Ineos chief Sir Jim Ratcliffe urges Kwasi Kwarteng to approve fracking test site April 11, 2022 Billionaire industrialist Sir Jim Ratcliffe has asked Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng for permission to drill a shale test site.
Travel Chaos: Extinction Rebellion blocks Lambeth and Vauxhall bridges April 10, 2022 Activists from the green campaign group Extinction Rebellion are blocking two of the key travel arteries across London.
Sunak considered resigning over his wife’s non-domicile tax status April 10, 2022 Rishi Sunak considered resigning as chancellor last week amid a torrent of stories about his wife having non-domicile tax status in the UK, it has been revealed. It was reported by The Independent last week that Sunak’s wife Akshata Murthy, who is worth around £700m personally and is the heiress to a £3.5bn fortune, was [...]
Boris Johnson heads to Kyiv for Zelensky talks April 9, 2022 Prime Minister Boris Johnson today travelled to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Downing Street said. The trip is being used as a means to advance talks on a new package of military and financial support. A No 10 spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister has travelled to Ukraine to meet President Zelensky in person, [...]
Fighting back: Rishi Sunak dismisses wife’s non-dom tax controversy as ‘unpleasant Labour smears’ April 8, 2022 Chancellor Rishi Sunak has come out fighting for his wife Akshata Murthy, who is facing claims of avoiding tax due to her Indian citizenship and non-dom status. The Tory heavyweight insisted that his wife, who owns a 0.9 per cent stake in her billionaire father’s firm Infosys, is “100 per cent doing everything this country [...]
UK slaps asset freezes and travel bans on the daughters of Putin and Lavrov to finish off their ‘lavish lifestyles’ April 8, 2022 The UK is sanctioning Vladimir Putin’s daughters Katerina Vladimirovna Tikhonova and Maria Vladimirovna Vorontsova under measures to target the “lavish lifestyles” of the Russian President’s inner circle, the Foreign Office has said. The Foreign Office was also targeting the daughters of Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov with travel bans and asset freezes. A statement said: [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Downing Street’s non-domicile resident April 8, 2022 The latest in a string of bad news for the chancellor’s PR team post-spring statement is, unfortunately, his other half. Akshata Murty, the daughter of an Indian billionaire, has apparently been claiming non-domicile status since she moved to the UK in 2015. This means Murty pays tax on money earned in the UK, but not [...]
Retailers enjoy spring boost after first full month without Covid restrictions April 8, 2022 Good weather and an eagerness to refresh wardrobes for spring has fuelled boosted retail footfall and sales, data revealed today. The first full month without Covid restrictions in England and Northern Ireland saw consumers “able to shop with a greater sense of normality, spurred on by some spring sunshine,” the British Retail Consortium (BRC)’s chief [...]
George the Poet interview: George Mpanga on how to change the world April 7, 2022 It seems almost unbelievable that Harry and Megan’s wedding – global audience: 1.9 billion – was opened by… a podcaster. But George Mpanga, better known as George the Poet, is no ordinary podcaster; he’s a musician and a thinker, pushing the boundaries of the medium so far he’s created a genre all of his own. [...]
UK Energy Strategy: Experts weigh in on plans to transform the domestic energy sector April 7, 2022 Analysts and experts assess the state of the UK's energy sector with the government announcing plans to boost domestic production.