Will Boris Johnson force Rishi Sunak to keep the higher rate of universal credit?

Classically, prime ministers tend to be keener on public spending than chancellors, writes John Rentoul

Sunak is trying to buy off pressure (Reuters)

Rishi Sunak is trying to head off demands to keep the higher rate of universal credit, which will be pressed by the Labour opposition in the Commons today. The chancellor has come up with a plan to give claimants a £500 lump sum, which is equivalent to six months’ worth of the extra £20 a week, in return for putting universal credit rates back to their pre-crisis levels. 

He hopes the lump sum will buy off pressure to make the higher rates of universal credit permanent. But it certainly won’t be enough to satisfy Keir Starmer, who will press the opposition’s motion to a vote in the Commons this evening, even if Sunak’s plan makes it explicit that Labour will be arguing for £6bn a year of higher public spending for the foreseeable future. 

The higher payments were introduced at the start of the pandemic last year, and are due to expire in April – which may or may not be around the time that the coronavirus restrictions start to be eased. The Treasury was always anxious that, having raised universal credit rates, it would be politically hard to lower them again, and so it has proved. Boris Johnson is said to be in favour of keeping the higher rate indefinitely – classically, prime ministers tend to be keener on public spending than chancellors.