A Labour cabinet minister skewered a Tory MP this morning when he tried to lay into the party’s Budget by reminding him of his own role in the last government.
Rachel Reeves announced she was hiking National Insurance contributions for employers in last month’s Budget as part of efforts to fill the £22bn black hole Labour says the Tories left behind in the public finances.
Shadow Commons leader Jesse Norman tried to slam Labour’s decisions today, noting there had been “no compensation whatsoever has been offered for this tax raid”.
He then bizarrely claimed the “desolate, chaotic landscape with wreckage strewn everywhere” of the film franchise Mad Max is the “perfect metaphor for the government’s recent Budget”.
But the government’s Commons leader, Lucy Powell, did not accept his criticisms.
She said: “Mr Speaker I know that the shadow leader is fairly new to opposition, like most of his colleagues, but I might gently say to him that the idea of opposition is to oppose the government not his own record and his own previous government.”
Norman held several ministerial roles in the last government, including in the Treasury under both Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
Powell continued: “When I checked the records Mr Speaker, I did notice that when his government raised NICs [in 2021], not just on businesses, but on workers as well, he was actually the financial secretary to the Treasury.
“When he defended the measure at this very despatch box, Mr Speaker, and I quote, he said it was a ‘profoundly Conservative thing to do’.
“So, he seemed to be for it then and against it now. I’m not quite sure what his position is, I’m quite confused about that.”
Labour have been reminding any Tories who held a ministerial role in the last government of their past whenever they have tried to land a blow on their new policies.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband mocked Tory frontbencher Claire Coutinho on Tuesday by telling her “the job of opposition is to oppose the government, not yourself” after she tried to criticise Labour’s carbon emissions targets.
And earlier this month, deputy PM Angela Rayner dismantled Alex Burghart when he tried to criticise the government after inflation crept up from 1.7% to 2.3% in October.
She replied: “Many people might not know that the honourable member was the minister for growth when under Liz Truss, inflation was 11.1% and growth flatlined. So we’re doing much better than he did!”