Chancellor Jeremy Hunt warns ‘nothing off table’ on tax cuts as senior Tory says government behaving like ‘libertarian jihadists’
A senior Tory has accused the government of looking “like libertarian jihadists” and treating the country as “laboratory mice” over the past few weeks.
Robert Halfon, former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party and an education minister under Theresa May, said he believes Liz Truss needs to apologise to the public for the economic turmoil caused by the mini-budget three weeks ago.
He told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: “I worry that over the past few weeks the government has looked like libertarian jihadists and treated the whole country as laboratory mice on which to carry out an ultra-free market experiment.
“There’s been one horror story after another.”
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He added that the public is “frightened” about what is happening to the economy and said the prime minister needs to set out a “real vision” for the future of Britain.
Mr Halfon, who now chairs the education select committee, said he “welcomed” some of the comments made by Jeremy Hunt on his first day as the new chancellor after Kwasi Kwarteng was sacked on Friday.
Ahead of Mr Kwarteng’s sacking, Mr Halfon accused Ms Truss of trashing “the last 10 years” of Conservative government during a meeting of backbench Tory MPs she was addressing.
He told the prime minister the mini-budget disproportionately benefited the wealthy and meant she had abandoned “workers’ conservatism”, The Times reported.
Sir Charles Bean, former deputy at the Bank of England, rubbished the government’s claim the recent market turmoil was due to a “global phenomenon”.
He told Sophy Ridge on Sunday it was “disingenuous” to say it is entirely due to global events and said the UK economy was similar to Germany, but now looks “more like Italy and Greece”.
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Former BoE dept on UK economy
Is defence spending pledge off the books?
Andrew Griffith, financial secretary to the Treasury, hinted Ms Truss may abandon her campaign pledges, including a promise to lift defence spending from 2% to 3% by the end of the decade.
Asked specifically about committing to an increase in defence spending, he told Sophy Ridge: “There are no commitments, I’m afraid, that I can make at 9am on a Sunday morning because we’re going into a process.
“I think in fairness, you’d be the first to say ‘why would you be making decisions without taking those into full consideration and without, of course, involving the OBR’, which is something that I think all of us have said that with hindsight would have been nicer to do.”
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Treasury minister on defence spending
Leading defence think tank, the Royal United Services Institute, calculated increasing defence spending to 3% of national income by 2030 would mean more than 40,000 extra military personnel and an extra £157 billion in spending.
But if that commitment is ditched, highly respected Defence Secretary Ben Wallace would likely resign, Sky News defence and security editor Deborah Haynes said.
Asked whether any backtracking on defence spending goals would be a resigning issue, a defence source said Mr Wallace would hold the prime minister to the pledges made.
That commitment appears to be in the balance after Mr Hunt this weekend repeatedly said he will ask all government departments to find “efficiency savings”.
Pic: Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street
‘Not taking anything off the table’
In his latest comments, Mr Hunt told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I’m going to be asking every government department to find further efficiency savings.
“I’m not taking anything off the table, I want to keep as many of those tax cuts as I possibly can, because our long-term health depends on being a low-tax economy. And I strongly believe that.”
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Mr Hunt added that he does not think the future will be “anything like” the former period of austerity under David Cameron and George Osborne.
Labour’s Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, said the last three weeks of Conservative Party action has been a “disgrace” and an “embarrassment”.
“I think every time Conservative ministers come on and pretend somehow that this isn’t their responsibility, confidence falls further,” he told Sky News.
“Who is in charge of this government? What are this government’s policies? I don’t know the answer to those questions.”
Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.
The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”
Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
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The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.
The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.
Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.
CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”
Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics.
We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.
“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.
It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.
Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.
But there is a new concept in town.
From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.
A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre
It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.
Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.
One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.
Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility
It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.
The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.
There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.
Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment
There are eight bays users can inject in
We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.
The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.
The aftercare area
Read more: ‘Dying would be better than my £1,000 a month heroin addiction’
Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.
The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.
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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.
One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.
The question is what does success look like?
The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.
It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.
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