Michael Gove says a Cabinet prayer for Rishi Sunak’s budget: Minister delivers the ‘serenity prayer’ to calm angry colleagues as recriminations fly over the NI hike in Chancellor’s Spring Statement
- The Levelling Up secretary has mounted a defence of the Chancellor’s plans
- Tory MPs have been incensed by Rishi Sunak’s NI tax hike to fund the NHS
- The serenity prayer is popular due to its association with Alcoholics Anonymous
Michael Gove mounted a Cabinet defence of under-fire Rishi Sunak by delivering the ‘serenity prayer’ to calm angry colleagues.
The Levelling Up Secretary intervened when the Chancellor was confronted by fellow Ministers over the 1.25 pence-in-the-pound hike in National Insurance, confirmed in his controversial Spring Statement last week.
Mr Gove urged them to ‘move on’ rather than fight old battles, before becoming lyrical, saying: ‘God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.’
The Levelling Up Secretary intervened when the Chancellor was confronted by fellow Ministers over the 1.25 pence-in-the-pound hike in National Insurance
The serenity prayer, written by the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr in 1933, was popularised in the 1950s by Alcoholics Anonymous and other programmes to tackle addictions.
Mr Gove then urged his colleagues to ‘fight within their departments’ to improve policy, citing the example of how he had stopped planning changes which could have forced communities to accept developments on the Green Belt. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss then broke the uneasy silence by saying she supported moves to fast-track housing projects.
Policing Minister Kit Malthouse had led the Cabinet criticism of Mr Sunak by calling for the current three-year Spending Review to be ‘reopened’ in light of the fall-out from the Ukraine war and soaring inflation.
Mr Malthouse argued that high government spending was no longer sustainable and risked a major debt crisis. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Brexit Opportunities Minister, supported him, declaring: ‘We are spending too much.’
No 10 was forced to deny claims of a split between the Prime Minister and Mr Sunak after Boris Johnson appeared to take a swipe at the Chancellor by warning ‘we must do more’ to ease the cost of living crisis.
Mr Sunak’s claims to be a tax-cutting Chancellor were mocked by the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies with think-tank boss Paul Johnson describing Mr Sunak as a ‘fiscal illusionist’. He said: ‘If he wants to be remembered as a tax-reforming Chancellor, so far he is headed in the wrong direction.’
The Cabinet row comes amid wider disquiet on the backbenches about Mr Sunak’s financial package, and concern that Labour will make political capital in May’s local elections from the perceived failure to offer enough help to struggling families.
Last night, those worries appeared to be borne out when Labour released research saying that Mr Sunak’s controversial decision to break the state pensions ‘triple lock’ leaves pensioners facing the biggest real-terms cut in income for half a century.
No 10 was forced to deny claims of a split between the Prime Minister and Mr Sunak after Boris Johnson appeared to take a swipe at the Chancellor by warning ‘we must do more’ to ease the cost of living crisis
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the party’s analysis showed pensioners faced a real-terms cut of up to £427 in the coming financial year and said: ‘When heating bills are going through the roof, this pension cut amounts to daylight robbery and will make things more difficult for thousands of pensioners. Britain’s pensioners have been betrayed by Boris Johnson.’
Last night, one former Tory Cabinet Minister said Mr Sunak’s ‘political stock has fallen hugely’ and suggested Mr Johnson should consider moving him in a future reshuffle. The ex-Minister also called on the Chancellor to reverse the controversial rise in National Insurance.
He also said Mr Sunak’s promise of a future cut in the basic rate of income tax by 2024 was too transparently ‘political’, adding: ‘It almost made him look shifty.’
However, some ‘Red Wall’ Tories sprang to Mr Sunak’s defence yesterday. Leigh MP James Grundy said: ‘For people at the sharp end in Red Wall seats, the Chancellor has delivered a remarkable amount given the limited leeway he had.’
He said the decision to raise the NI threshold by £3,000 and other measures would deliver an extra £1,600 a year to a single person on the minimum wage with two children.
He added: ‘That will make a massive difference for those who struggle to make ends meet.’
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