Lib Dems: England bus fare cap move to £3 is ‘without a doubt a bus tax’
Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson Tim Farron MP has described the announcement raising the bus fare cap from £2 to £3 in England and extended the scheme for a further 12 months as “without a doubt a bus tax.”
In a statement, Farron said
While this new government has been left to make difficult choices, they cannot allow the burden of fixing the Conservatives’ mess to be on people and small businesses across the country.
The fundamental issue is that neither Labour nor the Conservatives before them seemed to understand is that for rural communities, it doesn’t matter if the cap is £2 or £3 if they don’t have a bus service in the first place.
If the government is serious about growth then it would invest in services which will boost our struggling town centres and high streets.
Jeremy Corbyn has also added his voice to criticism of the announcement, saying:
Scrapping the £2 bus fare cap is a disgraceful decision that will harm the poorest in society, and discourage public transport at a time when it is needed more than ever. Why is the government punishing people for trying to get to work?
Speaking earlier today, prime minister Keir Starmer said that the flat £2 fare cap in England had only been funded by the previous Conservative administration to the end of this year, when it was due to end, and that his government were extending the policy, but at the higher rate.
When the policy was announced, the then Conservative government claimed it would save almost a third of the ticket price for the average journey, and cut emissions and congestion by taking an estimated 2m cars off the roads.
Earlier Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick described the Labour announcement as “clueless”, and shadow transport secretary Helen Whately said “That’s £10 a week extra to get to work under Labour. Clearly bus users don’t count as ‘working people’ either.”
Key events
Summary of the day so far …
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The bus fare cap in England will be extended for a further year, but rise from £2 to £3, Keir Starmer has said. The Liberal Democrats have described it as a “bus tax”, and Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick called the move “clueless”. The prime minister said the previous administration had only funded the policy up to the end of this year. Green co-leader Carla Denyer described the change as “the wrong approach”
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Starmer has promised “better days ahead” and said the era of Tory neglect and “making working people pay the price” for their policies was over. Warning “there are no shortcuts” after 14 years of Tory-led government, he said “The time is long overdue for politicians in this country to level with you honestly about the trade-offs this country faces”
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Speaker Lindsay Hoyle has angrily reprimanded the government and in particular Chancellor Rachel Reeves over details of the budget being announced in the media in advance, rather than in parliament. A statement on fiscal rules is to be made in the House of Commons later today
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Labour figures today have been repeatedly questioned by the media about the definition of “working person”. The prime minister said “I’m concerned with what’s in their payslip, and making sure that there is no more tax in their payslip”. Cabinet minister Pat McFadden said the budget would be the “most honest” in years
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McFadden also issued a strong rebuke to shadow chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s criticism of the Office for Budget Responsibility plans to publish a report about the country’s fiscal situation, saying the Tories “don’t want to hear the truth” about the financial situation they left for the new government
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Foreign secretary David Lammy robustly defended his position and the topics he had raised with the Chinese in recent discussion during an urgent question in the Commons, where he was repeatedly criticised for not being strong enough. Lammy said it was “crass” to suggest in three months he could have brough about different outcomes to the previous government’s 14 years of diplomacy
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Kemi Badenoch said the Tory leadership election was “existential” for the party. She nevertheless claimed the party could return to power after one term of a Labour government
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Russell Findlay, the new Scottish Conservative leader, has proposed cutting free prescriptions, merging local authorities and abolishing quangos to deliver cuts in Scottish income tax rates
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The adult prison population in England and Wales has dropped 3% after reaching record levels
Chris Osuh, our community affairs correspondent, writes for the Guardian that a report produced by the cross-party thinktank Demos and the Co-op has found that a lack of social mobility is costing the UK £19bn a year.
Read more here: UK loses out on £19bn in annual GDP growth due to lack of social mobility
My colleague Jessica Elgot has also suggested that the speaker was misguided earlier in his vociferous criticism of Labour’s pre-budget announcements and briefing.
She writes:
Sorry but the last time when big measures were not briefed, it was such a shock to markets that it caused a run on sterling and the Bank of England had to save pension funds from collapse. Pitch-rolling is not always a bad thing. Imagine – just imagine – if Reeves had only announced her borrowing changes on the day to parliament. Not serious.
Sorry but the last time when big measures were not briefed, it was such a shock to markets that it caused a run on sterling and the BoE had to save pension funds from collapse. Pitch-rolling is not always a bad thing… https://t.co/epT2ymST4H
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) October 28, 2024
In parliament the foreign secretary has made a statement about the Middle East.
David Lammy said the government unequivocaly condemns Iranian attacks on Israel. He said he had spoken to the foreign ministers of both Iran and Israel and urged restraint from both.
On northern Gaza, he said nine in ten Gazans had been displaced in the course of the year, and said “there is no excuse for Israel’s government’s current restrictions on humanitarian aid”.
“They must let aid in now,” he said. He added that current restrictions “fly in the face” of Israel’s commitments, and said they are a rebuke to friends of Israel who have supported its right to defend itself, while also funding humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people.
He said it was “a matter of profound regret” that Israel’s parliament has debated closing down access to Gaza for Unrwa.
On Lebanon, Lammy said the government had led efforts to respond, with a swift call for a ceasefire. He said the prime minister was meeting with Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister.
Lammy said ceasefires, international law and diplomacy were the way to deescalate the situation in the region.
“It is a source of deep frustration”, Lammy said, that progess had not been made. He said the government would continue its efforts in the region “So that one day they might all live side-by-side in peace and security.”
A dissenting voice to the speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, hauling the government and in particular the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, over the coals on budget details being published in the media in advance is Hugo Gye, political editor at the i, who argues the counterpoint, that “if the government genuinely refused to say anything about the budget before its delivery you would find a) even more damaging speculation doing the rounds b) a potentially quite violent market reaction on the day”.
If the government genuinely refused to say anything about the Budget before its delivery you would find a) even *more* damaging speculation doing the rounds b) a potentially quite violent market reaction on the day. https://t.co/cWQHGB4QAe
— Hugo Gye (@HugoGye) October 28, 2024
Readers with keen memories may remember the incident in 2013 when it appears that the Evening Standard in London had been briefed the whole of George Osborne’s budget, as evidenced by one journalist tweeting out the paper’s front page containing details before Osborne had spoken.
Not that many of us however, I suspect, remember directly the time in 1947 that Labour chancellor Hugh Dalton resigned after a different evening paper, the Star, published his budget before he spoke.
In parliament Iain Duncan Smith has raised an urgent question about the UK’s relations with China, and recent contact between the foreign secretary and Chinese officials.
Foreign secretary David Lammy robustly defended his position and the topics he had raised with the Chinese, and said he would take no lessons from the Conservative party, whose attitude to relations with China changed course several times, he says.
Emily Thornberry has invited Lammy to appear before the Foreign Affairs Committee which she now chairs. Lammy says he would be happy to appear before the committee whenever “she commands”.
Alicia Kearns, Conservative MP and shadow minister for foreign affairs, accused Lammy of giving an account of meetings that differed greatly from that given by the Chinese.
“That was really quite bad,” Lammy replies to her question.
Speaker Hoyle criticises chancellor Rachel Reeves for early disclosure of budget details
Sir Lindsay Hoyle has said it is “evident” to him that last week chancellor Rachel Reeves made significant policy announcements about fiscal rule changes in the media, rather than in parliament.
He said he is glad there is a statement being made in the house later which he implies is “no coincidence” after he has expressed his anger.
“It is not acceptable, I don’t want it to continue”, he said of budget details being paraded in the media before Wednesday.
He said that often members are worried about getting a seat in the chamber for the budget speech, but “the way things are going” this won’t be a problem, as everything will have already been published.
He also said that the party now in government used to complain about the previous administration doing this, and are now doing the same themselves.
“Get your acts together on all sides,” he said.
My colleague Polly Toynbee has published her latest column, in which she argues that Rachel Reeves’s budget “needs to sing ‘Here comes the sun’ after too many grey months of grim prognosis.”
Kemi Badenoch has just been given a warning by the speaker in the House of Commons after raising questions about Jas Athwal, MP for Ilford South since July 2024.
After she referred to stories in the media about Athwal’s alleged activities as a landlord, Lindsay Hoyle asked Badenoch whether she had notified the MP in advance that she intended to mention him. She said she would need to check with her office whether that had happened. He admonished her, and told her to change the subject of her questions.
Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch are making their final pitches to Conservative party members in the leadership election this week.
Jenrick has posted today to say that it was time to “end the drama, end the excuses and just deliver.”
He also rather unexpectedly made a pitch for the nightclubbing vote, by posting a picture of himself in a night club in Ilford, calling for a revitalisation of the late night economy.
Great to be in Faces nightclub in Ilford on Thursday night.
Labour have acted as the fun police in London, suffocating bars and clubs with red tape.
With the right leadership, London’s nightlife can thrive like our other major cities. pic.twitter.com/NnWQH7QBeC
— Robert Jenrick (@RobertJenrick) October 28, 2024
For her part, Badenoch appeared on BBC Radio 2 today. She denied that the position she was vying for was “a caretaker leader job”. She told listeners it was possible for the Conservatives to get back into power after one term of Labour in government, but that this leadership election was “existential” for the Tories.
Badenoch said:
What I tell everyone is that we have one chance to get this right. This is existential. I actually feel that if we’re not careful, this could be the end of the Conservative Party.
There is a Reform Party on the right that says it’s the real conservative party. We need to be more confident, more authentic in our values.
But we also need to ensure that we understand what we got wrong and explain to the public, apologise and create a better offer.
So there’s everything to play for. It can be done in one term, but it’s certainly something that will be the toughest thing we’ve ever had to do.
