London has taken the title as home to the largest stock market in Europe, according to Bloomberg. The city overtakes Paris, despite all the doomsayers warning that London would plummet down the rankings following Brexit…

Julian Jessop from the Institute of Economic Affairs pointed to the new figures on X, writing: “No sign of a significant hit from #Brexit”.

Remoaners made a big deal when the ‘crown’ was taken from London last November, Guido doubts they’ll make any noise about this…

Stick Sir Keir in a wig and a frock and you might be forgiven for thinking Liz Truss herself had turned up this morning to give the speech for him. Launching his plan to “secure the highest sustained growth in the G7“, here’s what Starmer promised Labour would deliver:

“A plan which represents the determination of my party to create more wealth, lead Britain out of its low wage, high tax, doom-loop.”

Which sounds a lot like the words of free market economist Julian Jessop, who just last week said:

“The UK is in a doom loop of a rising tax burden, a weaker economy and deteriorating public finances. These latest stats will only encourage the OBR and the government to double down on this doom loop by drawing the wrong conclusions from dubious data. If the Treasury takes the OBR’s grim forecast for economic growth as gospel and refuses to cut taxes, the doom loop will continue.”

Alas Starmer plans to increase spending, substantially. Which means as sure as night follows day, taxes will rise even more. Given Guido thought he noticed someone who looked a lot like Torsten Bell lurking aound the stage this morning, the odds of the Treasury paying less attention to the OBR under Sir Keir are pretty slim…

Read Starmer’s speech in full below:

Read More

Julian Jessop, Economics Fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs, says:

“The UK is in a doom loop of a rising tax burden, a weaker economy and deteriorating public finances. These latest stats will only encourage the OBR and the government to double down on this doom loop by drawing the wrong conclusions from dubious data. If the Treasury takes the OBR’s grim forecast for economic growth as gospel and refuses to cut taxes, the doom loop will continue.”

Economist Julian Jessop says:

“Interest payments on central government debt jumped to £8.7 billion in June, largely due to the impact of rising inflation on the cost of index-linked gilts. The pick-up in inflation partly reflects the strength of the economic recovery and this could still be positive for the public finances overall. Nevertheless, rising interest rates are one of the downsides of higher inflation – and another reason for the Bank of England to end its policy of quantitative easing.”

In tonight’s LIVE with LITTLEWOOD:

• LOCKDOWN-LITE: Call this freedom?
• ROAD TO RECOVERY: Has the Brexit bounce-back begun?
• CLIMATE CHANGE: Are the wealthy to blame?

Joining host Mark Littlewood will be Conservative MP Mark Harper, Telegraph journalist Tim Stanley, TalkRADIO presenter Kevin O’Sullivan, trade expert Allie Renison and independent economist Julian Jessop. TUNE IN HERE.

Is the government’s Covid testing strategy sinking without trace?

With unemployment rising two a two-year high and thousands of post-furlough redundancies expected, what’s next for the UK economy?

Rishi Sunak says he wants to “get creative” to support jobs and employment.  But how will he do that?

And are the testing fiasco and the rebellion over the Internal Market Bill jeopardising Boris Johnson’s premiership?

All this and more will be put to the (readily-available) test in tonight’s Live with Littlewood from the IEA.

Joining host Mark Littlewood will be the Times’ science editor Tom Whipple, ConservativeHome’s Mark Wallace, and former Brexit Party MEP Alexandra Phillips.

Also taking part in our 90 minutes of free-rolling conversation will be the new Director of the Politeia think tank Jonathan Isaby, independent economist Julian Jessop, Matthew Lesh of the Adam Smith Institute, Duncan Simpson of the Taxpayers’ Alliance plus the IEA’s Annabel Denham and Christopher Snowdon.

Be sure to join in the debate – LIVE at 6 – here or on YouTube.