Good morning. The news is dominated today by the repercussions from the resignation last night of the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, and its head of news, Deborah Turness. This is far bigger than just a media personnel story; the BBC has been in the middle of the warzone in the battle between rightwing populism and liberalism, not just in the UK but beyond, and ousting Davie is a victory for the right. We are covering all the developments on a separate live blog.
It is also, in part, a victory for Donald Trump; even if he was not actively implicated in the manoeuvering that led to Davie’s resignation, those who were demanding “heads must roll” professed to be concerned about protecting the president’s reputation. Trump has already cowed much of the US media and last night he claimed the BBC was run by “corrupt” and “very dishonest” people who tried to stop him being elected.
Our full coverage of this will be on the separate live blog, but lots of politicians are speaking out, and so there will be some mention of it here.
Otherwise, the focus is probably on the budget, which is now less than three weeks away. The Commons is not sitting, because of a mini-recess, but Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is due to give an interview to Matt Chorley on Radio 5 Live this afternoon.
Reeves is likely to be asked about the Labour backlash to the speech she gave last week, which implied it is all but certain that she will break the manifeso promise and raise income tax. (A 2p rise in income tax, offset by a 2p cut in national insurance, is “nailed on”, one source told the Observer.) Last night Catherine West, the Labour MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet in north London, who was a Foreign Office minister until she was sacked in the September reshuffle, told Radio 4’s the Westminster Hour that, if Labour did break its manifesto promise, it could be punished by the voters just as the Liberal Democrats were over their tuition fees broken promise. She said:
If I were Rachel, I think I wouldn’t be breaking the manifesto promise …
I just think back to the Liberal Democrats and the university fees, because that was, you know, the big one for me that I remember and was very important for me. That’s how I won my seat, because I won that from the Liberal Democrats. So I think those big ones, they do come back to haunt you.
In 2010 the Lib Dems won 57 seats, after a campaign during which candidates signed a pledge not to vote for a rise in tuition fees. In coalition with the Tories, the party did back a tuition fee increase and some Lib Dem MPs (but not all) even voted for it. After the 2015 election they were left with just eight MPs.
In the Times Aubrey Allegretti says ministers are also making exactly the same point in private. He reports:
Cabinet ministers have privately warned Rachel Reeves that increasing income tax in the budget may spell electoral disaster for the Labour party …
One cabinet minister called for Reeves to set out an “off-ramp” for reducing taxes …
Another minister said: “My concern is there hasn’t been enough consideration of the consequences of breaking the manifesto commitment. This could do to us what happened to the Liberal Democrats after the 2015 election, given voters are already extremely despondent with us.”
Here is the agenda for the day.
11am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a press conference.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.35pm: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is interviewed on Radio 5 Live.
And at some point today the Commons culture committee will publish a statement from Samir Shah, the BBC chair, responding to questions about the leaked Michael Prescott memo that led to Davie’s resignation.
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