Category Archives: George Osborne

Jeremy Hunt claims Labour changing debt definition will ‘punish families with mortgages’ – as it happened

Posted on by

Former chancellor says ‘increasing borrowing means interest rates would be higher for longer’ as Reeves says it will ‘make space for investment’

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has said that “no one knows” who Robert Jenrick, the Tory leadership contender, is.

Of the two candidates left in the contest, Jenrick is the one who is doing most to appeal to Tories who defected to Reform UK, because he is saying Britain should leave the European convention on human rights.

I know the fella. Is he the chap that one day was on the very much on the left of the Conservative party and is now on the right of the Conservative Party?... No one knows who he is.

I’m sure government can agree that support and providing opportunities for young people should be central to the policy of any government. We are glad to see the government working to build closer economic and cultural ties with Europe. We want to forge a new partnership with our European neighbours, built on cooperation, not confrontation and move to a new comprehensive agreement.

We must build rebuild confidence through seeking to agree partnerships or associations helping to restore prosperity and opportunities for British people.

We are not going to give a running commentary on the negotiations. We will obviously look at EU proposals on a range of issues, but we are clear that we will not return to freedom of movement.

Continue reading...

Benefit cap traps families in crowded, rat-infested homes, report finds

Posted on by

Limit on welfare support, introduced in 2013, leaves some with just £4 a day for each family member

Low-income families affected by the benefit cap are living on as little as £4 for each person a day, often in overcrowded, rat-infested and damp homes with little prospect of escape, according to a new study.

The cap puts a ceiling on the amount a working-age family can receive in welfare support if no one in the household is working or they are on very low wages. Families affected by it in many parts of the country are, in effect, trapped in poor quality, private rented properties they cannot afford, even though these are often already the cheapest homes available in their local area, the London School of Economics study said.

Continue reading...

UK Covid-19 inquiry live: report calls for UK-wide civil emergency strategy

Posted on by

Former health secretaries Jeremy Hunt and Matt Hancock criticised for their failure to better prepare the UK for the pandemic

Among the recommendations in the report are:

The leader or deputy leader of each of the four nations should chair a Cabinet level committee responsible for civil emergency preparedness.

A UK-wide pandemic response exercise should run at least every three years and a new UK-wide whole-system civil emergency strategy put in place.

External “red teams” should regularly challenge the principles, evidence and advice on emergency plans

An independent statutory body to advise the UK government and devolved administrations should be set up and consult with voluntary groups and council-based directors of public health on civil emergency preparedness and response.

Continue reading...

Harder to own your first home under the Tories, Rishi Sunak admits – UK politics as it happened

Posted on by

PM acknowledges in BBC Panorama interview to air tonight that it is a challenge for people to buy their first home

Davey sums up the Lib Dems’ plans on health and social care

And he says he wants to mention one other policy he is particularly proud of – the proposal to give proper bereavement support to parents whose partners have died.

Continue reading...

General election: Starmer and Sunak clash over taxes, the NHS and immigration in head-to-head TV debate – as it happened

Posted on by

Labour leader says prime minister’s claim he would raise people’s taxes by £2,000 is ‘nonsense’

The Guardian’s visuals team has produced an interactive boundary map for the UK general election which shows you if your constituency has been altered because of boundary changes. You can check it out here:

Ed Davey has been speaking about his party’s plan to provide free personal care for adults. The Liberal Democrats leader said he wants carers to have a special, higher minimum wage.

Continue reading...

Labour says early general election leaves many government commitments ‘in the bin’ – as it happened

Posted on by

Bills, including smoking ban for people born after 2009, unlikely to become law before 4 July vote

Rishi Sunak is now speaking at an event in Ilkeston in Derbyshire. It is in the Erewash constituency, where the Tory MP Maggie Throup had a majority of 10,606 at the last election.

He repeats the claim that a Labour government would cost every family £2,000.

Labour’s spending promises cost £16 billion per year in 2028-29, or £58.9 billion over the next four years.

But their revenue raisers would only collect £6.2 billion per year in 2028-29, or £20.4 billion over the next four years.

I don’t really think the arrangements in Scotland for the school holidays have really been anywhere near the calculations made by the prime minister …

I think it would be respectful if that was the case but it’s pretty typical of the lack of respect shown to Scotland that we’re an afterthought from the Westminster establishment and particularly the Conservative establishment.

Continue reading...

Greece would offer major treasures to UK for Parthenon marbles, minister says

Posted on by

Culture minister Lina Mendoni pledges to ‘fill the void’ at British Museum should ancient sculptures be returned to Athens

Greece is prepared to part with some of its greatest treasures to “fill the void” at the British Museum if the Parthenon marbles were reunited in Athens, the country’s culture minister has said.

Speaking to the Guardian at the end of a momentous year for the campaign to retrieve the fifth-century BC masterpieces, Lina Mendoni promised that the London institution’s revered Greek galleries would never go empty.

Continue reading...

George Osborne to collect share of £28m payout for work at City advisory firm

Posted on by

The former chancellor is one of four partners at Robey Warshaw, which did not specify how much he would collect

George Osborne will collect a share of a £28m payout for his work as partner at the City advisory firm Robey Warshaw.

The former chancellor, who orchestrated the austerity drive after the financial crisis, is one of four partners at the Mayfair-based company which announced on Friday it would pay out a total of £27.98m to four men.

Continue reading...

Sunak says retaining Parthenon marbles is matter of law as he denies ‘hissy fit’

Posted on by

PM reaffirms stance after George Osborne suggests snub to Greek counterpart was result of ‘petulance’

Rishi Sunak has denied having a “hissy fit” over the Parthenon marbles row and has said they cannot be returned to Greece “as a matter of law”.

The prime minister this week accused his Greek counterpart of using a trip to London to “grandstand” over the issue of the ancient Greek sculptures.

Continue reading...

British Museum ‘will continue Parthenon marbles talks’ despite fallout

Posted on by

Institution’s chair, George Osborne, says the row opened Rishi Sunak up to a ‘devastating line of attack’ from Labour

Rishi Sunak opened up a “devastating line of attack” from Labour by snubbing his Greek counterpart this week, according to the British Museum’s chair George Osborne, who said the row had encouraged the institution to press ahead with talks over loaning the Parthenon marbles to Athens.

Osborne said: “That is, I think, something worth exploring. And we can go on doing it whether or not Rishi Sunak meets the Greek prime minister or not. In fact, if anything, things have been rather clarified by this week. We obviously know we’re not going to get any particular support from the Conservative government.”

Continue reading...

Keir Starmer open to return of Parthenon marbles, reports say

Posted on by

Labour leader gives strongest hint yet of support for loan deal with Greece if his party wins next election

The Greek government has been assured by Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour party, that in the event of electoral victory next year he will not block a prospective arrangement to return the Parthenon marbles to Athens.

Speaking through aides before talks in London with the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Starmer gave his strongest hint yet of his support for a loan deal that would see the antiquities return to the country where they were carved 2,500 years ago.

Continue reading...

Rishi Sunak faces backbench discontent a year into his time in No 10

Posted on by

PM under pressure from Tory right for more tax cuts and from moderates for policies to tackle cost of living crisis

Rishi Sunak is facing discontent among his backbenchers as he heads into the one-year anniversary of his time in No 10, with Jacob Rees-Mogg calling for the government to wake up from a “torpor”.

The prime minister is under pressure from rightwingers for tax cuts and more Conservative policies, while moderates are pushing for more centre-ground plans that deal with the cost of living to stop votes being lost to Labour.

Continue reading...

HS2 may end up as ‘total waste of money’, warns IFS thinktank – UK politics live

Posted on by

Comments from Paul Johnson of Institute of Fiscal Studies come as Downing Street hints at delay to work on second phase of rail link

Around 20,000 university workers are out on strike this week at more than 50 universities across the UK, despite a dramatic last-minute scaling back of industrial action.

Strikes had been set to go ahead at 142 UK universities this week as part of a long-running dispute over pay and working conditions, but it emerged last week that two thirds of branches of the University and College Union (UCU) had declined to take part.

Davey said the Lib Dem commitment – dating back to 1992 – to raise income tax by 1p to improve public services is unsustainable in the current economic climate. Originally the money raised was earmarked for education, but at the last election the party said it would use it to fund the NHS.

Speaking from Bournemouth to broadcast studios, Davey suggested the burden should instead fall on companies making “huge profits” while people struggle with the cost of living.

Continue reading...

‘We’re frenemies’: George Osborne and Ed Balls to launch economics podcast

Posted on by

Former chancellor and ex-shadow chancellor will discuss and analyse the state of the British economy

George Osborne is launching an economics podcast with his “frenemy” Ed Balls in an attempt to capitalise on the success of shows such as The Rest is Politics.

Osborne, the architect of the Conservatives’ austerity policies which imposed deep cuts on British public services, spent four years opposite Balls in the House of Commons. But since leaving frontline politics the pair have become a marketable media double act, appearing together on political shows to debate the state of the economy.

Continue reading...

PMQs live: Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer clash over housing market and rising mortgage costs

Posted on by

Latest updates: PM and Labour leader face off in final prime minister’s questions before voters head to the polls

George Osborne, the Conservative former chancellor, has come out in favour of banning smoking over the long term, and taxing orange juice, to promote public health.

He proposed the ideas – neither of which have much chance of featuring in the next Conservative manifesto – in evidence to the the Times Health Commission, a year-long project to investigate ideas that would improve health and social care.

Since the dawn of states, [the government] has regulated certain products and medicines, and made certain things illegal. I don’t see why you can’t do that in a space such as food. Food’s been heavily regulated since the 19th century.

Of course you’re going to have lots of problems with illegal smoking, but you have lots of problems with other illegal activities. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try and ban them and police them and make it less readily available. I thought that was a compelling public health intervention.

We’re making sure that we stop those sort of cold calls and those spoof text messages that pretend to be from somebody else, that’s the first thing.

The second thing we’re doing is we’re making sure there’s more ability for the police to pursue fraudsters and that’s where the national fraud squad with 400 new investigators and a new national fraud intelligence unit comes in. That’s a huge development.

Continue reading...

Pressure on BBC chair mounts over Gary Lineker suspension

Posted on by

Executives race to resolve Match of the Day presenter standoff as senior Tories stop short of backing Richard Sharp on impartiality

BBC executives are scrambling to repair relations with Gary Lineker and stave off a staff mutiny at the corporation, with hopes that the presenter could be back in post by next weekend.

The row left the BBC’s chair, Richard Sharp, fighting for his future on Sunday night as Jeremy Hunt stopped short of backing him to guard the corporation’s impartiality in the wake of the row.

Continue reading...

Jamie Oliver calls for expansion of free school meals in England

Posted on by

Tory ex-chancellor George Osborne also suggests free meals for ‘larger group of the population is the right way forward’

Jamie Oliver has renewed pressure on the government to expand free school meals, with George Osborne suggesting widening the programme could be the right way forward and Tony Blair saying the money could be found if politicians wanted to do it.

The television chef highlighted the issue as he was guest-editing BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday as part of his long-term campaign on free school meals.

Continue reading...

British Museum hints at ‘complete reimagination’ and a net zero carbon future

Posted on by

Chair of the museum, George Osborne, says it no longer wants to be a ‘destination for climate protest’

The future for the British Museum could be very different indeed. That was the message from the organisation’s chair George Osborne in his annual speech to Trustees last month, in which he announced a “complete reimagination” of the museum, under a billion-pound masterplan that will be revealed next year.

Among the hints of potential loans of its exhibits, leading to further speculation over the Parthenon marbles, was one explicit promise on energy. “Our goal is to be a net zero carbon museum,” said Osborne, “no longer a destination for climate protest but instead an example of climate solution”.

Continue reading...

Greece in ‘preliminary’ talks with British Museum about Parthenon marbles

Posted on by

Officials say they have met with George Osborne, and are keen to see the masterpieces back in Athens

Senior Greek officials have been in “preliminary” talks with the British Museum in what could amount to a tectonic shift in resolving the world’s longest-running cultural dispute: the repatriation of the 5th-century BC Parthenon marbles to Athens.

Revelations about the negotiations were first reported on Saturday by Ta Nea, which said that officials including the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, had met George Osborne, the chair of the British Museum, in a five-star London hotel as recently as Monday.

Continue reading...

British Museum removes Sackler family name from galleries

Posted on by

Museum is latest institution to distance itself from family accused of profiting from US opioids crisis

The British Museum has become the latest cultural organisation to remove the Sackler family name from galleries and rooms they have supported.

George Osborne, the museum’s chair, announced the move on Twitter, saying: “We’re moving into a new era, presenting our great collection in different ways for new audiences.”

Continue reading...