July Budget 2015: What time is it, how to watch it and what to expect July 7, 2015 Chancellor George Osborne is busily preparing to deliver his "emergency Budget" tomorrow, with its name alluding to the fact it's so close to the General Election. But it's also attracting attention is because it's the first exclusively Conservative Budget in almost 20 years – in 1996 then-chancellor Kenneth Clarke delivered a package framed as the "Rolls-Royce recovery [...]
Tory bosses: Just three candidates on the Conservative mayoral ballot July 6, 2015 Voters will be able to choose among no more than three candidates when the Conservative party holds an open primary later this year to select its candidate for mayor of London. Applications to be the Tory candidate for London mayor closed yesterday, but the party has not released an official list of hopefuls. Bookmakers put [...]
July Budget 2015: Boris Johnson says cut top tax rate and introduce living wage July 6, 2015 Boris Johnson has said he thinks the government should cut the top rate of income tax from 45 pence and simultaneously make some of Britain's biggest companies pay the living wage. The London mayor argues only boosting the income of society's richest individuals is unfair, and should be matched with pay increases for low-paid employees [...]
7/7 London bombings 10th anniversary: Sadiq Khan – “Our spirit of togetherness saw to it that the terrorists failed” July 6, 2015 I can remember all too vividly where I was on the 7th July 2005, when word started filtering through that there had been several explosions on London’s public transport network. I was with my staff in our House of Common's office and all of us were in high spirits as we were still digesting [...]
Greek referendum: Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis hails “no” vote against austerity July 5, 2015 Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has hailed a seeming "no" vote against more austerity measures implying it ramps up pressure on the country's creditors to negotiate. "As of tomorrow, with this brave "no" the Greek people handed us … we will extend a helping hand towards our lenders. We will call on each one of them [...]
What time will we find out the result of the Greek referendum? All the timings of today’s vote July 5, 2015 Voting for the Greek referendum closed at 5pm (BST) today and the first smattering of results are pointing towards a "no" vote. With 26.75 per cent of the vote counted, 60.59 per cent have voted "no" and 39.41 per cent have voted "yes". And so far not a single region has voted yes. Polls released earlier [...]
Labour leadership race: Jeremy Corbyn wins Unite backing, Andy Burnham second favourite of Britain’s biggest union July 5, 2015 Jeremy Corbyn has won the backing of Britain's biggest union in the contest to become the next leader of the Labour party. Unite's executive committee has voted to support the left-wing candidate who is seeking to replace Ed Miliband. The union, which lent support to Miliband in the last leadership race, also voted for Andy [...]
July Budget 2015: BBC must “make a contribution” to welfare cuts, says George Osborne on Andrew Marr Show July 5, 2015 The BBC “can make a contribution” to the costs of free television licences for the over-75s, George Osborne has said, responding to reports that the broadcaster would be required to stump up millions of pounds to keep the pensioner benefit going. The fee is currently paid by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) but under [...]
Will Greece leave the Eurozone? Crunch time as Greeks heads to the polls in bailout referendum July 5, 2015 Greece will today head to the polls to vote in a referendum which could send the country tumbling into financial disaster and plunge the Eurozone into turmoil. Greeks will vote on whether or not to accept the terms of a new bailout deal which demands austerity measures including VAT rises and pension cuts. The surprise [...]
Greek referendum: “What they are doing to Greece is terrorism” says Yanis Varoufakis July 4, 2015 Yanis Varoufakis has injected some more colour into the rhetoric surrounding the Greek referendum tomorrow, labelling the country’s creditors as “terrorists”. Speaking to Spain’s centre-right El Mundo newspaper, Greece’s finance minister was blunt: "What they’re doing with Greece has a name: terrorism." When pushed on whether he would stand by this definition, he continued: It’s [...]