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You’re either in front of Guido, or you are behind…
John Healey will use the budget to let HMRC take money straight out of taxpayers’ current and savings accounts, with no judge involved. Debts as small as a few pounds will be fair game…
The taxman already has this power, but only where the debt tops £1,000 and the account is left with at least £5,000 afterwards. Healey wants to scrap both limits for anyone who fails to “engage” and taking monthly instalments plus fines and interest until the bill is cleared. HMRC reckons 4.8 million people and firms owe under £10,000 each, around £4 billion in total, with an average debt of £950. Average Joes…
There will be no need for a court order. Instead, the taxpayer will have to challenge the withdrawals once the money has already gone. HMRC is also looking at pulling income and spending data from credit reference agencies to judge what people can afford, having previously floated taking up to 50% of disposable income. Guilty until proven innocent…
A senior government source promises “rigorous” safeguards. Anyone who has tried to get HMRC on the phone or has been at the wrong end of an incorrect calculation by them knows how this ends…
There is lots of train travel for ministers – especially now that they have to cart themselves up to No10 North. But how do they while away the hours?
Water minister Emma Hardy was sitting in front of a co-conspirator on the 4 p.m. service to Hull this Thursday.
What did she work on after a summer of droughts, in the middle of a water utilities crisis, with the Secretary of Defence saying prepare for floods, and the week before the Budget? Plonking on mobile phone games for the whole 2+ hours – we all need a break sometimes…
Guido hears around one hundred Telegraph staff have been sacked today in a cost-cutting drive under new owner, the German company Axel Springer. Some Fridays are more brutal than others…
All Telegraph staff were emailed on Thursday inviting them to an “all staff town hall” today at 10 a.m, in-person only.
Telegraph CEO Carolin Hulshoff Pol started the meeting by talking up the paper’s recent successes, saying there was hope for the future, after which there was a “deathly silence” when she expected everyone to clap. They didn’t because the staff knew what was coming…
Next she announced anyone who was being fired would get an email by midday – just 90 minutes away by the time the meeting finished.
Wide cuts to the culture desk have been made – most if not all the editors have gone – plus sport and fashion. One fashion staff member looked furious coming out of the meeting. And the CEO apparently kept saying “rule” when she meant to say “role” which caused bemusement. Guido hears the Lobby team has been preserved at the expense of reporters on the other desks. Politics…
On a separate note Axel Springer has tried to buy the European arm of TikTok. Could the sacked Tel staff move there?
Water regulator Ofwat – which has still not been abolished – spent thousands of taxpayer pounds on diversity sessions with titles like: ‘We smell fear: Negativity bias and how to overcome it’. Here we go…
The Cabinet Office’s list of Civil Service spending on equality, diversity and inclusion for 2024/25, included DEFRA payments to the Cultural Calendar Club. Ofwat spent £4,200 of diversity spending on ‘Subscriptions & Events’ in 2025-26, going on an Employers for Carers membership from Carers UK, a Black History Month event from Champions UK, and the Cultural Calendar Club. The latter, hosted by the ‘Powered by Diversity’ consultants ran “a range of short virtual EDI events”…
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Mike Wood dug out the full list. There were a whopping 25 such online sessions in 2024 and 2025 with some cracking titles:
Guido may host a diversity session on the live show next week for World Public Sector Idleness Awareness Week. Stay tuned…
Robert Jenrick on the Today programme:
“Can you now give a guarantee to your listeners this morning that no BBC presenter in the future will be exposed as a paedophile, as a number have been in the recent past? No, of course you can’t…”