Category Archives: Greg Clark

Tory-run Thurrock council faces inquiry over ‘exceptional’ debt levels

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External commissioners to take charge of finances amid ‘grave concerns’ local services could be at risk

The government has launched an urgent investigation into the finances of a Tory-run council amid “grave concerns” that local services are at risk from the authority’s exposure to more than a billion pounds in loans it took out to fund a series of commercial investments.

The communities secretary, Greg Clark, said government-appointed commissioners would take full control of Thurrock’s finances because of fears over “the exceptional level of financial risk and debt incurred by the council”.

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Damning Commons Covid report should be seen only as a start

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Analysis: report is not short on lessons but a full public inquiry is needed to get to the bottom of UK’s response to pandemic

It might not have been the immediate public inquiry sought by opposition parties and bereaved families, but the landmark joint report into the UK’s handling of Covid proved less toothless than some feared.

Published almost exactly a year to the day since the MPs’ inquiry was first announced, the “lessons learned to date” report, prepared by two Commons committees after mammoth evidence sessions, is not short on lessons – some of them expressed with notable bluntness.

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Produce evidence Matt Hancock lied on Covid, Dominic Cummings to be told

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Select committee chiefs to demand PM’s former aide backs up explosive claims

Dominic Cummings will be asked by senior MPs this week to produce evidence that Matt Hancock lied repeatedly about policy on Covid-19 before the health secretary’s appearance in front of a parliamentary committee early next month.

Jeremy Hunt and Greg Clark, the chairs of the joint select committee which took seven hours of explosive testimony from Cummings last week, will write to the former adviser to the prime minister in the next few days asking that he produce the evidence within the next fortnight.

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Cabinet ministers tell May: stop using no-deal threat to negotiate

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MPs tell PM to rule option out, as Brexit secretary and attorney general hold talks with EU

Four cabinet ministers have demanded the prime minister stop using the threat of a no-deal Brexit as a negotiating tactic, telling Theresa May that businesses and manufacturers now needed to be given certainty.

The demand was made in a meeting with the prime minister on Monday by the justice secretary, David Gauke, the work and pensions secretary, Amber Rudd, the business secretary, Greg Clark, and the Scottish secretary, David Mundell.

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Philip Hammond urges business leaders to accept Brexit result

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Speaking in Davos, chancellor says changes such as end to free movement are on the way

Philip Hammond has told business leaders they need to accept the result of Britain’s EU referendum and warned that a failure to implement it would damage the country’s political stability.

The chancellor told increasingly restless business leaders that he was working for a deal that safeguarded the economy, and said he understood their frustration but companies had to accept that changes were coming – such as an end to the free movement of people and business models built on a supply of cheap labour.

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