In a series of TV interviews on Tuesday, Boris Johnson said there is “no alternative” to wage-fuelled inflation – and brushed off concerns that increasing pay for HGV drivers will drive up prices in the shops.
The PM’s comments came amid warnings of 1970s-style inflation sparked by reduced EU workers due to Covid and the end of free of movement post-Brexit. Inflation is currently running at 3 per cent and is forecast to spike higher.
However, Mr Johnson argues that, following Brexit, the UK is going through a “transition” from a low-wage, low-productivity economy reliant on cheap labour from overseas to a higher-wage, higher-productivity model.
In his speech at the Tories’ conference, Sajid Javid said health and social care “begins at home” and people should go to family for support before the state.
The health secretary said: “The State was needed in this pandemic more than any time in peacetime. But government shouldn’t own all risks and responsibilities in life.
“We as citizens have to take some responsibility for our health too.
“We shouldn’t always go first to the State. What kind of society would that be?
“Health – and social care – begins at home. Family first, then community, then the State.
“If you do need support, we live in a compassionate, developed country that can afford to help with that. There are few higher callings than to care for another person.”
Follow our live coverage below
Good morning, and welcome to The Independent’s rolling coverage of UK politics. Stay tuned as we bring you the latest developments coming out of the Conservative Party conference as it enters its third day in Manchester.
Patel to unveil new powers against activists travelling to protests
Priti Patel will unveil draconian new powers to stop climate activists travelling to protests and to allow police to search them for equipment such as glue, handcuffs or chains.
The measures, to be called criminal disruption prevention orders, will bar repeat protesters from going to demonstrations, the home secretary will say – reviving memories of the targeting of striking miners attempting to reach pickets in the 1980s.
And a second crackdown will introduce stop-and-search powers in respect of people who are suspected of carrying items that would allow them to attach themselves to motorways.
The plans come amid growing Conservative fury about the way the group Insulate Britain has continued to block major roads, evading attempts to stop it.
Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick reports:
Dramatic increase in round-the-clock tagging for ex-offenders
Dominic Raab is set to announce a dramatic escalation in the use of GPS tags to track ex-offenders, with almost double the number of offenders set to be tagged over the next three years in a bid to curb reoffending and protect victims.
In his first speech as justice secretary to the Conservative conference in Manchester, Mr Raab will set out plans to spend £183m to increase the use of satellite location devices to track the movement of released offenders around the clock, with the number tagged at any one time rising from 13,500 this year to about 25,000 by 2025.
And he will announce a £90m plan to increase to 8 million hours a year the community work carried out by offenders in what Boris Johnson has referred to as “fluorescent-jacketed chain gangs”.
Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has the full report:
Johnson says UK has granted 127 HGV drivers visas – not 27
Let’s get straight into it. Boris Johnson has given BBC Breakfast an interview in which he discussed everything from the HGV driver shortage, anger over the murder of Sarah Everard and worries around supply shortages in the lead up to Christmas.
In one particularly shocking revelation, the PM denied reports first published by The Times last night which said only 27 EU lorry drivers had taken up the government’s temporary visa offer.
Instead, he claimed, 127 of the 300 visas for tanker drivers to come to the UK immediately had been granted. They are among 5,000 visas overall on offer for HGV drivers.
“It’s a fascinating illustration of the problem of the shortage,” Mr Johnson told BBC Breakfast. “What we said to the road haulage industry was, ‘fine, give us the names of the drivers that you want to bring in and we will sort out the visas, you’ve got another 5,000 visas’.
“They only produced 127 names so far.”
He added: “What that shows is the global shortage.”
PM ‘not focused’ on making misogyny a hate crime after Everard murder
Some more from Boris Johnson’s interview with BBC Breakfast now.
The PM said the “anger over Sarah Everard’s murder is a symptom” of a “wider frustration that people feel”, but refused to be drawn into whether misogyny should be prosecuted as a hate crime.
“I think that what we should do is prosecute people for the crimes we have on the statute book,” he told the morning programme. “That is what I am focused on. To be perfectly honest, if you widen the scope of what you ask the police to do, you will just increase the problem.
“What you need to do is get the police to focus on the very real crimes, the very real feeling of injustice and betrayal that many people feel.”
Mr Johnson also said he wanted to see a culture change in police forces by training more female officers.
Closer look: PM claims making misogyny a hate crime would overload police
Following my last post, our deputy political editor Rob Merrick takes a look Boris Johnson ruling out making misogyny a hate crime “because it would overload the police”.
Johnson insists Christmas will be better than last year
The PM has insisted that despite supply chain problems, Christmas would be better than last year after it was “cancelled” for much of the country due to coronavirus.
“Christmas this year will be very considerably better than last year,” he told the BBC. “I think we have very reliable supply chains in this country.”
PM stumbles when asked ‘who will pay’ for corporation tax hikes
Doing the media rounds this morning, Boris Johnson is now speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Before any questions were put to him, presenter Nick Robinson stressed it was the first time the PM had appeared on the show “for two years”.
“Has it really been that long? Gosh time goes quickly,” Mr Johnson said, before he was quizzed about issues including the cost of living this winter.
“Do you accept that is a crisis?” Mr Robinson asked. “Who will pay, for example, for the biggest hike in business taxation that we’ve seen in years – £12m – the highest corporate tax levels seen since 1989 under a Conservative government.”
The PM responded by saying “corporation taxes have been delayed” before he was cut off.
“I’m asking who’ll pay for it,” Mr Robinson said.
“Well, eventually corporations will pay but what we have now – which is what I was trying to explain when you asked me to stop talking earlier … what we are doing in the meantime is giving businesses a super deduction to enable them to invest in capital and equipment,” Mr Johnson replied.
‘We want to help low income families’: PM defends Universal Credit cuts
We’re staying on Radio 4’s Today interview with the PM for a moment.
Turning to Universal Credit cuts, presenter Nick Robinson asked how the Tories could justify their £20-a-week cut to claimants when they are “paying £20 for a main course steak” while in Manchester for their party conference.
Boris Johnson responded by saying: “I know it’s tough for people and I understand that people on low incomes are working very hard at the moment to make ends meet, and we want to do everything we can to help them.”
“But what I think is wrong is taking more money in taxation to subside low pay,” he added.
‘Return to work or get gossiped about,’ says Johnson
Looking towards his Tory conference speech, which is expected on Wednesday, Boris Johnson today ordered young workers to return to the office or risk being “gossiped about”.
“The data I see at the moment is very clear that we are right to stick to Plan A which is what we’re on. That means opening up and encouraging people, always continuing to do sensible things like washing your hands, having ventilation, all that kind of thing,” the PM told LBC Radio this morning.
“But we are certainly encouraging people to get back to work in the normal way, and I think that’s a good thing, and let me tell you why. For young people in particular it’s really essential, if you’re going to learn on the job, you can’t just do it on Zoom. You’ve got to be able to come in and sit at the … you’ve got to know what everybody else is talking about.”
He added: “Otherwise you’re going to be gossiped about and you’re going to lose out. You need to be there and you need to have the stimulus of exchange and competition.”
Despite this, when asked if he himself had “100 per cent” of Downing Street staff back behind their desks, the PM admitted he did not.
