Autumn Budget: Which taxes will Rachel Reeves hike? October 22, 2024 With the Autumn Budget set to be delivered in just a few days, speculation about which taxes Chancellor Rachel Reeves will opt to raise has reached fever pitch. On entering No 11 Downing Street, Reeves commissioned the Treasury to conduct a thorough spending audit, which she claimed unearthed a “fiscal black hole” of £22bn, paving [...]
It’s hard work working out what ‘working people’ means October 22, 2024 Politicians do like to lump people together. In recent years we’ve had the squeezed middle, the just-about-managing, hard working families and (who could forget?) Nick Clegg’s “alarm clock Britain.” To this list of amorphous jargon we must now add “working people.” Labour figures have been leaning on the phrase for months, not least as part [...]
Budget: Minister refuses to rule out tax rise for £100,000 earners nine times October 21, 2024 A government minister has refused to rule out whether Labour would increase taxes on those earning more than £100,000 at the Budget. Speaking to Sky News, care minister Stephen Kinnock refused nine times to say whether – under Labour’s definition – someone earning a six figure salary would see their taxes go up. Labour’s election [...]
UK banks brace for Budget tax raid despite lobbying efforts October 21, 2024 UK banks are bracing for a tax raid in Labour's maiden Budget as new analysis reveals the sector is already paying a significantly higher rate than counterparts in the US and EU.
Retail sales rise unexpectedly despite Budget tax fears October 18, 2024 Retail sales came in ahead of expectations.
HS2 back on track: Troubled line will run from London Euston after all October 17, 2024 The government is reportedly planning to reverse its decision to scrap the northern leg of HS2, extending the high-speed rail line from London Euston to Crewe. Having originally planned for the project to cost £37.5bn in 2009, the government’s latest estimation in Febuary this year ballooned to anywhere between £72bn and £98bn. Private talks involving [...]
The Capitalist: Guildhall’s gossip police on patrol as M&S boss skips Investment Summit October 17, 2024 Dispatches from Labour's Investment Summit, M&S's CEO's big night out and hijinks at Cheltenham: catch up on City gossip in The Capitalist.
Let’s be honest… feel-good campaigns are ruining Britain October 17, 2024 Every government promises to cut red tape but ends up adding more. The only way to break the cycle is to stop listening to nice sounding arguments, says Matthew Lesh Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt did not mince words at this week’s International Investment Summit. “Maybe you need a minister of anti-regulation?” Schmidt said to Prime [...]
Tory leadership: I’ll return us to ‘party of sound money’, Robert Jenrick pledges October 16, 2024 Tory leadership contender Robert Jenrick has pledged to return the Conservatives to “being the party of sound money”, if elected. The former migration minister outlined his economic plans in a speech this morning in which he admitted the Conservatives “abandoned fiscal responsibility in the mini-Budget.” Jenrick told an audience of journalists and MPs at a [...]
International Investment Summit showcased the best of Britain October 15, 2024 After years of uncertainty about the vision and direction of the UK, investors should once again view Britain as serious about leading the race to a greener economy and being the go-to destination for inward investment, says John Caudwell Britain pioneered industrialisation. The entrepreneurialism of British engineers and innovators sparked the first industrial revolution, a [...]