Rishi Sunak became chancellor a month before the country went into COVID lockdown – and became the public face of the furlough scheme, as the government paid millions of people’s wages.
Today, in his first in-person speech to the Tory party conference, days after the scheme wound up, he is trying to do two things.
The first, to show he has a jobs plan for the recovery. But, also, after a spending splurge that many at this gathering see as not very Conservative, to show that he can somehow deliver on the “levelling up” agenda while getting the public finances on track, and trying not to raise any more taxes.
On jobs, he’s announcing a £500m plan to help people return to work, with extension of the Kickstart scheme for young people – which has been slower than expected to meet its 250,000 target – and support for people on low incomes to retrain and learn new skills.
The Tories are in a chipper mood, ahead in the polls, and confident that more lockdowns are not on the horizon. But the backdrop is not what they would have chosen – with ongoing fuel queues and a looming cost of living squeeze driven by rising gas prices, and the prospect of rising inflation and months-long problems with getting food onto supermarket shelves.
Advertisement
More on Conservatives
Related Topics:
The chancellor knows some sectors are facing acute labour shortages, but he echoed the words of the prime minister yesterday when he told Sky News this is the price of “the transition to a high wage, high skill economy” – or bluntly, that if businesses are short of lorry drivers or butchers, don’t bring them in from abroad, just pay them more.
Nick Allen, of the Meat Processors Association, responded that this has a cost to everyone, that paying higher wages to butchers would mean more expensive products in the shops or relying on more imports. Transitioning away from free movement of people, he said, would take 18 months of government support, not weeks.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Who will be affected by Universal Credit cut?
The clear message from ministers going into the conference is that with fewer low-skilled migrants, British workers will in time be paid more. They plan to, in the words of the Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng this weekend, take some emergency measures to ease shortages, but essentially “tough it out”.
But some Tories here privately believe the government will need to be more flexible and may need in the coming months to offer more help to industries if the real-world impact on products on the supermarket shelves continues to be disrupted, and to families who will be affected by higher living costs. It’s a dynamic to watch.
In the marginal seat of North East Fife in this election, it is not a straight fight between red and blue, but shades of yellow too.
In 2017, the SNP won here by just two votes ahead of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. That astonishing two-vote tipping point made it the UK’s most marginal seat at the time.
But in 2019, the Lib Dems won it from the SNP, giving the party one of its four MPs in Scotland.
Today, Lib Dem posters line the winding road that takes you to Anstruther’s waterfront.
It’s a charming fishing village and overlooking the harbour are quaint restaurants and gift shops – handmade soap, whisky and fresh fish – it’s all on offer.
With this allure comes a melee of tourists who join us as we hop to each business, talking to them about how the campaigns have resonated with them here.
“When it’s very, very quiet, you’re talking maybe four months of the year with maybe a six or seven hours a day, that you’re not doing very much. And you can’t really drag people in the door.
“We need to bring people in. The villages needs money. You know, that’s that’s where the economy lies, I think, in the future.”
And when at the ballot box, Tom says it’ll be his shop at the forefront of his mind.
“I look for somebody that’s going to help businesses like myself, small businesses, and keep the high streets going, get people out,” he says.
This is one of the constituencies to have had its boundary lines redrawn.
Changes have now led to areas with higher levels of deprivation being added to the North East Fife seat.
Away from the picturesque coastline, further inland there are signs of a lack of investment and care.
Spreaker
This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Spreaker cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Spreaker cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Spreaker cookies for this session only.
Chris adds: “There’s just so many promises and you think, you’ve had your time, can someone else do more for the country. We’re a very tourist-heavy area and we can’t afford to lose that. If Scotland loses its attraction, you know, we failed.”
The national narrative and the polls are having an impact on how he is feeling.
“I never thought I’d say it, but Labour are coming to mind, I think they’re going to do more for the country than the others.
“But who do you believe? There’s always promises. And when it comes down to how many are delivered, usually very few.”
We’ve met those across this constituency who intend to back Reform, SNP and Labour throughout the day.
A sign that even the most seemingly straightforward of seats is all to play for.
The list of candidates standing in North East Fife are:
Wes Streeting has urged voters not to hand “the matches back to the arsonists to finish the job” as he warned against complacency over polls predicting a Labour landslide.
Speaking to Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, the shadow health secretary stressed the choice at the election as he branded the Tory manifesto “Liz Truss’s budget on steroids” and raised the prospect of “a nightmare on Downing Street” if the governing party was returned.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:04
Conservatives: We’re fighting for every vote
Mr Streeting made his comments as fresh polls signalled a further grim outlook for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, with one indicating the Conservatives on course to pick up just 72 seats.
Meanwhile, cabinet minister Mark Harper insisted the Tories were fighting for every vote, but repeated his party’s warning that a vote for Reform UK would give Labour a large majority and “a blank cheque” in office.
Mr Streeting said: “I just warn people, against this backdrop of breathtaking complacency in the media about the opinion polls, do not give the matches back to the arsonist to finish the job.”
He added: “Do people want to see Liz Truss’s mini budget on steroids, which is the Conservative manifesto, being delivered if there’s a nightmare on Downing Street on 5 July or do they want to see a stable economy with economic growth, shared prosperity, enable us to invest in our public services without clobbering working people with taxes, that’s the choice at this election.”
Despite the polls, Mr Harper told Phillips: “I’m still very much up for this fight.
“The Conservative Party across the country, led by the prime minister, is fighting for every vote.”
Spreaker
This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Spreaker cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Spreaker cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Spreaker cookies for this session only.
He added: “But the polls do tell us one thing. They do show people that if people don’t vote Conservative and some of the people vote for the smaller parties, and Labour does end up with a very large majority, they’re going to have a blank check.
“They are trying very hard in this campaign not to spell out how they’re going to pay for any of their promises. We know there is a black hole. We can have a debate about how big it is.
“We’ve said it’s going to be £2,000 for every family in the next over the parliament, but there’s definitely a black hole.
“We’ve set out the taxes that they might have to raise and they haven’t ruled them out.”
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Mr Harper went on: “I’d say very simply to those voters who are thinking about voting Reform who have voted Conservative – they want to see lower taxes, they want to see migration under control, if they vote Reform they’re going to get a Labour government with a large majority and it’s going to deliver the opposite of what they want.”
Mr Harper also insisted the election was “not about the past”.
He said: “Elections are about the future. They’re about the offer in front of us.”
In his interview with Phillips, Mr Streeting also indicated there could be greater spending increases for the NHS than committed to in the Labour manifesto, but stressed this could happen “only if the conditions allow”.
He was responding to analysis by the Nuffield Trust thinktank that suggested both Labour and Tory pledges on the NHS would leave the health service with lower annual funding increases than during the austerity era.
Seizing on this, a Tory spokesman said: “Labour’s manifesto is just window dressing for the election campaign and they are planning to spend and tax more than they are telling the public.”
The billionaire investor also intimated that any political aspirations Gensler had would amount to nothing due to the SEC chairman’s stance against cryptocurrency