What Jenrick’s resignation means for Sunak’s premiership
17 min listen
Kate Andrews speaks to James Heale and Katy Balls about Robert Jenrick’s resignation last night and whether this is another sign of Tory party implosion.
Kate Andrews
Kate Andrews is economics editor of The Spectator
Thursday
Monday
The Tories’ migration crackdown will have many victims
The UK’s immigration system must be ‘fair, consistent, legal and sustainable’, proclaimed the new Home Secretary as he presented his ‘five-point plan’ to reduce legal migration in parliament. James Cleverly billed these changes as ‘more robust action than any government’ has taken before to reduce the headline net migration figure. They involve increasing the skilled
Starmer offers a heavy dose of the big state
Keir Starmer wants to set expectations early. Speaking at the Resolution Foundation’s economy conference later today, the opposition leader used his speech to emphasise just how little scope he’d have at the start of any Labour government to splash the cash. His party will not ‘turn on the spending taps’, he told an audience of
Wednesday
When will Rishi Sunak see sense on the Triple Lock?
When Jeremy Hunt announced his ‘Autumn Statement for Growth’ last week, there was a slight problem: the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had actually revised down its growth forecasts. Apart from this year and the last year for the forecast, GDP gains are expected to be smaller than were predicted back in March. Yes, the
Saturday
Should Sunak reduce immigration?
23 min listen
Figures out this week put net migration at 672,000 in the year to June 2023. Should the government cut the number of work visas, to immediately reduce this figure, or should it accept that high levels of immigration are needed to sustain the economy? Natasha Feroze speaks to Fraser Nelson and Kate Andrews.
Friday
New Zealand’s smoking ban u-turn is bad news for Rishi Sunak
New Zealand’s new coalition government has announced that it will scrap Jacinda Ardern’s plan to usher in a generational smoking ban. The scheme would have steadily lifted the legal age for buying cigarettes from 2027, effectively stopping anyone born after 2008 from purchasing them. The right-leaning parties now in power – the National party, the
Thursday
In defence of the latest high migration figures
The debate over migration figures released today seems to be whether or not we’ve reached a new ‘record high’. The Office for National Statistics reports net migration rose 672,000 in the year to June. This would have been a record high if the ONS hadn’t also revised last year’s figures up by a staggering 140,000 to 745,000.
Have we seen peak migration?
12 min listen
After much Whitehall spin, the official figures are now in. Net migration in the year to June hit 672,000, down from 745,000 in 2022. A total of 1.2 million people arrived to live in the UK, whilst 508,000 moved overseas. The ONS says it’s too early to call this a downward trend, but has migration
Wednesday
The truth about Hunt’s ‘tax cutting’ Autumn Statement
18 min listen
The Chancellor today delivered his fiscal update, branding it as an ‘Autumn Statement for Growth’. In it, he announced a series of tax cuts for both businesses and workers including the decision to make ‘full expensing’ permanent and a surprise announcement on National Insurance, which has been cut by two percentage points for workers and
The truth about Hunt’s ‘tax cutting’ Autumn Statement
Jeremy Hunt’s March Budget was an exercise in Big State Toryism. It lacked meaningful tax cuts, was full of new spending promises, and was estimated by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to take the ratio of public spending to GDP to ‘43.4 per cent, its highest sustained level since the 1970s’. But today’s Autumn Statement, the
Tuesday
Can Jeremy Hunt cut taxes in good conscience?
When the government announces a range of tax cuts tomorrow, it has pledged to do so in a ‘sustainable’ way. What counts as sustainable, however, is going to be hotly contested – especially in light of this morning’s update from the Office for National Statistics, which saw the UK borrow more than forecast or expected last month.
Monday
Why have Sunak and Hunt suddenly decided they want tax cuts?
The government’s transition on taxes has taken place at lightning speed. We’ve gone from chancellor Jeremy Hunt hinting at tax cuts yesterday morning on the BBC to Rishi Sunak confirming that not only are tax cuts coming this Wednesday, but they are now a major priority for the government, as laid out in five new promises made today. Arguably
Sunak makes more pledges – but what happened to his last five?
In his speech in north London his morning, the Prime Minister confirmed that tax cuts are coming this Wednesday, as is another attempt by the government to get Britain’s 5.5 million missing workers back into employment. But Rishi Sunak didn’t stop there. Having achieved one of his five pledges for the year last week —
Sunday
What changed Hunt’s mind on tax cuts?
Has Jeremy Hunt had a change of heart or a change of circumstances? The Chancellor has spent the past few months crushing any hope of a major tax cut in next Wednesday’s Autumn Statement, insisting that the government’s main priorities – including tackling inflation and improving the dire state of the public finances – directly
Friday
Fuel for thought: how business can make use of hydrogen
40 min listen
How we achieve net zero is more than just a political or environmental decision. It is one that will have huge societal impacts. How we get our energy translates to how we move around, how we heat our homes. It’s a reminder that the energy transition has many trade-offs, as we navigate achieving net zero
Thursday
Back to the future: Sunak’s big gamble
45 min listen
On the podcast: It’s been a busy week in Westminster. On Monday, Rishi Sunak’s first major reshuffle saw Suella Braverman sacked and David Cameron make a surprise return to politics. Then two days later, the Supreme Court’s Rwanda ruling left the government’s pledge to ‘stop the boats’ in tatters. It was meant to be the
Should Starmer worry about the ceasefire rebellion?
13 min listen
Fifty-six Labour MPs rebelled last night and voted for an SNP amendment calling for a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza. Keir Starmer had ordered his party to abstain on the vote, and said afterwards that Israel had suffered ‘its worst terrorist attack in a single day’ on 7 October, and that ‘no government would allow
Wednesday
Supreme Court rules Rwanda scheme unlawful
11 min listen
The Supreme Court has ruled that the government scheme to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda is unlawful. Why? And how will Rishi Sunak respond? Will he try to take Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Kate Andrews.
Sunak meets first pledge as the rate of inflation halves
Inflation has slowed significantly, according to the latest update from the Office for National Statistics. The headline rate was 4.6 per cent in the year to October, down from 6.7 per cent the previous month. The sharp slowdown is largely attributed to last year’s hikes in energy prices dropping out of the data with the figures now
Tuesday
The UK labour market is beginning to cool
Slowly but surely, the labour market in the UK appears to be cooling down. Data from the Office for National Statistics this morning shows the number of job vacancies across the economy fell by another 58,000 between July to September, taking the total figure to an estimated 957,000. This is still far above pre-pandemic levels, but the
