Inside Politics: Promises

Hello there, I’m Matt Mathers and welcome to The Independent’s Inside Politics newsletter.

With Jesus in our side, us Arsenal fans are beginning to dream once more about the Holy Grail of a top four finish. The Gunners are sitting pretty at the top of the Premier League table with five straight victories, following last night’s win over Aston Villa. We are now 12 from 12 in the Tory leadership hustings and the frontrunner has made some comments which her opponents might get to resurrect in the future to attack her.

Parliament is not sitting.

Former levelling up secretary Michael Gove on BBC Radio 4 Today at 8.10am.

Labour leader Keir Starmer on BBC Radio 5 Live at 9am.

In the final Tory leadership hustings last night at London’s Wembley Arena, Truss made two pledges that one feels have the potential to come to bite her. The first was a promise not to introduce any new taxes (including an additional levy on oil and gas giants) if, as expected, she becomes prime minister next week.

Inside Politics is old enough to recall Boris Johnson (remember him?) making a similar pledge in the run-up to the 2019 general election. So confident was Johnson of his promise that he even repeated George H W Bush’s “read my lips – no new taxes” quip at the 1998 Republican Convention. We all know what happened next: he and Truss’s rival, Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, raised the tax burden to its highest level in some 70 years, partly to fund the billions of pounds worth of support administered during the pandemic.

And therein lies the danger with Truss’s promise: once-in-a-lifetime events such as the virus do sometimes happen, and it feels as though we are getting two back-to-back with the energy crisis, which is nowhere near peaking (Russia turned off the gas taps to Europe again yesterday). Critics might say it seems unwise for the foreign secretary to restrict herself fiscally at a time when experts say the government will need to find billions more to help struggling businesses and families.

The energy crisis brings us onto pledge two. Truss ruled out rationing this winter – despite it being part of the government’s worst-case scenario planning. Observers of last night’s proceedings are questioning why Truss would apparently unnecessarily rule out such a move, even if we are less exposed to Putin’s manoeuvres than some of our neighbours in Europe. Sunak, meanwhile, said “we shouldn’t rule anything out” when it comes to the energy crisis, adding that he was ready to impose a further windfall tax, in exchanges that perhaps sum up the entire campaign: ideology purity vs pragmatism. Truss may once again have been playing up to the gallery and trying to project an image of strength. But the show is now over and the business of governing, presuming there is no major upset, starts next week.

So what happens now the hustings have finished? Voting in the race to replace Johnson closes tomorrow at 5pm. The winner will be announced at 12.30pm on Monday and meet with the Queen the following day, before taking part in their first session of PMQs on Wednesday.

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Johnson is out and about in the East of England today where he will also address the energy crisis. In his last speech as PM, Johnson is expected to underline the need to secure the UK’s long-term energy security.

He will acknowledge that the squeeze on households is “deeply worrying,” and only by acting now can we establish a future “where families and businesses are never again at the mercy of international markets or foreign despots.”

The outgoing PM is also widely expected to provide further assurances over the Sizewell C project in Suffolk before leaving office.

When asked if he will sign off Sizewell C in its entirety before he departs next week, Johnson told reporters on Wednesday: “Sadly, you are going to have to wait and contain your excitement on that until later this week.”

See all of The Independent’s daily cartoons here.

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Truss says she’s confident there will be no need for the UK to ration energy this winter.

“I do rule that out. Yes.”

Tory peer Gavin Barwell on foreign secretary ruling out energy rationing.

“So if it is a cold winter and there simply isn’t enough energy to go round - which is a real risk - we are just going to have random blackouts rather than the government rationing non-domestic use so that vulnerable people don’t find themselves without heating. Crazy…”

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