The regulatory burden hitting businesses in the UK has risen by a whopping £6 billion a year under the Tories, according to a report by the Centre for Policy Studies. The equivalent of a 2p increase in corporation tax…
Despite cries from the Tories of being the party for business – a core Tory value – they’ve done little to promote them. Sunak announced an increased corporation tax from 19% to 25% in 2021. And now, despite assurances to cut red tape – much of what Brexit promised – the report points to more than 3,500 pieces of legislation over almost a decade that weigh down enterprises. Ten years to save British businesses?
Yvette Cooper has got no better at defending Angela Rayner since she was last hauled out to do so. She said on Good Morning Britain in defence of Rayner’s refusal to publish her exonerating “expert” tax advice: “We don’t routinely publish personal finance information in this country.” That’s despite hypocrite Rayner insisting that a Tory candidate publish their full tax return and Starmer pledging last year to publish Rayner’s on an annual basis…
Cooper was very quick to say that she hadn’t seen Rayner’s “expert” advice as Richard Madeley asked: “Is Keir Starmer frightened to look at it because of what he might see?” Labour politicians are too smart to look at it because they know it will not adequately support the facts…
The defence was floated last week that a kitchen renovation in Rayner’s Vicarage Road house (which would have to be worth £23,000) offset the capital gains tax liability. The reason that hasn’t appeared again is that, if Rayner were to use the defence, it would contradict her version of reality – that she was living at Vicarage Road while her family lived at her husband’s house – because you don’t pay any capital gains tax on your primary residence so “improvements” are irrelevant. To say that the renovation offset tax is to admit primarily living elsewhere…
A neighbour over on Lowndes Lane is this week insisting that Rayner lived full time at her husband’s property. This isn’t going away…
Sunak’s bill designating Rwanda as a safe country was approved by the Lords at 12:09 a.m. after Lord Anderson withdrew the final remaining amendment. In the fifth round of ping pong Anderson, whose amendment would have made had another body judge Rwanda safe (not just Parliament), said “the time has come to accept the primacy of the elected house and withdraw from the fray“. James Cleverly has put out a celebratory video. Sunak, meanwhile, says the “focus is to now get flights off the ground, and I am clear that nothing will stand in our way of doing that and saving lives.” The government has booked charter flights for June. That’s the easy bit over – it’s open lawfare now…
It is Earth Day and Guido is reminded of all the posturing big firms have done to spin their green credentials. Branson’s non-existent $3 billion pledge to tackle climate change, businesses jetting their executives to COP28 in Dubai to sign a letter telling governments to spend more taxpayer cash on net zero. Luxury fashion brand Burberry managed to come up with something called “climate positivity“, including reaching “near zero” and was duly named “Climate Leader” in the “Finance for the Future Awards” in 2021. Burberry loves Earth Day. How disappointing, then, for Guido to see the company’s swanky Westminster office with its lights on full blaze as he walked past at 4:00 a.m. recently. The climate-obsessed company must know that lighting accounts for 40% of an office’s electricity costs. How many Burberry staff does it take to turn off a lightbulb?
Following Chris Cash being charged under the Official Secrets Act for espionage, Guido was reminded of Cash’s former colleague Alicia Kearns and her role in the China Research Group. Cash was a director of the company until he resigned last summer, then Alicia Kearns took over the role as a director. A quick look at Companies House shows she’s still an “active” director of the company…
Kearns has not declared this role in her Members’ Interests Register despite signing off this year’s accounts, even though significant, formal, unpaid roles should be registered under Category 8. Guido has contacted Kearns’ office for a comment. Eyebrow raising…
UPDATE: Kearns’ team say that she took over as a director while they try to wind it down. It strikes Guido as strange that Cash was arrested on 13th March 2023 though only resigned from the company on 29th June – six days after Kearns became director. It doesn’t take 9 months to close down a company…
Eagle-eyed observers will have noticed that not only did Angela Rayner brave the cameras and get a standing ovation from Labour activists at the official launch of Sadiq Khan’s mayoral campaign, her supposedly ex-boyfriend Sam Tarry was there too. Tarry tweeted that he was “Incredibly proud to join Sadiq Khan and London Labour MPs, London Assembly Members, and Councillors to launch Sadiq’s brilliant pledges that will help millions of Londoners, from children just born to the oldest Londoners.”
Sam Tarry, who is rumoured to be back with Angela Rayner, is well connected to Sadiq Khan. Now deselected as an MP, socialist Tarry is said to have his eye on being the next Deputy Mayor for Transport under Sadiq in City Hall. This might make sense given Sam’s close links to the left-wing transport union TSSA. Tarry would be expected to liaise with the unions based on his close relationship with them. Given the left-wing London Labour Party’s fondness for selecting candidates at odds with the national Labour Party’s leadership, some say Sam fancies his chances running for Mayor after Khan. Got to admire the chutzpah.
UPDATE: A London Labour source gets in touch to say ”Sadiq has an excellent Deputy Mayor for Transport and this is simply not true.” Not true yet.
