Labour leadership race: Owen Smith could face fresh blow as members excluded from voting take challenge to High Court August 7, 2016 Labour leadership contender Owen Smith could face a setback tomorrow as a judge rules on whether party members excluded from leadership election should be given the right to vote. The case was sparked after Labour's National Executive Committee decided that full members could not vote in the leadership election between Jeremy Corbyn and Smith if they [...]
Frack yeah: Homes near shale gas sites to cash in August 7, 2016 Homeowners near sites where shale gas exploration is taking place will be able to cash in under new government proposals. Residents close to fracking sites could benefit directly from a share of as much as £1bn, new Prime Minister Theresa May has said. The shale wealth fund, set up under George Osborne, promises up to 10 [...]
MPs to leave Parliament for six years while it gets a face-lift August 6, 2016 MPs are set to clear out of Parliament while it gets refurbished over a six-year period. According the The Times, politicians will be leaving their historic headquarters and moving into the Department of Health at Richmond House, where MPs will not be able to buy booze. The building is owned by financiers from the Middle East [...]
Donald Trump finally backs US house speaker Paul Ryan August 6, 2016 Donald Trump has ended his political stand-off with Paul Ryan, endorsing the US House speaker in a speech on Friday. The Republican presidential nominee had previously said he would not back Ryan's bid to become re-elected as House Speaker, but reversed his position at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, saying: "We may disagree on a [...]
Should Philip Hammond call an early Autumn Statement? August 5, 2016 The mighty economic salvo unleashed by the Bank of England yesterday has heaped pressure onto the government to pull its weight in supporting the UK economy in the wake of the Brexit vote. Mark Carney, George Osborne, the Labour Party and a host of analysts and businesses called on the chancellor Philip Hammond to step up [...]
Bank rate cut: Property investment crowned winner while savers lose out August 5, 2016 The Bank of England launched a massive stimulus package yesterday in a bid to save Britain from recession. The Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) voted unanimously to slash interest rates to an all-time low of 0.25 per cent. Take a look at the winners and losers of the rate cut: WINNER: Property investment The cut to interest rates is [...]
Bremainers, Cameron aides and Shami Chakrabarti get honours August 4, 2016 Former chancellor George Osborne topped the list of David Cameron’s resignation honours today, while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn raised eyebrows with his nomination of Labour anti-Semitism report author Shami Chakrabarti. Cameron’s resignation honours rewarded “Bremainers” and many of his inner circle. Osborne has been made a Companion of Honour for political and public service, while former [...]
What businesses can expect from Theresa May’s self-consciously pragmatic Conservatism August 4, 2016 From what retailers sold in their shops to their advertising, David Cameron seemed to have a view on everything businesses did. While they might not have approved of it all, businesses understood what he was thinking. Not so with Theresa May. May intervenes in public debate sporadically, on bigger issues and with more focus. She [...]
Treasury committee chair Andrew Tyrie has warned government crowdfunding incentives may need to be reconsidered August 4, 2016 Senior Tory Andrew Tyrie has warned that tax incentives to invest in peer-to-peer lending may be dragging consumers towards inappropriate products. Treasury Select Committee chair Tyrie wrote to the Financial Conduct Authority in June to call for closer scrutiny of the market. And in a letter published yesterday, outgoing FCA boss Tracey McDermott admitted the [...]
Jeremy Corbyn has revealed plans for a huge national spending splurge, funded by “expanding the economy” and tackling tax avoidance August 4, 2016 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has unveiled plans for a huge national spending splurge, topped by the construction of a million new homes. Asked today how he would fund the work, Corbyn said money would be generated by "expanding the economy" and tackling tax avoidance. Little detail has been revealed on the plans, but the current Labour [...]