Boost for Rishi Sunak as UK inflation rate falls to lowest in 17 months – UK politics live | Politics

Rayner asserts she will remain deputy Labour leader and will be deputy PM

Aletha Adu

Political correspondent Aletha Adu reports:

Angela Rayner has asserted her position within Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet, declaring “I will be deputy prime minister and I will be the deputy leader of the Labour Party”, when asked if she had “lost her nerve” in fighting for issues including the two-child benefit cap and free school meals.

“We’re not going to have the funding in the first period to do that the Labour government wants to do. That doesn’t mean to say, however, that we wouldn’t do things differently and people wouldn’t see the difference like the energy bills”, she told BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme.

Defending the policy changes Starmer has made since becoming party leader, she repeated the party line that “The Tories have crashed the economy, when we took over the pandemic was in full swing, and we have the war in Ukraine, there is a very different context to where we are now. What we’re saying is our values remain exactly the same.”

Rejecting suggestions that many of Labour’s offerings are similar to that of the Conservatives, she added: “Our manifesto that we put forward wil be different to what the conservatives have offered and it will be changed for the country.”

On her relationship with Starmer, she reminded the public of her own mandate: “I often talk about it as an arranged marriage. We were both elected by the membership differently and independently. And we’ve worked constructively together. We need a Labour government and we need that change in this country.”

The deputy Labour leader, Angela Rayner, has called the fall in inflation a “relief”, but said “we didn’t have to be here”, blaming the Tory government for crashing the economy and not providing growth.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Well, it’s a relief for a lot of people, but it, of course, still means that there’s a cost of living (crisis) and prices are still going up but at a slower rate.

“We’ve seen families see their bills going up significantly – over £300 a month – and it has been really difficult for people over the last couple of years, and we’ve had 13 years of economic chaos by the Conservatives.

“However, people have been put through hell and back and they’re still going to be facing this cost-of-living crisis for some time to come.”

She added: “The frustration for us in Labour is that we didn’t have to be here.

“The Tories crashed the economy, they haven’t provided us with an economy that has been growing, we’ve had a decade of low growth, low pay and high taxes.

“It’s the Tories that have put us in this situation and, while it’s a relief that we’re not going any higher than what we have, many families up and down the country at the moment are … finding things difficult. They can’t meet their monthly payments.”

There was good news on the economy for Rishi Sunak as inflation slowed to its lowest for 17 months.

At 6.8% in July, however, it was still well above the government’s target of 2%.

The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, said, PA Media reports, the easing of inflation showed “the decisive action we’ve taken to tackle inflation is working” but “we’re not at the finish line”.

“We must stick to our plan to halve inflation this year and get it back to the 2% target as soon as possible,” he added.

As a reminder, here are the five key priorities that Sunak announced for his government in January of this year:

We will halve inflation this year to ease the cost of living and give people financial security.

We will grow the economy, creating better-paid jobs and opportunity right across the country.

We will make sure our national debt is falling so that we can secure the future of public services.

NHS waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly.

We will pass new laws to stop small boats, making sure that if you come to this country illegally, you are detained and swiftly removed.

Good morning, and welcome to the politics live blog for Wednesday. Here are your headlines:

• A big boost for Rishi Sunak as the UK’s annual inflation rate fell sharply to 6.8% in July, down from 7.9% in June, as the drop in energy prices over the past year led to the smallest increase in the cost of living since February 2022. Halving inflation is one of Sunak’s five policy planks.

• It is still “NHS week” on the government’s media grid, and the latest suggestion is that patients with cancer symptoms could bypass their GP in the future and go straight for a scan. The health secretary, Steve Barclay, made the suggestion in the latest attempt by the government to suggest it is trying to get a grip on record NHS waiting lists in England.

• Car culture war latest: London councils are having to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money repairing vandalised bollards and cameras in low-traffic neighbourhoods.

• Three Bulgarian nationals suspected of spying for Russia while living in the UK were arrested and charged yesterday.

• Charities have warned thousands of refugees and survivors of trafficking could find themselves homeless after a Home Office policy change. Until last month, newly recognised refugees and survivors of trafficking had 28 days to find alternative accommodation after receiving a “notice to quit” before being evicted from Home Office accommodation they had lived in while officials were processing their claims – but this has now been reduced to a minimum of seven days.

There is very little in the diary today. I suspect most English politicians will be looking to maintain a dignified patriotic silence from 11am so it looks like they are watching the England–Australia world cup semi-final. Hopefully the right match, unlike Baranaby Joyce.

I’m Martin Belam, and I will be with you today. You can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.