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Sources within the Liz Truss camp have criticised Mel Stride for utilizing the Commons Treasury committee, which he chairs, to launch an assault on Truss (see 10.58am), the Solar’s Harry Cole reviews. Stride is backing Rishi Sunak.
💥 Truss marketing campaign supply: “It’s a disgrace that Rishi’s marketing campaign chief is utilizing taxpayer sources to launch a political assault on a fellow Conservative. Liz needs to chop taxes as quickly as she will be able to, one thing Rishi has no expertise of.” https://t.co/CLpPUDQURq
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) August 23, 2022
Mark Harper, the previous Tory chief whip who’s backing Rishi Sunak within the Tory management contest, has been tweeting about Paul Johnson’s description of Truss as extra like Edward Heath than Margaret Thatcher. (See 8.52am.)
Truss ought to let OBR to provide new forecast alongside emergency price range in September, Treasury committee says
The cross-party Commons Treasury committee has expressed issues about reviews that Liz Truss, the frontrunner within the Tory management contest, might maintain an emergency price range in September with out asking the Workplace for Funds Accountability to replace its fiscal and financial forecast.
The OBR normally publishes a brand new forecast alongside a price range, and it offers an unbiased evaluation of what influence the price range measures could have. The system was put in place by George Osborne to discourage the Treasury from making doubtful claims about what its tax and spending bulletins would possibly have the ability to obtain.
Mel Stride, the Conservative MP (and Rishi Sunak supporter) who chairs the committee, has written to the Treasury and the OBR asking for assurances that each organisations are doing what they will to make sure that the OBR can produce a brand new forecast in time for a potential price range on 14 or 21 September. Stride mentioned:
OBR forecasts present transparency and reassurance to the markets on the well being of the nation’s funds. As a committee, we anticipate the Treasury to be supporting and enabling the OBR to publish an unbiased forecast on the time of any vital fiscal occasion, particularly the place, in contrast to different latest fiscal interventions, this would possibly embody vital everlasting tax cuts.
Whether or not such an occasion is definitely known as a price range or not is immaterial. The reassurance of unbiased forecasting is significant in these economically turbulent occasions. To usher in vital tax cuts with out a forecast can be ailing suggested. It’s successfully ‘flying blind’.
Truss has not confirmed that she would cease the OBR producing a brand new forecast forward of a September price range. Her allies have recommended there won’t be time for the OBR to do the work, however OBR sources dispute this.
Mel Stride, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons Treasury committee and who’s supporting Rishi Sunak for the Tory management, agrees with Paul Johnson’s evaluation of Liz Truss’s tax plans. (See 8.52am.)
Says what it’s essential to know. Let’s keep away from one other Heath/Barber growth adopted by extra inflation, better rate of interest hikes and defeat on the subsequent election. As Nigel Lawson has recognised solely @RishiSunak has the plan to tame inflation after which responsibly minimize taxes #Ready4Rishi https://t.co/SJEBih0He6
— Mel Stride (@MelJStride) August 23, 2022
Lots of of medical doctors in Wales at the moment are extra prone to depart the Welsh NHS because of a “disappointing” pay deal introduced final month, the British Medical Affiliation has claimed. PA Media reviews:
Greater than a 3rd of the 1,397 medical doctors who responded to the BMA Cymru survey mentioned they’re offended over the Welsh authorities’s provide of a 4.5% wage enhance.
Some 79% of them mentioned the beneath inflation pay rise, which is able to apply to consultants, junior medical doctors and GPs, had additional decreased morale.
3 times as many members responded to their survey in contrast with final yr, which the BMA mentioned reveals the power of feeling inside the occupation.
Over half of these – greater than 700 medical doctors – mentioned the newest pay determination meant they had been extra prone to depart the well being service.
Nationwide Grid extends annual fuel scarcity drill amid winter provide fears
The Nationwide Grid has doubled the size of its annual emergency fuel scarcity drill from two to 4 days because the power trade braces for provides to probably run out over the winter, my colleague Jasper Jolly reviews.
Prospects face ‘catastrophic winter’ due to rising costs, says power boss
Philippe Commaret, managing director of EDF, has change into the newest power firm boss to warn that clients are going through a dire winter. Saying an initiative by the agency to make sure clients know what they will do to cut back their payments, Commaret instructed BBC Radio 4’s At the moment programme:
We face, regardless of the assist that the federal government has already introduced, a dramatic and catastrophic winter for our clients.
In actual fact, in January half of the UK households may be in gas poverty. That’s the rationale why we wish to take actions to be able to do every part we are able to do to be able to assist our clients.
Commaret additionally mentioned the federal government ought to contemplate a variety of measures to maintain payments down. He mentioned:
I feel that each one concepts to be able to preserve the payments for purchasers flat are actually vital and have all to be thought-about. There may be not just one lever to be pulled however all levers need to be pulled proper now as a result of we face a catastrophic winter.
Day by day arrivals in UK from small boats crossing Channel reached report excessive on Monday, figures present
A report 1,295 migrants arrived within the UK on Monday after crossing the Channel, PA Media reviews. It’s the highest day by day complete since present information started in 2018. PA says:
Some 27 boats made the journey, the provisional Ministry of Defence (MoD) knowledge mentioned, which suggests a mean of round 48 folks per boat.
The earlier highest day by day quantity was 1,185, on November 11 2021.
Infants and several other different younger youngsters, together with some wrapped in blankets and sporting woollen hats, had been amongst these seen being introduced ashore in Dover on Monday.
Life vests had been pictured mendacity in piles on the Kent dockside after dinghies and different vessels had been intercepted within the Channel.
The crossings got here after a three-day hiatus between Friday and Sunday when no arrivals had been recorded.
Greater than 22,600 folks have arrived within the UK after navigating busy delivery lanes from France in small boats akin to dinghies to this point in 2022, in accordance with the figures.
On the equal level in 2021, the cumulative complete was slightly below 12,500.
General, 28,526 folks made the crossing final yr.
Yesterday the polling firm Redfield and Wilton Methods revealed a ballot that implies Labour has a 12-point lead over the Conservatives, its largest lead since Boris Johnson resigned.
Labour leads by 12%, largest lead since Boris Johnson’s resignation.
Westminster Voting Intention (21 August):
Labour 43% (+2)
Conservative 31% (-3)
Liberal Democrat 13% (+1)
Inexperienced 5% (–)
SNP 5% (+1)
Reform UK 3% (–)
Different 2% (-1)Adjustments +/- 14 Augusthttps://t.co/Pt3WwEIMHQ pic.twitter.com/jDq52ETFns
— Redfield & Wilton Methods (@RedfieldWilton) August 22, 2022
The Redfield and Wilton polling means that, quickly after Johnson resigned, Labour’s lead shrunk – maybe as a result of, with Johnson on his method out, one of many elements that made the Tories unpopular was now not in play. However extra not too long ago the Labour lead has began to develop once more. That may be a consequence of rising alarm concerning the power payments disaster, and assist for Labour’s plan for a value cap freeze (a uncommon instance of a coverage announcement that appears to have single-handedly generated a major ballot increase). And it might be the case that, the extra folks see of the Tory management contest, the much less they just like the get together. Here’s a UK ballot of polls from Politico, exhibiting how common polling outcomes (based mostly on figures from all main polling organisations) have fluctuated in latest weeks.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is to chair a particular summit to debate what may be accomplished to mitigate the influence of hovering power payments, PA Media reviews. PA says:
With warnings that the common quantity UK households pay for his or her fuel and electrical energy may attain £6,000 subsequent yr, Sturgeon is bringing collectively representatives from each the ability corporations and client teams to think about what assist may be offered.
Sturgeon has already warned many households will face “destitution and devastation” if power costs enhance once more in October.
The power value cap presently limits funds for home clients to a most of £1,971 a yr. However regulators at Ofgem are as a result of announce the revised restrict on Friday – when the cap is predicted to rise to £3,576, with additional will increase then anticipated in 2023.
The Poverty Alliance director, Peter Kelly, welcomed the summit, which his organisation can be attending together with Power Motion Scotland.
Kelly mentioned: “Throughout the nation, persons are more and more being swept up amid a rising tide of hardship. However with the power value cap as a result of enhance in October, that tide threatens to change into a flood. Households up and down Scotland are fearful of what the colder months will convey and the chances are high that – with out additional motion – lives and life probabilities can be in danger. The scenario may scarcely be extra pressing.”
Power suppliers Scottish Energy, Ovo Power and E.ON are additionally due to participate in right this moment’s summit, with Sturgeon having already insisted that the rise within the cap in October “can’t be allowed to go forward”.
Sharon Graham, the Unite common secretary, instructed Sky Information that she would really like the Labour get together to be extra “upfront” about supporting employees. In an interview with Sky Information, largely concerning the strike by dock employees at Felixstowe, she mentioned:
I actually stood on a mandate that I wished unions to return to what it says on the commerce union tin – deal with jobs, pay and circumstances – and that’s what I’ve been doing.
In fact I would really like Labour to do extra, after all I need them to do extra to assist employees in a extra upfront method. However, fairly frankly, what I’m targeted on is the job at hand.
{Photograph}: Anadolu Company/Getty Photographs
Truss’ tax plan is extra like Heath’s than Thatcher’s, says IFS boss
Good morning. We’ll hear from Boris Johnson for the primary time since he received again from his vacation in Greece later right this moment when he provides a speech to the Worldwide Crimea Platform, a digital convention organised by the Ukrainian authorities, at 12.30pm. Tomorrow marks the six-month anniversary of the (most up-to-date) Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Conservative management contest has not been occurring for fairly that lengthy (though it might really feel prefer it) and at 7pm tonight Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak will participate within the tenth official get together hustings, in Birmingham. Truss stays the clear frontrunner, however her try to current herself to the get together as the brand new Margaret Thatcher took a knock final night time when Paul Johnson, head of the Institute for Fiscal Research, the extremely revered public spending thinktank, mentioned her insurance policies had been extra like these of Edward Heath. It’s nearly 50 years since Heath left workplace, however he stays a potent hate determine for a lot of Tory rightwingers (which, given the present composition of the get together, means many Tories).
Slicing taxes and rising deficit in face of excessive inflation has clear echoes of Ted Heath in 1973. Couldn’t be farther from Thatcher who famously took v unpopular determination to lift taxes in 1981 to handle deficit and inflation. https://t.co/6ULlSfygrE
— Paul Johnson (@PJTheEconomist) August 22, 2022
Johnson isn’t the primary individual to make this level about Truss’s insurance policies. In an interview earlier this month, Michael Howard, the previous get together chief, revived the reminiscence of the “Barber growth” as he defined why he thought Truss’s tax cuts would result in larger inflation, extra borrowing, recession and a Labour authorities (as Anthony Barber’s did beneath Heath).
Truss, after all, doesn’t agree. Forward of tonight’s hustings she has set out her plan for the West Midlands economic system. Right here is an extract from the press launch.
Liz’s daring plan for the economic system will sort out the Treasury orthodoxy and unleash the ability of the personal sector via decrease taxes, higher regulation and provide aspect reform. She is going to unshackle the personal sector and get behind West Midlands companies, utilizing their development to turbocharge the UK economic system.
Liz’s low tax, low regulation funding zones will empower native leaders to convey new funding into the areas that want it most. A Truss authorities will ship key infrastructure tasks together with the Midlands rail hub and assist Andy Road [the Conservative West Midlands mayor] to ship the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill metro extension in full – and his efforts to acquire the required funds, together with through the brand new devolution deal. She may also put the federal government’s full weight behind efforts to convey a battery gigafactory to the West Midlands, making certain that the area continues to play a essential function on the forefront of our financial growth.
I attempt to monitor the feedback beneath the road (BTL) however it’s not possible to learn all of them. You probably have a direct query, do embody “Andrew” in it someplace and I’m extra prone to discover it. I do attempt to reply questions, and if they’re of common curiosity, I’ll publish the query and reply above the road (ATL), though I can’t promise to do that for everybody.
If you wish to entice my consideration rapidly, it’s in all probability higher to make use of Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
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