Gove rules out emergency Budget and rejects claims government split on issue

Michael Gove has dismissed reports that the government is planning to bring forward an emergency Budget and rejected claims of a split between Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak on the proposal.

The Prime Minister indicated on Tuesday that the government is planning additional measures to respond to the cost-of-living crisis, telling MPs that he and the Chancellor will be “saying more about this in the days to come”.

But the Levelling Up Secretary said this morning: “There won’t be an emergency Budget. It is sometimes the case that the words from a Prime Minister or minister are over-interpreted.

“The Prime Minister is right. We will be saying more and doing more in order to help people with the cost-of-living challenge we face at the moment, but that doesn’t amount to an emergency Budget. It is part of the work of government.

“Last night, the Prime Minister convened a group of ministers – we have all done work on some of the things we could do to help. Those policy initiatives will be announced by individual departments in due course as they are worked up.”

Asked whether reports of a split between Johnson and Sunak on the proposal are true, Gove said: “It is an example of some commentators chasing their own tails and trying to take a statement that is common-sensical, turning it into a ‘major’ capital letters ‘big news story’.

“When the Treasury quite rightly say ‘calm down’, people instead of recognising that they have overinflated the story in the first place then say: ‘Oh, this is clearly a split.’”

Discussing the cost-of-living crisis in a statement to the Commons following the Queen’s Speech on Tuesday, the Prime Minister said: “We will continue to use all our ingenuity and compassion for as long as it takes – my right honourable friend the Chancellor and I will be saying more about this in the days to come.”

But the Treasury rejected suggestions that further intervention was imminent, with one official saying: “The Budget timetables will be set out in the usual way. There will be no emergency Budget.”

Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Pat McFadden said: “Families need a government with a plan for the cost of living crisis and a plan for economic growth. Instead, we’ve got a government devoid of ideas and a Chancellor and Prime Minister who can’t even agree on the emergency Budget the country sorely needs.

“Every day this government chooses not to act, working people suffer, and we get one step further into an economic trap with low growth, low wages, and high taxes.”

In a speech to the Commons on Tuesday, Keir Starmer described the legislative agenda outlined in the Queen’s Speech as “thin” and “bereft of ideas or purpose” and argued that it showed the government is “too out of touch to meet the challenges of the moment”, including the cost-of-living crisis.

The Labour leader said: “Bringing forward an emergency Budget, with a windfall tax on oil and gas producers, which would raise billions. The money raised could be used to slash the cost of energy bills and help businesses keep their costs down.

“Even the bosses at BP don’t agree when the Prime Minister says it would deter investment. It’s a common-sense solution. But, instead, the government is bereft of leadership. The Chancellor ruling the windfall tax in, the Business Secretary ruling it out, and a Prime Minister who doesn’t know what he thinks.”

Labour has repeatedly called for an emergency Budget to respond to the cost-of-living crisis. It would prioritise cutting domestic energy bills, reducing business rates, scrapping the National Insurance rise, improving home insulation and commissioning the National Crime Agency to recover money lost through fraud.

Writing for LabourList today, Socialist Campaign Group MP Zarah Sultana argued that there was “literally nothing” in the Queen’s Speech that “attempted to solve the cost-of-living crisis, demonstrating once again that the Tories neither know nor care what life is like for ordinary people”.

She outlined her amendment to the Speech, which sets out five policies to put the “needs of the many before the greed of the few and solve the cost-of-living crisis”, including cutting energy bills and raising the minimum wage to £15 per hour.