PM beats Hammond in feud over her 10p charge on plastic bags

THERESA May slapped down the Chancellor for the second time in a week after he criticised her plans to increase the plastic bag levy.

The Prime Minister confirmed yesterday that the charge would be extended to all shops – not just large supermarkets as at present.

And Downing Street said the tax could be doubled from the present 5p to ‘at least 10p’. Her defiant plans to press ahead with the plastic bag scheme were reportedly criticised by Philip Hammond earlier this week.

The Treasury was said to be against the idea because it ‘looks like profiteering’.

The new disagreement comes just days after Mrs May slapped down Mr Hammond over his gloomy forecasts in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Yesterday Mrs May confirmed last week’s Mail report that the plastic bag charge would be extended. She said it would be rolled out to all shops, not just those with more than 250 employees, as at present.

And she launched a consultation on increasing the charge to 10p. Mrs May said: ‘We have taken huge strides to improve the environment and the charge on plastic bags in supermarkets and big retailers has demon- strated the difference we can achieve by making small changes to our habits.

‘I want to leave a greener, healthier environment for future generations, but with plastic in the sea still set to treble we know we need to do more to better protect our oceans and eliminate this harmful waste.’ Plastic bag use by England’s big seven supermarkets has dropped by 86 per cent and 13billion plastic bags taken out of circulation since the charge was brought in.

Mrs May made her announcement on a visit to Kenya, which has banned plastic bags.

She also said Britain is to give £250,000 towards a conference in Nairobi on marine litter.

And she said the UK would give another £5million to Commonwealth countries targeting plastic waste.

‘With over 12million tons of plastic making their way into our oceans each year, plastic pollution is one of the biggest challenges facing the environment today,’ she added.

But marine litter is a global problem, and cleaning up our seas and oceans requires global effort.’ Environment Secretary Michael Gove welcomed the announcements adding: ‘Thanks to the public’s support, our plastic bag charge has been hugely successful. Today we are building on that success to ensure we leave our environment in a better state than we inherited it.’

The Daily Mail has championed the carrier bag tax and our Turn the Tide on Plastic campaign is pushing for major change to prevent the scourge of waste entering our oceans.