Category Archives: Institute for Fiscal Studies

UK’s 10% inflation casts doubt on Truss and Sunak’s tax cut promises

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Soaring cost of living is forcing up government spending on benefits, pensions and debt leaving no spare cash to lower taxes

Britain’s first double-digit inflation in more than four decades has cast doubts on the plausibility of the tax cuts being promised by Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak during their leadership battle, one of the UK’s leading thinktanks has said.

Following news that the government’s preferred measure of the cost of living rose by 10.1% in the year to July, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said higher inflation would mean extra spending on welfare benefits, state pensions and on debt interest.

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Tory leadership race: Rishi Sunak calls himself ‘common sense’ Thatcherite – as it happened

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Former chancellor says UK ‘needs to control borders’ and again references Margaret Thatcher

In an interview with GB News, Liz Truss was asked if she would keep the expensive wallpaper in the Downing Street flat, installed as part of Boris Johnson’s controversial refurbishment, if she became PM. In what is being seen by some as a dig at Johnson, she replied:

I’m not going to have the time to be thinking about the wallpaper in No 10, because we’ve only got two years until the general election – we need to hit the ground running.

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Rishi Sunak tackled over failure to help poorest families

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Experts say absolute poverty could hit a fifth of UK population following chancellor’s mini-budget

Rishi Sunak has sought to defend his mini-budget against accusations he failed to shield Britain’s poorest families from the worst hit to living standards in six decades, as economists warned 1.3 million people will fall into absolute poverty next year.

Amid heavy criticism of Wednesday’s spring statement from opposition leaders and his own back benches, experts from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and Resolution Foundation thinktanks said the chancellor could have done more to help those most at need.

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Budget 2020: Sunak’s plans for current spending ‘nothing like as generous as they appear’, says IFS – live news

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen

These are from the Telegraph’s Gordon Rayner.

Sources in Scotland insist Sturgeon's announcement of ban on gatherings of 500+ from Monday is a "UK-wide" policy. This morning Westminster sources were steering away from crowd bans. Has Sturgeon jumped the gun on something Boris was going to announce next week?

(Sturgeon is not averse to stealing people's thunder to make it look as though she is the one doing all the leading)

The Scottish Green party has cancelled its spring conference, which was due to take place on Saturday 28 March, because of the coronavirus outbreak after the number of cases declared in Scotland jumped to 60 on Thursday.

Ross Greer MSP, a co-chair of the party’s executive, said:

Due to the ongoing coronavirus situation the Scottish Greens executive committee has today taken the decision to cancel our upcoming conference. The health and wellbeing of our members and the public is our primary concern and it is with that in mind that we have taken this decision.

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Budget 2020: read the small print on spending pledge, urges IFS

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Thinktank praises Covid-19 response but says ‘splurge’ relies on already announced plans

Rishi Sunak’s first budget is not as generous as it seems and will leave many Whitehall departments worse off than they were before the spending squeeze began in 2010, according to Britain’s foremost economics thinktank.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the chancellor made the budget sound more substantial than it was, while relying on previously announced spending plans.

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Boris Johnson faces Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs – live news

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs and Michel Barnier’s Brexit speech

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, says immigration is crucial for the Scottish economy. The Scottish government’s plans for a Scottish visa system have been welcomed by business and even Scottish Tories. Does the PM accept it was a mistake to reject the plan?

Johnson says this idea was rejected by the migration advisory committee. He says under the government’s plan firms will be able to get the workers they need.

Corbyn says he has learnt a lot from visiting victims of flooding. The PM should try it. He says people cannot get insurance. Isn’t it time the PM found an urgent solution to this problem? Just imagine what it must be like. People are looking to the government for help.

Johnson says there are problems with insurance. But the government scheme has helped many households. He says he is looking at what can be done to protect homes that cannot get insurance. He says any government led by Corbyn would not be able to help.

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Tories and Labour warned over ambitious spending promises

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Returning infrastructure investment to 1970s levels may be undeliverable, says IFS

Labour and the Conservatives have triggered a public spending bidding war, promising massive programmes of borrowing that will return public investment to levels last seen in the 1970s, according to Britain’s leading experts on the public finances.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said plans unveiled by Sajid Javid, the chancellor, and John McDonnell, his Labour shadow, would represent a decisive break with the past, but warned that a future government might have trouble delivering projects on the scale envisaged.

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