Miliband would be ‘disaster’ as Chancellor, says Labour cost of living chief
Keir Starmer’s cost of living champion has warned that Ed Miliband would be a “disaster” as Andy Burnham’s Chancellor.
Lord Richard Walker, who is also executive chairman of budget supermarket Iceland, told BBC Newsnight that the current energy secretary’s net-zero policies are putting an undue burden on household bills.
He said: “Climate change is real, I believe in science, but I think how we’re going about it is far too ideological, and it’s putting unfair pressure on households and on billpayers in a very regressive way.
“I think if Ed were to come in, it would be baulked at by the business communities [and] the markets would freak out and actually it would be unfair on households.”
The supermarket chief has warned Starmer’s successor as Prime Minister that their main challenge in government will be to tackle the cost of living crisis.
Markets ‘would freak out’ over Miliband
Brits “don’t care” who the Prime Minister is, “they are asking why their bills are still so high and whether anyone in politics is focused on the practical things that would actually help them,” he wrote in the Mirror.
“Households and businesses up and down the country will have to grapple with a freight-train of inflation that will hit in the Autumn on everything from food to heating,” he warned.
While food inflation slowed to 2.2 per cent in May, industry figures have warned that prices will soon soar as the long-tail effects of the Iran war kick in.
Lord Walker said that the incoming Prime Minister will have to “wake up and smell the coffee” on the cost of living, adding: “Now is not the time to duck tough decisions or to kick the can down the road.”
Despite calling for action on the cost of living, the Iceland boss added that “only economic growth can properly break us free” from the need for short-term government interventions on household bills.
Burnham urged to abandon wealth tax
As Burnham shapes up his fiscal agenda ahead of his likely entry into Downing Street, one of his most senior advisers has urged the Prime Minister-to-be to abandon plans for wealth taxes.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley, who is advising the outgoing Manchester mayor on economics and is expected to join him in Downing Street, warned that crackdowns on the wealthy can be “easily gamed” and are unlikely to raise significant funds, the Times has reported.
Burnham had previously said that work is overtaxed while assets are undertaxed, leading to speculation that he could seek to equalise the rate of capital gains tax in line with income tax – a proposal backed by his one-time challenger, Wes Streeting.
Andy Haldane, the British Chambers of Commerce president who is also workshopping Burnham’s fiscal agenda, told City PM that a new capital gains tax syystem should not be used as a “cash cow” to raise funds, given the uncertainty and volatility of receipts.
Walker opposes triple lock
Amid rumours that Burnham could appoint former Miliband as his Chancellor, the Unite and GMG unions have combined to urge the new Makerfield MP to snub the former Labour leader.
The unions are opposed to Miliband’s relentless net-zero agenda, which they say he has prioritised over creating new jobs in North Sea oil, while some in the City are skittish over the left-wing fiscal policies he could pursue.
Lord Walker was appointed as Starmer’s cost of living champion in February, but has since broken cover to criticise the outgoing Prime Minister on a number of issues.
He conceded that “we do need to be thinking […] about extending or enlarging” the freeze on fuel duty rises, more than a month before Rachel Reeves eventually confirmed that the tax would not be hiked.
Earlier this month, Walker called on the government to drop the “profoundly unfair” triple lock on pensions.
“We should have the courage to challenge the pensions triple lock. It is mathematically unsustainable, politically untouchable and profoundly unfair: we all know it,” he told the House of Lords.