Chancellor Rishi Sunak tells EU: Stick to June timeline for City equivalence decision March 2, 2020 UK chancellor Rishi Sunak has told the European Union to stick to a June deadline to work out which parts of Britain’s financial system will be deemed equivalent after Brexit. British banks, trading platforms and insurers are hoping to be granted access to EU markets under a so-called equivalence system, under which the bloc would [...]
Number of UK coronavirus cases hits 40 March 2, 2020 The Department for Health said today the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK had risen by four to 40. The department said 13,525 people have been tested for the virus, with 40 positive results. Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer of England, said the four new patients had recently travelled from Italy. The [...]
Coronavirus latest: UK to set out nationwide plan as Johnson warns spread ‘looks likely’ March 2, 2020 The UK government has agreed a plan for dealing with the coronavirus during an emergency Cobra meeting this morning, as the number of cases in the UK is expected to rise throughout the next few weeks. Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged people to “go about business as usual” and that the country was “very, very [...]
UK-US trade deal set to devalue UK’s financial services sector March 2, 2020 The government has admitted a free trade deal with the US is likely to lead to a drop in the value of the UK’s financial services sector, as other parts of the UK economy begin to expand. Number 10 this morning published its negotiating mandate for talks with Washington. Those discussions, expected to be spearheaded [...]
Covid-19: PM convenes Cobra committee as UK coronavirus cases hit 36 March 2, 2020 Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to chair a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee today after the number of UK Covid-19 (coronavirus) cases hit 36. The leap in cases came as doctors diagnosed 13 new coronavirus patients yesterday, including the first patient in Scotland. Northern Ireland and Wales reported their first cases last [...]
Will France soon find a German dance partner for EU reform? March 2, 2020 Spare a thought for the President of France, the supremely confident Emmanuel Macron, in his uphill attempt to reform a floundering Europe. Following the great recession of 2008, the lion’s share of European leaders failed to fix the economic roof while the sun shone, eschewing the difficulties of structural economic reform in favour of the [...]
First Homes is a flawed solution to three very different problems March 2, 2020 What do you do when a government has all the right intentions for solving the country’s biggest challenges, but is going about it in entirely the wrong way? That’s a question we should all be asking, particularly when considering the recently announced housing plan. Optimistically entitled “First Homes”, the proposal is to offer a 30 [...]
Is there a solid case for the proposed boost to UK defence spending? March 2, 2020 Is there a solid case for the proposed boost to UK defence spending? Chris Ross, senior vice president at Barracuda Networks, says YES. It’s time to face up to the reality that we live in an increasingly dangerous world, with cybercrime, global tensions, and sophisticated terrorist attacks placing a huge burden on the security services. [...]
Businesses and government in entrepreneurs’ relief row March 2, 2020 A row has broken out between the government and businesses over plans to scrap the entrepreneurs’ relief tax scheme, which small firms have warned will “destroy retirements”. Separately, a report has found that the use of the scheme is growing more than twice as fast in the north of the country than in London, questioning [...]
Exclusive: Distillers demand cut to spirits duty in March budget March 2, 2020 A coalition of British distillers have written to Rishi Sunak to urge him to stick to his party’s election manifesto and cut spirits duty in this month’s budget. The letter – drawn up by the UK Spirits Alliance and signed by 40 of its members – asks the chancellor to “reduce the excise duty burden” to [...]