9.52am) this morning when he admitted people do not feel better off.
Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, he said:
Do people feel better off now than a few years ago? No, because we have had something that you and I have never had in our lifetimes.
We have had two massive economic shocks in quick succession so no, they don’t feel better than they felt a few years ago.
Hunt was referring to Covid and to the invasion of Ukraine, which triggered a huge rise in energy prices. He went on:
The numbers show very clearly that since 2010 over a longer period of time living standards have improved, we have got four million more jobs, we have attracted more investment than anywhere in the world apart from China and the United States.
The reason I am saying that is because this is an election year, people are going to make a choice about the future.
When it comes to the important things that make a difference, the difficult decisions on having a flexible labour market, on getting taxes down so that we attract investment from overseas, a Conservative government will continue to take those difficult decisions.
an article for the Sun written ahead of the figures being published this morning, Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said Rishi Sunak, who is “richer than the king”, would not appreciate the extent to which people are still suffering from the cost of living crisis.
I can understand why a Conservative prime minister who is richer than the king might want to run to the television studios to tell Brits that they’ve never had it so good.
But, Sun readers just need to look at their bank balances and the price of the weekly shop to know they are worse off.
On the Conservatives’ watch the price of a typical supermarket shop has gone up by nearly £1,000 a year.
Wages growth has been sluggish, taxes are at a seventy year high and mortgage bills rocketed after the disastrous mini-budget.
That’s not a record to celebrate – it’s a record you can’t defend.
More interesting than the message is the fact that the Sun chose to publish it. For years the Sun has been rabidly anti-Labour, but it is opportunistically Tory rather than ideologically Tory, it does not like being on the losing side at an election and for months now there have been signs that it is gearing up to back Labour at the election, or at least offer some kind of semi-endorsement. The Reeves article is another clue. Having the Sun change allegiance would have no real impact on the election result, but it would be bad for Tory morale.
their story, Matt Dathan and Ben Ellery quote from a memo sent to chief constables by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC). It says:
Consideration is to be given to pausing non-priority arrests and any planned operations where large numbers of arrests may take place to ease the pressure within the criminal justice system.
Notwithstanding public protection remains a priority and a considered threat, harm and risk assessment is to be completed when considering any pause in police operations.
The Times says police chiefs have not been told exactly what arrests to pause, but “sources clarified that a more accurate term would be ‘non-urgent’ arrests”, the paper reports. “They gave the example of a person named as a suspect in a crime where officers were yet to carry out investigative actions, such as reviewing CCTV or carrying out house-to-house forensics for a burglary.”
The report also quotes from a second NPCC letter sent to chief constables saying the prison overcrowding crisis is having an “unsustainable” impact on policing. It is from Rob Nixon, chief constable of Leicestershire police and the NPCC head of criminal justice, and Nev Kemp, deputy chief constable of Surrey police and the NPCC custody lead, and they say:
We continue along with NPCC chair Gavin Stephens to make it clear in the strongest terms that the current situation is having an unsustainable operational impact on policing and the further deterioration in the situation, which HMPPS expect early next week, will further impact on operational policing and risks public safety. It is important for us to be able to show what those risks to public safety are.
It is PMQs today and Rishi Sunak will want to talk about today’s fall in inflation. But it would be surprising if Keir Starmer does not ask about this story, which rather blows apart the claim Sunak made in a major speech last week about Britain being safer under the Tories.
For a preview of what Starmer is likely to say, this is what Shabana Mahmood, the shadow justice secretary, said about the Times story last night.
It beggars belief that police are being told to sit on their hands and ignore crime because the Conservatives have mismanaged the criminal justice system so badly.
Rishi Sunak’s rap sheet now reads: the rushed early release of domestic abusers on to our streets, deliberate delays to trials, and victims waiting years for justice. The public will be absolutely dumbfounded. This cannot go on.
Labour is the party of law and order. We will build the new prisons needed and make Britain’s streets safe.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.25am: Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, gives evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee.
9.45am: Paula Vennells, the former Post Office chief executive, gives evidence to the Post Office Horizon inquiry. We are covering that on a separate live blog.
10am: Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, gives evidence to the Commons culture committee.
Noon: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.
2pm: Jonathan Brearley, Ofgem’s chief executive, and Tim Jarvis, its director general, give evidence to the Commons energy security and net zero committee.
And David Cameron, the foreign secretary, is in Albania meeting the prime minister, Edi Rama.
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Source: theguardian.com
