30-year gilt yields are at their highest point since 1998. Breaching the 5.5% milestone…
Meanwhile 10-year yields are at 4.66% this morning – well above the Chancellor’s crying ceiling of 4.62% on 2 July. They are now at a ten-week high. The Chancellor’s ‘unsackable’ tear guarantee only worked for so long…
Rising borrowing costs cut down Reeves’ ‘fiscal headroom’ further come the October Omnishambles budget. Might end up in waterworks…
Jess Phillips this morning could not say when a chairman for the national statutory rape gangs inquiry would be appointed. It has been over a month since Starmer’s U-turn…
Starmer was bounced on 14 June into announcing an inquiry by Guido’s reporting. The line repeated then was the government “will appoint a chair as soon as possible.” That’s barely the first step in setting up the thing…
33 days later the safeguarding minister, along with saying she did not know why whips suspended four Labour MPs, said she did not know when the inquiry would take shape:
“So look, all of that work is currently being undertaken and you know it it won’t be too long until chairs are appointed. Obviously there’s huge amounts of due diligence and work that has to go into that and the terms of reference for the inquiry, where when how it starts. The inquiries act and and frankly good practice means that we we have to undertake that work alongside the chair because as people wanted it to be it is actually independent of me. So me saying where it will go or exactly how it will play out is not something that I am able to do now – that that will be for the chair and we are working at pace to get that.”
No structure without a chairman, no chairman without Labour appointing one. Asked whether there would be one before summer recess, Phillips pointed out that Casey recommended other courses of action in her audit and an inquiry “was just one and one she said was not the most important.” Can kicked firmly down the road…
Jaguar Land Rover is swinging the axe – up to 500 management roles are set to go in the UK through a new voluntary redundancy scheme. Co-conspirators will remember the company’s recent ad campaigns, which bizarrely didn’t feature any cars at all. Go woke, go broke…
Starmer has been making a big song and dance about “saving jobs” at Jaguar Land Rover, announcing his US-UK trade deal at their factory “because we are going to back you to the hilt.” Since then he’s been name-dropping the firm at every turn to prove Labour is suddenly ‘backing business’:
During PMQs in May, he puffed out his chest: “I know first-hand what a trade deal meant for JLR workers, families and the community.”
On Instagram that same month, he boasted: “Last month, I promised workers at Jaguar Land Rover that I would protect their jobs. I kept that promise.” Newsflash: he didn’t…
Fast-forward to today and they’ve just slashed 1.5% of their UK workforce. Humiliating…
Diane Abbott has rolled back on her apology for a letter she wrote to the Observer in 2023 implying Jewish people couldn’t experience racism. The letter which lost her the whip until the election…
At the time she apologised: “I wish to wholly and unreservedly withdraw my remarks and disassociate myself from them. The errors arose in an initial draft being sent. But there is no excuse, and I wish to apologise for any anguish caused.”
Now on BBC Radio 4’s Reflections programme she takes a different line. Asked if she regrets the letter she said: “No, not at all.” And went on…
“Clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don’t know. You don’t know unless you stop to speak to them or you’re in a meeting with them. But if you see a black person walking down the street, you see straight away that they’re black. They are different types of racism… I just think that it’s silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism. I just… I don’t know why people would say that.”
When Labour suspended the whip it said it “completely condemns these comments which are deeply offensive and wrong.” Will the whips now judge Abbott guilty of ‘persistent knobheadery’?
UPDATE: Labour spokesman: “There is no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party. We take these comments incredibly seriously, and will assess them in line with Labour Party’s rules and procedures.”
Unemployment has surged to a four-year high, according to fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics. The rate is now at 4.7% in the three months to May. Above expectations of 4.6%…
The estimate of people on the payroll for June was down another 41,000. Reeves’ business-bashing taxes are once again being blamed, with the rate of unemployed people jumping after her ‘Awful April’ bills – NICs hikes and minimum wage increases – came into effect. ONS economic director Liz McKeown said:
“The job market continues to weaken. The number of job vacancies is still falling and has now been dropping continuously for three years.”
The Jobs Foundation’s Matthew Elliott said:
“Today’s figures confirm that the UK is now in the midst of a serious jobs recession. The steepest fall in employment since the pandemic is a serious wake-up call to the Government. The hike to Employer NICs has had the predicted damaging impact on jobs, and businesses are now worrying about further tax rises to come in the Autumn Budget.”
This comes a day after inflation rose by more than expected. And this is all before Labour’s anti-jobs Employment Bill comes into effect…
Guido was trawling through CCHQ’s job ads this morning to see how Kemi’s “reset” of the party’s campaigning machine is shaping up. Turns out, they’re hiring. Just not for money…
They’re after a “Research/Press” volunteer, working for “0 pay” on “0 specific hours”. Applicants must have “excellent research and analytical skills”, “a strong academic background”, and will be churning out policy “analysis”, “new initiatives”, and “campaign ideas”. All for love of the game…
Also on offer: “Membership Growth Volunteer” and “Political Events & Operations Volunteer” – again, both unpaid. For any co-conspirators hoping to get paid in pounds, there are openings: Two campaign manager roles in Scotland and Havant are available on a “competitive” salary. Kemi needs you…
UPDATE: A Labour source tells Guido: “It’s no wonder the Tories are desperately trying to block new rights for workers. It means they would actually have to pay their staff.”
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.”