Economics newsletter

Kate Andrews guides you through the week’s biggest stories across news, business, money, property, stocks and shares, and, of course, the economy.

What’s the Treasury’s real view on immigration?

This week has seen much talk – again – of the ‘Treasury View’, and how that rarely defined set of values might be influencing this government’s approach to migration. First, let’s kill off some conspiracy theories that exist about the Treasury View. In general terms the Treasury View stands for cautious conservatism (with a small

The City backlash against Reform has begun

It will be like Liz Truss on roller skates. The next election may still be four years away, and the manifestos still need to be fleshed out. Even so, the City has already started issuing stark warnings of a run on the pound if there is a Reform government led by Nigel Farage as Prime

Ross Clark

Is it any surprise junior doctors want more money?

If the government was deliberately trying to encourage union militancy, it could not be making a better job of it. It is reported that junior doctors – or ‘resident doctors’ as we are now supposed to call them for fear of implying that they might be less qualified than consultants who have been doing their

Is Starmer’s Trump trade deal the win he thinks it is?

Keir Starmer says it is a ‘fantastic, historic’ day after signing a trade deal with the United States, but is the agreement really something to celebrate? Ten per cent tariffs, announced last month, still apply to most UK goods entering the US The government is no doubt cock-a-hoop to be the first country to get

Michael Simmons

What would a US trade deal mean for the UK?

Later today, Donald Trump is reportedly set to unveil a trade deal with the UK. He’ll make the announcement alongside ‘a big and highly respected country’ which is said to be Britain. If the reports are true then it would make the UK the first country to secure a deal since Trump’s tariff turmoil began.  The

Michael Simmons

Starmer can’t afford a winter fuel U-turn

Keir Starmer has ruled out a U-turn on the government’s decision to cut the winter fuel payment, with the Prime Minister’s spokesman insisting there ‘will not be a change to the government’s policy’. This came after a report in the Guardian suggesting No.10 was considering softening the £1.4 billion cut, possibly by raising the threshold that defines

Ross Clark

Wes Streeting won’t end the 8am GP appointment scramble

You can say it for Wes Streeting: he doesn’t hang about. Reacting to the heavy loss of council seats in last week’s elections, he is proffering £102 million of money for extra GPs’ appointments – hopefully to end what has been termed the “8am scramble”: a kind of Hunger Games which NHS patients have to

The Motability scheme needs to be put into reverse

Keir Starmer’s government has taken some important first steps to bring the welfare budget under control. But expenditure on disability and incapacity benefits is still set to increase to almost £100 billion by the end of the decade, so more changes are needed. Every aspect of the welfare system must be examined to see if

James Kirkup

Nigel Farage’s left-wing turn looks like a triumph

Nigel Farage declared earlier this year that ‘economics might be bigger than immigration for us at the next election’. Most people at Westminster didn’t take him particularly seriously. After all, Reform UK is all about immigration, right? Westminster didn’t take Farage seriously. After all, Reform UK is all about immigration, right? When Farage based his local election