277 to £1,971 – an increase of £693. A YouGov poll for The Times found that 75 per cent of the public support capping energy bills, even if it means more public borrowing – the proportion was the same among Tory voters in 2019. Liam James 15 August 2022 07:44 1660544765
The rise in train fares will not be as high as inflation, says the government
An expected rise in train fares in England next year will remain below inflation to help commuters with the cost of living crisis, the government has announced. The amount of increase in train fares each year is calculated from the previous July’s Retail Price Index (RPI) – which measures inflation. Ahead of the 2023 price announcement on Wednesday, the Department for Transport (DfT) confirmed to the BBC that it will not increase fares by as much as July’s RPI figure. A DfT spokesman said the rise, which normally comes into effect in January, would be delayed until March in a bid to “help struggling households”. They added: “The Government is taking decisive action to reduce the impact that inflation will have on rail fares during the cost of living crisis and will not increase fares by as much as the July RPI figure.” It is not yet clear how much lower the rise will be compared to this RPI figure. Campaigners are lobbying the government to scrap the RPI method of calculating annual fare increases, fearing high prices will put commuters off public transport. Liam James 15 August 2022 07:26 1660542518
Shapps proposes £2 bus fares cap amid cost of living crisis
Grant Shapps has proposed a £2 bus fare cap to help Britons tackle the cost of living crisis, The Telegraph reports. Under the plan, the transport secretary proposed a £260m subsidy which could help travelers save up to £3 on a single ticket. “The most vulnerable in our society need concrete help next year, measures that make an immediate and tangible difference to everyday spending,” he said, according to the agency. File: British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps at 10 Downing Steet on July 7, 2022 (AFP via Getty Images) “And a simple way to do that is to reduce the burden on those of us who rely on buses to get to work, the shops and the GP. Buses are for all of us, the most ubiquitous form of public transportation.” The proposal, which Mr Shapps is believed to have been working on since the start of this year, has been given renewed impetus amid soaring fuel prices. It was reported to have been under consideration by Downing Street before Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed to stand down, but faced pushback from the Treasury. Namita Singh15 August 2022 06:48 1660541116
Johnson appeared in Greece for a second holiday in two weeks amid a cost-of-living crisis
Boris Johnson was spotted in Greece enjoying his second summer holiday in two weeks, despite the worsening cost of living crisis. The prime minister has been accused of leading a “zombie” government and failing to provide reassurance to families worried about soaring energy bills expected to reach almost £3,600 this October. Labor accused Johnson of treating his final weeks in office as “one big party” after he was filmed grocery shopping at a supermarket in Greece. Greek news websites reported that the outgoing prime minister and his wife Carrie were in Nea Makri, a coastal town near Athens, and just a few hours away from where Stanley’s father has a villa.
Boris Johnson was in Greece for a second holiday in two weeks
PM accused of facing final weeks in power as ‘one big party’ Namita Singh15 August 2022 06:25 1660539629
Scotland’s salmon industry is facing an “acute” labor shortage, bosses warn
Scotland’s salmon industry is facing an “acute” labor shortage due to Brexit, business chiefs have warned. In letters to Tory leadership contest candidates Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, Salmon Scotland called for a more “enlightened” approach to immigration to help business. The body says the industry is understaffed in key skill areas due to workers returning home to Eastern Europe as a result of Brexit. “Very low unemployment and extremely limited labor availability in areas where our businesses have processing facilities, namely Rosyth near Edinburgh, Argyll, Fort William, Stornoway, Dingwall and three separate sites in Shetland, means that manufacturing plants run by 20% of the staff’. said Salmon Scotland. A change to key definitions of workers, changes to the level of the pay cap and a wider public message that the UK is open to people and therefore to business have been cited by the body as measures to improve the issue.
