Labour formally drops £28bn green pledge and blames Tories for ‘crashing the economy’ – UK politics live | Politics

Labour’s news release confirming the abandonment of the £28bn annual green investment target contains these quotes from Labour figures.

From Keir Starmer

I have changed the Labour party to put it back in the service of working people. Our Green Prosperity Plan is about turning a corner on fourteen years of Conservative decline and investing in Britain’s future. It is a plan for more jobs, more investment and cheaper bills. It’s a plan to get our country’s future back.

From Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor

Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chancellor, said:

Labour is ambitious for Britain’s future. There is a global race taking place in the jobs and industries of the future, and we are determined to lead it. All the Conservatives are offering the country is five more years of economic failure that will working people choice. Labour has a plan to invest and to get Britain’s future back.

And from Ed Miliband, the shadow energy secretary, said:

Labour will be fighting the election with a world-leading agenda on climate and energy with every single individual policy already announced now confirmed for the manifesto: Great British Energy, a National Wealth Fund, a Warm Homes Plan, a British Jobs Bonus, a Local Power Plan and no new oil and gas licences as well as our 2030 clean power mission.

It is thought that, of these three, Miliband will have been the one most reluctant to see the £28bn target go, because of his particuarly strong personal commitment to the net zero agenda. He has not been doing interviews recently, and the Conservative have been running a social media campaign suggesting he’s in hiding.

Labour has confirmed that it has formally dropped the its target of spending £28bn a year on green investment. It made the announcement in a briefing to journalists giving new details of its green prosperity plan.

The party said:

Labour has today announced plans to invest in Britain’s future, with Keir Starmer setting out further details of Labour’s mission to kick start growth and deliver clean power by 2030.

As part of the party’s finalisation of policies for a general election campaign, Labour has reconfirmed its commitment to the policies announced through the Green Prosperity Plan, to create jobs, cut bills and unlock investment.

The Green Prosperity Plan will be funded by a windfall tax on the oil and gas giants, and borrowing to invest within Labour’s fiscal rules.

The party also confirmed that, due to the Conservatives’ crashing the economy and Jeremy Hunt’s plans to ‘max out’ the country’s credit card, it would not be possible to reach the previous commitment of £28bn a year.

The centrepiece of the package is Great British Energy, a publicly owned energy company to take back control of the energy system on behalf of the British people.

Gordon Brown has also defended Labour’s decision to drop £28bn as the annual target for spending on green investment. Asked about the move being confirmed today, Brown told LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr:

I haven’t seen any official announcement actually. But if that’s what he’s decided, it is because (Keir Starmer) and (Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor) have decided that they’ve got to abide by some fiscal discipline, given the state of the public finances.

You have got to remember when we left power in 2010, debt was below 40% of national income. It’s now 100% of our national income, I got criticised for allowing it to rise to 40%. Now it’s 100% and the Conservatives have got to take some responsibility for leaving a mess for the incoming government, whoever it is.

Rishi Sunak deliberately visited a dental practice that’s not accepting new adult NHS patients, Downing Street have said. (See 3.21pm and 3.26pm.)

The prime minister went to Gentle Dental in Newquay to promote his plans to offer cash incentives to dentists to accept more patients as more than 12 million were unable to get an appointment last year.

Sunak insisted the announcements this week will make a significant difference, and quickly”.

When asked if Sunak couldn’t find a practice accepting new patients, the prime minister’s deputy spokesperson said:

The prime minister wants to hear about the challenges surgeries are facing, and the challenges we’re trying to address through our dental plan … It’s right for the prime minister to hear from people on the frontline.

The former prime minister Gordon Brown has added his voice to those saying Rishi Sunak should apologise for his anti-trans jibe at PMQs yesterday. Asked about it in an interview for Sky’s Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge, Brown said:

Well, when I made mistakes, I did apologise. And look, every prime minister makes mistakes. I don’t think you can say that every prime minister will fail to make some mistakes, but I think you should apologise if you get things wrong and I mean it is a very sad and really tragic, tragic case of a family in grief.

I know he’s said he’s compassionate about the family, but perhaps he should do what I had to do on one or two occasions and apologise. And I do accept that if you make mistakes, you’ve got to correct them quickly.

Brown was giving an interview to highlight his concern about rising levels of extreme poverty in Britain, and his proposals for what should be done to address this. He has written about this in an article for the Guardian.

Scottish government to consider levy on shops to claw back profits from minimum unit price for alcohol as it rises by 30%

Severin Carrell

Scottish ministers are considering a new public health tax on shops after increasing the minimum price for alcohol by 30% in an effort to combat Scotland’s rising alcohol-related deaths and hospitalisations.

Shona Robison, the deputy first minister, confirmed a Guardian story earlier this week that the minimum unit price (MUP) will increase from 50p a unit to 65p, to keep pace with inflation and maintain fiscal pressures on alcohol abuse.

The new price will come into force on 30 September; it means a basic bottle of whisky will now cost £18.20, up from £14. “Alcohol harm remains a significant issue in Scotland,” she said. “It continues to contribute to worsening health outcomes,” particularly for men in deprived areas.

Scotland’s finance secretary, Robison also confirmed that ministers are considering demands for a new public health levy to claw-back the excess profits that shops earn from MUP, although she said the government already spends £112m a year on alcohol and drug treatment units.

The Fraser of Allander Institute at Strathclyde university estimates retailers have earned around £30m a year in unearned profits from MUP because they keep the difference between the higher price paid for drinks and the wholesale price of the product.

Scottish Labour and public health charities argue the case for a claw-back is now even greater; a higher 65p minimum price means higher unearned profits. Labour said the levy’s on proceeds should be spent on alcohol treatment and recovery projects.

Robison said they were consulting businesses and health experts on doing so, with a decision due before the next Scottish budget later this year. Scotland had a public health levy on large retailers between 2012 and 2015, which raised £95m.

The Scottish Retail Consortium said it welcomed the increased unit price but was furious at the prospect of an “unevidenced and unreasonable” new levy. “Any mooted tax rises are nothing more than a thinly veiled cash grab at the expense of an industry already under immense pressure,” it said.

119 schools in England affected by Raac will have buildings replaced, DfE says

Richard Adams

The government has announced that 119 schools and colleges in England affected by reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) will have buildings replaced as part of its long-term school rebuilding programme.

In a written statement, Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, said:

Our priority will always be to ensure the safety of pupils and staff, which is why we took a cautious approach for schools and colleges. Although the technical advice does not recommend removal in all cases where it is present, we have taken a precautionary approach for the education estate in England to remove Raac.

The Department for Education said its national survey of schools and colleges, with buildings dating from when Raac was widely used in construction, was now complete. Its final update added three more, including Barking and Dagenham College, a further education college in east London, and Thornleigh Salesian College, a secondary school in greater Manchester.

The DfE said that of the 234 found to have Raac-infested buildings, 119 are to get new buildings through its rebuilding programme, while 110 will receive grants to renovate or remove the affected parts. It said that “a small number” are still carrying out additional checks.

There are roughly 500 schools in England awaiting rebuilds, with about 50 completed every year, meaning that some schools could be waiting for several years before the work is completed.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the rebuilding effort was welcome but raised further questions over funding. He said:

Given the severe pressures on the school estate as a whole, we need assurances that this work will be funded wholly through additional capital expenditure and money will not be diverted from other sources. There must also be clear timelines set out for when this work is going to be completed.

The Raac crisis was exposed at the end of last summer, after the government received further evidence that buildings including Raac were in danger of decay and collapse. By the end of August, days before the start of the new school year, the Guardian revealed that the DfE was telling schools to make contingency plans against the risk of collapse. It then abruptly ordered more than 100 schools to close.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said:

While dealing with Raac is crucial, we really need to see more ambitious investment from the government to bring the schools estate up to scratch overall – from Raac, to asbestos, to general disrepair – it needs a plan to tackle all school building issues before they become the next big crisis. That can’t happen without more money from the Treasury.

Campaigners have criticised the government for delaying plans to ban no-fault evictions as new figures show a steep rise in repossessions in England, PA Media reports.

The latest statistics published by the Ministry of Justice show that some 26,311 accelerated possessions have been made from the second quarter of 2019 until the end of 2023.

Landlords can apply for an accelerated possession order if their tenants have not left by the date specified in a section 21 notice. Section 21 of the Housing Act allows no-fault evictions.

There were 9,457 such repossessions last year, up from 6,339 in 2022 – a 49% rise.

As the figures were released, Commons leader Penny Mordaunt outlined upcoming business in parliament but made no mention of the renters (reform) bill.

Labour’s Lucy Powell, responding in the Commons, complained that the report stage of the bill “was promised by early February, but it’s nowhere to be seen”.

In a statement, the party’s shadow minister for housing and planning, Matthew Pennycook, said: “The stark rise in section 21 notices served last year lays bare the devastating impact that the Tories’ failure to abolish them is having on hard-pressed renters.”

He vowed that if the government does not “get on and quickly pass the Bill abolishing section 21 evictions, that the next Labour government “will get the job done”.

Tom Darling, campaign manager of the Renters’ Reform Coalition, described the bill as “on life-support after being deprioritised by the government”.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “It’s utterly shameful that the government is bowing to vested interests while renters are marched out of their homes in their thousands.”

And Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, said: “Today sees the continuation of an awful trend that has been blighting the lives of renters across our country. As long as landlords can evict tenants through no fault of their own with just two months’ notice, homelessness in England will continue to soar.

“Renters have been waiting five years since the government promised to end these evictions, and yet today we find out the government is delaying their plans again. Since that promise, almost 90,000 households have been forced out because of no-fault evictions – and this number is rising every day.”