More than 250 hospitality bosses call for VAT freeze as diners hit by rising costs February 7, 2022 Restaurant bosses from big names including JD Wetherspoon and Greene King have signed a letter to the Chancellor calling for a VAT freeze at 12.5 per cent. In an open letter to Rishi Sunak, more than 250 hospitality businesses have called for a re-think of plans to hike the VAT rate back to 20 per [...]
Boris Johnson brushes away speculation of rift with Sunak February 7, 2022 Boris Johnson has moved to calm speculation that Rishi Sunak is maneuvering to unseat him, saying that he has no doubt about the chancellor’s personal loyalty. The Prime Minister also said Number 10 and the Treasury were “working together in harmony” on a visit to a Kent hospital today alongside Sunak. Johnson has launched a [...]
Rishi Sunak’s cost-of-living hand out is a classic example of short-term, overburdened Treasury brain February 7, 2022 Last week, as the cake crumbs were cleared away and the fizz went out of the champagne, there was a serious announcement from the chancellor, Rishi Sunak. There had been an energy crisis looming, prices set to soar, and the government knew that this would feed into a damaging narrative that the cost of living [...]
Kwarteng: PM’s Savile slur against Starmer was ‘perfectly reasonable’ February 6, 2022 Boris Johnson’s attacks on Sir Keir Starmer over not prosecuting Jimmy Savile were “perfectly reasonable”, according to business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng. Kwarteng said “Sir Keir himself apologised on behalf of [the Crown Prosecution Service]” for not charging the UK’s most notorious sex offender and that “the fact that he apologised suggests that he does, at [...]
Downing Street rushes to stress relation between PM and Chancellor is ‘good’ while Boris Johnson turns to Lion King after staff exodus February 4, 2022 Downing Street insisted this afternoon that relations between Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak are “good”. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “I don’t know when they last spoke, they speak almost daily, but I don’t know the exact last time.” Asked how relations are between No 10 and No 11, he said: “Good – [...]
Council tax will cushion the cost of living crisis, but it accepts an outdated policy February 4, 2022 With inflation soaring, people are becoming increasingly desperate. Inflation is at record levels, sitting at 4.8 per cent in December and expected to soar as high as 7 per cent by April. The repercussions of this will be particularly strenuous on the most vulnerable. Indeed, the price of essential items that make up a larger [...]
Cost of living crunch to derail UK economy in bruising day for living standards February 3, 2022 A double whammy of bad news today laid bare the scale of the blow the cost of living crisis will deal the British economic recovery, with the energy price cap set to spike by 54 per cent and GDP forecasts slashed by the Bank of England. Ratesetters at Threadneedle Street hiked the interest rate to [...]
Number 10 chaos: Boris Johnson’s communications aide quits February 3, 2022 Boris Johnson’s director of communications has quit this evening, just hours after his policy chief also left Downing Street. Jack Doyle, a well-respected former journalist who joined the Number 10 operation in 2020, has reportedly told friends he always planned to leave after two years. Doyle also told Downing Street staff that the departure had [...]
Consumer price cap hike reflects ‘severity of the crisis’ February 3, 2022 The "severity of the energy crisis" is now becoming a reality for 22m households, argued USwitch's Justina Miltienyte.
Households face painful hike in energy bills amid deepening cost of living crisis February 3, 2022 Households will suffer an eye-watering £700 hike to their energy bills this spring, after Ofgem raised the price cap by over 50 per cent.