Breaking news from the corridors of Westminster: the power’s out in the journalists’ offices in Parliament, and with it, the hacks’ ability to sit around in their usual haunts, drink coffee, check X and of course, find big scoops. The plugs have failed, the computers are dead. MailOnline cannot be browsed. Off to Old Queen Street Cafe they go…
This morning sees the start of the Investment Summit hosted by Rachel Reeves and she has put out the line to The Times that “investments are a vote of confidence in the UK and the stability that this government has brought back to the economy.” She claims “Britain is open for business.” Unfortunately the Treasury also let it be known to the Guardian that officials are considering proposals to double taxes levied on the gaming sector, as Rachel Reeves “aims to pull every lever possible to raise funds in her upcoming budget.” Seeing as her manifesto revenue-raising proposals have been exposed as a fantasy…
UK gambling stocks slumped this morning following the report that Rachel Reeves is weighing proposals to increase taxes on the industry by as much as £3 billion. Whoops…
Jefferies investment bank analyst James Wheatcroft called the proposals “unrealistic” adding “the proposals apparently being considered would all but wipe out bookmaker profitability in the UK, per our estimates”. Shares in Ladbrokes-owner Entain Plc dropped 15%, casinos operator Rank Group Plc fell nearly 7%. Evoke Plc, owner of the William Hill betting brand, slid 16% and New York listed Flutter Entertainment tumbled 8.8% on the back of the tax hike report. Hardly the pro-business news that investors at the summit want to hear…
The British gaming industry is a global player, with the major groups employing software engineers and operations being major employers in Stoke, Manchester, Leeds, and Sunderland. Taxes on business are taxes on jobs…
Labour marked its 100 days in power by…losing its poll lead. Over the weekend, a poll from More in Common shows the Tories and Labour are neck and neck at 27%. Labour’s lead wiped out after 934 days, after 100 days in government…
Meanwhile, Reform polls just 6 percentage points behind at 21%, reportedly sparking some of Starmer’s allies to worry that Reform could overtake Labour by the time of May’s local elections. The real opposition…
Labour has finally found a line on Elon Musk’s non-invitation to Starmer and Reeves’ investment summit: ‘He doesn’t have anything to invest.’ Eh?
Ministers have spent the weekend refusing to comment on whether he was even invited. Now Peter Kyle has been asked in every interview on the morning round why the “most successful businessman in the world” didn’t cop an invite to the summit. His response is that “Elon Musk doesn’t have a global investment programme that’s underway at the moment.” Just the odd invention or two…
That’s different from Labour’s previous line, which also went on about tech investment, on the summit’s purpose:
“The summit is an opportunity to meaningfully engage with the world’s leading businesses and investors, and to continue to build long-term relationships that will drive investment into the UK in the months and years ahead.”
So Labour doesn’t feel the need to meaningfully engage with Musk. Is it because he said mean things about Keir on Twitter?
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”
