{"id":1846,"date":"2025-04-03T04:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T04:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1846\/"},"modified":"2025-04-03T04:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T04:31:13","slug":"starmer-wins-by-brushing-off-badenochs-tax-tirade-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1846\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer wins by brushing off Badenoch\u2019s tax tirade \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the front foot: <\/strong>The PM insisted Labour was taking decisive action by \u201crolling up our sleeves\u201d to help. Natch, Starmer flew the flag for policies including the minimum wage increase. He also, here\u2019s a new one, ripped into the Tories, claiming public services were left \u201con their knees\u201d on their watch. <\/p>\n

Back to basics: <\/strong>Badenoch, as usual, wasn\u2019t taking it, claiming the \u201conly mess is the one he made in his budget.\u201d She accused the government of breaking people\u2019s trust, highlighting the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said working families could be up to \u00a33,536\u00a0worse off in this parliament. \u201cWhy should anyone trust him again?,\u201d she cried.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a familiar one: <\/strong>Starmer proved the oldest lines will be used again and again, calling that sum a \u201cfantasy figure [which] is about as much use as Liz Truss\u2019 economic planning.\u201d The OBR won\u2019t like that. Even though Truss was in No. 10 for 49 days and left office two-and-a-half years ago, Labour will keep mentioning the former PM\u2019s actions, which continues to be the Tories\u2019 Achilles heel.<\/p>\n

Dividing lines: <\/strong>Though there is little love lost between Starmer and Badenoch, the PM suggested there was more commonality on economic policy than she might like to admit. Starmer highlighted a press conference Badenoch anchored Tuesday where she refused to say whether she\u2019d reverse the national insurance changes if she came to power, suggesting a Labour change she disliked could still be retained under a future Tory government. He lambasted her \u201cabsurd position\u201d of wanting extra investment without describing how to pay for it. Which is something you can do in opposition, to be fair.<\/p>\n

Passing the smell test: <\/strong>Badenoch tried a different tactic by mentioning council tax rises and slamming the situation in Labour-run Birmingham City Council \u201cwhere there\u2019s 17,000 tonnes of rubbish uncollected on the street\u201d due to a bin strike. Though that is an obvious visual \u2014 and sensual \u2014 weakness for Labour, the PM batted off her concerns by highlighting Tory increases in council taxes. Remember, it\u2019s only wrong if the other lot do it!<\/p>\n

Raising an eyebrow: <\/strong>The Tory leader said her party \u201cleft the fastest growing economy\u201d for Labour last year \u2026 to much laughter on the government benches. The argument didn\u2019t wash in the chamber, with Starmer decrying Badenoch as the \u201conly person left\u201d who thinks that. Ever eager to quote favorable figures, Starmer highlighted the OBR showing growth in this decade \u2014 though avoided mentioning the forecast for 2025 was halved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the front foot: The PM insisted Labour was taking decisive action by \u201crolling up our sleeves\u201d to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[1193,1194,32,33,393,1195,1196,1197,807,1198,12,617,1199,479,1200,1201,16,15,49,1202],"class_list":{"0":"post-1846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-british-politics","10":"tag-budget","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-elections","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-growth","15":"tag-insurance","16":"tag-investment","17":"tag-keir-starmer","18":"tag-kemi-badenoch","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-pensions","21":"tag-services","22":"tag-tariffs","23":"tag-tax","24":"tag-trade","25":"tag-uk","26":"tag-united-kingdom","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-westminster-bubble"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114272159913507759","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}