Even some Tories can see that ministers are choosing to let people struggle

“He’s choosing to let people struggle when they don’t need to,” Keir Starmer said of Boris Johnson during yesterday’s PMQs. The Labour leader was talking specifically about the Prime Minister’s continued indecision over introducing a windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies – arguing that a government U-turn on the proposal was “inevitable” but stressing that “every single day he delays”, people are being left to suffer.

Labour has used the debates this week on the Queen’s Speech to underline the government’s ongoing failure to adequately respond to the cost-of-living crisis. On Tuesday, the opposition party forced MPs into a vote on the windfall tax proposal, which was rejected by 310 votes to 248. Rishi Sunak’s team reportedly “pushed hard” for the government to abstain on the vote, suggesting that the Labour argument that a U-turn is “lumbering slowly over the hill” may be correct. Yesterday, a second Labour amendment calling on the government to introduce an emergency Budget was also rejected. Speaking during the debate, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves accused the government of being a “rudderless ship… willing to watch people financially drown”.

Labour is demonstrating that the government’s failure on the cost of living is a political choice. As Shadow Climate Change and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband said in Tuesday’s debate, what makes the Chancellor “even more culpable” than the insufficient support measures he has so far announced is the fact that there is “something that could help staring him right in the face – where the case has become unanswerable” – namely, a windfall tax. Jonathan Reynolds made a similar case on Times Radio this morning. The Shadow Business Secretary told listeners that “we know this is a crisis” and demanded of the government: “What are we waiting for?” Reports that Treasury officials think the windfall tax has become “politically unavoidable” suggest that some Tories know Labour’s argument is cutting through.

Momentum’s national coordinating group has agreed two further motions that the organisation will support at Labour Party conference this year, in addition to the five backed by its members during the group’s policy primary last month. The governing body of the group met earlier this month and decided that Momentum should support motions covering policing and the right to protest and the creation of a welcoming immigration policy. A Momentum spokesperson told LabourList this would include “campaigning for Labour to take a position to repeal the crime and policing bill”.

Elsewhere on LabourList, we have our rolling lists of CLP nominations for the upcoming national executive committee elections – including disabled members rep, BAME rep and local party rep. More to follow soon, stay tuned. We have a piece from Abena Oppong-Asare on Labour’s plan to respond to the cost-of-living crisis. You can also read my review of the first PMQs of the new parliamentary session, during which Starmer set out the case that Tory indecision is deepening the cost-of-living crisis and failing people who are desperately in need of support.