The UK economy grew at a faster rate than expected between October and December last year, at 1.3% compared to forecasts of 1% according to the Office for National Statistics. GDP is now just 0.1% below its pre-pandemic figure. All this despite the Omicron hysteria at the end of last year…
The rise is also a bounce back from the downwardly revised growth of 0.9% in Q3, with total yearly growth sitting at 7.4% in 2021. Household savings, meanwhile, are at their lowest point since the start of the pandemic, with the ratio at 6.8% by December. Just as inflation begins to bite…
ONS director of economic statistics Darren Morgan said:
“GDP grew a little stronger than we first thought in the fourth quarter, meaning it is now only 0.1 percent below its pre-pandemic level. Savings were at their lowest level since the start of the pandemic as household spending rose, mainly driven by rising prices.
House prices still continue to soar at their fastest rate since 2004, with the typical price now 21% higher than before the pandemic…
Stories arising from updates to the MPs’ Register of Interests are like catching a bus: you wait for one and a couple come along at once. Scrolling through today’s updates there are some eyebrow-raising entries: for example, Chris Bryant has received £7,600 for the rights to make a television series based on his book. The book in question isn’t listed, though Guido would be surprised if it’s not The Glamour Boys, about a group of young, gay MPs who helped fight Hitler…
Former Labour chief whip Nick Brown has also registered his departure as a non-executive director of the Mariinksky Theatre Trust – an arts body with links to Russia – though this was less his decision and more a result of the trust closing down just shy of its 30-year birthday following the invasion of Ukraine.
Guido couldn’t help laughing at Neil Coyle’s registering of £3,000-worth of support from the Refugee, Asylum and Migration Policy Project (RAMP), in the form of a policy advisor for 2.5 days per week from January to February this year. According to RAMP’s website they are focused on “re-imagining a world-class migration system for a successful and integrated Britain”. They’re now donating services to an MP suspended by the Labour Party for allegedly making racially charged remarks about a journalist of Asian origin…
The jaw-dropper this month is undoubtedly Priti Patel, who totally puts to shame Geoffrey Cox’s high earnings. She’s just registered a whopping £100,000 donation from Anduyrand Capital Management, “a private fund management company in fundamental commodity strategies with a specialisation in the oil and energy complex.”
Drinks on Priti…
With just over a month to go before the local elections, the government has decided now is a convenient time to throw buckets of cash at a “Levelling Up” advertising campaign, with dozens of targeted ads appearing all over Facebook and local newspapers in the last few days. While the residents of these 30 areas – including Southend, Grimsby and Wolverhampton – will be pleased to finally understand what “Levelling Up” is supposed to mean, they may be less impressed to hear how much it cost them to find out… the ads on Facebook alone will have run up a bill of at least £100,000, all bought and paid for by the taxpayer.
They look to Guido like Tory adverts, with a Tory slogan, Tory colours and a red, white and blue logo that feels distinctly like a Tory logo. Labour are understandably not happy with either the timing or messaging…
The final bill, which DLUHC has so far refused to disclose, because the campaign is “ongoing“, will inevitably be much higher. Ads are also being played on radio stations and appearing on digital billboards, all just before the official restrictions on campaign announcements ahead of the locals kicks in. Public money being splashed on political campaigns – what was it Jacob Rees-Mogg said about taking care of taxpayers’ cash?
It’s been six years, two elections and one pandemic since Labour last published transparency details over their meetings with media executives, despite a hard commitment from Ed Miliband to be transparent post-Leveson. When Guido highlighted this to Labour’s new operation in April 2021, he was assured a first-year publication would be coming soon, though the black hole under Corbyn would remain shrouded in mystery. He then reminded them six months after that…
In light of Labour calling for transparency over the PM’s relationship with Lord Lebedev, something that will now come to light after yesterday’s humble address passed, Guido reckons it’s only right to once again remind Labour of their own press baron transparency reports, which are still yet to be published. Though we know Starmer has had no meetings with Evgeny…
It looks like Tory MP Peter Gibson agrees. He’s now written to Sir Keir demanding he publishes the missing reports, and explain “the nature and content” of any contact Starmer may have had with Lebedev since 2020 following the revelation of yesterday’s ‘congratulations’ text. Guido suspects Gibson will be waiting quite a while…
Read the full letter below:
Two weeks ago, Conservative Party Chairman Oliver Dowden proclaimed that taxes have reached a “high water mark” amid a cost of living crisis that’s seen the Treasury’s penny-pinching rise to a 28 year high. When asked by Sir Keir at PMQs today whether Boris still believes he and the Chancellor are “tax-cutting Conservatives”, the PM boldly replied “Yes, Mr Speaker, I certainly do!”. Guido presumes, therefore, that No. 10 & 11 will shortly be rejecting any suggestion of an online sales tax…
The online sales tax was first proposed by the Treasury in response to the proportion of retail sales conducted online rising seven-fold between 2006 and March 2020, accelerated by lockdown. In February the Treasury launched a public consultation on the proposals, which Guido has now spotted admits the tax would pile even more pressure onto hard-pressed consumers:
“the cost of an OST could be passed on to customers at a high rate.”
The IEA puts simply:
“Given the extent of competition in today’s retailing sector, the costs of the online sales tax (and the administration costs incurred by businesses) would be passed on to consumers, who have arguably received quite enough hits in terms of higher prices recently.”
Guido’s sure that regardless of the Treasury consultation any Tory government serious about tackling a cost of living crisis and reducing consumer costs wouldn’t take these plans any further…
Jolyon has lost another case, this time before even reaching court. A fundraiser last summer to force councils to stop sending children in care hundreds of miles away from their home, saw the Good Law Project raise almost £45,000 from 1,770 supporters; not reaching the stretch goal of £75,000. Yesterday Mr Justice Choudhury concluded the project did not have an arguable case. Guido would go as far as to say that this was one of the few worthy, rather than political, causes with which Jolyon’s preoccupied himself…
“The Court found that Good Law Project would probably have had standing to bring the claim. It rejected the Secretary of State’s contention that the Runnymede case means we will never have standing.”
In a statement posted by the GLP to their fundraiser, “the judge yesterday found that the court can’t interfere unless a local authority’s actions meet the high threshold of being actions that no reasonable local authority could take.” It’s a shame Jolyon’s scuppered so much good will in the legal system that his more worthy causes are now being added to his list of losses…
