Top UK Treasury civil servant earns five-year reappointment January 7, 2021 The UK Treasury’s top civil servant has been reappointed for another five-year term, after impressing Downing Street with his response to the Covid crisis. Department permanent secretary Sir Tom Scholar has been one of the architects of the Treasury’s response to the Covid crisis, which has seen Rishi Sunak spend more than £300bn to keep [...]
House of Commons passes legislation to enable England Covid lockdown January 6, 2021 The House of Commons has tonight passed legislation to enact an England-wide lockdown announced by Boris Johnson on Monday. The new lockdown was passed by 524 to 16. Johnson told people to obey the new lockdown rules from his announcement on Monday, but it still took two days for the legislation to be debated in [...]
Nigel Farage gets approval to launch new political party Reform UK January 6, 2021 Nigel Farage and prominent Brexiteer Richard Tice have been given the green light to start a new political party called Reform UK. The Telegraph reports that the Electoral Commission today approved the pair’s application to change the name of their Brexit Party to the new moniker. Farage is reportedly planning on recruiting 1,000 candidates to [...]
Brexit: BoE boss hits out at EU stance on equivalence for UK financial services January 6, 2021 Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has slammed the EU for how it has handled decisions on the UK’s post-Brexit access to EU financial markets. Bailey told a Westminster committee today that Brussels’ demands to the UK Treasury on potential future regulatory decisions were “problematic”, before adding: “I fail to see why people would want [...]
Nightingale Hospital in London to open as mass vaccination centre January 6, 2021 The Nightingale Hospital at London’s Excel Centre will be used from Monday as a mass vaccination centre along with six other locations across the UK. NHS staff will be used to administer vaccines at the centre, with the government aiming to vaccinate the 13m people most at risk of dying from Covid by 15 February. [...]
City set for bare bones deal in crunch talks on financial services January 6, 2021 The UK is set for only a bare bones agreement in upcoming Brexit talks on the City of London’s future relationship with the EU, according to industry insiders close to the talks. Treasury minister John Glen is set to lead post-Brexit talks with the EU this week to strike a “memorandum of understanding” that will [...]
Mayor of London election to still go ahead in May January 6, 2021 The London mayor election is set to go ahead as planned in May, the government has confirmed. The election, along with a swathe of other local elections across the country, were postponed for a year last May due to Covid-19. The election will pit incumbent Labour mayor Sadiq Khan against Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey. The [...]
UK has now vaccinated 1.3m against Covid-19 as cases surge above 60,000 January 5, 2021 The UK has now vaccinated 1.3m people against Covid, with almost a quarter of people over the age of 80 in this country now given their first jab. Boris Johnson said this meant in two to three weeks that all these people would have a “significant degree of immunity” against the virus. The Prime Minister [...]
Boris Johnson cancels trip to India after announcing Covid lockdown January 5, 2021 Boris Johnson has today cancelled his plan trip to India later this month, after he announced a new England lockdown last night. Johnson spoke to India Prime Minister Narendra Modi today to deliver the news and reaffirm his commitment to visit the country later this year. A Downing Street spokesperson said: “In light of the national [...]
England Covid lockdown: What does it mean for Londoners? January 4, 2021 Boris Johnson has tonight announced a new seven-week national lockdown to deal with surging Covid rates that are now higher than during the country’s first peak last March. The new measures will make little difference in London, which is already in Tier 4, however people in the capital will still have less freedoms from tomorrow. [...]
