Treasury to shut down £100m Covid fraud recovery squad in March October 16, 2022 The Treasury has decided to close down its unit charged with recovering money stolen through Covid fraud, after clawing back hundreds of millions less than expected. The £100m Taxpayer Protection Taskforce was set up by former chancellor Rishi Sunak to recover some of the estimated £5.8bn lost to fraud through three Covid support schemes. The [...]
New Westminster Foreign Affairs Committee chair says she will visit Taiwan October 16, 2022 The new chair of Westminster’s Foreign Affairs Committee has confirmed she will lead a delegation to Taiwan. Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton Alicia Kearns today said she has been rallying the committee to go to Taiwan since 2020, but that she is not trying to “antagonise” China. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House [...]
Tesco chair says Labour the ‘only team on the field’ on economic policy October 16, 2022 The chair of the UK’s largest retailer has praised Labour’s economic plans and said “there’s only one team on the field” – Sir Keir Starmer’s party. Tesco chair John Allan today said “I don’t think we’ve seen a growth plan from the Conservatives”, but that “we’ve seen the beginnings, I think, of a quite plausible [...]
Biden says Truss tax cuts were ‘a mistake’ and U-turn was ‘predictable’ October 16, 2022 US President Joe Biden has criticised Liz Truss’ tax plans as “a mistake” and said he “wasn’t the only one” who thought so. The President said the Prime Minister’s embarrassing U-turns were “predictable” when he was asked about it during a visit to an ice cream shop in Portland, Oregon. Biden said earlier this year [...]
Hunt says Truss has ‘changed’ as he warns of spending cuts and tax rises October 16, 2022 Jeremy Hunt has claimed Liz Truss has “changed” after the bruising last month as he warns of coming spending cuts and tax rises. The new chancellor said “spending is not going to increase by as much as people hoped” and that “taxes are not going to go down as quickly as people thought and some [...]
New chancellor Jeremy Hunt given ‘clean slate’ to fix mini-budget October 15, 2022 Less than 24-hours into the new job, chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy Hunt has been given a ‘clean slate’ to amend the controversial mini-budget. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Hunt singled out two key blunders in September’s mini-budget which rattled markets and public confidence with £45bn worth of tax cuts. “There [...]
Analysis: Truss can’t buck the markets October 14, 2022 Around eight minutes is how long prime minister Liz Truss today allocated to explain why she sacked her chancellor for implementing her tax cuts and signed off her second mini budget U-turn. She clarified neither. She answered four questions and committed to her “mission” to boost growth in the UK at a Downing Street press [...]
Even a complete reversal of the mini-budget won’t fill the giant fiscal hole created October 14, 2022 In August, we were promised a new Budget under the new premiership of Liz Truss. In September, it was downgraded to a mini-Budget when the Government decided not to ask the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to mark its homework, or set out a new economic outlook. The market fallout from this disastrous decision [...]
24 arrests: Climate activists target Met HQ with paint and gluing themselves to road October 14, 2022 Police arrested 24 campaigners who daubed orange paint at New Scotland Yard and blocked a road by gluing themselves to it. Officers detained the campaigners who are continuing a near two-week campaign of disruption, protesting policies about fossil fuels. In a statement, the Met police said “officers have arrested 24 protesters on suspicion of conspiracy [...]