Explainer: A scoresheet on Rishi’s five pledges July 14, 2023 With Parliament’s summer recess approaching, it is usually a good time to draw some conclusions on the current political situation. For the prime minister, it doesn’t look good. Rishi Sunak started the year outlining his five pledges for 2023: halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce the national debt, cut NHS waiting lists and stop the [...]
Explainer: High Court rules agency workers regulations during strikes unlawful July 13, 2023 Companies will be prevented from hiring agency staff to fill in for striking workers, the High Court ruled today in a further blow to Rishi Sunak’s government. From August 10, employers won’t be able to recruit agency workers to fill in for striking employees. The regulations were first introduced last summer, amid a wave of [...]
Sunak accepts six per cent public sector pay rises but warns it ‘will cost all of you as taxpayers’ July 13, 2023 Government has accepted recommendations for millions of public sector workers to receive pay rises of six per cent or more, Rishi Sunak has announced. The prime minister said today reports from independent pay bodies calling for public sector pay rises of between five and 6.5 per cent for millions of medics, teachers and civil servants [...]
Jeremy Hunt on track to ‘obliterate’ fiscal rules as OBR warns of much higher debt bill July 13, 2023 Jeremy Hunt is on track to blow out his financial goals due to the Bank of England hiking interest rates aggressively to bring down sticky inflation, according to new forecasts out today from the UK’s spending watchdog. Payments to investors who have purchased UK government debt are poised to rise more than £90bn above what [...]
Sunak says Ukraine ‘belongs’ in NATO as Wallace warns UK is ‘not Amazon’ for weapons delivery July 12, 2023 Rishi Sunak told Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky he belonged in NATO as he assured him “real progress” had been made on security guarantees for Kyiv in its fightback against Russia. The prime minister met the Ukrainian president on the fringes of the NATO summit in Vilnius. Zelensky has been left frustrated by the reluctance of [...]
FCA chief: AI could disrupt financial services ‘at a scale not seen before’ July 12, 2023 The chief of the Financial Conduct Authority has said that artificial intelligence could disrupt the financial services sector in “ways and at a scale not seen before”, warning that the regulator would look to take action against AI-based scams.
Starmer more trusted to build a strong economy than Sunak, poll finds July 11, 2023 Sir Keir Starmer has gained a seven point lead over Rishi Sunak on being trusted to build a strong economy, a poll of voters has found. Based on whether the public trusted them on the economy, the Labour Party leader scored 39 per cent compared to the Prime Minister’s 32 per cent, while just 29 [...]
Explainer: Sunak fights with Labour to be Joe Biden’s favourite July 11, 2023 Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden had a jolly time together on Monday, meeting up in London to consolidate what the US president described as a “rock solid relationship”. So our prime minister might have felt a bit betrayed today when he discovered that Labour is also soothing our friends across the pond. Indeed Nick Thomas-Symonds, [...]
The combined power of AI and WhatsApp could wreak havoc for the next election July 11, 2023 The speed of AI generation of deepfakes, combined with WhatsApp’s power for dissemination, could set up for a new battleground at the next election, writes Giles Kenningham
Biden hails US-UK relationship as he meets Sunak at No10 July 10, 2023 US President Joe Biden hailed the “rock-solid” relationship between the US and the UK as he met Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Downing Street. The US President praised the closeness of ties between the two countries as he and the Prime Minister held talks in the garden of No10. Biden, whose short layover in London [...]