Miliband sets out Labour's key business plans: Politics Live blog
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Version 0 of 1. 5.07pm GMT17:07 Afternoon summary That’s all from me for today. I’ll be back tomorrow for more live blog fun. Thanks very much for all your comments. 4.41pm GMT16:41 Vince Cable has hit back at Ed Miliband over his claims that the number of apprenticeships available has fallen under this government. Speaking on the BBC news channel, the business secretary admitted that the overall number of apprenticeships had fallen under the coalition, but said: It’s factually wrong and it gives a completely misleading picture, if you take out the very short apprenticeships, then the level of apprenticeships have risen in all age groups and the emphasis under this government, when we’ve actually doubled the number of starts from the last five years of Labour government, has been on higher level and more sophisticated apprenticeships that employers actually want for their skills, so I think the question here is - who do you trust to deliver it? However, Paul Bogle, head of policy and research at the National Federation of Builders, doesn’t seem to think Miliband’s claim is unfounded, but says that it’s unclear how the proposal will benefit smaller companies: This announcement could be seen as a bold initiative within an increasingly competitive electoral race. It is worth noting that apprenticeship starts in the construction sector have decreased by 23% since 2010. What is unclear is how the construction industry might benefit from this policy pledge, especially given the proposed funding regime for apprentices which will disadvantage smaller companies by increasing their costs. Updated at 4.55pm GMT 4.31pm GMT16:31 Here is some Twitter reaction to the Ashcroft polling. Today’s polls aren’t showing the same trend. But suspect Tories happier as ICM disrupts media narrative that they are stalling post HSBC row Guardian has Tories up 5. Lord Ashcroft has Tories down 4. Much easier ideologically if Gdn and Ashcroft could swop polls and numbers. .@LordAshcroft poll detail: swing voters view Lab positively, but EdM negatively. Similar Ed factor for Lab+LD voters pic.twitter.com/VaBs5QpI6H 4.16pm GMT16:16 Ashcroft polling puts Labour one point ahead of the Conservatives This week’s Ashcroft polling is out and it records a one point lead for the Labour party. The poll from Lord Ashcroft is the only one not to have had Labour in the lead at any other point this year. The Conservative party predicted that it would begin to move ahead in the polls in the first few months of this year and, after this morning’s Guardian/ICM poll, some were suggesting that this had started to happen. This afternoon’s Ashcroft polling contradicts that idea. Writing for Conservative Home, Ashcroft says: “The narrow margin for Labour echoes most recent published polls, but with a lower combined share for the two main parties. Could it be that voters have found the exchange of insults over donors and their tax arrangements an unappetising spectacle?” Ashcroft National Poll, 13-15 Feb: CON 30%, LAB 31%, LDEM 9%, UKIP 16%, GRN 8%. Full details on @ConHome, 4pm. Updated at 4.18pm GMT 4.03pm GMT16:03 Here’s a Guardian video of Miliband’s speech on Labour’s plans for business to an audience at the Jaguar Land Rover factory in Wolverhampton earlier today. 3.53pm GMT15:53 For those of you who think this paying cash-in-hand without a receipt “row” seems familiar, the Spectator’s Isabel Hardman has pointed out on the BBC news channel that there was a very similar story back in 2012 when treasury minister David Gauke described the practice as “morally wrong”. “Getting a discount with your plumber by paying cash in hand is something that is a big cost to the Revenue and means others must pay more in tax,” Gauke said in a speech to the Policy Exchange think tank. “Yes, I think it’s morally wrong. It is illegal for the plumber, but it is pretty implicit in these circumstances that there is a reason why there is a discount for cash. That is a large part of the hidden economy.” Here’s the original Guardian story. Updated at 4.03pm GMT 3.41pm GMT15:41 The Scottish National Party’s treasury spokesperson, Stewart Hosie MP, has criticised Labour’s business plans, which leader Ed Miliband announced earlier today. “If Labour were serious about economic recovery they would support the SNP’s alternative to austerity- rather than hitting the most vulnerable people in society the hardest with cuts to public spending”, he said in a statement. “Labour have voted along with the Tories for continuing Westminster’s austerity agenda in the next Parliament, with £30bn more of cuts. By contrast, the SNP supports real term increases in government investment - which limited to half a per cent each year would see debt reduce as a share of GDP over the course of the next Westminster parliament, but crucially allow a further £180 billion investment in infrastructure, skills and education to further boost the economy.” 3.06pm GMT15:06 Video emerges of Osborne giving tax avoidance advice The Huffington Post has dug up this video of George Osborne from May 2003, back when he was a bright-eyed front bencher. In it he offers viewers advice on how they can use “some pretty clever financial products” to avoid inheritance tax, while getting their personal care paid for by the state. “I probably shouldn’t be advocating this on television,” he says. Updated at 3.13pm GMT 2.54pm GMT14:54 Labour points out George Osborne is living up to his reputation as the submarine chancellor - underwater since the HSBC files broke Labour are pointing out that the chancellor has been remarkably quiet since the HSBC scandal broke. Chris Leslie, the shadow chief secretary to the treasury, has released a statement saying: “We’ve now had a week of silence from George Osborne - the submarine Chancellor still hasn’t surfaced. But it is time he and David Cameron finally started answering questions about HSBC and Lord Green... In this row over tax evasion David Cameron and George Osborne are now guilty of political evasion.” 2.51pm GMT14:51 More bad polling news for Ed coming up? The @LordAshcroft weekly survey, only poll not to have recorded LAB lead this year, due out at 4pm 2.42pm GMT14:42 While a number of people are dismissing the Guardian/ICM poll as an outlier, YouGov’s Peter Keller has predicted that – although his own polls currently have Labour three points ahead of the Tories on 35% – the Conservative party will win a 35% share of the vote in May. Kellner argues that Labour has failed to improve its prospects in Scotland – with Jim Murphy’s personal popularity ratings lagging behind those of Nicola Sturgeon. His predictions have the Conservatives winning 293 seats, compared to 270 for Labour, 30 for the Lib Dems, 5 for Ukip, 1 for the Greens, and 30 for the SNP. Labour’s best hope – and the Conservatives’ worst fear – is that last week’s stories about Tory donors and tax avoidance have a lasting effect. Labour’s current 3% lead follows weeks of near-level-pegging. However, I expect this boost to Labour’s fortunes to subside as the news agenda moves on. 2.20pm GMT14:20 Prime minister David Cameron has released a statement condemning the killing of 21 Coptic Egyptian hostages by Islamic State. Our efforts to defeat the monstrosity of Islamist extremism must not waver. The UK remains steadfast in its efforts to defeat Isil and in its work to bring about a political transition in Libya through the UN. We are clear that Libya must not become a safe haven for terrorists. Updated at 2.21pm GMT 2.08pm GMT14:08 I don’t think it will worry Ed Miliband too much, but Ant and Dec have given an interview to the Times in which they’ve said they are disillusioned with the Labour party. Ed Miliband's team hurriedly preparing a briefing note for him on who Ant and Dec are. Ant McPartlin (I didn’t know he had a second name) told the paper: “I feel we’re both staunchly Labour and would vote Labour if we could, but I don’t know what their philosophy is any more.” 1.51pm GMT13:51 Christian May, head of campaigns at the Institute of Directors, attended Ed Miliband’s speech at Jaguar Land Rover this morning and has given his view on the Labour leader’s announcements – The Labour leadership seems to have found its voice in the debate about the importance of successful businesses. This is an important change in tone from Ed Miliband and one which will be welcomed by the business community. After all, business and enterprise must be supported and celebrated, not just tolerated. In particular, Miliband’s focus on creating long-term value by boosting productivity and addressing the skills gap will win the support of employers. However, it is hard to square this new-found enthusiasm for wealth creation with Labour’s commitment to reintroducing the inefficient 50p rate of tax. New figures show that revenue raised from these taxpayers jumped by £8bn after it was cut, proving that reinstating the punitive 50p rate would do more harm than good. Labour’s pledge to have the lowest corporation tax rate in the G7 is also welcome, but it should be stressed that the party has not yet ruled out an increase in the rate. For many small and medium-sized businesses it is the absolute burden which matters more than international comparisons, and we would like to see Miliband go further and rule out a corporation tax hike under a Labour government. 1.48pm GMT13:48 Guardian/ICM poll puts the Conservative party four points ahead A Guardian/ICM opinion poll has put the Conservative party four points ahead of Labour. The Tories are up six points since last month – their strongest showing in the Guardian’s ICM poll since May 2012 – and only one point down on their 2010 general election result. Labour’s support fell by one point to 32%. The Liberal Democrats were also down a point, on 10%. The smaller parties register bigger losses. Ukip sinks two, to just 9%, as do the Greens, who end up on 7%, after their record showing last month. You can read Tom Clark’s full analysis here. ICM interviewed a random sample of 1,000 adults aged 18+ by telephone on 13-15 February 2015. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. Updated at 2.54pm GMT 1.00pm GMT13:00 Lunchtime summary 1.00pm GMT13:00 Unite assistant general secretary, Tony Burke, has commented on Labour’s plans for businesses: George Osborne’s much heralded ‘march of the makers’ has failed to materialise while family finances have been consigned to a path to poverty because of insecure work and plummeting wage levels. This short-term race to the bottom will not develop the UK’s manufacturing base or create the skills and innovation our economy needs to rise to the global challenges of the 21st century. The Tories have us on the road to a low skilled, low waged economy where the proceeds of growth are shared among the few at the top. The success of the UK’s automotive industry and companies like Jaguar Land Rover is because they have looked to the long-term, invested in skills and worked with Unite to boost productivity and create secure well paid jobs. That is why Ed Miliband is right to commit to an industrial strategy that invests in apprenticeships and skills, which looks to the long-term to generate the high skilled secure jobs our nation needs and ensures that we have an economy that works for the many not the few. Updated at 1.57pm GMT 12.46pm GMT12:46 Chairman of the Conservative party Grant Shapps has responded to Labour’s business plans. Speaking on BBC News, the minister without portfolio said Ed Miliband had “never run a business in his life” and “is the last person in the world we should be listening to on this”. He said: “He wants to destroy business, he wants to put up corporation tax. That would cost 96,000 jobs in that single move.” “They are anti-business and Ed Miliband wants to drive this country right back to the bad old days of the biggest bust we had in this country’s history under the last Labour government.” On apprenticeships, Shapps said that Gordon Brown made a similar promise when he was in power and then failed to deliver and claimed that the coalition government had doubled apprenticeships during this parliament. Updated at 1.57pm GMT 12.27pm GMT12:27 No 10 rejects calls for an HMRC inquiry A spokesperson for the prime minister has rejected the suggestion that there should be an inquiry into HMRC’s handling of the HSBC files, arguing that HMRC “did what they could”. Politics Home has the full quotes: HMRC, as I see it, took the information that they had, they went through the 6,000 or so cases, they whittled that down to 3,000 specific ones to look at, went after those who were non-compliant to recoup them and launched prosecutions where they could. So they did look at and take forward action on prosecutions when they went through this HSBC data. HMRC went after those that were not compliant and focused on making sure that those people who had not paid the taxes that were owed did so... The people who should have paid tax have had to pay tax. And then they did what they could with the restrictions that were imposed on them by the French on the information which has led to one prosecution so far. Clearly those restrictions have now been eased and, as HMRC said last week, they will therefore continue to have discussions with prosecuting authorities about any further action that should be taken. The comments come a day after business secretary Vince Cable said on Pienaar’s Politics on Radio 5live that an inquiry would be a “good idea”. I think it would be a good idea. I suspect that HMRC need more resources, actually, because many of these investigations are very complex. I have actually written to the Chancellor during the week, my colleague, on the back of the HSBC issues, asking for satisfaction that the various inquiries that took place, for example, around the Swiss subsidiaries have been properly followed through and there have been sufficient levels of vigilance. Updated at 12.48pm GMT 12.04pm GMT12:04 Here’s some reaction from Twitter to Labour’s business plans announcements – EdM again roadtesting the soundbite Labour hasn't used for a while: "pro-business but not business as usual" Miliband: If y ou get the grades at 18 you will be guaranteed apprenticeship, Has not said - yet- which grades? Who set up this Ed speech? People wandering around in the background totally ignoring him. "Longer Term Economic Plan." This is like when Robbie Williams released a single called Strong so Gary Barlow released one called Stronger 11.53am GMT11:53 Ed Balls is now speaking on the subject of balancing the books. He is saying that Osborne’s plan has failed and that he is planning spending cuts that are third bigger than they have been before. “I don’t think that plan is remotely credible”, he says. “We’ll cut the deficit every year” and “we’ll have no promises in our manifesto paid for by more borrowing”. He says Labour will make difficult decisions like capping child benefit, reversing a tax cut for top earners and taking a fuel allowance away from the top 5% of wealthy pensioners. Updated at 1.57pm GMT 11.49am GMT11:49 Miliband says – “We will have a fairer tax system: keeping corporation tax the lowest in the G7, but with the first priority for us not further tax cuts for large businesses but helping smaller ones. “So we will cut and freeze business rates. And we won’t just cut taxes for small businesses, but we will improve finance too. Our plan recognizes that our banks are still not the servants of small business that they must be if they are to succeed and prosper. “So we will create a British Investment Bank to support new regional banks. And we will have a market share cap so we can have more competition in business banking on the high street. “Now, the insight that we need to help every working person and every firm also applies to every part of Britain. We are too unproductive as a country because we are too centralized as a country. We know what makes for successful towns and cities. “Devolution to Scotland and Wales has been an economic success. And it is time for devolution in England too. Labour is the only party with a comprehensive, not a piecemeal, plan for devolution. And a plan that meets the challenge in the scale of resources. “Devolving power and funding worth at least £30 billion over five years in employment services, transport, housing, skills and business support. “And our plan is about creating long-term sustainable prosperity for our country.” Updated at 1.57pm GMT 11.44am GMT11:44 Ed Miliband has just announced his party’s apprenticeship pledge – For too long this country has believed we can succeed with just some people having access to world-class education, training and skills. So our plan begins with a revolution in vocational education. A new gold standard vocational baccalaureate in our schools. New technical degrees at our universities. And real, high-quality apprenticeships as well. At the moment just one in 10 employers in England offers an apprenticeship. There are six times fewer high quality apprenticeships than in Germany. There has been lots of debate about tax avoidance in the last few weeks. Nothing more symbolises the current government’s failing plan than seeing the tax gap - between what should be paid and the revenue received – widening, while the number of apprenticeships available for young people is falling. We can do better. And with our plan we will. So today I can announce: under the next Labour government, if you get the grades at 18 you will be guaranteed an apprenticeship. That is what I mean by a better plan for young people. A better plan for working people. A better plan for Britain. Updated at 1.57pm GMT 11.40am GMT11:40 Labour guarantees apprenticeships for students with good grades Miliband has started speaking at Jaguar Land Rover in the West Midlands. His party has just announced that a Labour government would guarantee that every school leaver who gets the grades will be given a place on an apprenticeship scheme. He says that his party would create at least 80,000 more “high-quality” training opportunities every year by the end of the next parliament. They will do this by – The party proposes to fund the additional places by reversing the Tories’ rebadging of in-work training schemes for existing employees. Updated at 4.50pm GMT 11.18am GMT11:18 Here’s a quick round-up of some of the most interesting comment pieces from today’s papers. If we want to be taken seriously, we have to defend ourselves The Daily Telegraph, Boris Johnson As our American friends instinctively understand, it is the existence of strong and well-resourced British Armed Forces that gives this country the ability to express and affirm our values overseas: of freedom, democracy, tolerance, pluralism. David Cameron gets that. Ed Miliband would put it all at risk, and in the process he would make Britain weaker and less safe. The reinvention of Iain Duncan Smith: is he the man to save the Tories? The Guardian, Matthew d’Ancona Buoyed by economic recovery and pitted against an opposition leader who has yet to persuade the public of his fitness for the top job, Cameron really ought to be on course to win on 7 May or to lead the largest party in the Commons. The fact that he is not yet poised to do so says much about the mile-high barriers that still stand between millions of Britons and the very idea of voting Conservative. In the 11 weeks left, he needs to be more imaginative than ever before in his choice of Tory tribunes. Who would have thought it? IDS to the rescue. Why young people should have the vote at 16 Conservative Home, Charlotte Leslie MP From personal experience, I know that the best way to get a young person to be disengaged and childish is to deny them responsibility on the reasoning that they are disengaged and childish. If you tell a young person, especially one with a passion about things, that they are juvenile and immature, that is exactly how they will behave – in your face. Yet that is what the current law is suggesting to our 16 year olds. (And young people can quite reasonably say that politicians telling anyone to ‘grow up’ is a bit rich…) Until we give people the vote at 16, I don’t want to hear any politician worrying that ‘our youth are disengaged from politics’. It won’t be a panacea for the issue, but it is a vital start. Blame corporate greed, not the obese The Guardian, Zoe Williams Ideally we would discuss the underpinning philosophy – what’s really stiffing public health? Corporate capture of the food supply and the failure of governments to defend their citizens’ interests? Or a mass outbreak of indolence, caused by governments that are too strong and too kind, so that people across the world no longer care about their cardiovascular condition, and simply throw their fate into the hands of the goodly taxpayer? We could have the conversation that way. There is really no need to be so coarse and childish as to condemn people for their body shape. Europe would be the loser if Britain walked away The Times, Tim Montgomerie A new report from Global Britain and the Democracy Movement calculates that other EU states have every incentive to give Britain a handsome new deal in order to prevent “Brexit”. Equally they have little incentive to punish us if we choose to leave. TheScaremongers paper suggests that 6.5 million jobs in the rest of the EU would be endangered if Brussels initiated an illegal trade war with an independent Britain. Tory MPs will remind their leader of that number if he gets a mandate to set off for the negotiating table. They will encourage him to set more ambitious demands as a result. Updated at 1.58pm GMT 10.52am GMT10:52 Labour's business plans – a summary Ed Miliband will give his speech on Labour’s business plans at about 11.30. The speech coincides with the publication of a 79-page document entitled “A Better Plan for Britain’s Prosperity”. Here is a summary of what the document includes – Labour will back small businesses and new entrepreneurs by: Labour will back the country’s biggest exporters by: Labour will back the country’s big employing sectors such as retail and social care by – Labour will back every sector of the economy by – Updated at 10.55am GMT 10.07am GMT10:07 Shadow universities minister Liam Byrne says he would like free education Shadow minister for universities Liam Byrne has said that he “would love there to be free education, in the way that I would love there to be a free NHS, but I’m not going to make a promise that is not deliverable.” He made the comments during a visit to King’s College London where he answered questions from the university’s Labour party society. Labour haven’t formally announced their policy on tuition fees, but Ed Miliband backed plans to cut the cap on tuition fees to £6,000 during his campaign to be the party’s leader in 2011. Here is an article from the Guardian’s Rebecca Ratcliffe, in which she asks a range of people whether or not a tuition fee cap of £6,000 would be a vote-winner for the Labour party. The answer seems to be – not really. Updated at 1.58pm GMT 9.52am GMT09:52 Today’s Daily Mail reports that education secretary Nicky Morgan is set to approve the opening of the first new grammar school in 50 years. The Weald of Kent girls’ grammar school in Tonbridge has applied to open a new campus nine miles away in Sevenoaks. Senior Cabinet colleagues want her to sign off a selective satellite school in Kent before the general election. And sources believe Mrs Morgan is on the verge of agreeing the move, which was rejected by her predecessor Michael Gove. She is understood to be sympathetic to the argument that existing grammars should be allowed to expand by opening satellite schools. If approved, the application could open the floodgates for similar schemes elsewhere. The article reports that Tory support for creating new grammar schools is growing, with 60 MPs now backing a campaign to persuade the prime minister to allow a new generation of the schools. Defence secretary Michael Fallon and home secretary Theresa May are among those who support creating new grammar schools in their constituencies. Updated at 1.58pm GMT 9.35am GMT09:35 Latest Poll of Polls: Lab: 34.5% Tories: 32% Ukip: 15% Lib Dems: 8% Greens: 6% (ComRes, Opinium, Populus, You Gov) 9.28am GMT09:28 Balls comments lead to a row over asking for receipts Bills, bills, bills A mini-row has erupted over comments shadow chancellor Ed Balls made yesterday on BBC Radio 5’s Pienaar’s Politics about asking people for receipts when they do cash-in-hand work, because “they’ve got the legal obligation to make sure they pay their taxes if it’s that kind of transaction”. He said: “I think the right thing to do if you are having somebody cut your hedge for a tenner is to make sure that they give you their name and address and a receipt so there’s a record that you paid them.” When asked if he had ever failed to get a receipt from a gardener, cleaner or handyman, Balls said: “Over my life — have I ever given people a tenner and not got a receipt for it? Probably yes. Since I’ve been involved in politics and Treasury matters, absolutely, I think it’s really important to have a record.” Speaking to BBC breakfast this morning, work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith weighed in, calling Balls’s comments absurd. No, I don’t think anybody in the country probably does that unless they sit down and they do it as part of a process. In other words, if you’re employing somebody in which the objective is paying them cash as a process of your business then of course I suspect most businesses do keep some sort of record of that – that’s the right thing to do. But if you have a one-off payment for something and you pay cash, I shouldn’t think anybody in the country does that necessarily. And that’s the whole point. I think what it exemplifies is Labour’s complete lack of understanding about how business works and, actually, how people get by. Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna also told BBC breakfast this morning that he doesn’t always ask people for receipts. I have to confess I don’t keep a receipt for every single thing that I get people to do. I think it’s a good housekeeping and admin, and if you’re a small business for example, and you need to put in returns and you’re claiming back tax on your VAT for example, you know it’s a good idea to keep a record of things. Do you always ask for receipts for cash-in-hand work? Updated at 1.58pm GMT 9.11am GMT09:11 Parliament is in recess this week, but – with 80 days to go before the election – the campaigning will continue. This morning the Labour leader Ed Miliband will set out his party’s key plans for business. Speaking to an audience at Jaguar Land Rover in Wolverhampton, he will say that a future Labour government would offer tax breaks to employers who adopt the living wage and crack down on zero hours contracts. He is expected to say: There is a choice of two plans at this election. A failing plan under which we would carrying on as we are with a government claiming the economy is a success when it only works for a handful of people at the top. Or a new plan, a better plan, that says this economy must succeed for working families if Britain as a whole is going to succeed. Business minister Matthew Hancock has already dismissed Labour’s plans: The last few weeks have revealed Labour’s true colours and their anti-business, anti-jobs attitude. In the past, Labour smothered small businesses in higher taxes and red tape, and Ed Miliband’s damaging tax rises on business would mean fewer jobs, fewer firms and economic chaos. I’ll be filling in for Andrew this week, covering all the breaking political news from Westminster, as well as bringing you the most interesting political comment and analysis from the web. I will post a summary at lunchtime and another in the afternoon. If you want to follow me on Twitter, I’m on @fperraudin. Updated at 3.00pm GMT |