Afternoon summary
- The Scottish government has rejected claims from its UK counterpart that an outline agreement on Brexit and devolution means that concerns about a Westminster “power grab” in the EU withdrawal bill have been properly addressed. (See 2.43pm and 3.31pm.)
- Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, has described Donald Trump’s decision not to certify the Iran nuclear deal as “reckless, mindless and downright dangerous”. Speaking in the Commons during an urgent question on this, she said:
Let us be clear, the deal is working. What could today have been another North Korean crisis in the heart of the Middle East has instead been one problem that that region doesn’t have to worry about.
So for Donald Trump to jeopardise that deal, for him to move the goalposts by linking it to important but utterly extraneous issues around Iran’s wider activities in the region, for him to play these games is reckless, mindless and downright dangerous.
It makes a reality of Hillary Clinton’s prophecy that putting Donald Trump into the White House would create a real and present danger to world peace.
- David Willetts, the former Conservative universities minister, has backed calls from within his party for the budget to include tax cuts for the young, funded by higher taxes for older and wealthier people. (See 9.26am.) But Ros Altmann, the former Tory pensions minister, has said this would be “a recipe for losing support of older generations”. (See 3.08am.)
- The scale of modern slavery in the UK is much greater than previously thought, a watchdog has warned. As the Press Association reports, Kevin Hyland, the independent anti-slavery commissioner, described an official estimate suggesting there are up to 13,000 potential victims as “far too modest”. Instead, he put the true number in the “tens of thousands”. Modern slavery covers a range of offences including forced labour or criminality, domestic servitude and human trafficking. The most often cited official estimate for the extent of the problem suggested there were 10,000 to 13,000 potential modern slavery victims in the UK in 2013. Publishing his annual report (pdf), Hyland said of the figure, which was published in 2014 by the Home Office: “I deem this far too modest, with the true number in the tens of thousands.”
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
And this is from the ITV’s Robert Peston in Brussels, where a single UK flag is flying alongside EU ones ahead of Theresa May’s visit tonight.
Hello from the European Commission in Brussels, where maybe they're making a point that we're on our own pic.twitter.com/t5uaLewlnc
— Robert Peston (@Peston) October 16, 2017
This is from the BBC’s Adam Fleming.
I'd love to know what this doc is in front of @MichelBarnier as he spoke to Belgian federal Parliament today. pic.twitter.com/hdkCvFWlHz
— Adam Fleming (@adamfleming) October 16, 2017
And here is Laura Kuenssberg’s take.
Looks like one of Team Barnier's handy charts that show where UK + EU agree or now with handy colour coding https://t.co/6LuA7eotD6
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) October 16, 2017
Turning back to the EU withdrawal bill and devolution, in the comments tenthred and Saorsa have flagged up these charts, from a Senedd Research briefing, that explain the issue with reference to balloons.
A leak of the latest draft of the European council conclusions assessing the state of the Brexit negotiations shows only a few small changes after Donald Tusk, the president of the council, persuaded France and Germany to stick with his plan and offer trade talks from December to the UK, should sufficient progress be made by then.
The document to be signed off by EU ministers on the general affairs council tomorrow, ahead of discussion by leaders, now has an extra line insisting on a role for the European court of justice in protecting citizens rights in a withdrawal agreement.
It also insists that sufficient progress must be made in all three opening issues - citizens rights, the irish border, and the financial settlement for trade talks to begin.
The offer of starting internal scoping of an EU vision of a transition period remains.
But Mrs May is set to be disappointed if she is looking for anything more than that. There is insufficient progress on the three opening issues so far, it says.
According to the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn, Number 10 was a bit more forthcoming at the afternoon lobby briefing.
No10: no fresh Brexit offer ahead of #EUCO. PM "looks forward to the EU reciprocating" to Florence; ie, we're into high stakes brinkmanship.
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) October 16, 2017
Number 10 has now released the read- out of Theresa May’s call today with the French president, Emmanuel Macron. As usual, it is not very revelatory (even the most brilliant Downing Streetologist would struggle to infer anything new about the Brexit talks from this), but I will pass it on anyway.
The prime minister spoke to President Macron of France this afternoon.
On Iran, they both expressed their firm commitment to the nuclear deal, and discussed President Trump’s decision last week not to recertify it.
They agreed to continue to work closely together to ensure the deal is properly enforced, and to push back on Iran’s destabilising activity in the region, including its ballistic missile programme.
They said they would discuss next steps in the margins of the European Council in Brussels later this week.
On Brexit, they discussed progress in the negotiations and looked ahead to this week’s council.
They also spoke about the strong UK-France relationship, and agreed to continue building on our bilateral partnership in a range of areas.
MPs severely criticise DWP for withholding information on 'very bad' universal credit
David Gauke, the work and pensions secretary, is due to give evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee on Wednesday about universal credit. In an unusual move, the committee has issued a blistering press statement 48 hours ahead of his appearance criticising the DWP for not supplying it with information it requested about the benefit.
In a statement the committee said:
The DWP has failed to respond to the committee’s call for written evidence, or any of the four letters requesting statistics and clarifications of policy sent to the secretary of state over the past six weeks. The department was asked to respond to the questions by last Thursday, so that the committee could go into the session with a full understanding of the current picture of the rollout and the protections in place for vulnerable claimants. Despite all this, the DWP has failed to provide any new information to the inquiry.
There are very few statistics in the public domain on universal credit. DWP itself has never published data on the length of waits over the statutory, in-built 6 weeks: news of delays of 10, 12 week or longer in receiving payments was heard in evidence to the committee. In seeking to get an up-to-date impression of the rollout and its effects at local level, thecCommittee has written to the 54 MPs whose constituents will be subject to universal credit full service for the first time in October, asking them to report back information.
And this is what Frank Field, the Labour MP who chairs the committee, said in a statement issued on behalf of his colleagues.
I don’t know if the DWP is deliberately concealing information about universal credit or is simply incompetent. Either way, it is not good enough. This has obvious echoes in the far greater failure of not paying hungry claimants on time.
One letter simply asked if the conference announcement on advance payments was, despite appearances, simply a restatement of existing policy. You’d think they could at least answer that one. We expect another announcement on Wednesday about helping councils left short by universal credit’s failure to account for the cost of emergency temporary accommodation, by “rolling-in” some claimants back onto housing benefit. This is overdue, but does nothing to address the fundamental problem of people being left for weeks without anything to live on.
Given everything we have heard, I was surprised that David Gauke opted to proceed with the accelerated rollout. I strongly suspect his decision, together with the failure to tell us anything, reflects a culture at the DWP of those most invested in universal credit not telling anyone, including their ministers, bad news. The overwhelming picture we are getting is that universal credit as currently configured is very bad news. We have heard nothing, to the contrary or otherwise, from those running it.
The evidence session with Gauke will take place only hours before MPs debate a Labour opposition day motion on universal credit on Wednesday.
The committee took evidence on universal credit in September. Currently the committee has just two Conservative MPs, alongside five Labour ones and one from the SNP, but that is because the Tories were slow selecting MPs for the committee. Another three Tories are joining in time for the session on Wednesday.
Here is Mark Drakeford, the Welsh government’s finance secretary, on the outcome of the JMC meeting today. He welcomes what was agreed, but says the Welsh government is still opposing the EU withdrawal bill.
My response following this morning’s JMC (EN) pic.twitter.com/ZOx4QVC5Re
— Mark Drakeford (@wgcs_finlgov) October 16, 2017
Brexit will lead to 'significant increase in decision-making powers' for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, ministers agree
The Cabinet Office has now published the communique agreed after today’s joint ministerial committee meeting. (See 2.28pm and 2.43pm.) London and the devolved administrations have agreed that “common frameworks” will apply in areas like agriculture where powers are currently exercised in Brussels but otherwise devolved.
This is how it defines those frameworks.
As the UK leaves the European Union, the government of the United Kingdom and the devolved administrations agree to work together to establish common approaches in some areas that are currently governed by EU law, but that are otherwise within areas of competence of the devolved administrations or legislatures. A framework will set out a common UK, or GB, approach and how it will be operated and governed. This may consist of common goals, minimum or maximum standards, harmonisation, limits on action, or mutual recognition, depending on the policy area and the objectives being pursued. Frameworks may be implemented by legislation, by executive action, by memorandums of understanding, or by other means depending on the context in which the framework is intended to operate.
The document says that it will the “aim” of all parties to agree common frameworks.
Discussions will be either multilateral or bilateral between the UK government and the devolved administrations. It will be the aim of all parties to agree where there is a need for common frameworks and the content of them.
But it also says that the frameworks will:
lead to a significant increase in decision-making powers for the devolved administrations.
The full three-page communique is here (pdf).
Former Tory pensions minister Ros Altmann says punishing old to help young risks alienating core voters
Ros Altmann, the Conservative peer, pensions expert and pensions minister between 2015 and 2016, has said it would be a mistake for the Treasury to cut taxes for the young by raising taxes for people who are older and better off. Philip Hammond, the chancellor, is reportedly considering this as a possible budget measure, and David Willetts, the former Tory university minister, backed the idea this morning. (See 9.26am.) But, in a statement, Altmann said there were better ways to help the young. She said:
Today’s newspaper reports of potential budget measures to please younger voters seem fraught with danger. The suggestion that older people should be punished to provide more money for the young could harbour potentially lethal political damage. The Tories core voters are older people, it would be rash in the extreme to risk alienating them in the coming budget. The lesson from the election manifesto is that punishing the old is not a sensible way to attract younger voters, but is a recipe for losing support of older generations.
Altmann said that age was not always a reliable guide to wealth and that some young people earn huge sums.
Favouring one age group will potentially alienate others. For example, specially reduced taxes for 20- or 30-somethings will feel unfair to low paid, just-about-managing families in their 40s or 50s.
She also said that, if the government wants to help young people, it should instead look at measures to cut the cost of housing or minimise the impact of student debt.
Scottish government's rejects Green's claim that London has resolved withdrawal bill 'power grab' problem
The Scottish government’s take on the JMC meeting is not quite as upbeat as Damian Green’s. Green said that he had managed to quash claims that the EU withdrawal bill amounts to a “power grab”. (See 2.28pm.) But in a statement Mike Russell, the Scottish government’s Brexit minister, said the description still applied. He said:
Today’s joint ministerial committee meeting was a tale of two halves. We have been able to make some progress, including agreeing general principles that should ensure the role of the Scottish parliament in any potential UK or GB wide frameworks. However we remain unable to recommend the Scottish parliament consent to the EU withdrawal bill as currently drafted and will not be able to do so until the power grab is removed from the bill.
I have and will continue to press for the amendments suggested by ourselves and the Welsh government to be accepted, removing the power grab and providing a clear solution that respects devolution.
When it comes to negotiations between the UK and EU on Brexit, I have made clear that no deal is not an option that the Scottish Government can or ever will support. We know from businesses in Scotland that a hard Brexit will cause serious and long term economic damage and it is crucial we stay in the single market and customs union.
The EU withdrawal bill will bring EU law into UK law to ensure continuity when Brexit takes place. That means the UK government will get new powers over matters like agriculture currently exercised by Brussels even though these policy areas are devolved. The Scottish and Welsh government say this amounts to a “power grab”. The UK government says in due course it will devolve some of these powers to Edinburgh, Cardiff or Belfast, but that some rules will be applied at a UK-level so that, for example, farmers still operate in a UK-wide single market.
Updated
Green says JMC meeting has quashed claims EU withdrawal bill amounts to devolution 'power grab'
After the JMC meeting (see 2.21pm) Damian Green, the first secretary of state, also claimed that the “very constructive” discussion had put to rest claims that the UK government was using the EU withdrawal bill to take powers back from the devolved administrations. Green said:
I think you will see from principles that we have agreed today that talk of a power grab is now behind us.
We’ve agreed that obviously there need to be ways in which we preserve the UK single market so we don’t damage businesses in Scotland or Wales or Northern Ireland.
But [also] that we fully respect the devolution settlements, that we expect this to end with more powers going to the devolved administrations than they have had under the previous arrangement.
This morning Damian Green, the first secretary of state, chaired a meeting of the joint ministerial committee on Brexit, the body that comprises UK ministers and ministers from the devolved administrations. After it was over, referring to Theresa May’s dinner later with Jean-Claude Juncker, Green said:
Obviously the prime minister is keeping in close touch not just with Mr Juncker but with other European leaders because it’s important that we continue dialogue.
These are tough negotiations, they are very important negotiations, but the prime minister’s Florence speech set out a constructive way forward, it does seem to have landed well with many European leaders.
It’s a question of following up on that so we can have steady progress towards the good Brexit deal that we’re all hoping for.
Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader, has urged Theresa May to use her meeting with Jean-Claude Juncker tonight to rule out a “no deal” Brexit. In a statement he said:
In the current breakdown there is fault on both sides. The EU27 must accept that there is some link between outstanding issues such as Northern Ireland and trade.
But the British government must also accept that its internal disagreements make it impossible to make any headway as they still haven’t told the EU what they actually want from the negotiations.
It’s good to see the prime minister finally acting with a bit of urgency. The deadlock must be broken, and we must move on with the negotiations as quickly as possible. There is no doubt that ‘no deal’ would be disastrous, and Theresa May must use her trip to Brussels today to rule it out once and for all.
A leaked statement drafted by the president of the European council, Donald Tusk, for agreement by EU leaders, had suggested last week that the EU would promise now to scope between themselves how a transition phase would work now. This would give Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, a mandate to talk trade in December, if sufficient progress is made by then.
France and Germany were reluctant even to go that far, however, arguing that while talking between themselves about a transition period was acceptable, the EU should not bind its hands in terms of what it gives to Britain should sufficient progress be made by Christmas.
It is understood, however, that Tusk has persuaded the French president Emmanuel Macron and the German chancellor Angela Merkel during phone calls in recent days to stick to his original plan, which will be agreed by EU ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday and announced by the leaders on Friday.
“If we end with the conclusions that Tusk proposed it will be a very nice reward and a fair one – that’s where we are,” the source said. “That is the only scenario I can see.”
Here is my colleague Daniel Boffey, the Guardian’s Brussels bureau chief, on the May/Juncker dinner tonight.
Good 4 UK: Fr and Ger attempt to NOT guarantee to UK that Barnier be given trade talks mandate if suff prog reached in Dec has been resisted
— Daniel Boffey (@DanielBoffey) October 16, 2017
Bad 4 UK: diplomatic flurry will come to nothing if there isn't some € to offer. And re dinner with Juncker and Barnier: they r not the prob
— Daniel Boffey (@DanielBoffey) October 16, 2017
The Daily Express’s Nick Gutteridge has an alternative translation for the word Jean-Claude Juncker used. (See 12.37pm.)
Juncker on May dinner: 'You'll have the report of it - the post mortem report - tomorrow.' Sounds like he's looking forward it it!
— Nick Gutteridge (@nick_gutteridge) October 16, 2017
Downing Street suggested that it hopes the content of tonight’s May/Juncker will not leak. (See 12.30pm.) According to AFP’s Danny Kemp, Jean-Claude Juncker himself has joked about the “autopsy” being available afterwards.
'I'll see Mrs May this evening, we will talk, and then you will see the autopsy,' says Juncker (!!!)
— Danny Kemp (@dannyctkemp) October 16, 2017
No 10 lobby briefing - Summary
Here are the main points from the Number 10 lobby briefing. At one point we even got into a discussion about the cultural significance of what time one has dinner.
- Theresa May will speak to the French president Emmanuel Macron and the Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar later today, Downing Street said. The prime minister’s spokesman said that these conversations were part of a “wide programme of engagement” that May is involved in ahead of this week’s EU summit where the progress of the Brexit talks will be discussed. Another aspect of this is May’s dinner tonight in Brussels with Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission president. After May leaves the summit on Friday morning the leaders of the other 27 EU states will discuss Brexit, and when the talks can be moved forward to cover a future trade relationship. The UK accepts that this will not happen now, because progress on phase one is deemed unsatisfactory, but May wants to persuade EU leader to agree to widening the scope of the talks by the end of the year.
- Downing Street rejected suggestions that May’s surprise dinner tonight with Jean-Claude Juncker was a last-minute crisis initiative intended to revive the flagging Brexit talks. Downing Street insisted that May’s dinner with Juncker had been planned “a number of weeks ago” and that it had been “in the diary for some time”. But reporters were sceptical, not least when the spokesman said that the dinner was scheduled for 6.30pm Brussels time and that it is only due to last 90 minutes. When it was put to the spokesman that 6.30 was a bit early for a long-planned dinner, the spokesman said: “I don’t think it’s unusual in significant parts of the UK.” May will be returning to London tonight when the dinner is over. The spokesman also stressed that tonight’s talks would not just cover Brexit. Iran and counter-terrorism will also be on the agenda, the spokesman said. Joining May and Juncker will be David Davis, the Brexit secretary, Olly Robbins, May’s chief Brexit adviser, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, and Martin Selmayr, Juncker’s chief of staff.
- The spokesman suggested May does not expect Juncker and his team to leak details about what is said at the dinner. May met Juncker for dinner in Downing Street in April, but an extensive report of what was said then appeared in the German media, triggering a major row that ended up with May claiming that Eurocrats were trying to sabotage the election result. Asked if May had had an assurance that this would not happen again, the spokesman said:
This is a private dinner. The prime minister has had a number of constructive conversations with Jean-Claude Juncker and we would expect this to be a constructive dinner.
- Downing Street played down the suggestion that May would be putting a fresh financial offer to the EU on the table at the dinner. The spokesman said that May set out her offer in her Florence speech.
- The spokesman refused to comment on reports that France and Germany are pushing to beef up the draft conclusions of the EU summit by including a reference to the UK having to accept the European court of justice having a role in protecting the rights of EU nationals in the UK after Brexit. The spokesman said he would not comment on a report about a leak from a draft document.
- Downing Street downplayed the significance of revised UK balance of payments data suggesting the UK is £490bn poorer than previously thought. The Telegraph today reports (paywall) that “global banks and international bond strategists have been left stunned by revised ONS figures showing that Britain is £490bn poorer than had been assumed and no longer has any reserve of net foreign assets, depriving the country of its safety margin as Brexit talks reach a crucial juncture.” Asked about the story, which leads the Telegraph’s business supplement, the spokesman said that the revised ONS figures did not change the underlying position, which was that the economy was strong. He also pointed out that these figures came out about two weeks ago and that, since then, the value of the pound and share prices have been “broadly unchanged”, suggesting markets are not reading too much into the figures.
TELEGRAPH BUSINESS: Shock ONS data wipes £490 bn off UK’s wealth #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/6hKQJqmclu
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) October 15, 2017
Updated
I’m just back from the Number 10 lobby briefing. Downing Street confirmed that Theresa May will be speaking to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, later today ahead of this week’s EU summit. As my colleague Daniel Boffey reports, she will appeal to him to widen the Brexit negotiations to discuss a transition period.
May is also due to have a conversation today with the Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, Number 10 said.
I will post a full summary of the briefing shortly.
And while we’re on the subject of Boris Johnson, this is what Ken Clarke, the Conservative former chancellor, told the Today programme this morning about the views of Brexiters like Johnson. Clarke was referring to Johnson’s “let the lion roar” party conference speech. He said:
We mustn’t be seduced by this bizarre stuff of the lion roaring, and of President Trump, and the Japanese, and protectionist countries around the world, all being prepared to open their markets to us, no rules we have got to comply with, and no obligations. Just ‘come and sell us whatever you want’. This is compete fantasy. It’s la-la land. It’s going down the rabbit hole with a white rabbit.
Clarke was on the programme to talk about the amendment to the EU withdrawal bill he has tabled with the Labour former shadow chancellor Chris Leslie. It would stop the bill being used to implement Brexit without a transition period.
Ken Clarke and Chris Leslie have joined forces to table an amendment which enshrines PM's Florence transition period as legal requirement pic.twitter.com/xfVkEaThHa
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) October 11, 2017
Clarke told the programme:
Parliament, if we amend this bill properly, can start binding in the ultra-right members of the cabinet, and the ultra-left members of the shadow cabinet, into going in that direction. And it could be very helpful to persuading fellow Europeans that we have some idea of where it is we are trying to go and that Theresa May is going to be given the authority to lead a team of people that can negotiate sensibly and deliver it.
I’m off to the lobby briefing now. I will post again after 11.30am.
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, is in Luxembourg for a meeting of EU foreign ministers. On his arrival, repeating comments he made last week in almost identical terms, he said he hoped the UK-EU Brexit talks could move forward to phase two, where the future trade relationship gets negotiated. He told reporters:
We think in the UK that it’s time to get on with these negotiations.
It’s ready for the great ship to go down the slipway and on to the open sea and for us to start some serious conversations about the future and the new relationship, the deep and special partnership that we hope to construct, and I think will work very much in the interests of both sides.
And people say to me, look, we want to reassure the 3.2 million EU nationals in the UK and the one and a bit million UK nationals in the EU, and so do we. We’ve made a very good offer, we’ve made a very fair [offer], and we think it’s a reasonable point of view that we’re outlining.
Let’s give them that reassurance, let’s put a tiger in the tank, let’s get these conversations going and stop letting the grass grow under our feet.
Last year the Times (paywall) claimed that Sir Mark Lyall Grant, the then national security adviser, had got into trouble for “mansplaining” to the prime minister. It ran a story saying:
No 10 is understood to have taken umbrage at male politicians, officials, diplomats and even journalists who talk over, patronise or fail to listen to the prime minister or her team.
Word has spread around Whitehall after an alleged incident involving one of Britain’s senior security officials. In hushed tones, officials repeat how Sir Mark Lyall Grant, the national security adviser, visited Downing Street where he “got into a lot of trouble” for mansplaining to the prime minister.
Officials were later told that Mrs May was fed up with the manner deployed by Sir Mark, an old Etonian whose previous job was UK ambassador to the UN, after he talked over her in a meeting. This episode has been shared across government departments and now “people are hyper-aware” of the need to conduct themselves more carefully and courteously.
This morning on the Today programme Lyall Grant, who left his post earlier this year, said this story was misleading. But he suggested he had a difficult relationship with Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy, May’s co chiefs of staff until they resigned after the election. Asked about the “mansplaining” story, he said:
No, it’s not a report that I recognise, and she wouldn’t recognise either.
I had a very good relationship with David Cameron. I had a very good relationship with Theresa May. Obviously, when you work in Downing Street there are tensions.
And there were some tensions, I have to say, with some of her political advisers in Downing Street, who are no longer in Downing Street now.
And that can lead to some tensions. But, no, my job was to speak truth unto power. My job was to give the best possible advice I could and I always did that.
Lyall Grant also denied being forced out of Number 10. “I was always planning to leave this year, and I did leave this year,” he said.
Last week the Sun ran a report quoting a “cabinet source” saying relations between Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and Theresa May were so bad that, in the words of the source, they “can’t bear to be alone together in a room”.
On Sky’s All Out Politics this morning Kwasi Kwarteng, Hammond’s parliamentary private secretary, dismissed this. Although it was “very difficult” for people at the top of politics, May and Hammond have a “good working relationship”, he claimed. He said:
They have known each other for a very long time. I think it’s a very difficult - speaking as a layman - for people right at the top of British politics. They are under massive pressure. But I think it’s a good working relationship, from what I’ve seen.
BBC News is focusing on the issue of debt this morning. As my colleague Julia Kollewe reports, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, told the BBC today that a growing number of young people are having to borrow to cover basic living costs.
Former minister David Willetts joins Tory calls for taxes for young to be slashed in budget
Philip Hammond, the chancellor, is due to deliver his budget in just over five weeks, and it has been reported that he is planning a “revolutionary” package of measures. One idea apparently being considered is a lower tax rate for young people, funded by higher taxes for people who older and better off.
This would be a bold move for a Conservative chancellor. This morning the Daily Telegraph, whose core readership is Tory-supporting older and better off voters, is warning readers about a “tax on age” budget.
TELEGRAPH: Hammond’s ‘tax on age’ budget #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/kEuv8tPGk0
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) October 15, 2017
But on the Today programme this morning the proposal got a strong endorsement from David Willetts, the former Conservative universities minister who now heads the Resolution Foundation thinktank. Asked about it, he said:
Well, I personally think, and we’re doing work at the Resolution Foundation on this, if you look at the incomes of younger people, they are lower than younger people used to earn. If you are 30 now, you are probably earning less than someone who was aged 30 10 or 15 years ago. So anything that rebalances and helps younger people, I would be in favour of, yeah.
When it was put to him that older people might not be happy about having to pay more, he said:
A lot of older people themselves worry about the financial situation of their children and grandchildren. And if people have got higher incomes, perhaps they would like to see some help instead for their kids and grandkids.
The question was triggered by a story by Tim Shipman in the Sunday Times yesterday (paywall) about the proposed “revolutionary” budget. According to Shipman, other policies under consideration include:
Ditching opposition to more borrowing to boost investment
Letting councils borrow more to kickstart housebuilding
Getting May to accept building on the green belt
Writing off student loans, an idea being championed by David Davis, the Brexit secretary.
Sounds familiar? If you wander down Downing Street today and here the sound of “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn”, it is probably coming from Number 11 Downing Street. As the Guardian’s overnight story on this reports, Willetts’s view is shared by others in his party.
Sadly, we’re going to have to wait more than a month until we get the budget and find out just how much Hammond has embraced the Corbyn agenda. Today it is relatively quiet at Westminster. Here is the agenda.
11am: Downing Street lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Amber Rudd, the home secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
1pm: David Gauke, the work and pensions secretary, speaks at a conference organised by the new Institute for Free Trade, the thinktank set up by the Tory MEP Daniel Hannan. Michael Gove, the environment secretary, is also chairing a session at the event.
4.30pm: Simon Stevens, the NHS England chief executive, gives evidence to the Commons public accounts committee about clinical correspondence handling at NHS Shared Business Services
At some point today Damian Green, the first secretary of state, is chairing a meeting of the joint ministerial council on Brexit.
And, of course, Theresa May is going to Brussels for dinner with the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker. But I’m afraid that will be out of my time.
As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to post a summary at lunchtime and another in the afternoon.
You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.
Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news from Jack Blanchard’s Playbook. The ConservativeHome round up of the political stories in today’s papers is here. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’ top 10 must reads.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.
Updated
