Markus Andrews

Chancellor Rishi Sunak today signalled that Britain will have to wait until after the next general election for tax cuts, as he told the Conservative conference in Manchester that putting the economy back on a “sustainable footing” must come first.Both Sunak and Boris Johnson have this week shied away from traditional Tory promises to take less of voters’ money, with the prime minister saying only that he would try not to increase the tax burden – currently at his highest level since the Second World War – “if I can possibly avoid it”.In his keynote speech to conference, Mr Sunak stressed that getting the economy on an even keel after the £400bn cost of the Covid pandemic must take priority over lowering taxes.“Our recovery comes with a cost,” he told delegates. “Our national debt is almost 100 per cent of GDP.“So we need to fix our public finances. Because strong public finances don’t happen by accident. They are a deliberate choice. They are a legacy for future generations and a safeguard against future threats.”Speaking only weeks after imposing a 1.25 per cent rise in national insurance contributions to pay for the NHS and social, care, the chancellor said: “Whilst I know tax rises are unpopular, some will even say un-Conservative, I’ll tell you what is un-Conservative: Unfunded pledges, reckless borrowing and soaring debt.“Anyone who tells you that you can borrow more today and tomorrow will simply sort itself out just doesn’t care about the future.“Yes, I want tax cuts. But in order to do that, our public finances must be put back on a sustainable footing.”The chancellor’s comments come amid reports that he will set out plans in his budget later this month to stop borrowing to fund day-to-day spending within three years and to get underlying debt falling by 2024-25.Mr Sunak used his speech to announce £23m funding to create 2,000 artificial intelligence (AI) scholarships for disadvantaged students and £11m to double the number of AI fellowships under the government’s Turing scheme.“As the latest general-purpose technology, AI has the potential to completely transform whole economies and societies,” said the chancellor.“We want the UK to be a scientific superpower but also a high-skilled, high-tech economy.“This new fund will allow more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to learn new skills and train up for the jobs of tomorrow in the new and exciting industries of the future such as AI.”And he confirmed a £500m fund to get workers back into jobs after the end of furlough, with additional support for younger people and over-50s.TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said Mr Sunak had failed to provide “a serious plan for raising living standards”.“If the Chancellor wants to get wages rising he shouldn’t be freezing the pay of millions of key workers,” said Ms O’Grady.“He should instead bring in fair pay-bargaining so unions and employers can negotiate higher pay in sectors across the economy, especially in social care, logistics and food production. And he should target increases to the national minimum wage and ban zero-hours contracts.“And with the country facing a cost of living crisis, Rishi Sunak should immediately reverse the cut to universal credit.” More

One of the UK’s most vocal pro-Brexit businessmen has delivered a withering counterblast to Boris Johnson’s claims that industry is to blame for labour shortages which have disrupted supplies of goods since EU withdrawal.Next chief executive and Tory peer Lord Wolfson said the government’s post-Brexit immigration policy was causing “chronic” problems for a range of sectors including restaurants, care homes, small businesses, hospitals, fruit farms and warehouses.And he said the prime minister’s call for businesses to fill labour gaps by paying home-grown workers more risked “a 1970s-style inflationary spiral”.Mr Johnson angered many in the business community by blaming the shortage of HGV drivers to deliver supplies of fuel and supermarket food on a history of low pay and poor conditions in the sector, rather than Brexit.The PM said on Sunday that he wanted to move away from “a broken model of the UK economy that relied on low wages and low skills and chronic low productivity”. He accused industry leaders of putting on pressure to reopen the gates to cheap migrant labour in order to keep wages down.His analysis was backed by business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, who said the current disruption was part of a “transition” to a high-wage post-Brexit economy. But it went notably unmentioned in chancellor Rishi Sunak’s keynote speech to the Conservative conference in Manchester.Lord Wolfson said that the government must be “under no illusion” about the scale of the labour shortage problem following the end of free movement for EU workers on 1 January.“The dearth of HGV drivers is just a very visible example of a chronic problem affecting thousands of restaurants, care homes, small businesses, hospitals, fruit farms, warehouses and more, along with all manner of seasonal work,” he wrote in an article for the Evening Standard.“Of course businesses can, and should, try to recruit workers here in the UK — believe me businesses everywhere are trying.“But if the problem is that employees are simply not available in sufficient numbers, then cash alone cannot conjure up more people. Seasonal work can be a particular problem in this respect, especially in areas of high employment, where many local people already have permanent or higher skilled jobs.“In these circumstances raising nominal wages can only result in a 70s-style inflationary spiral.”Lord Wolfson called on government to ditch its policy of offering work visas on the basis of the assessment of national skills shortages drawn up by the independent Migration Advisory Committee.Instead, he said the visa system should be “demand-led”, with businesses permitted to sponsor as many migrants as they need, on condition that they pay overseas workers the same as their UK colleagues and contribute around 7 per cent of their wages to the government as a “visa tax”.“My worry is that our political leaders will get so caught up in the heat of the argument that they will miss the solution,” he said.“Post-Brexit Britain can have the best of all worlds. We can have an immigration system that accurately gauges the number of workers, with the right skills, in the places they are most needed and ensures that overseas workers do not displace or undermine UK workers. We can enjoy the prosperity that overseas skills can deliver to our economy and avoid the risk of it undercutting UK wages.” More

Boris Johnson’s Brexit minister has promised to “show Brexit was worth it” by making Britain’s economy “work better” than the EU’s.Speaking at the Tory annual conference in Manchester as Brexit-related shortages ravaged the UK economy Lord Frost said: “The power of example is very strong.”Despite empty shelves, crops rotting the fields, a shortage of lorry drivers, and long queues at petrol stations, the minister was upbeat about Britain’s prospects.He had earlier in the day claimed in a speech that Britain was entering a “renaissance” thanks to its departure from the EU and the deal he negotiated – a claim apparently at odds with the economic reality outside.But Lord Frost also said he wanted to change parts of the agreement which were causing even more acute shortages of goods and civil disorder in Northern Ireland. He blamed remainers for the problems with the agreement he negotiated, telling the Tory faithful inside the secure zone at their Manchester gathering: “Of course we wanted to negotiate something better.” But speaking alongside former DUP leader Arlene Foster at a fringe meeting after the main event, he added: “I think the best thing we could do, actually, is to grow faster than the EU and reform quicker than the EU and show that things work better in the UK.”That’ll be more powerful than any number of committees and forums. The power of example is very strong, and that’s the path … that we’ve got to get on to, if we’re going to show that Brexit was worth it.”Lord Frost has for months threatened to suspend the Northern Ireland portion of the deal he negotiated if the EU does not come to the negotiating table and reopen it.But Brussels has repeatedly said no. Asked about Lord Frost’s comments, spokesperson told reporters in Brussels on Monday: “You will not be surprised to hear that we do not comment on the sayings or the statements of our partners or any stakeholders, whatever nature they have and however lyrical or aggressive they may be. We are not going to depart from that position in these specific circumstances at all.” More

The Conservative Party would lose up to 32 so-called “red wall” seats to Labour if an election were held tomorrow, according to new poll findings.A new YouGov survey shows the Tories and Labour now neck and neck in the north of England, Midlands and north Wales constituencies which proved so crucial to Boris Johnson’s 2019 general election victory.The Conservatives have dropped to 41 per cent in red wall areas – seven points down on the party’s 2019 result – while Labour are up two points to 40 per cent.According to the company’s modelling, the result puts dozens of seats back in play for Sir Keir Starmer’s party in traditional Labour-voting territory. YouGov said four red wall Conservative constituencies would be “firmly back in Labour’s hands”, while another 14 would also be “likely to fall” to Starmer’s party and a further 14 would be too close to call.Despite being encouraging news for Starmer, the 40 per cent poll showing in traditional Labour heartlands still represents a 10-point drop on the party’s 2017 result when Jeremy Corbyn was leader.YouGov’s multilevel regression and poststratification (MRP) modelling shows Redcar, North West Durham, Lincoln and Heywood and Middleton are the most likely red wall seats to fall to Labour at the next election.The company’s latest results show a majority of the public now disapprove of the Tory government’s record to date – with 54 per cent saying they disapproved and only 26 per cent saying they approved.Mr Johnson’s personal approval rating have dipped too, with 60 per cent of voters saying he is doing badly as prime minister and only 35 per cent saying he is doing well.“The British public are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the government’s performance – including on key issues such as inflation – and are beginning to lose faith in Johnson as a leader,” wrote YouGov’s research manager Patrick English.Speaking at the Tory conference in Manchester, chairman Oliver Dowden did not deny reports the party are preparing for a general election in 2023 – a year ahead of schedule.“The PM told me to make sure that the Conservative Party machine is ready to go for an election whenever it comes,” Dowden told Sky News on Sunday.Asked if there would be an early election, Dowden said: “Right now, we are absolutely focused on getting on with the job of making sure that we deliver for the British people.” More

All electricity in the UK should be produced from clean sources by 2035, prime minister Boris Johnson has announced.The target means a rapid switch from the remaining coal and gas-fired power stations to wind, solar and nuclear energy within 15 years, with fossil fuels used only with carbon capture and storage technology to avoid greenhouse gas emissions.Environmentalist group Greenpeace UK welcomed the new target, but said that the transition away from climate change fuels would be made “slower and more expensive” because of the government’s insistence on continuing to make nuclear part of Britain’s future energy mix.And Liberal Democrats accused the Conservatives of “dropping enough balls to fill a creche” on clean energy, pointing to official figures showing renewables growth slowing sharply in the last six years, after quadrupling under the coalition.Mr Johnson’s initiative comes after the government set a goal of ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 as part of a drive for net-zero emissions by 2050.The prime minister is hoping to encourage other nations to commit to net-zero targets at the crucial COP26 climate summit which he will chair in Glasgow next month, with the aim of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.Speaking on a visit to a Network Rail site during the Conservative conference in Manchester, Mr Johnson said: “We can do for our entire energy production by 2035 what we’re doing with internal combustion engine vehicles by 2030. “From 2030, you won’t be able to buy any more a new hydrocarbon-fuelled internal combustion engine car and we’re going to move either to EVs (electric vehicles) or vehicles powered by hydrogen or clean power of one kind or another. “And that will make a huge difference to our CO2 output, to controlling climate change, to the planet, but it will also put the UK at the forefront of this amazing new industry of clean vehicles. “And what we’re also saying is that by 2035, looking at the progress we’re making in wind power – where we lead the world now in offshore wind – looking at what we can do with other renewable sources, carbon capture and storage with hydrogen potentially, we think that we can get to complete clean energy production by 2035.” The prime minister said a shift to renewable energy sources by 2035 would protect consumers from fluctuating import prices for oil and gas. “The advantage of that is that it will mean that, for the first time, the UK is not dependent on hydrocarbons coming from overseas with all the vagaries in hydrocarbon prices and the risk that poses for people’s pockets and for the consumer,” he said. “We will be reliant on our own clean power generation, which will help us also to keep costs down.”Greenpeace UK chief scientist Dr Doug Parr said: “All senior politicians have now realised that gas needs to be taken out of the electricity system. That realisation is to be welcomed, as is the 2035 decarbonisation target. “But the government remains unhealthily attached to nuclear technology, hoping against all experience that it will improve to the point where it becomes competitive with renewables. “As we have learned over the last 70 years, nuclear just doesn’t get cheaper. The case for large-scale reactors is weakening day by day as it becomes more and more obvious that the future of energy is a decentralised, flexible grid that makes use of new storage technologies whose costs are falling sharply, as well as cheap and rapidly deployable renewables. “Trying to prop up the nuclear industry will just make that transition slower and more expensive.”Lib Dem energy spokesperson Wera Hobhouse pointed to Business Department figures showing UK renewables capacity grew almost fourfold from 8 to 31GW between 2009 and 2015, but had since increased by little more than 50 per cent to 48GW.“The Conservatives have utterly neglected the UK renewables industry to the point where coal power stations are being fired up,” she said. “It’s insulting that the prime minister is talking a good game on green electricity whilst families are left feeling the pinch this winter, thanks in no small part to the UK’s overreliance on gas and Government inaction on renewables.” More

A Conservative party donor who helped fund Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign was involved in a major corruption scandal, according to an investigation into a trove of leaked financial documents.Mohamed Amersi reportedly advised Swedish telecoms giant Telia on a £162m deal with the daughter of Uzbekistan’s former ruler Islam Karimov – a payment later described by the US authorities as a “bribe”.The Swedish company was later fined £700m by the US authorities over the deal and accepted that the money given to Gulnara Karimova was a “corrupt payment”.Mr Amersi’s name featured in the massive leak of financial documents known as the “Pandora papers”, which allegedly tie world leaders to secret stores of wealth.The Tory donor was involved in the controversial payment to Ms Karimova using a Gibraltar-based offshore company in 2010, according to an investigation by BBC Panorama and The Guardian.Mr Amersi’s lawyers have denied that he “knowingly” helped facilitate any corrupt payments and had “no reason” to believe the money given to Ms Karimova might be a bribe.They said underlying arrangements for the deal were in place two years before his involvement.Chancellor Rishi Sunak said on Monday that the HMRC will inspect the leaked Pandora Papers, the documents arranged by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) exposing the secret financial dealings of some of the world’s most powerful people.Asked if he had ever benefited from an offshore arrangement, he told Sky News: “No. I haven. I’ve seen these things overnight … and of course HMRC will look through those to see if there’s anything we can learn.”Asked if London’s reputation as a centre for tax avoidance was a source of shame, the chancellor told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t think it’s a source of shame because actually our track record on this issue is very strong.Mr Sunak also told the BBC that the Tory Party follows the law by carrying out all required “compliance checks” on donors.Mr Amersi – who was at the centre of an alleged “cash for access” row in the summer – has given nearly £525,000 to the party since 2018, Electoral Commission records show.He revealed in July that a group of wealthy Tory donors known as the “advisory board” had been developed to connect the party’s biggest financial backers with ministers.A client of Tory co-chair Ben Eillot’s concierge company Quintessentially, Mr Amersi said the donors’ group worked in a similar way to the private firm. “One needs to cough up £250,000 per annum or be a friend of Ben,” he told the Financial Times.Daniel Bruce, chief executive at Transparency International UK, said the latest allegations show due diligence on major donations should go beyond “the box ticking exercise” of finding the donor on the electoral roll.“These allegations add further weight to the case to reform regulation of political donations in the UK. There is a clear and growing consensus that the current rules controlling the money in British politics are out-of-date and in need of urgent reform,” he said.The ICIJ said the dump of 12 million files are linked to about 35 current and former national leaders, and more than 330 politicians and public officials around the world.Tony and Cherie Blair avoided paying £312,000 in tax on the purchase of a London property by acquiring an offshore company, the leaked papers reportedly show.But in a tweeted statement, the Tony Blair Institute said the premises were acquired from “an offshore company which the Blairs had had nothing to do with”.It added: “[Cherie Blair] brought it onshore. No stamp duty was payable because it was the sale of a company. But capital gains tax – likely to be much more than the stamp duty – will of course be payable when it is resold.“The allegation that [the Blairs] avoided tax is therefore completely false. They have always paid their taxes in full and never used offshore avoidance schemes of any kind.”Meanwhile, Jordan’s King Abdullah was alleged to have used offshore accounts to spend more than £74m on luxury homes in the UK and the US.DLA Piper, a London law office representing Abdullah, told the consortium of media outlets that he had “not at any point misused public monies or made any use whatsoever of the proceeds of aid or assistance intended for public use.” More

The Conservative Party has been urged to return hundreds of thousands of pounds to a major political donor following claims he was involved in a telecoms corruption scandal.Mohamed Amersi’s name featured in the massive leak of financial documents known as the “Pandora papers”, which allegedly tie world leaders to secret stores of wealth.The Tory donor advised Swedish telecoms firm Telia on a £162m deal with the daughter of Uzbekistan’s former ruler in 2010, according to the BBC and The Guardian – a payment later described by US authorities as a “bribe”.Mr Amersi’s lawyers have denied that he “knowingly” helped facilitate any corrupt payments and had “no reason” to believe money given to Gulnara Karimova might be a bribe.Boris Johnson said on Monday that Mr Amersi had been properly “vetted” before the party accepted his donations – but Labour said the money should now be returned.“It’s really concerning that the Conservatives have accepted hundreds of thousands of pounds from a man who appears to be closely linked to one of Europe’s biggest corruption scandals,” said Labour chair Anneliese Dodds.“This is not the first time that Mohamed Amersi has been embroiled in controversy. The Conservatives should return the money he donated to them and come clean about who else is getting exclusive access to the prime minister and the chancellor in return for cash.”Mr Amersi – who was at the centre of an alleged “cash for access” row in the summer – has given nearly £525,000 to the party since 2018, Electoral Commission records show.He revealed in July that a group of wealthy Tory donors known as the “advisory board” had been developed to connect the party’s biggest financial backers with ministers.Responding to news about Mr Amersi and the Pandora papers, Mr Johnson told reporters: “I see that story today. But all I can say on that one is all these donations are vetted in the normal way in accordance with rules that were set up under a Labour government … We vet them the whole time.”Rishi Sunak also deflected questions about Mr Amersi – saying the party had carried out a series of “compliance checks” on all donors. He also said the HMRC will “look through” the Pandora papers “to see if there’s anything we can learn.”Asked if London’s reputation as a centre for tax avoidance was a source of shame, the chancellor told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t think it’s a source of shame because actually our track record on this issue is very strong.”Mr Sunak also said tax avoidance was a global problem and claimed the UK was leading the world in “improving transparency”.Meanwhile, the Tony Blair Institute has responded to allegations that Tony and Cherie Blair avoided paying £312,000 in tax on the purchase of a London property, after they were named in the Pandora papers’ leaks.In a tweeted statement, the former Labour prime minister’s institute said the office premises were acquired from “an offshore company which the Blairs had had nothing to do with”.It added: “[Cherie Blair] brought it onshore. No stamp duty was payable because it was the sale of a company. But capital gains tax – likely to be much more than the stamp duty – will of course be payable when it is resold.“The allegation that [the Blairs] avoided tax is therefore completely false. They have always paid their taxes in full and never used offshore avoidance schemes of any kind.”Following the release of financial papers, the Crown Estate said that it was looking into the £67m purchase of a London property from a company which, The Guardian said, had acted as a “front” for family of Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev.A spokesman for the Crown Estate said: “Before our purchase of 56-60 Conduit Street, we conducted checks including those required by UK law. At the time we did not establish any reason why the transaction should not proceed. Given the potential concerns raised, we are looking into the matter.”Duncan Hames, policy director at the campaign group Transparency International UK, said the disclosures should act as a “wake up call” for Mr Johnson’s government to deliver on measures to tackle “dirty money”.“The UK must redouble its efforts in tackling illicit finance, bringing in long overdue transparency reforms to reveal who really owns property here as well as resourcing regulators and law enforcement to clamp down on rogue professionals and corrupt cash held in the UK,” the campaigner said. More

Children could be asked to wear Covid face masks in classrooms again if cases of the virus surge over winter, Nadhim Zahawi has suggested.The education secretary said the measure is part of contingency plans being drawn up by his department to ensure lessons continue over the coming months.His comments came after figures published over the weekend suggested one in 20 secondary-age children in England were infected with the virus last week.The Covid rate, which came from Office for National Statistics data, was the highest of any age group reported since the pandemic struck in March 2020.Children are classed as very low risk and their chances of becoming seriously ill are extremely rare.Speaking at a Conservative Party fringe event hosted by the centre-right think tank Policy Exchange on Sunday, Mr Zahawi said his priority was to ensure children don’t miss out on crucial lessons. He said: “On face masks, you know we have contingency plans in the department.“If we see further disruption my very strong focus has to be to protect education.”He added: “We have got contingency plans to make sure that education remains open because, actually, what they told us is they really value being back at school with their schoolmates, in front of a teacher learning, and letting those creative juices flow.”Face coverings and masks had been recommended in schools following the return of pupils to the classroom in March. But they were scrapped on 17 May as Covid restrictions began to ease as part of the UK’s roadmap out of lockdown.Critics of children wearing masks in schools said they disrupted learning by obstructing communication. Teachers, however, warned the decision to remove face coverings was hard to reconcile with the evidence on safety.Masks do not offer full protection against the virus but they do help to limit its spread, multiple studies have shown. More