Starmer’s approval ratings hit record low amid Reform and Green squeeze November 11, 2025 Keir Starmer’s approval ratings have hit a fresh low as voters brace for a battering at the Budget. The latest City AM/Freshwater Strategy poll of UK voters has shown that Keir Starmer’s net approval rating has cratered to -45, the lowest level since our monthly polling began in January this year. His Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, [...]
Nigel Farage: VAT threshold should be raised November 10, 2025 Reform UK’s Nigel Farage has hit out at suggestions that the VAT threshold for businesses should be lowered from its £90,000 threshold. Reports have suggested that Chancellor Rachel Reeves could lower the threshold at which businesses must be registered for VAT to £30,000 in a phased approach, a policy backed by several think tank wonks [...]
Richard Tice pledges ‘Big Reform’ of City regulation November 5, 2025 Richard Tice has called on City leaders to draw up proposals to radically cut regulation and introduce an overhaul of major financial institutions across the UK as he called for a “Big Reform” of financial services. In an echo of Margaret Thatcher’s Big Bang programme on deregulation, the Reform UK deputy leader set out the [...]
Farage’s speech was light on detail, but his instincts are right November 3, 2025 For all its “rabble-rousing” flourishes, Nigel Farage’s speech showed he understands that the City isn’t a London vanity project, it’s the bedrock of the entire UK economy, says Matthew Bowles Britain’s economic situation is hard to sugar-coat. Taxation is at some of the highest levels since Attlee’s day, and parts of the British economy are [...]
Is Nigel Farage right about Bank of England independence? November 3, 2025 Nigel Farage’s economic policies are neurasthenically inconsistent, but he has opened the door to a debate we need to have about whether Gordon Brown’s settlement for the Bank of England is fit for purpose, says Eliot Wilson Nigel Farage is a practised veteran at grabbing the headlines with a provocative-sounding but ultimately empty remark. Speaking [...]
Rachel Reeves considering ‘exit tax’ on wealthy Brits fleeing the UK November 3, 2025 Rachel Reeves is looking at a tax on wealthy Brits leaving the UK and a mansion tax, as last ditch levers to pull ahead of the Budget. The Times reported on a possible 20 per cent “settling-up charge” on business assets, which is the rate of Capital Gains Tax (CGT). It is thought that the [...]
Mel Stride rules out electoral pact with Reform October 30, 2025 Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride has insisted the Conservatives will not strike an electoral deal with Reform UK due to their “completely ruinous” economic agenda. In an interview with a new online magazine led by the centre-right think tank Bright Blue, Stride said his party should avoid “indulging in populist politics” and focus on calling out [...]
Reform pledges £9bn welfare savings as Tories urged to apologise October 29, 2025 Reform UK has laid out a smaller savings package on disability payments than one planned by the Tories as opposition parties vie to gain credibility on welfare reform. Reform UK’s Lee Anderson, the party’s spokesman for welfare, set out plans on curbing personal independence payments (Pips) for under 25-year-olds and for people with “non-major anxiety”. [...]
Asylum seeker released in error seen in London area, police say October 25, 2025 An asylum seeker accidentally released from prison was last seen in the London area, police said, as officers urged anyone who spots him to call 999 immediately. Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, who had been living at the Bell Hotel in Epping, was jailed for 12 months in September for the sexual assault of [...]
FCA’s diversity requirements go ‘far beyond remit’, report warns October 21, 2025 The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and other public sector diversity initiatives go “far beyond” remits set by legal requirements, a report has warned, prompting Reform UK to vow to reset systems to reward “talent and merit alone”. Analysis in a paper by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has suggested that diversity policies advanced by [...]