“The face on the high could change however the story stays the identical,” mentioned Starmer, because the pair went head-to-head over the PM’s plans to deal with the vitality disaster.
In her first Commons showdown with Keir Starmer at Prime Minister Questions, Liz Truss was accused of placing vitality income earlier than working folks after defending her opposition to a windfall tax.
Truss confirmed she is going to announce a bundle to assist households with hovering vitality payments tomorrow. When requested how she is going to fund the upcoming cost-of-living measures by the Labour chief, the brand new PM dominated out imposing an additional windfall tax.
She mentioned she is towards implementing a windfall tax on vitality firms to cope with rising vitality payments as a result of it “will put them off investing within the UK.” Truss mentioned her authorities will create long-term provide options, together with constructing extra nuclear stations and opening up extra provide within the North Sea.
£170bn in extra revenue
Informing Truss that the Treasury estimates that vitality giants would internet £170bn in extra revenue throughout the subsequent two years, Starmer accused the brand new PM of defending vitality firms and their “huge income.”
Reminding the Home that Truss was the fourth Tory prime minister in six years and that the “face on the high could change however the story stays the identical,” Starmer mentioned:
“The prime minister is aware of she has no selection however to again an vitality value freeze, however the actual selection is who’s going to pay it. She is aware of that each single pound in extra income she chooses to not tax is an additional pound on borrowing that working folks will probably be compelled to pay again for many years to come back.”
Refusing to tax the vitality giants, Truss is anticipated to place the rumoured £100bn invoice on the nationwide debt by means of borrowing extra money.
Tearing into the brand new PM, Ian Blackford, SNP Westminster chief, mentioned her document for being “straight speaking” was “falling aside.”
“After 9 questions she’s nonetheless not advised us who pays,” he fumed.
However maybe the largest speaking level of an in any other case pretty uneventful first PMQs for the brand new Tory chief, was when SNP MP Hannah Bardell branded Boris Johnson “corrupt.”
Pointing to the brand new Prime Minister’s “flip-flopping on Brexit” and her “incapability to grasp international affairs”, Bardell requested Truss if her constituents would “have any religion that she will be able to deal with the oncoming humanitarian disaster.”
“Is she going to come back out of her den at Quantity 10 and take actual motion or is she going to be as ineffective and corrupt as her predecessor?” the MP for Livingston added.
Speaker Lindsay Hoyle requested the SNP MP to withdraw the phrase ‘corrupt’, to which she replied:
“Generally the reality hurts, however I’m joyful to withdraw.”
In the meantime, Boris Johnson was nowhere to be seen.
Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Ahead
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