BoE appoints former Citibank economist Catherine Mann to rate-setting panel June 22, 2021 Britain’s finance ministry has today named former Citibank economist Catherine Mann as the newest member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). Mann’s three-year stint on the nine-member panel, which sets interest rates and oversees the BoE’s £895bn bond-buying programme, will replace Gertjan Vlieghe on 1 September, who is stepping down after six [...]
Brace yourselves, the era of the ‘alternative budget’ has arrived November 20, 2023 It started when Liz Truss’s faction of 60 or so MPs, who go under the banner Conservative Growth Coalition, pre-announced – to drum up anticipation – and then two months later published their Budget for Growth.
Sir Keir Starmer: If I am fined over Beergate – I WILL resign May 9, 2022 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has committed to resigning if Durham police find him guilty of breaching lockdown rules last year. In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the former head of public prosecutions said: “I’ve always followed the rules” since the start of lockdown. He said everyone “found the rules frustrating at times”, and that [...]
Liz Truss appoints Jeremy Hunt as chancellor after Kwarteng sacking October 14, 2022 Jeremy Hunt has been appointed as the new chancellor after prime minister Liz Truss sacked Kwasi Kwarteng today following weeks of market turmoil triggered by last month’s mini budget. Hunt is the fourth chancellor this year. According to bookmaker Betfair, Truss is now odds on to step down as prime minister. Kwarteng wrote to Liz [...]
Mel Stride MP urges chancellor to slash taxes to ease cost of living crisis November 29, 2021 The chairman of an influential group of MPs that scrutinises the spending plans of the government has told Tory chancellor Rishi Sunak to slash taxes to ease the cost of living crisis looming over Brits. Speaking to the PA news agency, Conservative MP Mel Stride, who chairs the Treasury Committee, called on the chancellor to [...]
Johnson eyes measures to help families deal with rising energy bills January 31, 2022 Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak are set to agree upon a package of measures this week designed to ease the burden of incoming energy bill hikes next month for low-income households. The pair are expected to only target support for millions of low-wage workers, pensioners and unemployed people, with three existing schemes to be extended [...]
Conservatives are paralysed by a false idea of what the ‘take back control’ means August 12, 2022 The Brexit promise to “take back control” has been translated to mean scrap all European regulation
UK markets: ‘Penny is dropping’ there will be no immediate ceasefire in Ukraine while focus shifts to Sunak’s ‘double whammy’ March 22, 2022 European markets underwent a subdued start to the week yesterday, with the FTSE100 outperforming on the back of another day of advances for crude oil prices, pushing the index to close at its highest level since 28 February. “The main reason for the move higher in oil prices was reports that the EU was considering [...]
A lack of direction at the top has left Boris vulnerable to scandal January 14, 2022 Since being elected in 2019 on a new brand of Conservative politics, Johnson has completely failed to add meat to the bones of precisely what this means. Without a safety net of coherent politics, a checklist of achievements to wave at his many critics, Johnson is more in danger of being waylaid by scandals than [...]
Historic inflation crunch swells UK interest bill to highest on record April 26, 2022 Historic high inflation has swelled the amount of money the UK government spends on servicing its debt to its largest level on record, reveals official figures released today. Britain’s debt interest bill for the year to March climbed 77 per cent over the last year to nearly £70bn in a further sign that Chancellor Rishi [...]