‘Can’t come soon enough’: Will Sunak follow through on 2p tax cut reports? June 4, 2023 Rishi Sunak’s mooted plans to reduce the tax burden from a seven-decade high with a 2p cut in income tax ahead of the next election have been welcomed by Tory campaigners. Reports surfaced in the Sunday Telegraph that the PM – an ex-City banker – is keen to cut charges in order to incentivise work [...]
Explainer: The British circus around Europe to strike migration deals June 2, 2023 Not many people would expect to spend their Friday morning scrolling through Robert Jenrick’s Instagram account. For those who don’t know him, he’s the Minister for Immigration, Suella Braverman’s right-hand man. Jenrick doesn’t like migration very much – and has made that clear through various statements of various tastelessness. He claimed that “uncontrolled migration threatens [...]
Government preparing for legal fight with Covid inquiry (it set up) over Boris Johnson WhatsApp messages June 2, 2023 Ministers are preparing for a high-profile legal battle with the Covid-19 inquiry as the Government seeks to challenge the request for Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages and notebooks. Bereaved families and opposition parties hit out at the Government after the Cabinet Office took the highly unusual step of seeking a judicial review of inquiry chairwoman [...]
‘Ukraine’s rightful place is in Nato’: Rishi Sunak promises Kyiv ‘security arrangements’ June 1, 2023 Ukraine’s “rightful place” is in Nato, Rishi Sunak has said. The Prime Minister is in Moldova for a gathering of European leaders, with his comments coming after a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. Kyiv has long called for Ukraine to be admitted to Nato, but allies are divided about when and how any accession [...]
Sunak ‘putting tackling legal migration top of the agenda’ at European summit June 1, 2023 Rishi Sunak is seeking to put “tackling illegal migration top of the international agenda” at a gathering of European leaders in Moldova. The Prime Minister is stressing the need for collaboration on the “global issue” at a meeting of the European Political Community. While there, he is expected to announce the start of negotiations on [...]
Zahawi, Patel and Rees-Mogg lead calls to abolish ‘morally wrong’ inheritance tax June 1, 2023 Senior Tory MPs including former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi are calling for inheritance tax to be abolished. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt face a call from more than 50 of his MPs to scrap the tax, according to The Telegraph. Writing in the newspaper, Mr Zahawi suggested scrapping the tax and said it [...]
Explainer: Why Erdoğan refuses to let Sweden join NATO May 31, 2023 This is a big week in foreign policy. Rishi Sunak is preparing for his trip to Moldova tomorrow, to attend the European Political Community Summit, where he hopes to talk about migration and support for Ukraine. Yet with the newly re-elected Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also invited, there’s another issue that might overshadow the Summit, something [...]
AI ‘godfather’ feels ‘lost’ over life’s work after experts warn it could lead to extinction of humanity May 31, 2023 One of the “godfathers” of artificial intelligence (AI) has said he feels “lost” as experts warned the technology could lead to the extinction of humanity. Professor Yoshua Bengio told the BBC that all companies building AI products should be registered and people working on the technology should have ethical training. It comes after dozens of [...]
Starmer says Britain’s Brexit future is OUTSIDE of the EU under Labour May 31, 2023 Britain’s future is outside the EU, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said, as he promised to make Brexit work. Writing in the Daily Express newspaper, Sir Keir – who campaigned for Remain in the 2016 referendum – also said he would not be seeking a return to freedom of movement. The comments are Sir [...]
The west forgot about Crimea. It cannot forget about the rest of Ukraine May 31, 2023 It is perhaps easy to become fatigued by news of the war in Ukraine. It is now fifteen months since Vladimir Putin’s tanks rolled over the frontier for what they thought would be a straightforward victory, an imperial conquest more akin to 1940 or the Napoleonic era than the 21st century. Through sheer bloody-mindedness as [...]