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Chancellor Rishi Sunak has given pubs hope of a freeze or cut in taxes on beer, telling them they were “uppermost in his mind” as he prepares next Wednesday’s Budget. Mr Sunak was responding to a campaign for help for landlords led by former supermodel Jodie Kidd, who now runs a pub in Sussex.She is calling for a cut of at least 25 per cent in beer taxes, warning that without more support the pub industry could be “destroyed” just at the point when Britons want to go out and celebrate escaping lockdown.And she said she believed that Mr Sunak was “a good guy” who would want to help.Responding to Ms Kidd’s comments in an interview on Times Radio, Mr Sunak pointed to the freeze on alcohol duties in last year’s Budget as well as the business rates relief and emergency 5 per cent VAT rate offered to the hospitality sector during the coronavirus crisis.And he said that pubs will benefit from the one-off restart grant worth up to £18,000 announced today to help hospitality businesses and retailers emerge from lockdown.Mr Sunak refused to reveal his plans for alcohol taxes on 3 March.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayBut he told interview Tom Newton-Dunn: “I think Jodie makes a broader point that’s important. The hospitality industry is really important to the British economy.“It’s over 150,000 businesses – pubs like hers and up and down the country. It and employs over 2 million people, and those people are disproportionately young women and those on low incomes.“And beyond the economic impact, the hospitality industry is the life and soul of our towns, our villages, it’s how we celebrate  together, it’s an important part of our life. “For me it’s always been important to try and do what I can to support that industry. That’s why the grants today are really important. Hopefully, Jodie’s pub will get a grant.”Mr Sunak said: “I care about that industry and the people who work at it and I want to try and do what I can to support those jobs.“They should feel reassured that they remain uppermost in my mind, and you will see what we’re going to do in a few days’ time.”Mr Sunak said that a review of alcohol taxation, which could see pubs given tax advantages over supermarkets when selling beer, will not report in time to feed into the 3 March Budget. More

Business has warned that a £5bn package of restart grants announced by chancellor Rishi Sunak as part of his Budget package will not be enough to ensure the survival of companies struggling to get back on their feet after the coronavirus crisis. The money, to be confirmed in Mr Sunak’s 3 March statement, was welcomed by the Federation of Small Businesses as a “much-needed lifeline” for 700,000 high street businesses like shops, pubs, bars, restaurants and hairdressers, which have been forced to remain closed for much of the past year.But FSB chair Mike Cherry warned that more money was needed to help the supply chain, as well as businesses outside the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors which are experiencing “real pain”.Under Mr Sunak’s plan, non-essential retailers, due to reopen from 12 April at the earliest, will be entitled to “restart grants” worth up to £6,000 per premises. And hospitality venues, hotels, gyms and personal care and leisure firms, which must wait longer to return to normal operations, will be eligible for as much as £18,000 each.Local authorities will be tasked with distributing the grants and will receive the funding in April.The chancellor said the scheme will “ensure our high streets can open their doors with optimism” as the roadmap lifts restrictions, offering “light at the end of the tunnel”.And he told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “We’ve put in place this grant scheme – the restart grants – because businesses that have been forced to close multiple times over the past year actually employ millions of people and what I care about is protecting as many jobs as possible by supporting those businesses to protect those jobs. That’s what this grant will do.”Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayMr Cherry said:“It is an extremely challenging time for small businesses who have fought tooth and nail to stay afloat in the last year, so we are pleased that our calls for further cash grant support will be heeded.“This money – £5billion for 700,000 businesses – is a significant cash injection for non-essential retail, pubs, bars, restaurants, gyms, hairdressers and beauty salons. It will provide a much-needed lifeline, offering firms some reassurance as we look to put lockdowns behind us and focus on a vaccine-fuelled recovery.”But he said it was “disappointing” that councils were being given discretionary powers on only five per cent of the cash, making it more difficult for them to assist firms outside the priority categories or retail, hospitality and leisure, even though they employ more than half of furloughed workers. And he said that assistance was needed for the many businesses excluded from financial support during the crisis.“Councils must also prioritise issuing their grants,” he added. “Government figures show that only 13 per cent of existing funds given to them by the Treasury in mid-November had reached businesses by mid-January. They must increase the speed at which they get the money they do have out the door and into businesses’ bank accounts.”The UKHospitality trade body welcomed the plan, saying many firms are “struggling to see how they could survive through” Boris Johnson’s road map for reopening, with laws on social distancing set to continue until at least June 21 – the earliest date when nightclubs will be considered for reopening.But chief executive Kate Nicholls said the grants must form part of a wider package that includes an extension to the reduced VAT rate and a business rates holiday.“Without these measures, and full furlough while we re-open, the hospitality sector’s recovery will be stunted along with our ability to start tackling unemployment by creating jobs,” she warned.British Retail Consortium chief executive Helen Dickinson said that while the restart grants represented “a vital injection of funding during this extremely challenging period”, they will provide only “temporary relief”.She called for an extension to the moratorium on aggressive rent enforcement and to the business rates relief in the Budget.Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Christine Jardine described the £5bn grants package as an “insult” and said that “considerable amounts more” would be needed to save up to 1 million businesses which are fighting for survival. “From beauticians to builders, florists to café owners – the small businesses in our communities are on the brink and the chancellor must do more,” said Ms Jardine.“It is now or never to save a million businesses in our local communities and the government must put their recovery first.“We need to see a budget with a bold and ambitious compensation package for those who are facing crippling losses, and coping with hardship through no fault of their own.“And we must see those who have been left out in the cold, with no financial help, brought under the umbrella of government support. More

Savers who want to invest in protecting the environment are to be offered the opportunity to purchase the world’s first green savings bonds. The bonds, to be launched in Rishi Sunak’s Budget on Wednesday, will raise funds to invest in projects such as renewable energy and clean transport to support the government’s goal of the UK reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050.The announcement will come alongside Mr Sunak unveiling in the 3 March statement reforms to the visa system to encourage high-skilled workers including researchers, engineers, scientists and tech experts to come to the UK.The new “elite” points-based routes will guarantee a visa for winners of international awards like the Nobel prizes and will allow highly-skilled migrants with a job offer from a fast-growth firm to qualify without the need for sponsorship or third-party endorsement.Mr Sunak said that the green savings bonds would help drive innovation in the technologies needed to reduce the UK’s reliance on greenhouse gas-producing fossil fuels.“The UK is a global leader on tackling climate change, with a clear target to reach net zero by 2050 and a 10-point plan to create green jobs as we transition to a greener future,” he said.“In a world first, we’re launching a new green savings bond which will give people across the UK the opportunity to contribute to the collective effort to tackle climate change. More

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has ruled out accelerating England’s roadmap out of lockdown if rates of infections and deaths from Covid-19 drop faster than expected. Boris Johnson’s declaration that his approach to relaxing social and economic restrictions will be driven by “data not dates” has led to calls for him to be ready to bring forward changes if key figures are positive.But Mr Sunak today made clear that the dates set out by the prime minister last week – including the opening of schools on 8 March, non-essential shops on 12 April and indoor entertainment on 17 May and the end to social-distancing on 21 June – are the earliest possible moments for relaxations to take place.While they may be delayed by bad news, the plan makes clear that they cannot be brought forward in response to better-than-expected progress, he said.Mr Sunak said that early signs suggested that the public can have “confidence and optimism” that the moves will allow the UK to “slowly get our lives back to normal”.But he said the plan was designed to ensure that the easing of restrictions was not immediately followed by further curbs.Each of the four steps in the roadmap includes a four-week period for data on the impact of successive restrictions to be gathered and evaluated and a week’s notice of any changes, meaning that steps cannot come any sooner than five weeks apart and a delay at any point will have knock-on effects on later relaxations.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayMr Sunak told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “What the prime minister laid out was a series of steps with appropriate gaps between them for us to understand the impact of each step.“And, as he said, what we want is a ‘cautious but irreversible’ approach. That’s why we’ve taken the approach that we have. “Those will be the earliest dates that we think we can do the various things that we’ve we’ve laid out. But we’re doing everything we can to make sure that it is hopefully irreversible. That’s what we want to see.”The chancellor was challenged by Ridge over how the government could claim to be driven by data not dates if it was ruling out bringing the dates forward in response to favourable data.He replied: “We want to be cautious because what businesses don’t want is a stop/start approach to this.“We want to know that it’s a one-way road, and that’s why it’s cautious.“We’ve given the earliest dates to give a sense of timing and a sense of direction and then obviously we might have to adjust those if things are not going exactly as we would like.”He added: “The early signs are promising. We’re seeing great news with the rollout of the vaccine, not just the take-up of it but also the efficacy of the vaccine, the data that we’re getting is showing us that it is working. “So I think that should give us all a sense of confidence and optimism about the future, that we can make progress on that roadmap and hopefully slowly get our lives back to normal.” More

Rishi Sunak has hinted at tax rises in next week’s Budget, saying: “I would like to keep taxes low for people… but I want to deliver our promises to the British people that we will be responsible with their money.”The chancellor said the 3 March Budget will set out an “honest and fair plan” to start paying down the massive national debt built up in the coronavirus crisis, which has topped £2 trillion for the first time in history.And he made clear that the belt-tightening to pay for the pandemic will stretch years into the future, telling Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “This is going to take time to fix.”Labour’s shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds accused Mr Sunak of “playing party politics” with the public finances, after reports that he had told Tory MPs he wanted to get tax hikes out of the way now in order to be able to cut them closer to the election expected in 2024.Ms Dodds said the chancellor should be “focusing on securing the recovery” by making clear that he will extend support measures such as business rate relief, VAT breaks for hospitality businesses and furlough payments.The shadow chancellor said she was not ruling out tax rises in the longer term but told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show: “It certainly shouldn’t be right now in terms of immediate tax rises.”She said the chancellor’s approach was “way out of the international mainstream” at a point when US president Joe Biden was announcing a $1.9trn stimulus package.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayMr Sunak indicated that he will extend coronavirus support until the end of Boris Johnson’s roadmap out of lockdown on 21 June, saying: “We are going to keep supporting people as we reopen the economy.”But he gave a clear signal that schemes will be wound down swiftly once restrictions are lifted, saying the package will be “aligned” with Mr Johnson’s timetable.Mr Sunak refused to comment on reports that the Budget will include a three-year freeze on income tax thresholds as a “stealthy” way of raising £6bn by forcing more people into higher bands as their earnings rise. And he declined to discuss expectations that he will increase corporation tax from 19 to 23 or 25 per cent over the coming years.But he said: “What I want to deliver is support for our economy, now when it needs it, support along that roadmap helping to drive our recovery.“But also levelling with people and being straight about the challenges we face over time because of the shock coronavirus has caused our public finances and making sure that we’re clear with people about an honest and fair plan to address that. And I think those things are both compatible.”Mr Sunak said that he “did not recognise” reports that he is looking for £43bn a year in savings to rebalance the public finances.But he did not commit himself to sticking with the pledges in the 2019 Conservative manifesto not to increase rates of income tax, national insurance or VAT.“I would like to be able to keep taxes low for people in general,” he said. “I’m a Conservative and I believe in that. “But I want to deliver our promises we made to the British people that we will be responsible with their money, that we will look after the nation’s finances.”His comments came as a Savanta ComRes poll for The Independent showed high levels of support for hikes in corporation tax and the introduction of wealth taxes on assets to pay for coronavirus spending which has totalled around £280bn over the past year.Mr Sunak said that the cost of servicing the UK’s debt was currently affordable because of historically low interest rates, but voiced concern on the impact when they rise.With debt around 100 per cent of GDP, a single percentage point hike across rates equates to around £25bn a year in additional interest.“Interest rates have been at very low levels, which does allow us to afford slightly higher debt levels, but that can always change,” said the chancellor.Ms Dodds said the focus on tax rises – including council tax rises of up to 5 per cent due to hit households this year – was the wrong priority at this point in the recovery from coronavirus.“We’re an outlier both in having had the worst economic crisis of any major economy but now also having a government that seems to be focused on increasing taxes right now on families when other countries are focused on securing the recovery,” she told Marr.The shadow chancellor said Labour would look “favourably” on changes to the corporation tax regime in the longer term.But she said that left-wingers, like former party chairman Ian Lavery, who have attacked Sir Keir Starmer for opposing an immediate hike in levies on business had “got this one wrong”. “When we talk to businesses right across the country, as I have, what they are really concerned about is confidence,” said Ms Dodds. “They don’t want to see a chancellor who’s focused on politics, who’s focused on getting any changes through right now, so he can wash his hands of them before the next general election.” More

Voters want chancellor Rishi Sunak to target big business and the wealthy for tax hikes to pay for his massive spending splurge on coronavirus support, according to a new poll. But the Savanta ComRes survey also suggested the public are steeled to bear some of the burden of relieving what Mr Sunak describes as “enormous strains” on UK finances, with a majority saying they are willing to accept a rise in income tax rates.It came as the chancellor risked a clash with Conservative backbenchers by signalling that tax rises are on the way, promising to “level with people” about the country’s exposure to a spike in interest rates at a time when national debt stands above £2 trillion for the first time in history.Published in The Independent just days ahead of the 3 March Budget, the poll showed strong support for the chancellor’s expected plan to increase the main rate of corporation tax for the first time since 1973, with 55 per cent backing it and just 16 per cent opposed. Meanwhile, some 55 per cent said they would support the introduction of a “wealth tax” on property or assets to help pay down the debt mountain, compared to just 18 per cent against.While there was stiff resistance to raising council tax, VAT or fuel duty or reining in future pension rises, the poll found 43 per cent ready to see income tax rates go up by 1p as part of a belt-tightening package, against just 28 per cent opposed. In a finding which may give Mr Sunak more political room for manoeuvre, Conservative voters backed a corporation tax increase by 61 per cent to 16 and an income tax rise by 51 per cent to 28.The findings came as it emerged that the budget will deliver a £5bn boost to pubs, restaurants, shops and other businesses hit hard by the pandemic, to help them reopen as the third lockdown is eased over the coming months.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayNon-essential retailers, due to reopen from 12 April at the earliest, will be entitled to “restart grants” worth up to £6,000 per premises. And hospitality venues, hotels, gyms and personal care and leisure firms, which must wait longer to return to normal operations, will be eligible for as much as £18,000 each.The chancellor will also announce an initial £12bn of capital and £10bn of government guarantees for the UK Infrastructure Bank to  support £40bn of public and private sector infrastructure projects.The Savanta ComRes poll made clear there is little appetite for a swift end to the £280bn package of benefit uplifts, business support and furlough payments which the chancellor has deployed to protect businesses and jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic.He is expected next week to extend support in line with the roadmap out of lockdown set out by Boris Johnson on Monday, which set 21 June as the date for the final lifting of most restrictions.But the survey suggests that many voters would like him to go further, with numbers wanting support schemes wound down as soon as possible dwarfed by those who want them kept going until the summer, the end of 2021 or beyond.Mr Sunak will use Wednesday’s statement to tell voters he wants to be “honest” with them about the need for consolidation measures to redress the perilous state of the public finances.He will say that, while historically low interest rates make borrowing cheap, the scale of the UK’s debts leaves it exposed to small movements – with a hike of just one percentage point across all rates adding £25bn to the annual cost of servicing them.“There are some people who think you can ignore the problem,” said the chancellor. “And, worse, there are some people who think there isn’t a problem at all. I don’t think that.“That is why I talk about levelling with people about the public finances and our plans to address them.”Mr Sunak is mulling a gradual increase from 19 to 23 or even 25 per cent in the UK’s corporation tax, which he believes – despite likely howls of pain from business – would not significantly harm competitiveness with other major developed nations.Any rise announced on Wednesday is likely to be phased in over a number of years, with other more “stealthy” revenue-raising measures under consideration also believed to include a freeze on income tax thresholds to bring more workers into higher bands and a cap of just over £1m on lifetime pension allowances.But he risks a showdown with Tory backbenchers from the red wall seats in the north of England won from Labour in 2019, who are urging him to focus on investment to help the UK grow its way out of the financial doldrums.Carlisle MP John Stevenson said Tories were looking for “continuing support for the economy, for families, for business” in the Budget, adding that it was “too early right now” for tax rises. And Barrow and Furness’s Simon Fell said backbenchers were ready to be “an absolute nightmare for the chancellor” with demands for ”more money to be spent intelligently in our communities”.Former chancellor Kenneth Clarke warned that Mr Sunak risks “financial crisis” if he fails to raise taxes, and must target income tax, national insurance and VAT, despite 2019 manifesto promises to leave their rates unchanged for the parliament.“This is the taxpayer’s debt that we’re piling up now,” said Lord Clarke. “If we don’t actually get it under control and signal how we are going to get back to fiscal common sense before inflation comes back and interest rates go up, we’ll face a financial crisis.”
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When Rishi Sunak delivered his first Budget on 11 March last year, he had been in the post for just over three weeks and assumed it was the most difficult task he would face in the job. The  annual statement to the House of Commons is normally the culmination of months of preparation, the moment when a chancellor can put his stamp on the direction of the country and when his – and so far it has always been his – decisions come under scrutiny of the most intense kind.Few chancellors have had their reputations made or destroyed by a single Budget, but it is a day when individual gaffes or masterstrokes can fundamentally alter voters’ perceptions of the government and its competence. More

Anas Sarwar has been elected leader of Scottish Labour as the party attempts to retrieve its perilous position in the polls ahead of the crucial election to the Holyrood parliament on 6 May. The Glasgow MSP becomes the first person from an ethnic minority background to be elected to the leadership of a major party in the UK after seeing off rival Monica Lennon by a margin of 57.56 per cent to 42.44 per cent in a ballot of members and affiliated supporters.In a video message accepting victory, Mr Sarwar admitted the party north of the border “hasn’t been good enough” and promised to work hard to regain voters’ support.The election was sparked by the shock resignation in January of left-winger Richard Leonard, who said he was stepping down in the interest of the party. Both Mr Sarwar and health spokeswoman Ms Lennon were seen as being more closely aligned with UK leader Sir Keir Starmer and both presented themselves as “change” candidates in the election.Labour is currently running a poor third in polling for the Scottish parliament elections, with a recent Ipsos Mori poll for STV News putting support for the party at 15 per cent in the constituency vote and 14 per cent in the regional list, against 23 and 22 per cent respectively for Tories.Both are trailing well behind the Scottish National Party, on 52 and 47 per cent, with little sign yet that the furious spat between leader Nicola Sturgeon and her predecessor Alex Salmond is harming the chances of a comfortable nationalist majority.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdaySir Keir congratulated Sarwar on his election, adding: “I look forward to working with him to secure our economy, protect our NHS and rebuild our country.“We will fight the Scottish parliamentary elections by making the case for a socially just Scotland in a modern United Kingdom. Under his leadership, Scottish Labour will focus on what unites us – not what divides us.“I know Anas will do the hard work that is necessary to win back the trust of the Scottish people and build for the future as we emerge from this pandemic.”In a message to Scottish voters after his victory was announced, Mr Sarwar said: “You haven’t had the Scottish Labour Party you deserve – with rising injustice, inequality and division, I’m sorry we haven’t been good enough. And I will work day and night to change that.”He said he would draw on the spirit of Labour’s first leader Keir Hardie, the first Scottish first minister Donald Dewar and Labour’s last prime minister Gordon Brown, but made no mention of either Starmer or his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.Declaring he will be “a leader that focuses on what unites our country, not what divides it”, he promised to work together with Ms Lennon “to rebuild our party so that we have the opportunity to rebuild Scotland”.Mr Sarwar, 37, was MP for Glasgow Central at Westminster from 2010-15 and has been MSP for the Glasgow region since 2016. He served as Scottish Labour’s deputy leader under Johann Lamont from 2011-14.SNP deputy leader Keith Brown congratulated him on his victory, but said: “Mr Sarwar has, perhaps, an impossible job on his hands breathing life into a party with no new ideas, ambition or vision for Scotland.” More