Miliband urges new bank bonus tax

Rolling coverage of all the day’s political developments as they happen 11.48am: Q: Is Prince Andrew a liability? Miliband says when he was energy secretary he worked with the prince in the prince’s role as trade envoy. The prince did a good job, Miliband says. Q: Will David be your best man? (That’s a reference to this story in the Mail on Sunday yesterday.) Miliband says that Gordon Brown won’t be organising his stag do. And when he has something to say about his best man, “I can promise you you’ll be the last to know”, he tells Graeme Wilson from the Sun. 11.45am: Q: If borrowing is £20bn less than envisaged originally by Alistair Darling, how would you spend that money? Balls says governments make tax and spending decisions on a year by year basis. He does not have access to the government’s figures, he says. Q: If you did not spend every penny wisely, can you tell us where the money was wasted? Balls says no government spends every penny wisely. It is always possible to make efficiencies. That’s why the Labour government commissioned the Gershon review. 11.43am: Q: What do you say to the Tory charge that you have already spend the bank bonus tax money many times over? Balls says this is “total utter garbage and claptrap”. Q: How many of these construction jobs would actually go to British people? Balls says there are many British contractors who are not working at the moment because jobs have gone in the construction industry. And immigration from the EU has fallen. So, Balls says, he does not accept the proposition. 11.42am: Q: How many members of the shadow cabinet support AV? Miliband says he supports AV, although others in the party don’t. Balls says he supports AV, but he does not think it is the most important issue facing the party. 11.40am: Q: What would you say to people outraged by your decision not to vote against the welfare bill at second reading? Miliband says Labour tabled a reasoned amendment to the bill setting out the party’s objections. But Labour MPs did not vote against the bill at second reading because they are some principles in the bill that the party supports. 11.37am: Q: Which of the Conservative cuts would you support, if any? Balls says you make decisions budget by budget. Borrowing was coming down faster than expected. The idea that there were pre-ordained cuts envisaged is not true. Balls says he set out cuts as children’s secretary. And as shadow home secretary he supported some cuts. But if unemployment is rising, that makes it harder to get the defict down. There are three factors involved in defict reduction: tax, spending and growth. Of these, growth is most important, Balls suggests. 11.36am: Q: What happened about the AV event planned for tomorrow? Miliband says Clegg was worried about the event going ahead without his involvement. 11.35am: Q: Are you in favour a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU? Miliband says Britain made a decision on Europe in 1975. It was the right decision. The bonds that have been created by the EU “have helped to create peace in Europe”. Someone like his father would have been surprised by how this has happened, he says. 11.31am: Q: Would you share a platform with Nick Clegg on AV? Miliband says he would share a platform with anyone who would help him win the AV campaign. But he won’t share a platform with Clegg, “because I don’t think he will help us win the referendum”. The best thing Clegg could do would be to “lie low for a bit”. Q: What mistakes did you make in power? Balls says he did not regulate the banks enough. He regrets not slapping down people like George Osborne even more than he did, because they were arguing for less regulation. The Tories are saying Labour was “feckless with public spending”. That is “complete nonsense”, Balls says. Labour tried to control spending. As evidence of this, he cites the Gershon review. 11.30am: Q: Do you support the recommendations of the Hutton report on public sector pensions? Miliband says he is going to study the report in detail. But the government has pre-empted it, because it has already decided to increase employee contributions from public sector workers. That shows the government is not taking Hutton seriously, he says. 11.28am: Q: Why not make the bank bonus tax permanent? Balls said a year ago the banks said the bonus tax would not work. It ended up raising £3.5bn. In the long term, it is important to wait for the Vickers report on the future of banking, Balls says. If you can make progress on reforming the bank bonus rules, then there may be no need for a permanent bank bonus tax. 11.26am: Q: Are you now in favour of the VAT increase generally? Miliband says Labour would not have put up VAT. But he cannot say now what Labour’s budget plans will be for 2015. Balls says he has made no commitments on VAT generally. But it is clear that the VAT rise was the wrong tax at the wrong time, Balls says. 11.22am: Q: If the bank bonus tax was such a good idea, why was it a one-off? Miliband says Alistair Darling thought there would be more global action on bank bonuses when he said his tax would be a one-off. Darling also envisaged more restraint from banks. Balls says filling up his car cost him £74.50 at the weekend. Other families are paying the same. They look at those bills and think that cutting taxes for banks should not be a priority. Q: Would the EU let you cut VAT on fuel? Balls says Kenneth Clarke cut VAT on fuel in 1995. That was perfectly legal. The government does have to go through the proper EU procedures, and the Treasury has already done this in relation to VAT on fuel in rural areas. 11.17am: They are taking questions now. Q: Are you still committed to halving the deficit over four years, as Alistair Darling proposed? Or is there a new Balls plan to replace the Darling plan? Miliband says Labour is still sticking to the proposal to halve the deficit over four years. Balls says Osborne wants to go further than Alistair Darling. Darling’s plan was clear. “That is what we thing the government should be doing today,” he says. The idea that Labour’s deficit reduction plans and the government’s are similar is “complete nonsense”. Darling was over-achieving his plan by £20bn a year, Balls says, because the deficit was falling more quickly than expected. Q: Would you support military action in Libya? Miliband says he supported what David Cameron said about investigating the possibility of a no-fly zone. But Cameron needs to convert “a phrase into a plan”. Britain cannot just stand by. But any plan has to be feasible. 11.10am: Ed Balls is speaking now. He says George Osborne should rethink his extreme plans to cut the deficit more quickly than any other major economy. He cites various experts who agree, including “the last three winner of the Nobel prize for economics”. Even withing the “fiscal straightjacket” Osborne has chosen, there are things he could do to stimulate growth. Balls says Osborne should cancel the VAT increase on fuel. He can do this now. It would cost £800m, using the extra money from the bank levy to fund this. Labour are going to have a debate on this on Wednesday. MPs will vote on the plan. Balls will be urging Tory MPs to vote for the cut. Balls says a “cautious estimate” suggests that repeating the bank bonus tax could raise £2bn. The money should be used to do three things. (See 10.59am.) First, it should be used to pay for new homes. Second, it should be used to pay for a youth jobs fund. If this is as successful as the future jobs fund was, it could get almost 90,000 people into work. Third, there should be an extra £200m for the regional growth fund. 11.05am: Ed Miliband says David Cameron’s claim about Britain being “out of the danger zone” now sounds very hollow. The economy should be growing strongly by now. Unemployment should be coming down. If the growth forecasts are revised down in next week’s budget, we’ll know that government policies are to blame, Miliband says. Some families are facing the equivalent of a 5p tax rise, he says. The Tories says there is no alternative – “words we’ve heard before from another Tory government” [Margaret Thatcher's]. They were wrong then and they are wrong now, Miliband says. Labour would have made cuts – “but at a sensible and balanced pace”. Miliband says he does not expect the government to abandon its deficit reduction plan. But they should be taking steps to deal with the problem of faltering growth. Continuing the tax on bank bonuses could create 110,000 jobs, Miliband says. 11.04am: Ed Miliband and Ed Balls are here. Milband starts by expressing support for what the government is doing to help the Japanese. 10.59am: According to the press release Labour have just handed out to journalists at the news conference, raising £2bn by repeating the one-off bank bonus tax introduced by Alistair Darling would pay for: • Spending £1.2bn on building more than 25,000 homes. This would generate 20,000 jobs in the construction industry and “several times more in the supply chain”, Labour says. • A £600m fund for youth jobs. • An extra £200m for the regional growth fund. 10.58am: Today Ed Miliband and Ed Balls are claiming that a bank bonus tax of £2bn could be used to create 110,000 new jobs. 10.50am: I’m at Church House waiting for the Ed Miliband/Ed Balls press conference to start. The Tories have invited us to a counter-briefing designed to highlight “Labour’s unfunded spending commitments”, although rather foolishly they’re holding it at 11.45am, when many of us will probably still be at Labour’s event. Never mind. I think we’ve got the gist of it already. The Tories put out a press notice yesterday claiming that Labour had already committed themselves to using the the £2.7bn bank levy to fund spending commitments worth £27bn. 10.24am: You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here. And all the politics stories filed yesterday, including some in today’s paper, are here. As for the rest of the papers, I’ve already mentioned Sir Malcolm Rifkind’s artice in the Times saying the west should arm the Libyan rebels. (See 8.57am.) Here are some articles worth noting. • Lord Ashdown in the Financial Times (subscription) says Europe should impose a no-fly zone over Libya. Of the other options available to us, only one makes sense and that is a no-fly zone. Could it lead to us being drawn in further? Possibly. Is that a risk? Certainly. But, as with Bosnia, we must calculate not just the risks of action, but also the risks of inaction. Here too, the risks of standing by and doing nothing are greater than those that would be incurred by a careful, graduated and proportionate response designed to assert the primacy of international law and enable the people of Libya to make their own choice about their government. Thanks to the lead given by London and Paris, we may assume that the military preparations for a no-fly zone are broadly in place. We await only the right conditions to impose one. First, and most important, there has to be a clear call from Libyans. This action must be at their initiation, not ours. They have already made this call. The second is Arab regional support – perhaps even a regional face. The Arab League’s support for a no-fly zone is remarkable and important. There now needs to be a diplomatic campaign to bring in other Arab nations. • Louis Susman, the US ambassador, tells Con Coughlin in an interview in the Daily Telegraph that he has some concerns about the speed with which the government is cutting the deficit. While Mr Susman says that he now believes Mr Cameron “is growing into the job”, he still entertains some concerns about the speed with which the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, George Osborne, are tackling Britain’s massive budget deficit, which he fears might still result in a double-dip recession. “It is very admirable and we are rooting for you,” Mr Susman says of the Government’s recovery programme. “But the question is, is it too much, too fast? We worry about double-dip recession and the lack of growth.” He points out that in the States, Mr Obama is hoping to achieve economic growth in the region of 3.5 per cent while at the same time halving the budget deficit by 2013. • Jim Pickard in the Financial Times (subscription) says George Osborne will unveil a plan for “land auctions” in the budget. George Osborne is set to announce pilots for new “land auctions” in the Budget in an attempt to drive down the price of land for development, stimulating economic growth. The chancellor will invite a small number of councils to volunteer for the radical trials, designed to give an incentive to offer more planning approvals for new homes, business parks and other developments. Vince Cable, business secretary, proposed the idea but failed to win the wholehearted backing of Eric Pickles, communities secretary, who is understood to have misgivings about it … Under the system, a council would ask any local landowners to submit sealed-bid letters stating the price at which they would be willing to sell their land. This price would be binding and councils would be given the right to buy that land for a set period. The council would then choose which land offered they would like to be developed, would grant that land planning permission, and auction it to developers. This would allow local authorities to capture almost all of the increase in land value created by allowing development. • Claire Ellicott in the Daily Mail says an official report found that more than 100 state schools failed to enter a single candidate for GCSE history last year. The schools inspectorate Ofsted also found that England is the only country in Europe where children may stop studying history at the age of 13. Its conclusions will add weight to calls for reform to the national curriculum, which is being reviewed by Education Secretary Michael Gove and historian Simon Schama. 10.11am: A campaign called People’s Pledge has been launched today demanding a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. A YouGov poll for the campaign found that 61% of voters would support a referendum, against 25% opposing it. 9.48am: Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, has come up with some new figures designed to strengthen the case for NHS reform. His department has put out a news release saying there will be a 252% increase in the number of people with two or more long-term conditions by 2050. Here’s an extract. Almost one in three of the population have a long term condition – such as asthma, heart and lung disease, arthritis, hypertension and diabetes – and half of people over the age of 60 have one. They are the biggest users of the NHS accounting for around 50 percent of GP appointments and 70 per cent of inpatient hospital beds meaning 30 per cent of the population accounts for 70 per cent of the spend. The NHS will not be able to meet this increase in demand unless it changes. Add to that the fragmented and inefficient way the NHS currently looks after people with long term conditions and the health service just won’t be able to cope a few years from now. 9.24am: Alan Milburn, the former Labour health secretary, turned down an invitation from the government to apply to become chair of the new NHS commissioning board, the Northern Echo reports. 9.21am: We’re going to be hearing a lot from Ed Miliband today. As well as doing his press conference, he’s going to be on Sky’s Boulton & Co programme at 1pm. 8.57am: Here are the main points from William Hague’s interview on the Today programme. I’ve taken the quotes from PoliticsHome. • Hague said the world was reaching “a point of decision” over Libya. We are now reaching a point of decision, very clearly, on what happens next. I’ve been discussing that with Hillary Clinton, last night, and the French foreign minister. We will meet, along with the other five foreign ministers of the G8, tonight in Paris and there’ll be a meeting at the UN security council of its members today to see what further we can do. • He said there was a case for arming the rebels. Sir Malcolm Rifkind has written an article in the Times (paywall) proposing this and Hague said that Rifkind made “a very good case”. But he said there was currently an arms embargo on the whole of Libya and that there would be disadvantages to lifting it. I wouldn’t exclude various possibilities on this score but I do stress for the moment that there is an international arms embargo and that lifting it can affect the ability of the Gaddafi side. • He said establishing a no-fly zone was still a possibility. Clearly a no-fly zone is one of the leading propositions. It isn’t the answer to everything, but it has been called for by the Arab League and it is something which the international community now must consider. • He said military action could be legal even without a UN security council resolution. There has to be regional support – which there clearly is – there has to be clear legality for it and a demonstrable need, and now of course one of the ways in which to make anything in these situations legal is to have a resolution of the United Nations security council. In cases of great, overwhelming humanitarian need then nations are able to act under international law even without a resolution of the security council. But it’s clearly the cleanest and simplest support for legality to have a security council resolution. • He said that the Foreign Office was not aware of any confirmed reports of Britons dying in the Japanese disaster. But he did not rule out the possibility of Britons having died. “Clearly at any one time there are a lot of British people travelling around in Japan,” he said. 8.43am: There are two main events in the diary today. Ed Miliband and Ed Balls are holding a joint press conference this morning which will be about next week’s budget. And David Cameron will be making a statement in the Commons this afternoon about Libya. Libya has been overshadowed by the events in Japan, but the crisis there has not gone away. William Hague has just told the Today programme that the “point of decision” over Libya is arriving. I’ll post more from his Today programme interview in a moment. Here’s a full list of what’s coming up. 11am: Ed Miliband and Ed Balls hold a press conference. They will urge the government to cut VAT on petrol and impose a new tax on bank bonuses . 11am: The Fair Fuel Campaign stages a protest at Westminster about fuel tax. 11.30am: Save the Children lobbies the Treasury, urging George Osborne to help families in severe poverty in the budget. 3.30pm: David Cameron gives a statement to the Commons about the EU summit called to discuss Libya . As usual, I’ll be covering all the breaking political news, as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web. I’ll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm, and an afternoon one after Cameron’s statement. Andrew Sparrow guardian.co.uk

Posted by on March 14, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.