Rayner is set to get a staffing boost if a push to abolish DCMS is followed through. There have been very few actual details since Downing Street briefed the Sunday Times in early May that Nandy would be removed via her culture department’s abolition later in the year. Apart from Chris Bryant pleading for his job in the Commons…
DCMS’s abolition was one of a number of options presented to the PM earlier in the year. He hasn’t signed off on it…
Despite that it is a popular option inside government and discussions on the abolition are live and details are being fleshed out. A likely option is that the culture civil servants will be spread mostly across up to three remaining departments…
Guido hears it is Rayner’s MHCLG which is currently teed up to receive the “vast majority” of Nandy’s civil servants. There are around 2,000 DCMS staff to MHCLG’s 4,000. Civil Service moves have now seen Rayner’s staff move to expansive Admiralty House – which happens to be where Rayner lives in a grace and favour flat. More desks for the Nandy survivors are easy to add. Fresh from a win in the Spending Review too – that’s one way to build a power base…
Keir Starmer’s close friend and Mauritius’s chief legal adviser Philippe Sands was in the Lords yesterday giving evidence to the International Relations and Defence Committee to promote the Chagos surrender deal as “enhancing Britain’s position in the world.” He does have a client…
When questioned about concerns that Mauritius, which has close ties to China, might allow Beijing access to Diego Garcia, Sands urged the committee not to worry because it has plenty of other islands it could give them:
“The idea that this deal will make Diego Garcia available to a hostile third state – at least as things stand now – seems really to be in the realms of speculation. The idea that Mauritius could give these islands to China – Mauritius has many other islands it could give to China.”
Sands also rejected claims that Chagossians – who wanted the islands to remain British – had been excluded from the process:
“I can tell you that Chagossians in Mauritius and Seychelles were deeply involved in consulting with successive prime ministers of Mauritius and they attended the hearings at the International Court of Justice. I want to really knock on the head this idea that all of the Chagossians were not involved in the various processes. That is simply not true.”
That version of events has been strongly disputed by UK-based Chagossians – and contradicted by UN ‘experts’ just this week. All while Mauritius is using UK taxpayer cash from the agreement to fund domestic tax cuts. Cost of this sellout: £30.3 billion…
Outgoing Institute for Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson is giving the think tank’s summary of the spending review. There are criticisms…
First Johnson attacks Labour for pretending the economy is better than it was in “Phase One” when it made small cuts and raised taxes. Those cuts which it is now reversing…
“Despite some of the rather odd recent claims, neither the economic forecasts nor the public finances have improved relative to the genuinely difficult situation we knew about a year ago, rather the reverse.”
Johnson added Reeves’ speech “did not appear to be a serious effort to provide any useful information to anybody.” Huge council tax hikes are baked into government expectations and the review “assumes that council tax bills will rise by 5% a year” which means “bills look set to rise at their fastest rate over any parliament since 2001-05.” Most of which is getting sucked up by the NHS, which gets 90% of increases in day-to-day spending…
The IFS chief said there is no longer space for massive handouts to the public sector in pay – teeing up for a battle with the unions. Economists say that today’s poor GDP statistics are not an aberration and are likely to continue. If the OBR scores down its forecast for economic growth Reeves is headed for another clanger of a budget…
Pro-tax campaigners have argued that reports of a “millionaire exodus” are overstated. Not so…
Bloomberg has analysed five million company filings. Recent months have seen a huge spike in departures of business leaders. Over 4,400 have shifted overseas in the last year…
There were only 74,000 non-doms as at the formal abolition of the tax status. If 18,000 leave then the tax will cost more than it raises…
Exits in April are recorded to be 75% higher than the year before and the highest level in four years. The highest levels are seen in finance, insurance, and real estate. Popular with non-doms…
Wealthy non-doms are going to Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, and Cyprus. Back in Blighty Reeves is plotting to come back for more in Autumn…
Reeves was challenged by Nick Ferrari on LBC this morning on the fact that the government in February subsumed the intelligence budget into its account of total defence spending. Therefore ballooning the figure…
“Increasingly intelligence is an important part of our defence, intelligence when it comes to Russian operations for example. But that takes us to 2.6% because we were spending 0.1%.”
Intelligence is not even fully included in NATO definition. If you actually do the calculations on planned spending figures in the Spending Review document the “Single Intelligence Account” will by 2027/28 account for 0.186% of GDP, which is significantly higher than the 0.1% Reeves has claimed in this interview. Crucially defence spending minus intelligence, which was only added in February, is only penned in at 2.41% by the same time…
Guido walked through the figures with the government, who did not dispute them. A government spokesperson said:
“Our position remains that we’ll increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP from 2027. In addition to this, and as announced by the PM, recognising the increasingly vital role they play in our national security, the government will increase the share of intelligence spending counting towards NATO-qualifying expenditure, to 2.6% of GDP.”
Without the February intelligence stunt defence spending would be significantly below the stated government target. Smoke and mirrors…
Read the full calculations below:
Continue reading “LISTEN: Reeves’ Defence Spending Spin Doesn’t Add Up”
The tax burden on British working people is the worst in 40 years, according the the Adam Smith Institute. Tax Freedom Day – how long into the year the average person would have to work to pay their annual tax bill – is today this year, meaning Brits worked 162 days solely to pay off their tax bill. That’s six days later than last year thanks to Labour…
The ASI also predict that under Labour’s high tax and spend agenda, Tax Freedom Day will fall on 24 June in 2028, making the burden for Brits worse than it was during World War Two and The Napoleonic Wars. That won’t help Labour ahead of the next election…
Meanwhile those with the ‘broadest shoulders’ are carrying the greatest burden, with the top 1% earners paying 28.2% of the total UK tax and the top 10% paying 60.2%. As co-conspirators know, Reeves has been killing that golden geese. Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said:
“It’s no wonder a generation of top talent are fleeing. Tax ‘Freedom Day’ comes later every year because for too long politicians have not been honest about living within our means. We need to cut spending to give Britain room to grow.”
What happened to no tax hikes for ‘working people’?
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”
