Yahoo Finance Boris Johnson believes political debate should be 'kind and civil'
Boris Johnson believes people need to be “civil and kind to each other” in political debate, his spokeswoman has said, as she accused Labour of making the public worry unnecessarily by debating universal credit and free school meals.
“The prime minister believes that all of us, in our political language and debate, need to remember to be civil and kind to each other,” Allegra Stratton told reporters when asked why Johnson had compared Labour tactics with those used by supporters of Donald Trump.
Asked whether Johnson had been civil and kind when, during Brexit debates, he accused opponents of “collusion” and “surrender”, Stratton said: “The key thing is political conduct and debate in the months and years ahead.”
It comes as Downing Street hit out at Labour over its decision to hold opposition day debates on the planned removal of a £20-a-week uplift in universal credit for millions of people, and the extension of free school meals into the half-term during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Johnson has ordered his MPs to abstain on the votes, which are not binding, labelling Labour’s move a stunt. Speaking earlier on Monday, the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said that in their “heart of hearts”, lots of Tory MPs agreed with Labour.
Stratton said Labour was stoking concern in the country about the end of the increase in universal credit, and plans for free school meal provision: “They do not need to worry about the things the Labour party is encouraging them to worry about.”
She said money issued to councils for vouchers would guarantee no children needed to go hungry over the February half-term break. Labour wants free school meals to be extended over that period.
Stratton also said people should not be concerned about the reduction in universal credit, due to take effect from April, as the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, would set out other plans.
Asked what these would be, she said: “The chancellor is constantly filtering the latest up-to-date information on the economic and health context. He is monitoring that data and will come forward when he thinks the time is right.”
What is universal credit?
Universal credit (UC) is the supposed flagship reform of the benefits system, rolling together six benefits into one, online-only system. The theoretical aim, for which there was general support across the political spectrum, was to simplify the system and increase the incentives for people to move off benefits into work. With a huge influx due to the economic impact of the coronavirus, in September 2020 there were 5.6 million people claiming UC.
How long has it been around?
The project was legislated for in 2011 under the auspices of its most vocal champion, Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith. The plan was to roll it out by 2017. However, a series of management failures, expensive IT blunders and design faults mean it is now seven years behind schedule, and full rollout will not be complete until 2024. The government admitted that the delay was caused in part by claimants being too scared to sign up to the new benefit.
What is the biggest problem?
The original design set out a minimum 42-day wait for a first payment to claimants when they moved to UC (in practice this is often up to 60 days). After sustained pressure, the government announced in the autumn 2017 budget that the wait would be reduced to 35 days from February 2018. This will partially mitigate the impact on many claimants of having no income for six weeks. The wait has led to rent arrears and evictions, hunger (food banks in UC areas report notable increases in referrals), use of expensive credit and mental distress.
Ministers have expanded the availability of hardship loans (now repayable over a year) to help new claimants while they wait for payment. Housing benefit will now continue for an extra two weeks after the start of a UC claim. However, critics say the five-week wait is still too long and want it reduced to two or three weeks.
Are there other problems?
Plenty. Multibillion-pound cuts to work allowances imposed by the former chancellor George Osborne mean UC is far less generous than originally envisaged. According to the Resolution Foundation thinktank, about 2.5m low-income working households will be more than £1,000 a year worse off when they move to UC, reducing work incentives.
Landlords are worried that the level of rent arrears accrued by tenants on UC could lead to a rise in evictions. It's also not very user-friendly: claimants complain the system is complex, unreliable and difficult to manage, particularly if you have no internet access.
And there is concern that UC cannot deliver key promises: a critical study found it does not deliver savings, cannot prove it gets more people into work, and has plunged vulnerable claimants into hardship.
In a message to his MPs at the weekend explaining the abstention decision, Johnson said Labour were “inciting” a social media-based backlash over the issue, “of a kind seen sadly across the Atlantic”, a seeming reference to violent protests by Trump supporters.
While saying it was “clearly not like the storming of the Capitol”, Stratton said Johnson believed Labour’s tactics would whip up hatred.
“The last time that, in particular, free school meals was discussed, they got a lot of hostile questioning. The prime minister is aware of this, it particularly affected female MPs, as you and I know. This time round he wants them to have the support they need.”
She added: “He’s asked people to abstain because today is not the right and proper moment for the government to be talking about universal credit and the £20 uplift.”
Johnson faces some Tory unrest over the decision, with backbenchers representing 65 northern seats publicly calling on him to extend the help.
Speaking to ITV’s Lorraine programme on Monday morning, Starmer said: “I actually think, in their heart of hearts, quite a lot of Tory MPs know that cutting this money to people who desperately need it, in the middle of a pandemic, is the wrong thing to do. They know that.”
Starmer said Johnson’s decision to order Tory MPs to abstain, a tactic used previously by the government over opposition day motions to head off any prospect of a rebellion, was “pretty pathetic”.
In a report on Monday, the Resolution Foundation thinktank said the increase was critical to protect the poorest households from the worst economic impacts of Covid in 2020, and that refusing to extend it would contribute to pushing 730,000 more children into poverty.
Karl Handscomb, a senior economist at the thinktank, said: “The living standards outlook for 2021 looks bleak at present – but the government can directly improve it.”
