Sacked Starmer Ally Brands Burnham’s Energy Cut “Unfunded”
Mr Burnham’s first major policy was overshadowed within hours when Darren Jones, dismissed from the Cabinet a day earlier, branded the VAT cut on electricity “unfunded”. Mr Jones, who ran the very digital ID scheme whose cancellation is meant to pay for it, argued that programme had no money attached in the first place, so the saving cannot bankroll cheaper bills. The intervention, widely read as revenge for the purge, exposed the new government to accusations of loose accounting on day one.
The row cuts to the heart of Mr Burnham’s fiscal credibility. The government says removing VAT from domestic electricity will take roughly £45 off a typical annual bill and shave a tenth of a point off inflation, funded by axing digital ID. But the Office for Budget Responsibility had judged that scheme’s cost unfunded, meaning the saving rests on Whitehall reductions never specified. That a former Treasury minister chose his first hours on the backbenches to make the point suggests the coup has left a reservoir of resentment. With no Commons to answer to until September, the attack landed on social media rather than the floor of the House. Watch whether more of the sacked bloc break cover.