UK minister: Nato will not tolerate Russian ‘bullying or threats’ over Ukraine February 13, 2022 Nato will not allow Ukraine to be bullied or intimidated by Russian threats, Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis has said. Lewis also restated the UK’s position that it will not send troops into Ukraine if it faces an invasion by Russia. It comes as defence secretary Ben Wallace yesterday compared the response of some western [...]
Labour’s business spokesperson backs easing of EU’s Solvency II insurance regulation February 10, 2022 Labour’s shadow business secretary has said he is in favour of scrapping the EU’s Solvency II directive post-Brexit in a bid to free up insurance firms to plow tens of billions of pounds into the British economy. Jonathan Reynolds said today at a UK Finance event that there was “an argument, not for deregulation, but [...]
Russia foreign minister slams ‘deaf’ Liz Truss after their Moscow meeting February 10, 2022 Russia’s foreign minister has launched a stinging attack on Liz Truss after their meeting in Moscow today, labelling the UK’s foreign secretary as “deaf” and “selfish”. Truss met with Sergey Lavrov in Moscow to discuss the crisis in Ukraine, with the foreign secretary saying the UK wants to provide a “path of diplomacy” to de-escalate [...]
John Major: Johnson broke lockdown laws and is eroding British democracy February 10, 2022 Boris Johnson broke his own lockdown laws and is eroding trust in British democracy, according to former Prime Minister John Major. Major launched a withering attack on the PM today, saying his response to the partygate scandal made the government “look distinctly shifty” while too often “the truth has been optional” for ministers. Major has long [...]
ONS: Number of UK ‘high growth’ firms has fallen by 15 per cent since 2014 February 9, 2022 The number of UK firms considered to be “high growth” job creators has plummeted by 15 per cent between 2014 and 2020, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The figures, compiled by Labour, showed that 14,190 firms were considered to be high growth at the end of 2014 and that this [...]
Covid: Self-isolation and all other restrictions to be dropped this month February 9, 2022 Self-isolation requirements and all other remaining Covid restrictions will be dropped by the end of this month for England, Boris Johnson has announced. Johnson told MPs today that the government would soon bring forward a full strategy to deal with the later stages of the pandemic and that all restrictions will be dropped around 24 [...]
Starmer attacks PM and ‘loan shark chancellor’ over Covid fraud February 9, 2022 Sir Keir Starmer has hit out at the government over the billions of pounds lost to Covid fraud, accusing Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak of “turning a blind eye to scammers”. The Labour leader also labelled Sunak today as the “loan shark chancellor” over his recently unveiled package of measures aimed to reduce household energy [...]
Truss travels to Russia today in bid to ‘de-escalate’ Ukraine crisis February 9, 2022 Liz Truss will meet Russia’s foreign minister in Moscow today in a bid to de-escalate the Ukraine crisis and “pursue a diplomatic solution”. The foreign secretary said in the lead up to her trip that Russia “should be in no doubt about the strength of our response”, referencing the raft of sanctions Nato countries will [...]
UK’s post-Covid small business support programme sees slow take-up February 9, 2022 Rishi Sunak’s post-Covid scheme to boost productivity among small British businesses has seen it reach just a tenth of its target in its first six months. The Help to Grow scheme, launched in August last year, is intended to support 30,000 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) by offering business training in areas like marketing [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Jacob Rees-Mogg’s promotion is a post-Brexit peace offering February 9, 2022 Jacob Rees-Mogg’s new cabinet role as the minister for Brexit opportunities will be welcome news for Tory Brexiteers and MPs on the party’s right. The appointment of Rees-Mogg, a Thatcherite and Brexiteer, in today’s reshuffle shows that Boris Johnson intends to accelerate the government’s efforts to shed EU regulation post-Brexit. There have been grumblings by [...]
