'Defending This Madness': Starmer Locks Horns With Truss Over Mini-Budget 'Turmoil'
14:46 GMT 12.10.2022 (Updated: 14:47 GMT 12.10.2022)
© AFP 2023 / JESSICA TAYLOR / British Prime Minister Liz Truss speaks during her first weekly Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) session at the House of Commons
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Last week's ruling Tory party conference in Birmingham was overshadowed by an exchange rate slump against the dollar and a half-per cent interest rate rise — with a backbench rebellion forcing a U-turn on just-announced plans to cut the top rate of income tax.
The British prime minister and opposition leader have clashed angrily at their second Parliamentary showdown.
Tory leader Liz Truss faced off against Labour's Sir Keir Starmer at the first Prime Minister's Questions after the recess for party conference season that followed the house's closure in mourning for Queen Elizabeth II.
The two went head-to-head over the market mayhem and interest rate rises following Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng's mini-budget three weeks earlier.
Before the main bout began, Labour MP Graham stringer said that "spooking the markets and increasing the cost of borrowing" was an "act of gross incompetence" by the government.
Stringer asked if the government would keep its pledge to ban 'no-fault' evictions — where landlords can kick out tenants who have not broken their rental terms. "I can" Truss replied simply, kicking the issue into the long grass.
Starmer asked if Truss agreed with Business Secretary Jacob Rees Mogg's assertions in TV interviews that morning that the market turmoil had nothing to do with "her budget".
"We have taken decisive action to make sure that people are not facing energy bills of £6,000, for two years", when Labour had only pledged to cap them for six months, the PM said.
She claimed that the government's plan would mean "higher growth and lower inflation".
Does the PM agree with her business secretary that the markets' turmoil has "nothing to do with her budget"? asks Keir Starmer
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) October 12, 2022
PM Liz Truss says her government is making sure to protect the UK economy "at this very difficult time internationally"#PMQs https://t.co/HUcIB7Y2Wt pic.twitter.com/FD1fpHdRVM
Starmer accused Truss of "avoiding the question" and "ducking responsibility."
"No wonder investors have no confidence in her government," he added, before relating how "Zack and Rebecca from Wolverhampton" had told him their mortgage offer for their first home was withdrawn after the Bank of England raised interest rates.
The PM prompted jeers from the opposition benches when she reiterated the government's bail-out plan for soaring energy prices was necessary.
Truss claimed that interest rates were rising globally "in the face of Putin's appalling war in Ukraine," but said the government was helping homebuyers by raising the threshold on the Stamp Duty property purchase tax, while cutting Income Tax and National Insurance.
Starmer dismissed at the Tory leader's jibe that he had undergone "Damascene conversion" to supporting the National Insurance cut the night before as "nonsense attacks".
"The Tories went on a borrowing spree, sending mortgage rates through the roof. They are skyrocketing by £500 per month," Starmer said, asserting that 2 million homeowners whose fixed-rate deals were set to end next year were "worried sick."
He demanded Truss "do the right thing and reverse her kamikaze budget" — the opposition's pun on Kwarteng's name.
Labour Leader Keir Starmer asks PM to “reverse her kamikaze budget which is causing so much pain”
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) October 12, 2022
“I am genuinely unclear as to what The Labour Party’s policy is on our energy price guarantee” says PM Liz Truss #PMQs https://t.co/HUcIB7Y2Wt pic.twitter.com/YZJOYVJ5Z6
As tempers flared audibly, Truss said she was "genuinely unclear" about Labour's stance on the energy price guarantee scheme. "It was the biggest part of our mini-budget. Are the opposition saying they want to reverse it and they want to see people facing energy bills of £6,000?"
Starmer hit back that the Tories were going ahead with "£18 billion in tax cuts for the rich and businesses" — despite the government's U-turn last week on abolishing the 45 per cent income tax rate on annual earnings over £150,000.
Starmer then challenged Truss on her pledge that the "unfunded" tax cuts would not mean cuts to public spending.
Truss said she would cut public debt not by slashing spending, but by "spending money well".
Will PM stick to commitment she is "not planning public spending reductions"? asks Labour leader Keir Starmer
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) October 12, 2022
"Absolutely," says Liz Truss, government will reduce debt "not by cutting public spending, but by making sure we spend public money well"#PMQs https://t.co/HUcIB7Y2Wt pic.twitter.com/ZtwyT0zLhl
Starmer warned that "you can't pay for tax cuts on the never-never" and asked Conservatives backbenchers how long they would go on "defending this madness."
