Labour is locking Britain into a high-tax, low-growth doom loop June 18, 2025 Tax, borrowing, the cost of borrowing, unemployment and inflation are all going up, while growth is going down. Yet in the face of this, Labour’s instinct is to tax more, spend more and centralise more, says Simon Clarke When in a big hole, muddle the figures so nobody can understand them. That’s what Paul Johnson [...]
Tories: Labour desperate to use bookies tax to bail out Rachel Reeves June 17, 2025 Shadow sport and gambling minister Louie French has ripped into the Government over its plans for gambling taxes so soon after a sector white paper, describing them as a threat to bookies and horseracing. The Conservative MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup said Labour were “desperate” to find “easy tax rises to bail out Rachel [...]
Secure Trust Bank taps Labour donor tied to cronyism scandal as new boss June 17, 2025 An ex-Treasury director who was at the heart of Labour’s “cronyism” scandal has been tapped to take the helm at specialist lender Secure Trust Bank. Ian Corfield, who also spent nearly a decade as chief commercial officer of New Day, will replace retiring chief executive David McReadie. Corfield stepped down from his civil servant role [...]
Rachel Reeves mulls inheritance tax U-turn as non-doms flee June 17, 2025 Rachel Reeves is reportedly mulling over changes to inheritance tax (IHT) on non-doms for assets held around the world, as pressure has ramped up from the City. That’s according to a report in the Financial Times, with “tweaks” to current rules to stem the UK’s haemorrhaging of non-doms. This potential U-turn follows pressure on the [...]
UK aerospace sector to avoid tariffs as Trump-Starmer trade deal clinched June 17, 2025 Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Donald Trump met on the sidelines of the G7 summit to agree a trade deal that will remove tariffs on the UK aerospace sector and save carmakers from facing aggressive taxes on exports. The pair of world leaders heaped praise on one another while the UK government said the [...]
Britain can’t afford to spend £24,000 on every adult June 17, 2025 The UK is on track to spend £1.5 trillion per year, with much of the increase driven by debt interest, health and welfare costs, says Emma Revell Back in 2021, my colleagues at the Centre for Policy Studies think tank published an extraordinary briefing. It showed that by 2025/26, the British state was set to [...]
84 per cent of Brits want Iran blocked from developing nuclear weapons June 16, 2025 A huge 84 per cent of Brits say that Iran should be stopped from developing nuclear weapons, with 44 per cent supporting UK military efforts to intervene, according to polling from think tank More in Common. The overwhelming strength of public concern and the relative backing of intervention is at odds with Sir Keir Starmer’s [...]
Business rates to hammer the West End: ‘This whole policy is nuts’ June 16, 2025 A rise in business rates for more expensive properties is set to hammer valuable areas like London’s West End, a leading investment firm has warned. The policy, which aims to bring down business rates for small properties by raising them for large properties, has been slammed as “unlikely to save the high street” and likely [...]
Car crash interview: City minister trips up over £10bn infrastructure project June 16, 2025 City minister Emma Reynolds was flummoxed by a series of questions about the government’s recent infrastructure announcements in a variously tense and cringe-inducing interview on LBC on Monday morning. Just seconds into the exchange with Nick Ferrari, Reynolds misspoke and called the Dartford Tunnel – in Kent – the Dartmouth Tunnel – in Devon – [...]
Israel-Iran conflict to dominate G7 meeting as Starmer calls for restraint June 16, 2025 The escalating conflict between Israel and Iran is likely to be high on the agenda as world leaders gather in Canada on Monday. Sir Keir Starmer said that the G7 meeting in Alberta would provide an opportunity for allies to make the case for de-escalation in the “fast moving” situation in the Middle East, with President Trump [...]