Champagne in Canary Wharf: Sunak helps banks to save £4bn following Budget cut in surcharge tax October 27, 2021 The cut to the banking surcharge, announced in today’s Budget, will help UK banks to save £4bn in the next five years. A surcharge of 8 per cent was cut to 3 per cent by Chancellor Rishi Sunak to “maintain the competitiveness of our financial services”, he said. As a result, the amount paid by [...]
Hunt ditches ‘almost all’ of Truss’ tax cuts as chancellor bins mini-Budget October 17, 2022 Jeremy Hunt has binned “almost all” of Liz Truss’ mini-Budget, while also announcing that the UK’s energy bills freeze will only be universal until April. The new chancellor confirmed more of Truss’ tax cuts have now been overturned – including the planned cut to the basic rate of Income Tax – in a bid to [...]
Johnson says he is tax cutter, despite hiking tax burden to 70-year high March 30, 2022 Boris Johnson has claimed he and Rishi Sunak are “tax-cutting Conservatives”, despite the pair hiking the UK’s tax burden to its highest level since the 1950s over the past two years. Sunak oversaw cuts to fuel duty and National Insurance last week as a part of his economic spring statement last week, while also announcing [...]
Diane Abbott and Dominic Raab share the fate of being doomed to the fringes April 27, 2023 Diane Abbott and Dominic Raab didn't lose their battles because their politics was too radical; they lost because they proved gross incompetence, writes Will Cooling
‘How can a lawmaker be a lawbreaker?’: Ex Tory minister calls for Johnson to call vote of confidence if local elections go badly April 14, 2022 A senior Tory MP has said Boris Johnson should resign if local elections prove costly, while warning the PM not to use the war in Ukraine as a “fig leaf” to dodge tough questions on partygate. Tobias Ellwood made his comments on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, calling for him to hold a vote of [...]
UK inflation jumps to 5.4 per cent: Highest rate in almost 30 years January 19, 2022 The rate of Consumer Price Index inflation increased to 5.4 per cent in December from 5.1% in November, the Office for National Statistics has said. Grant Fitzner, chief economist at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), said: “The inflation rate rose again at the end of the year and has not been higher for almost [...]
Economists warn UK to face blackouts under Liz Truss energy plan September 8, 2022 Economists today warned prime minister Liz Truss’s decision to freeze energy bills for everyone in the UK at £2,500 raises the risk of blackouts. Experts at the economic think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said energy supplies may run dry due to the government propping up energy spending. “Households, businesses or governments… will [...]
Green Budget 2021: Net zero strategy to receive around £11.4bn in new funding October 27, 2021 The government is set to inject more than £11.4bn in new funding into its net zero strategy, according to chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Autumn Budget today. The fresh capital will go towards “the new, green industries of the future”, Sunak said this afternoon. “We are making this country a science and technology superpower”. It will mean [...]
Believe it or not, the vegans might have the answer to rescuing our ailing economy March 15, 2023 Meat-free bacon could be the answer to our prayers.
The Notebook: Neil Bennett on how the Treasury made the BBC look very slow indeed March 15, 2023 Writing a column on the morning of Budget Day is always a thankless task. By the time you read this, most of you will know what is set to come out of that red box, while I can only speculate. That said, it’s nice to see that Jeremy Hunt is now following in his predecessors’ [...]