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 [...]
Musk vs Zuck: Twitter and Facebook bosses agree to a… cage fight June 22, 2023 Twitter CEO Elon Musk and Facebook owner Meta’s boss Mark Zuckerberg appear to have agreed to a cage fight. The social media billionaires will scrap it out after Musk, who also owns Tesla, said he was “up for a cage fight” with his tech giant rival. Zuckerberg posted a story on Instagram this morning, showing [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Hunt to discuss support with mortgage lenders as repayments crisis looms June 20, 2023 Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is set to meet with mortgage lenders to discuss support for homeowners as a repayments crisis looms. Various calls have been made for the government to step in to help struggling borrowers – but Hunt said ministers would not provide financial support which would fuel inflation. Average costs for a two-year fixed-rate [...]
Frasers snaps up stakes in Boohoo and Currys June 20, 2023 The company behind Sports Direct has said that it hopes a new stake in Boohoo can lead to collaborations between the fashion brand and Missguided. Frasers Group said that its new holding in its fellow listed company would allow it to find synergies and make its own brands stronger. The business, majority owned by Mike [...]
Mel Stride urges Johnson and cabinet to ‘row together’ and end hostilities after vote June 20, 2023 Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride expressed hope that Boris Johnson and the Cabinet can now “row together” and end the hostilities. Mr Stride told Times Radio he backed the Privileges Committee’s findings that the former prime minister lied to MPs but said he felt “quite uneasy” with the 90-day suspension recommended so decided to [...]
Sadiq Khan to address ‘cost of doing business’ crisis at summit with Uber and Natwest June 20, 2023 Sadiq Khan is set to address the “cost of doing business crisis” at a crunch summit with firms including Uber, Natwest and KPMG. The mayor of London will welcome more than 200 CEOs to his annual City Hall business reception at the Crystal in east London today. He is expected to tell firms the “cost-of-doing-business [...]