Say what you like about Boris Johnson – and we will, at length – but the favourite in the Tory leadership contest clearly has some exceptionally skills not shared by less mortals. For example, who else could make the Westminster commentariat feel sorry for Matt Hancock?
Hancock, the health secretary, did not get very far in the Tory leadership contest, but he campaigned with some energy and imagination and emerged with his reputation enhanced. Then he decided to endorse Johnson and, in an excruciating Today programme on Monday, devoted to explaining why he was going back on everything he said about Johnson earlier, any credit he had gained himself evaporated. And now it has got worse. As my colleague Heather Stewart explains, Johnson is trampling all over one of Hancock’s key policy initiatives.
Here is Heather’s story.
And this is how it starts.
Boris Johnson has announced a wide-ranging review of “sin stealth taxes” just days before his high-profile supporter Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is due to publish a green paper advocating extending the sugar tax to milkshakes.
The policy green paper called Advancing our Health – Prevention in the 2020s, has been circulating among cabinet ministers this week and is due to be published in the next few days.
A draft seen by the Guardian includes widely trailed plans to extend the sugar tax to “sugary milk drinks … if the evidence shows that industry has not made enough progress on reducing sugar”. It also announces a ban on the sale of energy drinks to under-16s, alongside a slew of other policies aimed at improving public health.
The government has been consulting on the proposals for months and Hancock’s junior minister, Seema Kennedy, had been expected to launch the green paper within days. However, in his latest headline-grabbing campaign pledge, Johnson said he would carry out a review of whether “stealth sin taxes” were successful in changing behaviour and whether they disproportionately affected poorer consumers.
Johnson is not yet committing to reverse the sugar tax introduced in 2016. The press release issued by his team last night says he is just committing to “a comprehensive review into the effectiveness of the ‘sin taxes’ – including products high in salt, fat or sugar – and to assess whether or not these taxes unfairly hit those on lower incomes”, and to promising not to extend these taxes until the review has been completed. But the press notice also says Johnson has already promised not to extend the sugar tax to sugary milk drinks (aka, the milkshake tax), and the Sun newspaper has this morning welcomed Johnson’s announcement as a victory for its Hands Off Our Grub anti sugar tax campaign, and so it is not hard to guess where this is all heading.
Overnight Steve Brine, who was public health minister until he resigned over Brexit earlier this year, has accused Johnson of ‘transparent dog whistle politics”.
Steve Brine MP
(@BrineMP)As the Public Health Minister who oversaw the introduction of the sugary drinks levy, I totally despair at this. Transparent dog whistle politics dressed up as something thinking. It is the exact opposite. https://t.co/zYPdIEjAMq
I will post more reaction shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, gives evidence to the international trade committee.
10.30am: High court judges give their reasons for the decision not to allow Boris Johnson to be prosecuted for misconduct in public office over false claims in the EU referendum campaign.
12pm: Theresa May faces Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs.
3.30pm: Peers debate a motion to create a joint committee of MPs and peers to consider the impact of a no-deal Brexit.
As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web, although I will be focusing mostly on the Tory leadership contest. I plan to publish a summary at lunchtime and then another when I finish.
You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. Here is the Politico Europe roundup of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.
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