Budget will boost living standards, revive NHS and ‘rebuild Britain’ – Starmer October 12, 2024 The Budget will focus on boosting living standards, reviving the NHS and “rebuilding Britain”, Keir Starmer said as he signalled investment in schools, housing and transport. Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver her first Budget on October 30 following gloomy warnings about the tough decisions and tax rises needed to deal with the economic legacy left [...]
Starmer appoints former Darktrace boss as new investment minister in ‘scaled up’ department October 11, 2024 Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced the government’s new investment minister after more than 100 days in office, amid criticism from City groups it took too long. Former Darktrace chief executive Poppy Gustafsson has been appointed to the role, taking charge of the ‘scaled up’ Office for Investment. The appointment is part of what the government [...]
Labour’s arrogance is disrespectful to business October 10, 2024 When it emerged that Boris Johnson reportedly muttered “f**K business” during a meeting as Prime Minister, he was rightly castigated. For many people it marked an emphatic break in the relationship between government and the private sector. We might not be able to point to any similarly totemic moment in Keir Starmer’s first three months [...]
Labour pulls back from ‘day one’ protections as it unveils workers’ rights overhaul October 10, 2024 Labour has pulled away from its pledge to give employees protection from unfair dismissal from the first day in a job, according to reports, as it unveils its long-awaited package of employment reforms today. The Employment Rights Bill, which Labour promised to introduce within its first 100 days, is set to be laid before Parliament [...]
Why a businessman (or woman) should run the civil service October 10, 2024 Keir Starmer has reshuffled his top team, but he has still one appointment left to make: cabinet secretary. He should hire someone from outside the Whitehall machine to drive better performance across the public sector, says Andrew Haldenby If Keir Starmer wants a government that works and a productive economy, he needs to do more [...]
This is how much sixty of the UK’s wealthiest people paid in income tax October 9, 2024 The figures, which were revealed thanks to a freedom of information request, demonstrate the large contribution made by the UK's richest individuals.
Keir Starmer refuses to rule out hike to employer national insurance October 9, 2024 “Increasing employer NICs would mean breaking a Labour manifesto promise, and small businesses would be rightfully outraged," Craig Beaumont, executive director at the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said.
Sketch: PMQs falls flat – do Sunak and Starmer not get the rules? October 9, 2024 With the Tories immersed in a leadership contest and Labour emerging from weeks of freebie headlines and internal drama, Westminster watchers will have turned to this week’s PMQs for a much needed injection of drama. Grab your popcorn, it’s box office time. Surely the acting leader of the Conservative Party could at least muster up [...]
Nightmare fuel: Have Labour’s first 100 days proved a shaky start? October 9, 2024 During Liz Truss’ short-lived premiership, my friend confessed the then-Prime Minister was actually living out a recurring nightmare she occasionally had. The ‘plot’ of said nightmare? “The idea that you think yourself capable of something and you get to the top and you’re on the front page of every newspaper, and every news channel and [...]
‘Challenging policy’: What the pushback to private school VAT plans reveals October 8, 2024 VAT… easy as ABC? It may not quite be Blair’s ‘education, education, education’ mantra, or Michael Gove’s multi-academy trusts. But for Sir Keir ‘my-father-was-a-toolmaker’ Starmer, there’s been one education policy that’s been front and centre of his manifesto and the first 100 days. This is, of course, the plan to impose VAT on private school [...]