Labour’s plan to gerrymander London’s mayoral election will backfire July 24, 2025 Giving the vote to teenagers may be getting the headlines, but Labour are also planning to rig London’s mayoral elections by restoring supplementary voting. It’s a plan based on dangerous assumptions, warms James Ford Labour is clearly panicking. There is a very real fear that, come 2028, the combination of a deeply unpopular Labour government [...]
Goldman Sachs boss: London finance lead ‘fragile’ July 23, 2025 London’s position as a global financial centre is at risk from years of anti-business policies that are pushing talent and capital abroad, the boss of Goldman Sachs has warned. David Solomon highlighted a damaging combination of Brexit, the UK’s tax burden, constrictive regulation, and the recent decision to abolish the non-dom regime have all harmed [...]
Starmer must face down the self-righteous clowns on his back benches July 23, 2025 Keir Starmer’s attempt to select compliant MPs has backfired, producing a rebellious and ill-informed parliamentary party that has already successfully vetoed its own government’s economic policy, says Paul Ormerod A fundamental feature of the social and economic world is that intentions are not the same as outcomes. Morgan McSweeney and his colleagues exercised very close [...]
Rachel Reeves: It’s not progressive to pay off US hedge funds for debt July 22, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said there is “nothing progressive” about paying off US hedge funds which hold government bonds, hours after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed debt interest payments in June were double levels seen at the same time last year. In a hearing at the Economic Affairs Committee, Rachel Reeves said she [...]
Brits back tax incentive plan to stop wealthy investors fleeing UK July 22, 2025 Two thirds of Britons support offering rich investors tax incentives to stop them leaving the UK, according to a new report, as the government has been urged to design a special scheme to boost UK growth. In a new paper by Onward and the Adam Smith Institute, around 67 per cent of the British public [...]
Angela Rayner pushes for new tourist tax to fix black hole July 22, 2025 Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner is pushing Chancellor Rachel Reeves to give more power to councils to tax tourists amid worries that local governments are struggling to keep finances in check. Rayner has suggested that councils should be able to tax tourist hotel stays and take advantage of a rise in visitors, rather than taxing [...]
Rachel Reeves oversees higher government borrowing than expected July 22, 2025 Government borrowing has overshot predictions, putting Rachel Reeves under more pressure to take control of public finances. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said public sector borrowing hit £20.7bn in June, higher than market expectations which pencilled in just over £17bn in borrowing. Borrowing in June this year was some £6bn more than at the [...]
Government consultants pledge under threat as spending jumps July 22, 2025 Government spending on management consultants rose by over £150m during Labour’s first year in office, despite the party’s manifesto pledge to halve the amount departments dish out to third party advisers, City PM can reveal. Total spending on management consultancy contracts totalled £1.44bn during the first 12 months of the government’s four-year term, up from [...]
Rachel Reeves should tweak fiscal rules to ease pressure, IFS says July 21, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves should bring forward a change to fiscal rules to ease pressures faced at spring fiscal events, a leading economics think tank has urged. In a new briefing on public finances, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said Rachel Reeves should refrain from changing the number of times the Office for Budget Responsibility [...]
Labour to target rule-breaking ministers with financial sanctions July 21, 2025 Rule-breaking ministers will be targeted with sanctions and a new watchdog will be set up to improve standards in public life under new reforms introduced by the Labour government. As part of efforts to improve behaviour across politics, Keir Starmer has replaced an independent watchdog for former ministers – the Advisory Committee for Business Appointments [...]
