The real impact of the budget has begun to hit Westminster. The branch of Bannatyne’s Health Club at 4 Millbank opposite the Lords has just announced it is shutting down and will close permanently on 21st December. The gym used to be Gordon Brown’s favourite and is favoured by numerous MPs, Lords, broadcasters, and wonks alike. Beth Rigby and Nigel Farage have often been spotted there…
Guido hears the staff – of which there are many – are distraught at being laid off four days before Christmas, especially having survived the gruelling long pandemic and a doubling in energy costs which hiked fees. Westminster wags are on the hunt for a new gym and pointing the finger squarely at the Chancellor…
Ex-Cabinet Minister and gym member Simon Clarke tells Guido that this “news shows how employment costs are coming ever closer to Westminster,” lamenting that Reeves’ budget measures are cutting off activity “just as the shoots of recovery were starting to show.” Fellow member, Adam Smith Institute Director Madsen Pirie, notes the Budget “has made labour too expensive for many businesses, leading them to cut back on hiring, and to shed labour if they can.” Rachel’s muscular tax hikes may end up scything through SW1 until the only place you can get a black coffee is Portcullis House…
Starmer spoke to Nick Robinson for the Today Programme on Polanski’s criticism of the Golders Green police officers:
“I want everybody just to imagine what it might be like. You’re trying to arrest someone who has already attacked two people and has no regard for life. We know that tasers were fired. I know from my own experience with the police, that there are only two shots in a taser, and once you’ve shot them, there’s nothing left. There’s a guy on the ground, he’s got a rucksack on. And I don’t know what was going through the mind of those officers, but if I was there, I’d be thinking, he’s going to detonate something. He’s going to blow me up and everybody around here. In those circumstances, I think you can quite see why what could have gone through their mind is, we need to do whatever we can to disable this guy…
Now, when I then see Zack Polanski come out and retweet or support a criticism of that, I think it’s disgraceful… He’s not fit to lead any political party.”