Labour is ready for a fight over rail – but do the sums add up?
Today’s rail plan by Labour is a landmark moment.
Unlike many aspects of party’s policy offers to date, it is detailed, comes with a blueprint for what will happen on day one, and Whitehall will understand how to implement it.
It is, after all, winding back the clock.
Even the rail companies themselves say change to the train network is needed – though they inevitably don’t like this version of their future – and it is not without controversy.
But the row is a fight Labour want to have.
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After months of a pro-business love-in from Rachel Reeves and the Labour leadership, it is the single most concrete measure worrying business so far, according to figures from FTSE 100 firms I talked to this week.
They are watching closely to see whether the tendency to squeeze and bash business, evident under ex-leader Jeremy Corbyn, remains in the party’s DNA, even if it is well hidden.
Sir Keir Starmer’s plan allows the railway companies to come back into public ownership within five years. But will it leave the railways better off?
One key argument advanced for scrapping the old British Rail under Sir John Major’s government in the 1990s in favour of privatisation was that it would make investment in new and upgrading trains much easier.
Under the old system, in effect, the trains were competing for cash with schools and hospitals – and too often found themselves losing out.
An incoming Labour government – if we get that far – would not only find money tight, but have committed to eyewatering fiscal rules restricting their room for spending.
How much of a priority will modernisation be?
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Louise Haigh, shadow transport secretary, says the current system doesn’t work because too much money is being wasted – including on shareholder dividends, the payments to the owners of the private companies – and this needs to change.
But when I pressed her, she revealed that she has not secured any promise from Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, that efficiencies found on the railways are reinvested in the service.
The danger is that the Treasury nabs that money and spends on public services they deem a bigger priority.
Sir Keir later suggested to broadcasters the savings would go all back into the railways – curious that his choice for transport secretary was unaware of this, however.
Even the rail companies themselves say things need to change. Whether this new alternative improves services for passengers remains to be seen.
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The defence secretary has said he is “angry inside” over the infected blood scandal ahead of a long-waited report into the decades-long injustice.
Grant Shapps told Sky News he agreed it had been one of the most “shameful failures” of government and said he was dismayed by the “lack of anybody taking responsibility”.
The findings of a public inquiry into the scandal, chaired by Sir Brian Langstaff, are due to be published on Monday.
From 1970 to the 1990s, tens of thousands of people were infected with contaminated blood through blood products or blood transfusions given via the NHS. People were infected with hepatitis or HIV – in some cases with both.
An estimated 3,000 people died as a result.
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Mr Shapps told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that the scandal was a “massive injustice which needs to be put right” and said the government would act on the report.
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Thousands of people died after being given infected blood
He said that while he was yet to see the report, he hoped it would finally allow families’ pain and loss to be acknowledged and for the government to properly respond.
Mr Shapps said he had spoken to relatives of several victims, including a couple who had lost their son, and said their stories made feel him “angry inside”.
He added: “It just made me angry to know they had lost their son without anyone ever taking responsibility, so I think this is why this report tomorrow is very important.”
Successive governments have been blamed for failing to take responsibility and the current government has been accused of trying to delay compensation to victims after an inquiry was first set up by Theresa May in 2017.
It is estimated that the compensation bill could now exceed £10m.
The defence secretary admitted the process of delivering payouts to victims had gone on for “so long”.
He added: “This is a massive injustice which needs to be put right.
“And I know the government said we will. The report tomorrow, I think, will be the day for that family and others and I know the government will want to respond quickly.”
Asked whether Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would apologise to the victims, Mr Shapps said: “I don’t want to mislead because I don’t have special insight into that.”
Read more:
Boy, 7, was used in secret blood trials, parents say
Doctor’s horror over scandal
Blood donations ‘collected from UK prisons’
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Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting also told Trevor Phillips that he expected “successive governments” to be criticised in the report by Sir Brian.
“Everyone has got their responsibility to bear in this appalling scandal and we have got a shared responsibility to put it right,” he said.
“The moment to act can’t come soon enough.”
Sir Brian is due to deliver his final report just after midday on Monday.
This move follows a recent crackdown that involved confiscating 2,000 cryptocurrency mining devices as part of an anti-corruption initiative.
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