Chancellor Rachel Reeves admits she was 'wrong' during election when she said taxes would not have to rise

Chancellor admits she was 'wrong' during election when she said taxes would not have to go up

The first guest on this week's edition of Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips is Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

We start with a TV clip of her from during the election campaign, on 11 June, in which she said: "We don't need higher taxes. What we need is growth and I don't want to, and I have no plans to increase any taxes beyond those which we have already set out."

Yet this week, she raised the overall tax burden by £40bn, so we ask why anyone should believe a word she tells the public going forward.

She replies: "I was wrong on 11 June. I didn't know everything, because when I arrived at the Treasury on 5 July, so just under a month after I said those words.

"I was taken into a room by the senior officials at the Treasury, and they set out the huge black hole in the public finances beyond which anybody knew about at the time of the general election, because the previous government hid it from the country, they hid it from parliament and indeed, they hid it from the official independent forecaster."

To that end, she says she "had to put our public finances back on a firm trajectory".

But Trevor Phillips puts to her that she said the black hole amounted to £22bn, yet she raised taxes by £40bn.

She insists the Treasury has been clear about how that black hole came about, says there were "unfunded" compensations schemes that needed money, and public services need money.

Police 'assessing' non-recent sexual assault claim against late Alex Salmond

Some breaking news to bring you now, and it concerns the former first minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, who died unexpectedly last month at the age of 69.

A claim of non-recent sexual assault has been filed with police against the late Alba Party leader.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "We can confirm that we have received a report of a non-recent sexual assault.

"The information is being assessed."

Mr Salmond was previously charged with 14 sexual offences, but after a trial in March 2020, he was cleared of all charges.

'Drop tax rise on care', Lib Dems demand

The Liberal Democrats this morning are pushing back on the chancellor's position that aside from civil servants and the NHS, every sector will be liable for the rise in employers' national insurance.

A particular concern is the impact on care homes, and the party's deputy leader said in a statement: "The Chancellor must listen now and drop this tax on care.

"Right across the country GP practices, care homes, hospices and dentists are all set to be hit hard by this tax hike, and it is patients who will pay the price.

"The Liberal Democrats will fight hard in parliament to ensure GPs and other healthcare providers are exempt from this tax rise."

Who is Badenoch's husband? Does he have more in common with Denis Thatcher or Philip May?

Kemi Badenoch's husband has one thing in common with Sir Denis Thatcher. They both met their wife while they were Tory activists and their future bride was fighting a safe Labour seat.

Hamish Badenoch would regularly give Kemi a lift in his car when she was Tory candidate against Labour's Tessa Jowell in Dulwich and West Norwood in the 2010 general election.

And Denis Thatcher famously gave the young Margaret Roberts a lift home to London in his sports car when she was the Tory candidate in Dartford, which she fought in the 1950 and 1951 elections.

But the similarity probably ends there. Sir Denis went on to become a national celebrity in his own right, satirised in a "Dear Bill" column in Private Eye and a West End play "Anyone for Denis?"

Hamish Badenoch, on the other hand, has kept a remarkably low profile, rather like another Tory activist-turned-PM's spouse, Sir Philip May, who was described by wife Theresa as her "rock".

And so, in shunning the limelight - so far - Mr Badenoch is definitely more Philip May than Denis Thatcher, though the extrovert and endearingly eccentric Sir Denis was a one-off among PM's spouses.

New Tory leader says partygate scandal was 'overblown' - and rules created 'trap' for Johnson

Kemi Badenoch won the race to be the next Tory leader, and she has been speaking publicly this morning for the first time.

Asked about what went wrong with Boris Johnson's government, she told the BBC: "I thought he was a great prime minister, but there were some serious issues that were not being resolved and I think that during that tenure the public thought that we were not speaking for them or looking out for them, we were in it for ourselves.

"Some of those things I think were perception issues, a lot of the stuff that happened around partygate was not why I resigned."

On partygate, she said: "I thought that it was overblown. We should not have created fixed penalty notices, for example. That was us not going with our principles."

Mrs Badenoch went on to say that the public was "not wrong to be upset about partygate", but added: "The problem was that we should not have criminalised every day activities the way that we did.

"People going out for walks, all of them having fixed penalty notices, that was what ended up creating a trap for Boris Johnson."

UK should 'expect' Trump to follow through on imposing 20% import tariffs

Finally with former US ambassador to the UK Philip Reeker, we ask how a second Trump term will be different to the first.

He replies that he will bring "that experience of four years in the White House", with "lessons perhaps learned, perhaps not".

More broadly, he says: "I think the institutions in America will persevere. They will get us through what is likely to be a tumultuous period of reflection."

"If you look back at history, we've been through these things before. But this will be a particularly anxious time."

Asked if Donald Trump is serious about imposing 20% tariffs on all imports, he replies: "I think that's something people have to expect. Economists expressed great concern about that."

He notes that analysts have suggested it could rapidly increase inflation, that the Biden administration has worked hard to reduce.

But the special relationship "endures", and during a Trump second term, it will be "transactional".

"But our relationship in terms of defence, intelligence sharing, in terms of what our two nations really share historically, culturally, it'll be very positive and that I am quite confident will endure."

'Who wins the US election? It's the lawyers!'

The final guest on this week's edition of Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips is Philip Reeker, who served as US ambassador to the UK from 2021 to 2022, and also previously served as a diplomat under the first Trump administration.

He tells us that the US election is "an incredibly tight race" between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and "nobody can predict for sure" what the result will be.

Gender is a key issue in the race, as is eduction, he explains, and there is also a "generational shift" in which way different groups of voters are leaning.

Asked when we can expect the election result, Mr Reeker replies: "I don't expect to see a firm result, certainly not Tuesday night."

He also cautions that there will likely be lots of legal challenges from the Trump team, adding: "Somebody said, who wins this election? It's the lawyers!"

Beth, Ruth, and Harriet bring you their reaction to the news in a special Saturday episode of Electoral Dysfunction.

Does new Tory leader need a 'personality transplant'?

The new Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, has a reputation for being rather blunt and abrasive at times, and Trevor Phillips asks shadow culture secretary Julia Lopez if a "personality transplant" might be needed.

Ms Lopez replies: "We're in a situation now where Kemi secured the most MP votes. Kemi also secured the most votes among the membership.

"People want to see politicians who are straight talking. She speaks with clarity, she speaks with truth.

"Now, she's already had a discussion in a different media outlet about how she might start to change some of the ways in which she deals with people, if that's necessary, but I don't know if that is necessary right now."

-SKY NEWS