Labour launches local elections campaign with focus on cost of living – UK politics live

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Powell goes on to make jokes (not particularly good ones) about Nigel Farage and Zack Polanki.

Farage has got a new job as Donald Trump’s intern, she says.

And she says Polanski is making “hypnotic promises” that are “just an illusion”.

Labour launches its English local elections campaign

The Labour local elections launch is starting.

Lucy Powell, the deputy leader, is opening the proceedings.

She starts by saying the party is “immensely proud” of the way Keir Starmer has dealt with the Iran war, and his decision “in the face of a lot of pressure and criticism not to follow blindly into an offensive war”.

Lucy Powell at Labour's local elections campaign launch Photograph: PA

In Australia the Labor government has announced that it is halving excise duty on fuel for three months. Only last week Reform UK called for VAT on road fuel to halved for three months. Explaining the policy, Reform UK said:

The tax cut would reduce pump prices by around 12p per litre for petrol and 14p per litre for diesel at current prices, at a static exchequer cost of about £1.5bn. The measure could be funded within current spending envelopes using the estimated £2.7bn windfall from higher oil prices that the chancellor has received.

Tories call for VAT on household energy bills to be removed for three years

At the Conservative party conference last year, the Tories announced plans to cut £165 a year from the average household energy bill by getting rid of the renewables obligation subsidy and the carbon tax.

Today Kemi Badenoch is visiting an oil rig in the North Sea to publicise what the Conservatives are calling their cheap energy plan. In addition to the measures announced last year, they are now proposing removing VAT from household energy bills for three years. They say this would save the average household £94 per year, at a cost of £2.2bn. They say they would fund this by cutting subsisides for renewables.

In a statement issued overnight, Badenoch said:

Labour promised to cut energy bills by £300 but they are still higher than when they took office. Instead, Ed Miliband is blocking drilling in the North Sea during an energy crisis and Rachel Reeves is hiking taxes on working families to pay the energy bills of those on benefits.

The Conservatives would use extra tax revenue from our plan to Get Britain Drilling in the North Sea to cut taxes and ease the cost of living. Our Cheap Power Plan would scrap VAT on energy bills and cut bills by £200 for every family.

Badenoch also says the Tories would “back the North Sea” by allowing new oil and gas drilling licences to be issued, and repealing the windfall tax on energy firms. They claim this would boost tax revenues, which could be used to cut costs for households.

Kemi Badenoch, shadow Scottish secretary Andrew Bowie and Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay vistinng Well-Safe Protector Oil Rig in Aberdeen today. Photograph: Michał Wachucik/PA

Labour highlights 13 'key cost of living measures' coming into force within next week as it launches local elections campaign

As Jessica Elgot reports in her overnight story on the Labour local elections launch this morning, Keir Starmer will also highlight what Labour is doing to help people with the cost of living.

In his news release issued ahead of the launch, Labour has highlighted more than a dozen measures coming into force within the next week that it says will help people with the cost of living. Here is the list.

Key cost of living measures coming into force on 1 April:

-Prescription charge freeze, keeping prescriptions under £10

-National Living Wage (age 21+) rises to £12.71 an hour - 4.1% increase

-National Minimum Wage (age 18-20) rises to £10.85, under 18 £8, apprentice £8

-Energy bill support - average £117 reduction on household energy bills, applied to all households on top of £150 Warm Homes Discount for millions of low income households.

-Benefits uprating - most inflation-linked benefits to rise by 3.8% (CPI Sept 2025)

-Child benefit increases

-Crisis & Resilience Fund launches (replacing Household Support Fund). New £1 billion per year fund begins April 2026.Offers: Cash‑first crisis payments; Housing payments (replacing Discretionary Housing Payments)

-Healthy Start vouchers increase by 50p a week

Key cost of living measures coming into force on 6 April:

-State pension uplift - increasing by 4.8% rising to £241.30 per week

-Two child limit removed - expected to lift 450,000 children out of poverty

-Statutory Sick Pay rights from day 1

-Day one entitlement to paternity leave and unpaid parental leave

-Universal credit standard allowances receive an additional 2.3% uplift

Starmer to say Iran war means Labour’s values needed more than ever at local elections campaign launch

Good morning. Keir Starmer will today chair a meeting in Downing Street on how the government responds to the economic consequences of the Iran war, which has the potential to upend much of what the government is trying to do to improve living standards. And so he is probably not too happy about the fact that this morning he has to attend an event in the West Midlands launching Labour’s English local elections campaign.

It is a relatively low-key launch. “The Westminster press pack wasn’t invited for a full Q&A,” Politico reports. Starmer will be back in London later for his Iran war meeting.

No one expects Labour to do well in the local elections and last week Stephen Fisher, an Oxford politics professor and an elections expert who works with John Curtice on the widely admired general election exit polls, published his projections for how many seats he expects parties to win and lose in the English local elections, based on current polling and other factors. It is terrible reading for Labour.

Projections for gains/losses at local elections Photograph: Stephen Fisher

As Fisher points out in his blog on this, his equivalent forecast for Labour losses in 2025 turned out to be reasonably accurate.

According to the extracts from his speech briefed in advance, Starmer will not be forecasting success for Labour at the local elections, but he will argue that the war in Iran means that Labour is needed more than ever. He will say:

We’re going to fight to earn every vote. Fight for our values. And fight for the country we are building together, a Britain built for all.

Because, in the context of everything that is happening in the world. Those values – that fairness we stand for – it’s never been more important.

That is the thing about the volatile world we live in now. It tests, not just our security, our strength on the world stage. It is also tests our fairness at home. Our unity.

He will also attack Reform UK and the Conservatives in particular for their initial unqualified support for President Trump’s decision to go to war.

We will protect our forces, our people, our allies in the region. But I made the decision that it is not in our national interest to commit British forces to a war, without a clear legal basis and a clear plan – and I stand by that.

It’s a question of judgement. Do not forget that the Tories and Reform would have rushed us into this. With no thought of the consequences, including for the cost of living. Utterly reckless.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.15am: Eluned Morgan, the Welsh first minister, launches Labour’s campaign for the Senedd elections.

Morning: Keir Starmer launches Labour’s campaign for the English local elections in the West Midlands.

10.30am: Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader, launches Plaid’s campaign for the Senedd elections.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Afternoon: Starmer hosts a roundtable with business leaders to discuss the impact of the Iran war.

2.40pm: Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, addresses the National Education Union’s conference.

Afternoon: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, and Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, take part in a virtual meeting with G7 counterparts to discuss the economic impact of the Iran war.

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