Sir John Redwood is a former MP for Wokingham and a former Secretary of State for Wales.
Kemi Badenoch had a great week last week as the government sold this country out in two disastrous international deals.
She has rightly promised to reverse a dreadful agreement with the EU. The UK is gifting Brussels much of its fish and more money, and offering them the right to impose their laws to be enforced by their court. In return, the Government accepted the mere offer of talks, with each individual member state, to see if they might, sometime, speed up their passport inspections.
Ministers hold on to the hope of further negotiations to try to allow us to reduce paperwork on our (currently very limited) food exports. What is certain, however, is we will have to accept a blizzard of EU laws on food products and adopt any new ones they choose.
We could easily end as net losers even on food where we are big net importers already, as EU laws will stop us innovating in important areas and keep out cheaper imports from the rest of the world, forcing us to buy more expensive European products. The sacrifices seem firm and the small UK requests are still not granted.
Badenoch also pledged strong parliamentary opposition to the outrageous, costly, and dangerous give away of the Chagos Islands. Our joint naval and air base in the Indian Ocean, 1000 miles from Mauritius, is being given to an ally of China – and we’re paying them for the privilege!
The base could be spied on or disrupted: Mauritius could open up fishing, allowing Chinese vessels close, and settle people nearby. (A precious marine environment, today protected from any fishing or commercial settlement, could be abused.)
Badenoch had, rightly, to say it might prove difficult to get it back if Parliament ratifies this humiliating deal. The official Opposition will seek to shame Labour MPs into voting against a massive £30bn bill we cannot afford over the next century, and against weakening a crucial base and important marine habitat.
Britain needs a strong Opposition in the weeks ahead . The run up to the public spending review is ripping the Government apart. Many cabinet ministers and backbenchers want to spend more. the prime minister and chancellor have adopted a financial discipline which means cuts.
Meanwhile Angela Rayner proposes more tax raids on the better off, wrongly thinking this would allow more spending. Given the rate of loss of millionaires and billionaires based on the damaging last budget, any more tax hikes could be a killer blow to stuttering growth. It might well result in a smaller tax take.
The governing party is split over its unpopular decision, opposed by all the other parties, to cut the pensioner winter fuel allowance. (they look as if they will now restore it but make it taxable) and over whether or not to scrap the two-child cap on Universal Credit child allowances.
There is no money left to pay for this. As Kemi has pointed out, many working parents put off or decide against more than two children because they cannot afford them. Should people living entirely on benefits, and people recently arrived here, rely on taxpayers to support a larger family? The Government says now it wants to get migration down. How does this help?
Most important of all Conservatives are now the only party voice to warn that spending, taxing, and borrowing too much will make us all poorer.
In the autumn of 2022 the ten year cost of borrowing spiked for one day at 4.38 per cent; Labour said this “crashed” the economy. All this year, after Rachel Reeves’ budget, the rate has been higher, hitting 4.9 per cent at the worst so far. The 30-year rate has risen a lot, to 5.5 per cent last week. Bond markets are warning the government they are borrowing too much and spending too much.
The Government’s spending priorities are wrong and make easy targets. No to £30bn over the years ahead to Mauritius; no to the soaring hotel bills for illegal migrants; no to giving money to the EU to buy into their control of us; no to the colossal Bank of England losses on bad and needless bond sales; no to growing losses from bad management of Labour’s nationalised railway including HS2.
The Opposition has work to do to expose the waste and offer better solutions. But the public will come to see the need for more prudence and better priorities for spending as the economy loses more jobs and the government’s borrowing bill means higher taxes.
Reeves and Sir Kier Starmer spoke the language of reassurance and prudence to get elected. They then stupidly tried to control the budget by mugging pensioners and the disabled whilst showering cash on foreign interests and on trade union allies. It was a toxic mix leading to higher unemployment – and much lower poll ratings.
Enter the Official Opposition. There is plenty of room for voices with decent priorities and the ability to cut the spending totals in the right way to save the economy. The UK cannot afford Labour. It needs a government that spends money at home and does better deals abroad.
