Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to meet lenders as mortgage crisis worsens June 23, 2023 Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will ask banks if they can do more to support struggling households after a shock interest rate hike deepened the mortgage crisis. He is meeting large lenders including HSBC and Santander in Downing Street this morning as the government comes under pressure to relieve the pain. Prime minister Rishi Sunak and Hunt [...]
Not ‘sufficient thought’ into stopping Covid-19, Chris Whitty tells inquiry June 22, 2023 Government “did not give sufficient thought” into stopping the pandemic in its tracks, Sir Chris Whitty has told the official Covid-19 inquiry. The chief medical officer for England has said options to stop a disease outbreak on the scale of coronavirus were not considered fully enough by ministers ahead of the crisis. Giving evidence today, [...]
Sadiq Khan says Shaun Bailey should lose peerage over ‘Jingle & Mingle’ video June 22, 2023 Sadiq Khan has said his former mayoral rival Shaun Bailey should not receive his peerage after a video of staff dancing and drinking at a Christmas party during Covid-19 emerged. The mayor of London described the footage of staff, who joked about bending the rules in the video filmed at CCHQ on 14 December 2020 [...]
Labour’s plan to force banks to help on mortgages branded ‘risky’ and ‘counterproductive’ June 22, 2023 Labour’s plans to force banks to help struggling borrowers with their mortgages have been slammed as “risky” and “counterproductive”. The party says lenders should be compelled to help mortgage holders struggling with payments in a bid to avert a looming mortgage crisis as interest rates are expected to keep rising to bring inflation down. Shadow [...]
Government accuses peers of seeking to delay controversial strike reforms June 21, 2023 The government has accused peers of trying to delay controversial strike reforms that unions fear will make it easier to sack workers. The House of Lords had made a series of amendments to the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill aimed at protecting workers and trade unions, plus requiring the government to consult further on the [...]
Covid-19 inquiry: Flu-based pandemic prep meant herd immunity was seen as ‘inevitable’, says Hunt June 21, 2023 Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said the focus on any future pandemic being flu-based meant there was a “shared assumption herd immunity was inevitably” going to be the strategy used to contain a new virus. He admitted being part of “groupthink” when he was health secretary, leading to a “narrowness of thinking” that failed to expand [...]
Revealed: The London constituencies that will be worst hit by mortgage rate rises June 21, 2023 Mortgage holders in London and the Southeast are set to be the worst hit by the “crippling” mortgage rate rises on the horizon, new data shows. The top twenty areas of the country set to see the highest increase in their mortgage repayments increase are concentrated around the capital and the commuter belt, according to [...]
Barriers to business require urgent action from government June 21, 2023 Per the business secretary, Britain’s trade problem is that we don’t think we can. Apparently our ‘sardonic’ sense of humour holds us back from sailing the seven seas like mercantile Brits of old. Even by the standards of recent years, it’s an absurd statement. It sums up a wider dereliction of duty in Westminster towards [...]
Rishi Sunak: City of London will be ‘engine room’ of UK investment in rebuilding Ukraine June 21, 2023 Ukraine is set to receive £3bn in World Bank loan guarantees as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed the UK would continue to support the nation for “as long as it takes” in the fight against Russia. Sunak will also announce a major financial support package for the eastern European country as it mounts its long-awaited [...]
WH Smith, M&S and Argos among hundreds fined for failing to pay minimum wage June 21, 2023 Hundreds of businesses including high-street heavyweights WH Smith, M&S and Argos have been named and shamed after being fined for failing to pay workers the minimum wage. Firms from sole traders to household names were ordered to repay 63,000 staff lost wages totalling close to £5m, after breaching National Minimum Wage (NMW) law. WH Smith [...]