The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is in the Lords today for its committee stage. Tory peers are warning of a crime wave with people being driven to buy tobacco products on the black market…
Lord Murray of Blidworth said:
“The idea that because the government bans a product it extinguishes demand for it is pure fantasy. The Government’s policy of approach the Government’s policy approach of exceptionally high taxation on tobacco is already failing and a generational ban will only cement its failure. And the representation of that failure can be found in the flourishing black market. So long as there is a flourishing alternative market, consumer demand will always be met with cheaper illicit tobacco. Taxes on tobacco have become so expensive that people are switching in huge numbers to buy cheaper illicit products. Not only does this result in a decline in vital tax revenue to the tune of about 1 billion pounds a year, it is doing nothing to bring down smoking rates which have now stalled since 2020”.
Meanwhile one in five smokers is already buying from the black market. All those tax receipts cash going up in smoke…
Labour has launched an open consultation titled ‘Make Work Pay: trade union right of access’ as part of the (un)Employment Rights Bill. They’re proposing to hand even greater powers to unions than initially feared…
The proposals include:
Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith said:
“Under the guise of improving workers’ rights, we now know Labour plan to hand control of our workplaces to the union bully boys. Incredibly, they are proposing to let the unions roam through businesses offices every week of the year. Union representatives will inevitably use this special access to pressure workers into joining them and supporting their political causes – which, naturally, are usually aligned with Labour. Businesses will become playgrounds for activists rather than engines for growth.”
No need for a time machine to go back to the 1970s…
Read the consultation in full below:
Continue reading “Labour Plans Weekly Union Access for Businesses With Just 21 Workers”
Latest polling from Survation for LabourList shows Lucy Powell is on track to win the Deputy Labour Leadership race. Out of more than 1,200 Labour voters polled, 57% said they will vote or have voted for Powell, compared to 39% for Bridget Phillipson. The Education Secretary did however have a 13-point boost compared to last month’s poll. Ballots have now closed. Results to be announced on Saturday…
The scandal-hit Motability scheme has cost the taxpayer nearly £275 million more since Labour took office. According to a written parliamentary answer to Helen Whately, the total value of benefits transferred to Motability from the DWP in 2024–2025 was £3.074 billion. In the previous financial year, the scheme cost £2.8 billion. That’s a 9.8% increase…
While Reeves is exploring cuts to £1 billion worth of exemptions to VAT and insurance taxation granted to cars under the scheme, that figure is set to be even less impressive now that the overall spending has actually gone up under Labour. Reeves isn’t looking to restrict eligibility for those with ‘tennis elbow’ taking free luxury cars either…
Last night in the Commons Labour voted down a Tory amendment to the Sentencing Bill that would have forced the release of all migrant crime data. The amendment was also backed by Reform’s Richard Tice, Lee Anderson and Sarah Pochin…
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said:
“Starmer promised a ‘transparency revolution’, but last night he forced every single Labour MP to vote against releasing the migrant crime data. Cover-up Keir can’t handle the truth about mass migration, and the British people will be less safe because of it.”
This is despite government briefings back in April promising to publish “crime tables” for migrants awaiting deportation. Six months later, no table in sight…
Labour’s been stonewalling on migrant crime data since entering office – batting away written parliamentary questions with the usual Whitehall waffle that the data is “too expensive” to compile or “not held centrally.” What are they hiding?
Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds defended safeguarding minister Jess Phillips this morning after a rape gang victim who quit the inquiry panel called for her resignation. When asked if Phillips should resign, Reynolds told Times Radio:
“No, I believe that my colleague Jess Phillips brings huge experience to the role that she is doing, having worked with victims of rape and sexual abuse for many, many years, even before coming into Parliament. I really want to just reassure people that this is a huge priority for the Government.”
Yesterday Phillips insisted claims victims are being silenced were untrue, fuming in the Commons: “Misinformation undermines this process. Allegations of intentional delay, lack of interest and a widening or dilution of the inquiry’s scope are false.” Fiona Goddard, a victim who quit the inquiry panel slammed Phillips on X, saying last night:
“Jess Phillips should resign. Today she publicly called me a liar to the whole nation when she knew I wasn’t lying. I’m a grooming gang survivor who has been called a liar her whole life by public services and councils to try and cover up the horrendous abuse they let happen to me as a child. She has now just done the same as they did to me for years, all to save her own skin. How can she continue to be safeguarding minister for women and children?”
Last night a fourth survivor quit the inquiry panel. Reynolds added this morning that she was “sorry if [victims] felt let down by the process” – an apology Phillips refused to make yesterday. An inquiry that is already falling apart before its launch…
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.”