Category Archives: Rishi Sunak

Johnsonism wins budget battle but will Sunakism win the war?

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Analysis: chancellor left with little choice but to go PM’s way, though one passage of his speech was telling

Rishi Sunak may see himself as a future prime minister but this budget confirmed he is very much Boris Johnson’s chancellor.

Rumours about ructions between the pair have gripped Westminster for months. Sunak, who told last year’s Tory conference his party had a moral duty to fix the public finances, was known to be queasy about the government’s national insurance increase, for example.

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Budget 2021: what’s really going on in the UK economy?

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Rishi Sunak will be looking at key indicators such as GDP growth, public debt levels and inflation as he draws up his autumn budget

Britain’s economic recovery from Covid is at growing risk from severe shortages of workers and materials, as well as mounting living costs for households, as Rishi Sunak prepares his budget and spending review.

Here are five key charts that will underpin the chancellor’s statement on Wednesday afternoon.

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Rishi Sunak will use budget to declare ‘age of optimism’

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Chancellor to strike upbeat tone despite cost-of-living crisis, with spending pledges worth billions

Rishi Sunak will use his budget to insist the UK is entering an economic “age of optimism” despite a looming cost-of-living crisis, after making a deluge of promises to spend billions more on health, transport and skills.

In an attempt to strike an upbeat tone during his second budget on Wednesday, the chancellor will say his aim is to create a “new economy post-Covid”.

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Labour accuses Sunak of ‘smoke and mirrors’ budget due to lack of new money

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Chancellor concedes only 20% of transport funding boost is new and other commitments in £26bn spending plans are recycled

Labour has accused Rishi Sunak of presiding over a “smoke and mirrors” budget after he conceded that just 20% of his biggest single spending commitment unveiled before the speech is made up of new money.

The Treasury has committed to almost £26bn of spending in a rush of announcements before Wednesday’s budget and spending review. It is expected to contain no tax cuts and the chancellor has sought to reassure anxious Tory MPs that he is a fiscal Thatcherite at heart.

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Poorest countries to gain from new climate funding plan to break Cop26 impasse

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Climate finance plan needed to gain backing of developing nations for any deal at Glasgow talks

The world’s poorest countries are set to benefit from a new climate funding plan to help them cope with the impacts of climate breakdown, in an effort to break the impasse between developed and developing countries at the UN Cop26 climate summit

The UK government, as Cop26 host, will unveil the proposals on Monday along with ministers from Germany and Canada, who have been charged with drawing up a plan for climate finance, needed to gain the backing of scores of developing countries for any deal at the talks, which open in Glasgow next Sunday.

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‘People will make the right judgments’: Rishi Sunak questioned about not wearing a mask – video

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The chancellor has refused to commit to wearing a mask inside a crowded House of Commons, as a leading government scientific adviser said ministers were mistaken to believe that vaccinations alone would keep Covid levels under control

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Boris Johnson’s climate credibility at stake in run-up to Cop26 summit

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Campaigners fear net zero strategy is being hamstrung by Rishi Sunak, who refuses to provide adequate funding

Boris Johnson faces a significant test of his leadership before the Cop26 climate summit as the chancellor and business secretary are at war over the imminent plan for reaching net zero carbon dioxide emissions.

The government is poised to publish its long-awaited net zero strategy on Monday, setting out how the UK will meet its targets to cut CO2 emissions by 78% by 2035 and reach net zero by 2050. This will also include the heat and buildings strategy for insulating draughty homes and phasing out gas boilers, along with a massive expansion of offshore wind, and building electric vehicle charging networks.

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Rishi Sunak to save billions by counting IMF cash as aid for poor

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Exclusive: chancellor criticised by former Tory international development secretaries for planned use of $27.4bn windfall

Rishi Sunak is to save billions of pounds by counting as aid financial assistance to poor countries being provided as a result of a windfall Britain has received from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In a move that has been condemned by former Conservative international development secretaries, the chancellor has chosen not to use the UK’s share of a new $650bn IMF global fighting fund to increase the share of national output spent on aid.

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IMF to issue downbeat outlook as spectre of stagflation looms

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Fund set for a gloomy annual meeting as supply chain issues and inflationary pressures hobble global recovery

Weaker global growth, vaccine protectionism and the spectre of 1970s-style inflation haunting large economies. As the International Monetary Fund prepares for its annual gathering this week, the contrast with the spring could not be more stark.

Back in April, at the Washington-based fund’s last virtual bash, there were sharp upgrades for global growth amid a sense of optimism for the road ahead, led by stronger-than-expected recoveries in the US, UK and other advanced economies. Vaccines would pave the way for the swift unlocking of pandemic restrictions, fuelling a rapid recovery from the worst global recession since the 1930s Great Depression.

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The raging return of Idles: ‘We’ve always used violence as part of our vocabulary’

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After scoring a No 1 in lockdown, the post-punk band’s singer Joe Talbot reflects on writing about car crashes, substance abuse and Rishi Sunak on their new album

Towards the end of Idles’ upcoming fourth album, Crawler, lead singer Joe Talbot comes to a euphoric realisation. “In spite of it all,” the 37-year-old howls, “life is beautiful.”

It’s an apt conclusion for a band who have endured personal tragedy and childhood trauma, and in just four years cemented their status as the face of British post-punk. Their debut album, Brutalism, burst forth with Talbot raging about rape culture (“Sexual violence doesn’t start and end with rape / It starts in our books and behind our school gates,” he shouts on fan favourite Mother), NHS funding and white privilege. Its follow-up Joy As an Act of Resistance swiped at toxic masculinity via similarly seething anthems and catapulted its creators to No 5 in the UK album chart. Last year’s Ultra Mono, a more diversified flurry of synths, pianos and hummed vocals, did even better, finding its way to No 1.

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Fears for 1 million furloughed staff with Sunak set to finally end scheme

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After the success of the chancellors’s £70bn programme, there is uncertainty about the future direction of the economy

The biggest state intervention in the UK’s labour market in peacetime comes to an end this week when the government finally winds up its furlough support.

Barring an unlikely last-minute change of heart, a wage subsidy that has been in place for 18 months and has cost £70bn will no longer be open to struggling firms.

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France fiasco to pingdemic U-turn: Boris Johnson’s week of chaos

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In the last seven days the UK government has flailed from one controversy or misstep to the next

Often, the political week heading into the Commons summer recess can feel almost soporific, with the thoughts of ministers and MPs geared more towards holiday sunbeds than rows. But the last seven days has been different, and not only because of the ongoing political flux of coronavirus, with the government seeming to flail from one controversy, U-turn or misstep to the next, day after day.

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Ending furlough scheme too early could damage recovery, say trade unions

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Government is reducing its contribution to the scheme, with employers having to pay a share

Ending the furlough scheme too early could damage the recovery and push unemployment higher, trade unions warned as official figures showed the number of workers on the scheme in May fell at a slower rate than expected to 2.4 million employees.

Without an extension of furlough or extra support for the hardest-hit industries, the bounce back on economic activity could be choked off, unions said.

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Amazon fails to quash investigation into its Indian selling practices

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Inquiry will include company’s £1bn a year joint venture with Rishi Sunak’s father-in-law

The Indian competition commission is to relaunch an investigation into Amazon’s selling practices, which will examine the company’s £1bn a year joint venture with UK chancellor Rishi Sunak’s billionaire father-in-law.

The investigation, originally announced in January 2020, will proceed after an Indian court on Friday dismissed pleas by Amazon and its rival – the Walmart-owned Flipkart – to quash its investigation into the business practices of the huge US retailers.

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‘Historic agreement’: Rishi Sunak announces G7 deal on tax reform – video

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Finance ministers from the world’s richest economies have agreed a deal to tackle tax abuses by some of the world’s biggest multinationals and establish a minimum global corporation tax for the first time. Announcing the deal, the UK chancellor, Rishi Sunak, said it would create ‘a fairer tax system fit for the 21st century’

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Rishi Sunak announces ‘historic agreement’ by G7 on tax reform

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Finance ministers agree deal to force multinationals to pay tax in all countries where they operate

The G7 group of wealthy nations have signed a landmark deal to tackle tax abuses by some of the world’s biggest multinationals and establish a minimum global corporation tax for the first time.

Finance ministers from the group agreed the plan on Saturday as part of talks held in London, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, said.

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G7 aims to reach historic deal on corporate tax abuse this weekend

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Talks hosted by Rishi Sunak believed to be very close to agreement in principle on global reforms

The G7 group of wealthy nations is close to a historic agreement to radically reshape international tax rules by using a global minimum rate of corporation tax to prevent abuse of the system by multinationals.

Finance ministers from the world’s biggest western economies were negotiating details late on Friday with the aim of reaching a landmark deal early on Saturday as part of talks being held in London.

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European finance ministers say deal to stop global tax abuse is ‘within reach’

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France, Germany, Italy and Spain increase pressure for an end to loopholes that enable multinationals to pay minimal tax

The EU’s four biggest economies have raised the pressure for a landmark agreement to curb tax abuse by multinational companies to be reached at G7 meetings in London on Friday.

Sending a united message in a letter in the Guardian, the finance ministers of France, Germany, Italy and Spain said a critical moment had been reached to strike a blow against tax avoidance as governments around the world attempt to rebuild from the Covid-19 pandemic.

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‘Silicon Six’ tech giants accused of inflating tax payments by almost $100bn

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Study claims firms paid $96bn less in tax between 2011 and 2020 than the notional figures cited in their annual reports

The giant US tech firms known as the “Silicon Six” have been accused of inflating their stated tax payments by almost $100bn (£70bn) over the past decade.

As Chancellor Rishi Sunak called on world leaders to back a new tech tax ahead of next week’s G7 summit in the UK, a report by the campaign group Fair Tax Foundation singled out Amazon, Facebook, Google’s owner, Alphabet, Netflix, Apple and Microsoft.

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Boris Johnson under pressure from Biden and activists in run-up to G7

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US pushing UK hard over minimum corporate tax and swift action on global Covid vaccinations

Boris Johnson is facing mounting pressure from Joe Biden and grass roots activists to be bolder at next month’s G7 summit amid signs that rows over vaccines and tax will dominate what the prime minister hoped would be a low-key event.

The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, kicks off two weeks of intense international diplomacy ahead of the June gathering of the leaders of major western economies in Cornwall when he hosts a virtual meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors on Friday.

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