Angela Rayner pushes for tax hikes on savers, in split with Reeves May 21, 2025 Angela Rayner reportedly pushed for a £4bn tax raid on wealthier Brits in the lead up to the Spring Statement, in signs of a senior Cabinet level split on economic policy. According to a leaked note reportedly seen by The Telegraph, the Deputy Prime Minister lobbied the Chancellor to introduce billions of pounds of taxes [...]
Boris Johnson: Starmer the ‘manacled gimp of Brussels’ after ‘one-sided’ EU trade deal May 19, 2025 Boris Johnson has slammed Sir Keir Starmer as an “orange ball-chewing manacled gimp of Brussels”, in a colourful post on X. The former Prime Minister repeatedly referred to his Labour successor as “two-tier Keir”, suggesting that the “hopelessly one sided” deal would render the UK “the non-voting punk of the EU Commission”. The intervention follows [...]
Keir Starmer reaches tentative EU trade deal ahead of summit May 19, 2025 Sir Keir Starmer has agreed a tentative trade deal with the EU, the biggest shake-up of Britain’s relationship with the bloc since Brexit. The UK-EU deal is expected to involve a new trading arrangement and a border deal and could extend to a new security and defence pact, which could open up access to the [...]
Tax fraud: HMRC ramps up dawn raids in crackdown May 16, 2025 According to the law firm Pinsent Masons, HMRC carried out an average of 12 property searches each week last year, as the campaign against tax evasion intensified and the government tax body became “increasingly proactive.” In the year ending March 2024, the government tax body carried out 648 dawn raids, up from 623 raids in 2022/23. [...]
Landsec boosts profit amid residential and retail pivot May 16, 2025 Property investment group Land Securities – known as Landsec – has reported a five per cent boost amid a strategic repositioning of the firm’s commercial property portfolio in favour of residential and retail property. Profit before tax rose to £395m from £341m, as the group plans to invest £1bn in retail and more than £2bn [...]
Tax cost hikes and digital red tape could push landlords to sell up May 15, 2025 Buy to let landlords are set to face fresh tax hurdles that could lead to a squeeze in supply for the rental sector, according to new research. The advisory firm Blick Rothenberg found that the government’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) scheme would add to the costs and administrative burdens of letting properties to tenants. The [...]
Lord Mayor to pay tribute to Winston Churchill and war heroes in VE Day speech May 8, 2025 The Lord Mayor of London will give a speech at St Paul’s Cathedral to mark the 80th anniversary VE Day, in the City of London’s contribution to commemorations taking place around the UK. Alastair King is set to pay tribute to heroes of the Second World War and to Sir Winston Churchilll on behalf of [...]
Trump poised to announce US trade deal with UK May 8, 2025 President Trump will announce a US-UK trade deal today, according to a New York Times report which has since been backed up by Sky News. In a post on X, Sky News’ Sam Coates said that the claims are “substantive”, and that the announcement today would be “a ‘heads of terms’ agreement rather than the [...]
Home Office to clamp down on visa overstays amid pressure from Farage May 6, 2025 New Home Office rules would put curbs on work and study visas from nationalities most at risk of overstaying and going on to claim asylum as part of Labour’s push to reduce net migration. Applications from Pakistanis, Nigerians and Sri Lankans are among those set to be restricted, according to a report in The Times. [...]
Renters work 125 days a year to pay their landlords May 5, 2025 Renters in England are working 125 days each year – before tax – just to pay their rent, according to new research from the Adam Smith Institute (ASI). This means that renters only start earning money for themselves on 6 May, which the ASI has named Cost of Rent Day. The initiative was calculated using [...]
