Gail’s chairman Luke Johnson warned MPs that some of his businesses “might not survive” under Labour slamming Rayner’s Employment Rights Bill. Johnson, who is also an advisory council member at the Jobs Foundation – a charity that helps unemployed people get jobs – said insolvency specialists are “rubbing their hands” at the prospect of a bumper year of company collapses. Speaking to the Employment Rights Bill committee, Johnson didn’t mince his words:
“Even if we don’t suffer a technical recession next year, it’s odds on there will be a serious slow down. In some cases, some of my companies might not survive next year.”
Meanwhile, the Government’s own impact assessment suggests the reforms will cost businesses £5 billion, and a new impact assessment declared the Bill “not fit for purpose”. Johnson’s not the only one to attack Labour’s business-bashing measures…
Questions are being asked in SW1 about what Starmer knew of Haigh’s fraud conviction. In her resignation letter to Starmer she says “as you know” before detailing the fiasco…
Hacks obviously asked what Starmer knew about Haigh’s conviction at this morning’s Lobby briefing. The PM’s spokesman suggested “further information” came to light yesterday which changed the situation and said twice that “ministers must record in writing and declare private interests which might create a conflict of interest, accurate or perceived.” An implication Whitehall did not know…
Multiple times Downing Street refused to say what that “further information” is or whether Starmer made an error of judgement in appointing Haigh with knowledge of her fraud conviction. No 10 is refusing to answer what Keir knew, when he knew it, why she was appointed, or why she resigned if the conviction was known…
Guido hears a group of Labour MPs let loose in fine form last night ahead of today’s vote on the assisted dying Bill. Around 25-30 MPs – mostly of the 2024 intake – descended on karaoke hotspot BAM. Singing their hearts out in booths called the “Seduction” and “Scandalous” rooms…
There’s no whip on the assisted dying vote – it’s a free one. Though word is that the boozy soirée was organised by pro-assisted dying MPs, designed to keep their colleagues in London and bolster their numbers. The group was “pretty rowdy,” commandeering most of the bar and belting out tunes in celebration of a vote they saw as already in the bag. One Westminster insider says:
“I get that colleagues need to let their hair down, but assisted dying is a pretty solemn vote. The only way they could’ve made the whole thing more tasteless is if someone had belted out Another One Bites the Dust.”
Any excuse for a party…
Last week Guido reported that GB News had beaten the BBC and Sky News in viewing figures for three days in a row. It’s not stopping…
According to new BARB figures last week GB beat Sky on a Sunday for the first ever time with 63,600 to Sky’s 61,200. That’s before beating both them and the BBC into the working week at around 80,000…
This performance is no doubt thanks to Guido alumnus Adam Cherry taking his first presenting shift on the channel this morning. The House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee released its report this week into the “Future of News,” in which it concluded that the UK broadcasting market will “only thrive if there is healthy competition,” noting that “new entrants like GB News provide an alternative to the public service broadcasters.” Lords also raised an eyebrow at Ofcom…
“Ofcom’s senior leadership argued that its approach to impartiality had been very clear. We struggled to reconcile this with the evidence. Ofcom’s approach has sparked accusations of a two-tier system on the one hand, and of overreaction on the other.”
Now that GB News is consistently outperforming established broadcast rivals the regulator may rethink its two-tier approach to the three-year-old channel. Chance would be a fine thing…
Heidi Alexander was Minister for Courts and Legal Services. And MP for Swindon South since 2024 and MP for Lewisham East from 2010 to 2018…
Alexander was Deputy Mayor of London for Transport from 2018 to 2021. A new courts minister will have to oversee Assisted Dying if it passes…
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.”
