Category Archives: Politics

The unravelling: the full story of how Liz Truss lost her way – and her authority in the Tory party

Posted on by

The prime minister ditched her close ally Kwasi Kwarteng to save her own job – but now Conservative MPs are openly plotting to replace her

After an astonishing eight-minute press conference, in which Liz Truss attempted to salvage her imploding leadership by firing her closest political ally and ditching a totemic policy that won her the job, the most telling reaction was that of officials who had served in Boris Johnson’s chaotic Downing Street.

Just a few short months ago, they had been forced to endure months of scandal, followed by the resignations of dozens of ministers. They had even awkwardly brushed shoulders with cabinet members gathered in Downing Street to tell Johnson that his time was up. But after watching Truss’s hunted demeanour on Friday afternoon, their suffering suddenly seemed trifling.

Continue reading...

‘Send off the clowns’: Labour ads tear into Tories amid Truss crisis

Posted on by

Scathing posters ridicule Conservatives for damaging Britain’s reputation, lifting mortgages and crashing the economy

The UK’s Labour party is looking to capitalise on the government crisis with a series of new adverts as it gears up for the next general election.

The scathing posters, seen by the PA news agency, attack the Conservatives for damaging Britain’s standing on the world stage, hiking mortgages and crashing the economy.

Continue reading...

Joe Biden: Liz Truss tax cuts a ‘mistake’ and ‘I wasn’t the only one’ who thought so

Posted on by

US president rejects ‘cutting taxes on the super-wealthy’ and says he is worried by ‘lack of economic growth and sound policy in other countries’

Joe Biden has called Liz Truss’s abandoned UK tax cut plan a “mistake” and said he is worried that other nations’ fiscal policies may hurt the US amid “worldwide inflation”.

Biden said it was “predictable” that the new British prime minister was forced on Friday to walk back plans to aggressively cut taxes without identifying cost savings, after Truss’s proposal caused turmoil in global financial markets.

Continue reading...

Jeremy Hunt says mistakes made and taxes set to rise as Bank warns of ‘strong response’ to inflation – UK politics live

Posted on by

Chancellor says ‘difficult decisions’ ahead with some departments needing to find savings and some taxes set to rise

Hunt says the UK has a “massive amount going for us”, but the reason it remains a top economy is because the country has been prepared to make “tough decisions” – and this moment is one of them.

The new chancellor says he is “very sensitive” to people at the bottom of the income scale but will not commit to not cutting benefits. “I’ve only been in the job for a matter of hours,” he says, adding that he will be sitting down with the Treasury team later today.

Continue reading...

Jeremy Hunt says difficult decisions ahead after Truss ‘mistakes’

Posted on by

New chancellor vows to be ‘completely honest with country’ amid rumours PM has only weeks left in role

The new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has spoken of “mistakes” made by the Liz Truss administration and predicted “difficult decisions ahead”.

Appearing on Sky News on Saturday, in his first interview since replacing Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday, the former health secretary signalled he would have a “clean slate” when it came to the budget, and vowed to be “completely honest with the country” amid rumours that Truss has only weeks left as prime minister.

Hunt, who was parachuted into No 11 in an attempt to restore order to Truss’s ailing government, also suggested that some taxes could rise, as he promised to bring stability to the UK in the wake of the disastrous mini-budget.

Continue reading...

Keir Starmer criticises ‘grotesque chaos’ under Liz Truss government

Posted on by

Labour leader says UK is ‘crying out for clear leadership’ and his party ‘must provide it’

Keir Starmer has criticised the “grotesque chaos” of recent weeks and said the government “no longer has a mandate from the British people”.

The Labour leader said there were no historical precedents for the ongoing economic turmoil and that the prime minister, Liz Truss, would not be able to “fix the mess she has created”.

Continue reading...

Tobias Ellwood has Tory whip restored after being suspended in July

Posted on by

Chair of Commons defence committee had whip withdrawn for failing to turn up for a confidence vote

A senior Conservative MP has had the whip restored after being suspended from the party for missing a confidence vote in the summer.

Tobias Ellwood, chair of the Commons defence select committee, had the whip withdrawn after failing to vote for Boris Johnson’s government in a confidence vote in July.

Continue reading...

How Brexit nearly scuppered the ‘festival of Brexit’

Posted on by

Project hit by fall in labour supply and rise in costs, and investigation launched over low visitor numbers

For some, the whole project was supposed to be a celebration of Britain’s departure from the EU. Which means there is more than a little irony in the fact a main concern of the “festival of Brexit” organisers was the impact of leaving itself.

Disruption to the supply of workers and materials, as well as increased costs, emerged as one of the risks overshadowing the project, according to records.

Continue reading...

Five million UK families ‘face mortgage rising by £5,100 a year by end of 2024’

Posted on by

Increase adds up to a £26bn rise for homeowners, says Resolution Foundation thinktank

More than five million families could see their annual mortgage payments rise by an average of £5,100 between now and the end of 2024, heaping fresh pain on households already struggling with higher food and energy bills.

The increase adds up to a £26bn mortgage rise for homeowners, according to the analysis by the Resolution Foundation thinktank which said nearly a fifth of British households would have to spend more on their housing costs by the end of 2024.

Continue reading...

Truss premiership ‘hanging by thread’ after Kwarteng sacking and latest U-turn

Posted on by

PM’s move to replace chancellor and commit to raising corporation tax fails to placate markets or Tory MPs

Liz Truss is desperately clinging to her premiership after she sacked her chancellor and ripped up the mini-budget but failed to calm the financial markets or furious Conservative MPs.

In a humiliating reversal, the prime minister backed down on plans to scrap an £18bn rise in corporation tax and replaced Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor with Jeremy Hunt.

Continue reading...

UK joins calls for World Bank reform to focus funding on climate crisis

Posted on by

Alok Sharma’s intervention puts pressure on Trump-appointed Bank chief who faces calls to resign

The UK has joined calls for sweeping reforms to the World Bank, to focus much-needed funding on the climate crisis, saying that its current structures are not working.

The intervention from Alok Sharma, the current president of the UN climate talks, heaps further pressure on beleaguered World Bank chief, David Malpass. He has faced calls to resign over an apparently climate-dismissing stance, and the Bank’s perceived failures to deliver climate finance.

Continue reading...

Kwasi Kwarteng reportedly believes Liz Truss ‘only has a few weeks’ – as it happened

Posted on by

Source close to sacked chancellor briefs Times that ‘wagons are still going to circle’ around embattled prime minsiter

The Conservative peer, Ed Vaizey, said he disagreed with the international trade secretary, Greg Hands, who earlier said Kwasi Kwarteng’s early return is not unusual. “It is quite unusual for this to happen,” he said.

Speaking to Sky News, Vaizey said the chancellor cutting his trip to the US short is “not a good sign”. He said:

I’m afraid the chancellor coming back a day early doesn’t fill one with confidence.

The fact that people were speculating about the prime minister’s leadership this early in her premiership is not ideal, but I think he’s just got to bite the bullet. He’s got to try to give the markets confidence in the British economy.

If he can do that then perhaps he can say: ‘Well, I had to do some difficult choices, slightly humiliating choices, but the result is stabilisation and I can move forward.’

Continue reading...

Kwasi Kwarteng was logical choice as chancellor but hubris was his downfall

Posted on by

Truss ally has experienced a dramatic reversal of fortune after five weeks and three days in the job

When Kwasi Kwarteng became chancellor on 6 September it seemed a logical career progression. Deemed a politician imbued with economic doctrine, even his critics conceded he was determined and intellectually imposing. Five weeks and three days later, he is gone.

The newly restored backbench MP for Spelthorne in Surrey is not the shortest-serving chancellor of modern times, but only because the holder of that unwelcome title, Iain Macleod, died from a heart attack a month into his tenure in 1970.

Continue reading...

Liz Truss appoints Jeremy Hunt as chancellor after sacking Kwarteng

Posted on by

Former foreign secretary and leadership contender is back in cabinet, in stunning reversal of fortune

Jeremy Hunt has been appointed as Liz Truss’s new chancellor, in a stunning reversal of political fortune and a sign that the beleaguered prime minister wants to reach out to other sections of the Conservative party.

Hunt, the former foreign secretary and health secretary, has twice tried unsuccessfully to become Conservative leader.

Continue reading...

‘Lipstick effect’: Britons turn to small luxuries in cost of living crisis

Posted on by

Strong demand for beauty products such as eyeliners and mascaras, as chocolate and coffee also sell well

The shadow cast by the cost of living crisis has spurred a retreat into small luxuries with Britons cheering themselves up with mood boosters such as luxury lip balms and false nails as well as chocolate and coffee.

The lipstick index, coined by Estée Lauder’s Leonard Lauder, is the idea that sales of affordable luxuries rise in economic downturns. This spending behaviour has been true during previous downturns and the same picture is emerging again as consumers battle severe financial headwinds.

Continue reading...

Kwasi Kwarteng says ‘let’s see’ when asked about potential U-turn on corporation tax – UK politics live

Posted on by

Chancellor does not rule out increasing corporation tax when asked about whether government will perform U-turn

The Home Office has taken the modern slavery brief away from the minister responsible for safeguarding and classed it as an “illegal immigration and asylum” issue, updated online ministerial profiles show.

The move is seen as a clear sign that the department is doubling down on Suella Braverman’s suggestion that people are “gaming” the modern slavery system and that victims of the crime are no longer being prioritised.

The largest single group of modern slavery victims under the referral system last year were British children – including those who were exploited through county lines. The evidence shows the majority of exploitation takes place in the UK rather than across borders.

The government should be treating this as an enforcement and safeguarding issue and taking stronger action against the crime of modern slavery wherever it takes place.

Continue reading...

Labour vows to treble solar power use during first term if elected

Posted on by

Ed Miliband criticises Liz Truss’s ‘anti-green-energy dogma’ after plans to ban solar projects revealed

Labour has criticised prime minister Liz Truss’s plan to ban solar power from most of England’s farmland and vowed to treble the renewable energy source in its first term.

Ed Miliband, the shadow climate secretary, will visit a solar farm on Friday. He is to lay out his opposition to plans by Truss and her environment secretary, Ranil Jayawardena, who the Guardian revealed earlier this week are hoping to ban solar from about 41% of the land area of England, or about 58% of agricultural land.

Continue reading...

Liz Truss bows to pressure with corporation tax U-turn ‘on the table’

Posted on by

Speculation that reversal on leadership campaign pledge risks split with her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng

Liz Truss has bowed to intense pressure from Conservative MPs and the markets by agreeing to redraw her mini-budget, paving the way for a major U-turn on her signature corporation tax cut.

In another serious blow to her authority as prime minister, government sources told the Guardian that a climbdown on the plan to scrap the rise in corporation tax was now “on the table”.

Continue reading...

Home Office threatens to send heavily pregnant rape survivor to Rwanda

Posted on by

Eritrean woman, 28, in acute distress having spent most of her life in search of safety

A heavily pregnant rape survivor from Eritrea has been threatened with forced removal to Rwanda by the Home Office.

Human rights campaigners say it is the “most egregious” case they have come across so far in the government’s scheme to outsource the processing of UK asylum claims to the east African country.

Continue reading...

Another U-turn looms – how much will it save and what else could the chancellor ditch?

Posted on by

Corporation tax plans likely to be latest to be dropped – bad news for Kwarteng’s credibility, but good for his balance sheet

Liz Truss is on the verge of reversing one of the last major pillars of her chancellor’s disastrous September mini-budget.

While Kwasi Kwarteng mingles with finance ministers at the International Monetary Fund gathering in Washington DC, discussions are taking place in London that would see the promise to freeze corporation tax rates binned. There is also speculation about dropping smaller measures including a more generous tax treatment of share dividends. These U-turns would come hard on the heels of the humiliating climbdown on Kwarteng’s promise to scrap the 45p top rate of tax.

Continue reading...