Labour left call U-turn on green investment ‘environmentally irresponsible and ‘strategically incompetent’ – UK politics live

Good morning. It will come as no surprise to anyone who has been following Westminster news in recent weeks, particularly if they have been reading the Guardian, to learn that Labour is no longer committed to spending £28bn a year on its green investment plan. The soft U-turn, the informal abandonment of the policy as a firm commitment, happened some time ago. But the Tory attacks on the policy, and today we are expecting a proper, hard, bells-and-whistles U-turn – public confirmation that the £28bn target has been consigned to the policy dustbin.

Kiran Stacey and Pippa Crerar broke the news last night.

As they explain, it’s a gamble. The case for getting rid of it is that it allowed the Tories to claim Labour would have to put up taxes to fund it, perhaps reviving the almost primordial fear felt by the British electorate that a Labour government would cost people more. With £28bn off the table, it is harder what policies the Conservatives would attack during an election campaign.

But, if the U-turn innoculates Labour against the “higher taxes” attack, it validates the other key message coming out of CCHQ, which is that you can’t trust Keir Starmer on anything because he keeps changing his mind.

It also makes it harder for Labour to argue that it is offering a distinctive alternative policy at the election because one of its main economic policies has, in effect, been redrafted at the behest of CCHQ.

This latter point is one that Starmer’s critics on the left – both within the Labour party, and outside it – have been making vigorously this morning. There are strong statements to this effect from the SNP, the Green party, Unite and Momentum, but let’s start with the Labour MP Barry Gardiner, who served as shadow climage change minister under Jeremy Corbyn. This is what he told the Today programme when he was asked for his reaction to the U-turn.

It’s economically illiterate, it’s envirionmentally irresponsible and it’s politically jejune.

Gardiner said he could understand why Labour wanted to minimise the risk of its policies being attacked. But he went on:

If you make [your manifesto] so bland, if you stand for nothing, then the opposition and government will actually write your policies for you, they will say ‘You see, Labour’s not telling you what they’re going to do, it’s going to be this it’s going to be that’, and they can paint their own picture. So I think politically, it’s strategically incompetent.

I will post more reaction shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: NHS England publishes hospital waiting time figures.

9.30am: The ONS publishes homicide figures for England and Wales.

Morning: Rishi Sunak is on a visit to Cornwall where he is expected to speak to the media.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Noon: Humza Yousaf takes first minister’s questions at Holyrood.

Afternoon: Keir Starmer is expected to make an announcement confirming the £28bn green investment plan U-turn.

If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line; privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate); or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.