Tories urge PM to rule out tax cuts in Budget as Badenoch attack on TUC appointment to Bank of England backfires
Good morning. With the Budget less than six weeks away, the economy is high on the agenda at Westminster. Bank of England will announce its latest interest rate decision later – Graham Weirden all the details about his business will be live on the blog – and Andrew Griffith makes his first major speech since being appointed shadow chancellor just over two weeks ago.
Unsurprisingly, Griffith is calling on Chancellor John Healey to leave tax rises out of the budget. He was interviewed this morning and told BBC Breakfast:
Taxes, or fear of taxes… are forcing the really big taxpayers to leave our country and go abroad, taking away hundreds of millions of pounds of tax revenue that will pay for public services…
What they (the government) could do right now is take the fears of ordinary small businesses, the self-employed, who are now getting up, going to work, off the table, and allow them to get on with their lives with the confidence that taxes won’t go up.
The speech will focus on small business, and Griffith will announce that he has appointed two advisers – fellow Conservative and former MP Craig McKinley, a chartered accountant, and Robert Colville, the retiring head of the Center for Policy Research think tank – to produce a report for him on cutting red tape in business.
The Tories are keen to portray the Burnham administration as what Andy Haldane would call just another “traditional socialist tax-and-spend government”. Kemi Badenoch pounced on what she believed was new evidence to support the theory. She wrote about this on social networks.
Only one party has ever saved the country from union control. We’re ready to do it again.
If you weren’t sure what kind of Labor government we have, or want to know what’s in store for you and your family finances, the news below is a big clue, and it’s not good news 👇
She was responding to a tweet from the Sun newspaper which said Paul Novak had been appointed as a governor of the Bank of England.
It was true; he has. The Bank’s board consists of up to 14 directors and Nowak, the TUC’s general secretary, has been appointed as one of its non-executive directors. The court is not the authority that sets interest rates; he simply supervises the administration of the Bank.
But there is nothing particularly new or surprising (or socialist) about this. Novak will replace Frances O’Grady, who was also general secretary of the TUC. Under the Tory government she was appointed a non-executive director of the Bank. Like its predecessor TUC.
In fact, this has been happening for decades. Rupert Harrisonwho was George Osborne’s chief of staff when he was chancellor, yesterday addressed X to encourage his Conservative colleagues to keep things in perspective.
I have no opinion on this particular candidate, but it is worth noting that it has been a tradition for decades to have a union representative on the Bank’s bench. I think since the war.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9:30 am: The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government publishes data on local government spending.
11 am: Andrew Griffith, Shadow Chancellor, makes his speech.
Noon: The Bank of England announces its interest rate decision.
I’m afraid we can no longer open comments below the line on this blog every day. If you would like to contact me, please email policy.live@theguardian.com. You can use this email to flag corrections, comments on a post, questions or complaints.
Key events
This is from Thorsten BellChancellor of the Exchequer, about Kemi Badenoch’s attacks on Paul Novak, who received the post of non-executive director at the Bank of England court.
In the recent past, two Conservative Chancellors appointed Frances O’Grady, then General Secretary of the TUC, to two terms on the Bank Court. Like @rbrharrison, @nowak_paul’s long-awaited appointment today has A LOT of precedents
And Labor MP Yuan YangA former FT journalist posted on social media explaining the role of the Bank Court.
Cabinet minister calls Badenoch an ’embarrassment’ over attacks on TUC appointment to Bank of England court
Chris BryantNorthern Ireland minister has called Kemi Badenoch an “embarrassment” over her attacks on Paul Novak’s appointment to the Bank of England bench.
Tories urge PM to rule out tax cuts in Budget as Badenoch attack on TUC appointment to Bank of England backfires
Good morning. With the Budget less than six weeks away, the economy is high on the agenda at Westminster. Bank of England will announce its latest interest rate decision later – Graham Weirden all the details about his business will be live on the blog – and Andrew Griffith makes his first major speech since being appointed shadow chancellor just over two weeks ago.
Unsurprisingly, Griffith is calling on Chancellor John Healey to leave tax rises out of the Budget. He was interviewed this morning and told BBC Breakfast:
Taxes, or fear of taxes… are forcing the really big taxpayers to leave our country and go abroad, taking away hundreds of millions of pounds of tax revenue that will pay for public services…
What they (the government) could do right now is take the fears of ordinary small businesses, the self-employed, who are now getting up, going to work, off the table, and allow them to get on with their lives with the confidence that taxes won’t go up.
The speech will focus on small business, and Griffith will announce that he has appointed two advisers – fellow Conservative and former MP Craig McKinley, a chartered accountant, and Robert Colville, the retiring head of the Center for Policy Research think tank – to produce a report for him on cutting red tape in business.
The Tories are keen to portray the Burnham administration as what Andy Haldane would call just another “traditional socialist tax-and-spend government”. Kemi Badenoch pounced on what she believed was new evidence to support the theory. She wrote about this on social networks.
Only one party has ever saved the country from union control. We’re ready to do it again.
If you weren’t sure what kind of Labor government we have, or want to know what’s in store for you and your family finances, the news below is a big clue, and it’s not good news 👇
She was responding to a tweet from the Sun newspaper which said Paul Novak had been appointed as a governor of the Bank of England.
It was true; he has. The Bank’s board consists of up to 14 directors and Nowak, the TUC’s general secretary, has been appointed as one of its non-executive directors. The court is not the authority that sets interest rates; he simply supervises the administration of the Bank.
But there is nothing particularly new or surprising (or socialist) about this. Novak will replace Frances O’Grady, who was also general secretary of the TUC. Under the Tory government she was appointed a non-executive director of the Bank. Like its predecessor TUC.
In fact, this has been happening for decades. Rupert Harrisonwho was George Osborne’s chief of staff when he was chancellor, yesterday addressed X to encourage his Conservative colleagues to keep things in perspective.
I have no opinion on this particular candidate, but it is worth noting that it has been a tradition for decades to have a union representative on the Bank’s bench. I think since the war.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9:30 am: The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government publishes data on local government spending.
11 am: Andrew Griffith, Shadow Chancellor, makes his speech.
Noon: The Bank of England announces its interest rate decision.
I’m afraid we can no longer open comments below the line on this blog every day. If you would like to contact me, please email policy.live@theguardian.com. You can use this email to flag corrections, comments on a post, questions or complaints.
