Watch live as MPs debate government agenda set out in Queen’s Speech
Labour MPs have criticised the government for a lack of strategy in tackling the cost of living crisis in today’s Queen’s speech.
MP Zarah Sultana spoke out against the measures laid out at the State Opening of Parliament, saying the government has failed to “outline any plans to solve” the “biggest fall of living standards since records began”.
She added that the speech “shows the Tories don’t have a clue what life is like for ordinary people”.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer told the Commons that the Government had to face up to the cost-of-living crisis and the challenge of a stagnating economy to “get Britain growing again”.
The Labour leader said: “If the Tories had simply matched Labour’s record on growth in government, people would have had higher incomes, boosting public finances and we could have spent £40 billion more on public services without having to raise a single tax.”
Instead, he said, the UK was forecast to have the slowest growth in the G7 apart from Russia in the next year, and its public services were suffering.
Prime minister says Britain cannot ‘spend’ its way out of cost of living crisis
Boris Johnson told MPs: “However great our compassion and ingenuity, we cannot simply spend our way out of this problem, we need to grow out of this problem by creating hundreds of thousands of new high-wage, high-skill jobs across the country.”
Intervening, Labour MP Sarah Owen (Luton North) said Mr Johnson had yet to give an apology to the “pensioners choosing between heating and eating, an apology to the children that have gone hungry throughout school holidays, and an apology to the hundreds of thousands of family members of Covid victims that were lost during the pandemic”.
Mr Johnson replied: “Of course this Government is doing all we can to help people during the pandemic, to help pensioners – and by the way it was this Government that introduced the triple lock for pensioners to protect them.”
The triple lock was introduced by the previous Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, while the current Government temporarily suspended the earnings element of the triple lock for 2022/23 due to concerns over the distorting impact of the coronavirus crisis on wages.
Mr Johnson went on to defend support offered by the Government to help people, adding: “Be in no doubt, this is what I think everybody in this country needs to understand, what we’re doing is making sure that we have a strong economy with high-wage, high-skill jobs that will enable us to take this country forward.”
Opinion: Just saying things isn’t enough, prime minister – even if you can get Prince Charles to say them for you
“The words ‘cost of living’ appeared in the intro, slotted in right at the top and dutifully read out by Prince Charles while Prince William on the other side of the crown and stared into the middle distance, trying not to look the long decades of his terrifyingly tedious future too closely in the eye.
Prime minister says the government will have ‘fiscal firepower to help families’ after 2024
Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggested that, after 2024, the Government will have “the fiscal firepower to help families up and down the country”.
He added: “My right honourable friend the Chancellor and I will be saying more about this in the days to come. But at the same time as we help people, we need the legislative firepower to fix the underlying problems in energy supply, in housing, in infrastructure and in skills which are driving up costs for families across the country.
“And this Queen’s Speech takes those issues head on. And above all, we are tackling the economic challenges with the best solution of all and that is an ever growing number of high wage, high skill jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs.
“And we drive up employment by creating the right platform for business to invest, making our streets safer, 20,000 more police, creating a healthier population, 50,000 more nurses, funding the NHS to help them clear the Covid backlogs and giving the confidence that people know that they will be looked after in old age by fixing social care.
“Delivering gigabit broadband, giving the remotest parts of the country have the access that they need, and using our Brexit freedoms to enable revolutionary technologies like gene editing to help our farmers grow more nutritious and more productive crops.
“And it’s that combination of public and private sector together that is tackling unemployment with half a million people more on the payroll now before the pandemic began.”
Prime minister calls Starmer the ‘leader of the opposition of the moment’
Boris Johnson is met with cheers in the Commons as he repeatedly calls Sir Keir Starmer “the leader of the opposition of the moment” as a jibe against the latter’s Beergate allegations.
Read more about the Labour leader’s Beergate scandal and how it differs from Partygate:
Prime minister says despite aftershocks of pandemic still being felt, Britain will be fastest-growing economy in G7 by 2024
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the UK will be again the fastest-growing economy in the G7 by 2024.
He added: “As we come to the halfway point of this Parliament, this country has seen off the biggest challenge any post-war government has faced, but the cost of the pandemic has been huge with the biggest fall in output for 300 years that necessitated government expenditure of £400 billion and the aftershocks are still being felt across the world with a global spike in energy prices, the impact we are seeing on the cost of food, and it’s precisely because this Government got the big calls right and made the tough decisions during the pandemic that we had the fastest economic growth in the G7 last year and will return to that status by the way by 2024.”
Labour leader thanks Queen for her ‘commitment to public duty’
Sir Keir Starmer earlier paid tribute to the Queen, telling MPs: “Her dedication to Britain has been a reassuring constant in an ever-changing world, her commitment to public duty a reminder of the responsibilities we all owe each other, her dignity and her leadership an inspiration to all of us.
“She will forever have all of our thanks for 70 years of service to our country. We all wish her well.”
He added: “I also want to congratulate the Prime Minister, he’s achieved a new first, the first resident of Downing Street to be a constituent of a Labour council. I’m sure they will serve him well.”
Sir Keir also thanked the mover and seconder of the Queen’s Speech, noting how Fay Jones could be an “iron lady in the making” after her exploits in completing an “ironman” race.
Prime minister pays tribute to late Sir David Amess
Boris Johnson has paid tribute to late Sir David Amess as he said time will not ‘diminish the shock’ of his death.
Tory MPs jeer at Keir Starmer over police probe ‘karma from a korma’
Conservatives jeered at Sir Keir Starmer over the so-called Beergate saga, as a Tory MP joked that the Labour leader was suffering from “karma” over his Partygate attacks.
Backbencher Graham Stuart put the boot into over the Durham Police probe over the takeaway curry eaten at a Labour event – telling Starmer “the only thing opening up for him in the north is a police investigation”.
Mr Stuart also joked that “never in the history of human conflict has so much karma come from a korma”, prompting further laughter from the Tory benches.
The MP added said: “Free beer and cash were the electoral controversies then, as opposed to say, beer and curry today.”
My colleague Adam Forrest reports:
‘Get Britain growing again,’ Labour leader tells Commons
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has warned of a “stagflation crisis” as he insists the nation needs Labour to “get Britain growing again”.
He said: “The first great challenge our country faces is the cost-of-living crisis. Inflation stands at 7% and rising. Household bills have gone up by hundreds of pounds, the cost of the weekly shop has rocketed and people are seeing their wages run out much earlier in the month and the value of their savings fall.
He added: “This Government’s failure to grow the economy over a decade combined with its inertia in the face of spiralling bills means that we are staring down the barrel of something we haven’t seen in decades, a stagflation crisis.”
He accused the Government of “complacency” saying it was “best summed up by a Prime Minister whose response to the crisis was to make fun of those that were worrying about inflation”.
Labour leader says ‘times are tougher than they should be’ under Tory leadership
“Never before have people been asked to pay so much for so little,” Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said in his criticism of the Conservatives.
He said: “Times are hard but they’re much tougher than they should be.
“As we emerge from the pandemic, find a new place in the world outside the European Union and transition to a carbon-neutral economy, our country faces great challenges, but at the same time great opportunities are within our reach.
“We can rebuild stronger, learning where our society and services need more resilience. We can do more than just ‘get Brexit done’, we can ensure Britain is in the best position to thrive outside of the European Union. And we can lead the world in zero-carbon industries, generating high-skilled, high-wage jobs across the country.
“But for that to happen we need a Government of the moment with the ideas that meet the aspirations of the British public.
“This thin address bereft of ideas or purpose, without a guiding principle or a road map for delivery shows just how far this Government is from that – too out of touch to meet the challenges of the moment, too tired to grasp the opportunities of the future, their time has passed.”
