Latest updates: PM vows to press ahead with mini-budget plans and dismisses objections to top rate of tax being axed
Q: Are you absolutely committed to getting rid of the 45% rate of tax?
Yes, says Truss.
Continue reading...Category Archives: UK news
Liz Truss refuses to rule out spending cuts to pay for reduced tax rates
PM says she accepts ‘we should have laid ground better’ after mini-budget sparked economic turmoil
Liz Truss has refused to rule out public spending cuts and a real-terms drop in benefits to help pay for the mini-budget, as she sought to quell fury over her handling of the economy by admitting she should have “laid the ground better”.
The prime minister offered a sliver of remorse for the way last Friday’s mini-budget was received. There was a temporary collapse in the value of sterling against the dollar, a rebuke from the International Monetary Fund and warnings that interest rates could be hiked again.
Continue reading...To win an outright Commons majority, Labour will have to gamble
Surging poll numbers mean the party can dare to dream of No 10, but it’s been here before, and the path is riskier than ever
Twelve short months ago, Boris Johnson’s Conservatives were riding a vaccine bounce, and high-spirited Tory commentators were speculating about another decade in office. Now it is Labour who are buoyant, as their poll numbers surge to record highs after a disastrous mini-budget from the new Truss administration unleashed economic and political turmoil. Some in Labour now dare to dream big. Could their party rebound from the worst performance in 80 years straight to a Commons majority?
Veterans counsel caution. Labour has been burned before. Ed Miliband’s opposition posted regular big poll leads during the coalition only for these to evaporate come polling day. But history never repeats itself exactly. Unless the economic weather changes fast, the next election will be fought in the wake of inflation, recession and home repossessions. The Conservatives’ ratings on economic management are already the worst in a generation, with much of the real pain still to come. When their reputation was last torched like this, by the ERM crisis, the next result was a Labour landslide. Time to start humming Things Can Only Get Better?
Robert Ford is professor of political science at Manchester University and co-author of The British General Election of 2019
Continue reading...Kwarteng is sticking to his guns on tax and spending cuts. But what he really needs is luck
The chancellor appears unwilling to reverse any of the measures in his mini-budget. If he is to survive, it may be down to factors beyond his control
Kwasi Kwarteng’s inept handling of the government’s finances since he took office last month has left Liz Truss cornered. The prime minister must play for time and piece together a rescue plan by the end of November, along with a more rounded budget that preserves her tax-cutting agenda while also appearing responsible to financial markets watchful for the next misstep.
Treasury officials, rudderless after the departure of two permanent secretaries (Tom Scholar and deputy Charles Roxburgh) in the space of four months, will be under pressure to find a formula that also satisfies the cautious instincts of the government’s independent economic forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which is inclined to dismiss policy “quick wins” as ineffectual until evidence proves otherwise.
Continue reading...‘Disconnected from reality’: Tory MPs plan rebellion over Liz Truss’s economic agenda
Prime minister is facing the same fate as Theresa May when the Commons returns and could even be removed as leader
Liz Truss is already facing the possibility of crippling parliamentary rebellions over welfare, planning and a new wave of austerity, as MPs warn that No 10 has become “disconnected from reality”.
With some Conservatives in talks with Labour over how to block elements of the prime minister’s sweeping plans, senior Tories believe that Truss is now heading into the bruising parliamentary warfare that characterised Theresa May’s beleaguered premiership.
Continue reading...Man charged with murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel
Thomas Cashman, 34, also charged with attempted murder of Olivia’s mother, Cheryl Korbel, and Joseph Nee
A 34-year-old man has been charged with murdering Olivia Pratt-Korbel five weeks after she was shot in the chest at her home in Liverpool.
Thomas Cashman, of west Derby, is accused of killing nine-year-old Olivia, who died after convicted burglar Joseph Nee was chased into her family’s property in Dovecot on 22 August.
Continue reading...Campaigners celebrate as V&A severs Sackler links over opioids cash
London museum bows to years of pressure and removes signs acknowledging the family behind the OxyContin crisis
Campaigners calling for the name Sackler to be dropped from cultural landmarks are celebrating this weekend. Their smiles mark five years of demonstrations and dramatic stunts as another major arts institution – London’s Victoria and Albert Museum – takes down signs acknowledging the financial contribution from this wealthy family.
The museum is dropping it controversial ties with the Sackler family, descendants of US makers of addictive opioid prescription drugs. It’s a victory for the campaign group Sackler P.A.I.N, which staged a dramatic public protest at the gallery in November 2019. The group, led by American artist Nan Goldin, argued that donations from the family that founded now-bankrupt Purdue Pharma, maker of the painkiller OxyContin, were a moral stain on cultural institutions that accepted them.
Continue reading...British Steel owner reportedly asking for urgent financial help from government
Jingye Group understood to have told ministers that its blast furnaces are unviable without huge cash injection
The owner of British Steel, the UK’s second-biggest steel producer, is understood to be seeking an urgent package of financial support from the government.
Jingye Group, which bought the company out of insolvency just two years ago, has told ministers that its two blast furnaces are unlikely to remain feasible unless the Scunthorpe-headquartered company is granted financial aid, Sky News has reported.
Continue reading...Redcar steelworks demolished in massive controlled explosion
Basic Oxygen Steelmaking, which shut seven years ago, blown up using 1.6 tonnes of explosives
A former steelworks in Redcar has been pulled down in what is believed to be one of the biggest explosive demolitions in the UK.
In dramatic scenes – in which the structure disappeared in a cloud of dust and smoke with a blast that could reportedly be heard eight miles away – the 65-metre-high Basic Oxygen Steelmaking plant was blown up on Saturday morning.
Continue reading...Just Stop Oil activists blockade four London bridges
Climate and cost of living campaigners converged in London protests
Thousands of supporters of Just Stop Oil have blocked four bridges across the Thames.
Protesters blocked Waterloo Bridge, Westminster Bridge, Lambeth Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge with sit-down protests after marching from 25 points around the centre of London.
Continue reading...Truss says Nord Stream gas pipeline damage ‘clearly sabotage’
Russia is suspected to have carried out explosions to put pressure on western energy supplies
Liz Truss has said a series of explosions that severely damaged Russia’s undersea Nord Stream gas pipelines were an act of sabotage.
In a joint report delivered to the United Nations last week, the Danish and Swedish governments have claimed that the leaks in the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which can carry gas to Germany, were caused by blasts equivalent to the power of “several hundred kilograms of explosive”.
Continue reading...‘Women, life, liberty’: Iranian civil rights protests spread worldwide
Demonstrations in string of major cities in solidarity with protests sparked by death of Mahsa Amini in police custody
Worldwide protests are being held in solidarity with the growing uprising in Iran demanding greater freedom and protesting against the death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest by Iranian morality police.
Demonstrations under the slogan “Women, life, liberty” are taking place in many major cities, including Rome, Zurich, Paris, London, Seoul, Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney, Stockholm and New York.
Continue reading...‘UK travel is on sale’: plunging pound attracts US visitors
Operators catering for inbound tourists enjoy best month for bookings in three years
The plunging pound may cause British holidaymakers to choke at the prices if and when they next choose to go abroad. But one slice of the travel industry is seeing a silver lining in the storm clouds.
Tour operators catering for visitors are quietly calling it their best month for bookings since October 2019 as US tourists take advantage of sterling’s tumble.
Continue reading...Serco injected £60m to prop up pension fund after market meltdown
£1bn scheme is latest to scramble to raise cash after chancellor’s tax-cutting mini-budget sparks turmoil
The pension scheme trustees at the government contractor Serco have been forced to tap the company for £60m of emergency support after the UK’s financial markets meltdown this week.
Serco’s £1bn pensions scheme is the latest to scramble to raise cash after a plunge in the pound and a meltdown in UK bond prices triggered calls on fund managers to provide collateral for niche financial products they had taken out to hedge against swings in the value of their investments.
Continue reading...Why OBR forecast is being held back until Kwarteng’s next fiscal plan
Huge policy changes are needed to get UK back on track – so early publication would give an incomplete picture
The message the government wanted to get out was clear. After less than a month as prime minister, Liz Truss had converted from vocal scourge of Treasury orthodoxy to an active supporter.
Given the fallout in financial markets after the not-so-mini-budget, Truss and her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, laid on a heavily stage-managed meeting on Friday with officials from the Office for Budget Responsibility, the Treasury’s independent economic forecaster, to try to smooth over the mess.
Continue reading...Police dig for Moors victim Keith Bennett after skull reportedly found
Detectives are analysing a small sample of the remains and some clothing on Saddleworth Moor near Manchester
Police are digging on Saddleworth Moor near Manchester after a skull was reportedly found that could belong to Moors murder victim Keith Bennett.
Keith was murdered 58 years ago at the age of 12 by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, but his body has never been found. Brady died in 2017 and Hindley in 2002.
Continue reading...Issey Miyake and Off White celebrate late founders at Paris fashion week
Parentless labels reveal collections, with Miyake’s fluid inventions repurposed for 2023
What happens to a fashion house after its founder dies? If you’re Issey Miyake and Off White, two labels made parentless in the past 12 months, you carry on making collections in their name while peering through the sartorial looking-glass as you figure out what to do next.
Closing was never an option for Issey Miyake. The first Japanese designer to crack Paris fashion week, Miyake’s name was already a byword for cutting-edge style and Steve Jobs polo necks when he died in August aged 84. Miyake had not designed at his label since 2020 (Satoshi Kondo is the current creative director) but his fingerprints have always been all over the label’s collections.
Continue reading...Steve Wright signs off from Radio 2 afternoon show after 23 years
DJ, whose last track on his ‘big show’ was Queen’s Radio Ga Ga, will continue to broadcast on the BBC
Steve Wright has signed off from his final Radio 2 afternoon show with the DJ thanking his listeners for tuning in for the last 23 years.
He played out with Queen’s Radio Ga Ga and its final lyrics: “You had your time, you had the power, you’ve yet to have your finest hour.” As the music faded, Wright said: “Those are the closing moments of Steve Wright in the Afternoon on Radio 2.”
Continue reading...Molly Russell: how family are helping shift narrative on online safety
Ian Russell’s campaigning after his daughter’s death has made case for online safety bill unavoidable, says peer
The online safety bill’s progress through parliament has been paused, but it is hard to see that delay lasting much longer after the conclusion of the Molly Russell inquest.
The regulatory landscape for the online world is undergoing significant change in the UK and Molly Russell’s family have contributed to that shift after becoming prominent campaigners for improved internet safety.
Continue reading...BBC accused of endangering World Service Vietnamese staff
Cost-cutting plan to move staff from London to Bangkok will put them at risk of abduction, reporters say
Journalists at the BBC World Service have said plans to move its Vietnamese service from London to Thailand pose a danger to press freedom.
Several reporters at the World Service raised concerns that the Vietnamese state had a history of abducting journalists from Thailand. They also suggested that BBC bosses failed to comprehend that just because both countries were in south-east Asia, it did not mean Vietnamese people were naturally at home in Thailand.
Continue reading...