Empowering unions will stifle growth, businesses warn Starmer
“Business leaders have called on Sir Keir Starmer to abandon plans for a radical extension of union power in Britain amid warnings it will stifle economic growth. Under proposals being drawn up by ministers, companies will be forced to recognise and negotiate with unions even if only a minority of staff are members or back the move. Unions would also be given a new “right to access” workplaces to allow them to recruit and organise members — even in firms that don’t have union representation at the time. The plans have led to a backlash from employers and business groups who have warned that it could lead to firms being “held to ransom” by small groups of activists. It has also triggered concern within government…” – The Times
- Rail union requests 38 days’ holiday and 35-hour week for its members – The Daily Telegraph
- Warning as Brits could be slapped with £878 tax bill ‘thanks to Labour’s £14 billion pay deal with unions’ – The Sun
- Hire more of our members to avoid strikes, union chiefs tell rail bosses – The Daily Telegraph
- Labour’s age-old willingness to appease the unions risks undermining its growth agenda – Editorial, The Times
- Labour plans to make Britain even more idle – Editorial, The Daily Telegraph
- ‘Grown-up’ pay bargaining will prove disastrous – Daniel Finkelstein, The Times
- Labour’s new skivers’ charter would crush productivity, not boost it – Jeremy Warner, The Daily Telegraph
- Five years of Starmer in charge will take us back 50 years to the 1970s – Priti Patel, The Daily Mail
Labour ‘destroying’ civil service impartiality with Whitehall picks
“Ministers have been accused of undermining the impartiality of the civil service after appointing a director from a Labour-supporting think tank to the Whitehall unit responsible for investigating political wrongdoing. In the latest cronyism row to hit the new government, ministers stepped in to appoint Jess Sargeant as a deputy director in the Cabinet Office without going through an independent recruitment process. She is the third person with close links to the Labour Party to have been appointed to become a senior civil servant since the party won the election. Sargeant previously worked for the think tank Labour Together, which was set up by allies of Sir Keir Starmer and gave hundreds of thousands of pounds to the party’s candidates at the election.” – The Times
- Labour defends handing senior civil service role to political appointee – The Financial Times
Reeves 1) The Chancellor is planning to raise taxes and cut spending in October budget
“Rachel Reeves is planning to raise taxes, cut spending and get tough on benefits in October’s budget amid Treasury alarm that the pickup in the economy has failed to improve the poor state of the public finances. With the latest official set of borrowing figures out on Wednesday, the chancellor is insisting she will still have a substantial black hole to fill despite stronger than expected growth in the first half of 2024. Reeves is concerned at official figures showing that borrowing was already running more than £3bn higher in the first three months of the financial year from April to June than forecast by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility…at the time of Jeremy Hunt’s…budget. She announced last month that she was scrapping winter fuel payments for most pensioners…” – The Guardian
- Borrowing overshoots forecasts by £3 billion in setback for Reeves – The Daily Telegraph
- I’ve never seen such anger from pensioners – Jeff Prestridge, The Daily Mail
Reeves 2) She plans to raise social rents to ‘boost affordable housebuilding’
“UK chancellor Rachel Reeves is planning to raise social rents by more than inflation for the next 10 years in an attempt to boost the building of affordable homes. Reeves intends to introduce a 10-year formula in October’s Budget that will increase annual rents in England by the CPI measure of inflation — currently 2.2 per cent — plus an additional 1 per cent, according to government insiders. The move is aimed at encouraging the building of more affordable homes by providing certainty over cash flows to housing associations and councils — which are grappling with heavy debt burdens and large maintenance backlogs. In recent years local authorities have almost stopped building homes, leaving housing associations…to build most new social housing in the UK.” – The Financial Times
Cooper: I’ll lock up and deport more migrants
“Yvette Cooper has pledged to detain more illegal migrants and carry out a record number of deportations. The Home Secretary will expand immigration detention centres as part of a plan to remove more than 14,500 illegal migrants in the next six months. This is a higher rate than at any time since 2018, when Theresa May was prime minister. Nearly 300 extra places are to be created at two controversial immigration removal centres where illegal migrants and foreign criminals are detained before being deported. Some 300 Home Office caseworkers have already been re-deployed since the election to track down, detain and return illegal migrants. Up to 100 new specialist intelligence and investigations officers are also being recruited…” – The Daily Telegraph
- I’ll deport more than 14,000 illegal migrants in six months, the Home Secretary vows – The Sun
- UK to hire 100 intelligence officers to push to return more failed asylum claims – The Financial Times
Private school leaders demand more time from the Treasury over VAT
“Private school leaders have demanded the Treasury delay adding VAT to fees or risk a “mid-year surge” of pupils overwhelming the state sector. Fees at independent schools will rise by up to 20 per cent…following a government consultation…But in a letter to the Treasury…a group of schools will say the policy should not be introduced until September next year to allow all schools to make plans. The nascent group of head teachers, chairs of governors and bursars from about 50 schools will also warn the government that the consultation on the policy is too short and much of the allotted time overlaps with the summer holidays. Pressing ahead in January risks leaving state schools overwhelmed by a “bow wave” and some private schools struggling to stay open, they add.” – The Times
UK aid spent in areas of China richer than parts of the UK, says the Institute of Economic Affairs
“Taxpayers have been funding development projects in parts of the world that are richer than some areas in the UK, a report claims. The study by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) found that, over the last five years, British overseas development assistance had been spent in wealthy areas of China, Mexico and Malaysia. Some of the money was spent after a decision by the previous government to reduce Britain’s overseas aid budget from 0.7 per cent of GDP, which resulted in big cuts to aid budgets in countries such as Yemen, Syria and Somalia. The IEA described the spending as “Robin Hood in reverse” and said the government needed to “urgently re-evaluate our aid priorities”. Among the funding identified by the think tank was a £200,000 project in Shanghai…” – The Times
- China is an aggressive nation undeserving of our cash – Editorial, The Sun
Conservatives 1) ‘Left and Right come together’ to back Badenoch for the Tory leadership
“MPs on opposite wings of the Tory Party have backed Kemi Badenoch, saying she is the only candidate who can “see off” the threat of Reform and “neuter” the Liberal Democrats. Ben Spencer, on the Left of the party, and Gareth Bacon, on the Right, have written a joint article for The Telegraph in which they say she has a record of “saying what’s needed, not what’s easy”. It takes the shadow communities secretary’s tally of MPs who have backed her publicly to eight. Both MPs were first elected in 2019. Mr Spencer is MP for Runnymede and Weybridge, in Surrey, a seat where the Lib Dems are the main challenger, while Mr Bacon represents Orpington, in the London borough of Bromley, where Reform is more prominent.” – The Daily Telegraph
- Patel’s Tory leadership bid won’t get past her deep unpopularity – Stephen Bush, The Financial Times
>Today:
Conservatives 2) Jenrick: I took Ozempic to lose weight but didn’t enjoy it
“Robert Jenrick, the Tory leadership candidate, has confirmed that he has taken the weight loss drug Ozempic. Rumours have been circulating in Westminster since last year that a number of senior Tory MPs were paying for prescriptions of the drug. Boris Johnson admitted he had taken the drug after seeing a cabinet minister who had “miraculously changed his appearance” and “acquired a new jawline”. Speaking to Politico, Jenrick, the former immigration minister, said he had used Ozempic for six weeks late last year before stopping. “To be honest, I was overweight,” he said… Jenrick’s comment came after Tom Tugendhat, the shadow security minister and a rival for the Tory leadership, denied that he had taken the drug.” – The Times
Conservatives 3) Farmer distances himself from daughter-in-law’s Israel remarks
“A major Conservative Party donor has distanced himself from comments made about Israel by his American pundit daughter-in-law. Lord Farmer, a Tory peer, defended Israel after Candace Owens, a Trump-supporting political commentator, made a series of interventions which have been branded antisemitic. Owens is married to Lord Farmer’s son, George, a former Reform UK donor who previously chaired the controversial right-wing group Turning Point. She has increasingly been criticised for her stance on Israel and has been accused of antisemitism over her comments, which include suggesting that Israel played a role in the assassination of John F Kennedy. Owens hosted a broadcast on X…called The Truth About Zionism alongside Andrew Tate…” – The Times
Conservatives 4) Tories who plotted against me were ‘calculating bastards’, says Ross
“Douglas Ross has called Conservative MSPs who schemed against him “calculating bastards” and admitted their attacks on his leadership left him a “bit paranoid”. The outgoing Scottish Tory leader said there were some people in his Holyrood group who never wanted him in charge and they “would go out and brief against me”. But, despite confronting them, he said, he was powerless to sack them as they denied any wrongdoing and he could not prove otherwise.He refused to identify the culprits but, referring to the current leadership contest to replace him, said that “some of the ones that won’t be leader of the Scottish Tories are calculating bastards”. Mr Ross also predicted that he would still have been ousted as party leader…” – The Daily Telegraph
Exit of Ulster Unionist leader ‘leaves party at a crossroads’
“Under decorated war veteran Doug Beattie, Northern Ireland’s once dominant Ulster Unionist party sought to marry traditional support for king and country with social liberalism. But Beattie’s acrimonious exit as leader on Monday, after long-running internal tensions, leaves the smallest party in the region’s Stormont executive at a difficult crossroads and moderate pro-UK voters unsure of their political home. “What is the UUP for now? What is its purpose?” asked Jon Tonge, politics professor at the University of Liverpool. The nearly 120-year-old party, which governed Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1972 and remained its largest until two decades ago, must now select its seventh leader in 14 years.” – The Financial Times
News in Brief:
- There’s no such thing as ‘proper Conservatism’ – Eliot Wilson, The Spectator
- Great power politics is an illusion – Travis Aaroe, UnHerd
- Identity politics has undermined policing – David Green, The Critic
- Getting talent back into the political horror show – Ed West, Wrong Side of History
- Why we must empower Ukraine to repel Russia – Brendan Simms, The New Statesman
- Labour are setting the stage for a Tory revival – Bruce Anderson, CapX
