This week 703,293 visitors visited 772,408 times viewing 849,624 pages. The most read and shared stories in order of popularity were:
You’re either in front of Guido, or you are behind…
Reeves’ former colleagues still in banking will not be thanking her today. Bank shares fell overnight after an IPPR report calling for a fresh tax on the interest banks get from the Bank of England coincided with an FT story on the sector expecting to be targeted by the Chancellor. Everyone is extremely jittery amid constant tax-hike briefings from the Treasury ahead of the Budget…
NatWest shares fell by 5.3%, Barclays 3.8%, and Lloyds Banking Group 5.2%. Lloyds has 2.2 million private shareholders including “most of our employees,” who number over 60,000. Reeves’ old bank has been part of Lloyds since 2009…
Reeves’ old HBOS colleagues who still work there and own shares in LBG will have seen the value of their shares take a hit thanks to the ideas of the so-called “economist” hitting the press early. Panicked pre-briefing to tank confidence prior to a tax-raising budget is certainly a strategy…
Reeves’ new address has changed from “HBOS Complaints team” to “11 Downing Street.” Former water cooler chums can direct their complaints there…
The ONS has been under fire recently over management failings, inaccurate data and what one review called two months ago, “deep-seated” problems. Staff don’t appear too concerned, however…
An FOI from the TaxPayers’ Alliance, seen by Guido, shows that in 2024/25 ONS staff spent £10,475.01 on meals, £2,154.05 on hotels and £10,948.29 on travel. A total bill of £23,577.35. For the same sum you could:
Fill 327 potholes.
Buy 261 British Army Mk7 helmets.
Provide 74 sets of covert body armour for police.
Guido hears the difficulties at the ONS go beyond the balance sheet: a lack of numeracy skills, over-reliance on spreadsheets, and growing concerns over the quality of data. Since the relocation of its HQ to Newport, quality control has only gone downhill. UK DOGE recommends costs are cut here…
The PM’s new economic head honcho led a landmark project calling for a series of massive tax rises. You’ll never guess who she was working with…
Starmer has brought former BoE Deputy Governor Baroness Minouche Shafik in as his new personal senior economic adviser in Number 10. Shafik was touted as a potential new Cabinet Secretary at the time of the election and has since undertaken a review of aid spending for Labour…
Shafik resigned as President of Columbia after the way the university dealt with protests over Gaza drew massive criticism. Prior to that Guido can reveal she was one of the few individuals on the Resolution Foundation’s special “commission” leading one Torsten Bell’s multi-year ‘Economy 2030‘ report. In fact, she co-chaired the entire ‘Economy 2030 Inquiry’ underpinning the report. Published on 4 December 2023, that report called for the following tax rises among others:
Many of these will be familiar to co-conspirators aware of the Treasury’s new ‘Budget Man Bell.’ The Resolution Foundation described Shafik’s role in the Commission:
“a small Commission of seven high-profile thinkers and doers provided the Inquiry’s strategic leadership and direction for future work.”
The PM’s economic adviser is meant to bridge with the Treasury and push back where required. She’ll be “pushing back” against her fellow tax-fan and Budget architect Mr Bell…
UPDATE: Mel Stride says:
“Labour’s appointment of Minouche Shafik confirms their intent – higher taxes, more borrowing, and punishing success. Shafik has previously proposed tax hikes on everything from inheritance and pensions to family homes and employers.
Far too many successful people are already quitting the country under Labour. This is yet another worrying sign that more will follow.”
Today three judges ruled in favour of the Home Office and overturned the temporary injunction blocking asylum seekers from being housed in an Epping hotel. One of the judges, Lord Justice David Bean, has a history of Labour links…
Bean was a former Treasurer for the Society of Labour Lawyers. The group openly calls itself an “affiliated socialist society” providing legal and policy advice to the Labour Party. And to Labour MPs…
The judge who initially granted the temporary injunction, Mr Justice Eyre, stood as a Tory candidate in four elections between 1987 and 2004. Lord Justice Bean was also a founding member of left-leaning law firm Matrix Chambers, whose former members include Attorney General Lord Hermer and Mauritius’ chief legal adviser on the Chagos surrender deal Philippe Sands KC. Both close friends of Keir Starmer…
The temporary injunction preventing migrants from being housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping has been overturned in the Court of Appeal. Asylum seekers will be allowed to remain in the hotel…
Lord Justice Bean said:
“Ad hoc interim injunction applications seeking closure of particular sites may each have some individual merits but the judge’s approach ignores the obvious consequence.”
“The closure of one site means that capacity needs to be identified elsewhere in the system and may incentivise local planning authorities who wish to remove asylum accommodation from their area to apply to the court urgently before capacity elsewhere in the system becomes exhausted…”
“We grant permission to appeal, both to Somani and to [the Home Office]… We allow the appeals and we set aside the injunction imposed on 19 August 2025.”
Champagne corks are about to pop in the Home Office. More on Justice Bean’s background here…
UPDATE: Epping Forest District Council leader Chris Whitbread, speaking to Times Radio:
Red Wall Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash told GB News that Starmer should resign:
“I’m completely fed up about it, and I think it’s got to the point now where I genuinely think that, as far as the Prime Minister is concerned, it’s not a case of if, it’s when.”