Sunday shows: Jonathan Ashworth brands Rishi Sunak “Mr Tax”

Sophy Ridge on Sunday

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth accused Rishi Sunak of “playing games” and acting in his own interests rather than for the public good with the Spring Statement delivered this week, branding the Chancellor “Mr Tax”.

• On the Spring Statement: “As a consequence of the decisions that Rishi Sunak and his Conservative MPs have made the state pension will be cut in real terms by the biggest amount in 50 years, the tax burden is going to be the highest since the 40s, the collapse in living standards the most dramatic since the 50s… that means over a million people pushed into poverty, many pensioners pushed into poverty, 500,000 children pushed into absolute poverty.”
• On Rishi Sunak: “Rather than acting in the interests of the British people, he was playing games. He was acting in his own interest because he thinks by offering an income tax cut in two years that will help him politically with Conservative MPs if there is a leadership contest or that will fit the Tory election grid.”
• On a future income tax cut: “He’s expecting people to be grateful because two years down the road he’s saying there’s going to be an income tax cut, even though that income tax cut nowhere near offsets the 15 tax rises that he’s imposed on the British people… He’s a tax-rising Chancellor, he is Mr Tax.”
• On rising Covid rates: “I would really encourage the government to put more support in place at a local level to drive up those vaccination rates… I urge the government to reintroduce statutory sick pay from day one.”
• On the royals visit to Jamaica: “I think the Commonwealth will endure but obviously individual countries will always make their own judgements and come to their own decision about their membership… but I’m absolutely convinced the Commonwealth will survive.”

Dame Margaret Beckett also appeared on the show this morning. The former and first female Foreign Secretary discussed the US and UK departure from Afghanistan, the conflict in Ukraine and relations with Russia.

• On Afghanistan: “It does feel very much as if not enough thought was given either to how the leaving of Afghanistan would be handled or indeed as to how we can do more to help and safeguard what we left behind.”
• On Joe Biden’s call for regime change in Russia: “I rather like what we’ve seen of Joe Biden… He strikes me as being somebody who has strong feelings and is inclined to then just voice them and you know maybe we don’t get quite enough of that sincerity and reaction sometimes.”
• She added: “I’m sure that his staff and the people around him are right to say that America is not calling for regime change but equally many people will sympathise with the sentiments that led him to say what he did.”
• On Ukraine and the prospect of military escalation: “It’s horrendous, the situation in Ukraine, and we have to do everything we can to help but to be drawn into a pan-European war – I don’t think anybody would thank us.”
• On Russia: “The whole Gorbachev turned people’s approach towards Russia and people hoped that Russia would more and more come into the, sort of, what you might call the main stream of political life, relationships between countries and so on.”
• On the a ‘divided’ view of Russia over recent decades: “If you listened to people in Eastern Europe who had experience of being under Russian rule, they never had this sanguine approach… I think, there’s been something of a divide.”
• On Labour and a woman leader: “The first woman Prime Minister should have been Barbara Castle, she would have been an absolute star, but it was never quite the right time and so on… There is an enormous amount of luck in politics and the luck hasn’t worked out so far for one of our female colleagues. It will.”

Sunday Morning

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth told viewers that the Conservatives “need to make different choices around taxation” in light of the cost-of-living crisis and said not doing so earlier this week meant that Sunak was “not able to give struggling households support”.

• Asked whether school closures in the pandemic were a mistake: “We in the Labour Party were always pushing the government to go further and faster to make sure that there was support in place for those children who were losing out on their education and actually even today we still don’t have the measures in place to properly support children catch up.”
• On Labour’s position during Covid: “We always wanted schools to stay open where they could. There was a period at the start of the pandemic in 2020 where we knew less about the virus and there was a concern about infection rates in schools… [Keir Starmer] was saying, what’s the plan to get schools reopened? And then when we had the Delta surge, Keir Starmer… was saying look we need to be supporting schools to stay open.”
• Asked whether the government can afford to spend more in light of its debt: “The debt and the borrowing is a reflection of 12 years of hacking away at the roots of growth… If you had better growth in those 12 years we’d be in a better position now.”
• Asked whether the government can borrow more money: “Rachel Reeves, our Shadow Chancellor, set out very clear fiscal rules, which should be put in place in order to govern borrowing. So you can borrow to invest in infrastructure… but of course you also want to get your debt and your borrowing down.”
• He added: “Which is why, for example, you also need to make different choices around taxation. So the Chancellor has decided not to impose a windfall tax on the big gas and oil producers even though they’re making bumper profits. The consequence of that is he’s not able to give struggling households support with their bills.”
• Asked by how much a Labour government would increase the state pension and benefits: “At the moment there is a commitment from the government to increase the pension and benefits this September by whatever inflation is. You could have brought that increase this coming September into now.”
• He added: “It may be that the reason they didn’t do that is they are going to break their promise on that commitment just like they’ve broken that promise on the triple lock.”