Markus Andrews

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailFormer prime minister Liz Truss has accused US president Joe Biden of “utter hypocrisy and ignorance” for his reaction to the disastrous mini-Budget which sparked the end of her premiership. In her new book, Ten Years to Save the West, she recalled the global reaction to the mini-Budget which promised £45bn of unfunded tax cuts. Ms Truss, Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, has previously blamed the “deep state” for “sabotaging” her tax-cutting plans from Kwasi Kwarteng’s notoriously disastrous economic plan which sent the pound into a nose dive and sparked a crash in the markets.Ms Truss wrote, in an excerpt published in The Mail On Sunday: “Today [Tuesday 11 October 2022], the Bank of England governor himself caused a market reaction by announcing that the support scheme for pension funds would wind up at the end of the week. “This led to an immediate fall in the pound. On top of that, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has questioned whether the rich would benefit ‘too much’ from the mini budget — surely a domestic question for the UK Government!”She quoted President Biden saying: “I wasn’t the only one that thought [the mini budget] was a mistake. I think that the idea of cutting taxes on the super-wealthy at a time when … anyway, I just think … I disagreed with the policy.”The 49-day prime minister continued: “This was utter hypocrisy and ignorance. The top rate of income tax in the U.S. was 37 per cent and only charged to people earning the equivalent of £483,094 and above. By contrast, the top rate in the UK was 45 per cent and paid by those on more than £150,000.”Liz Truss resigned as prime minister on 20 October 2022 More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe foreign secretary said Iran’s attack on Israel was a “double defeat” for Tehran as he urged Benjamin Netanyahu to “take the win” and not retaliate. Lord Cameron said the weekend attack – which saw the country launch an unprecendeted assault against Israel using more than 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles – was a “failure” and has “revealed to the world their true nature as the malign influence in the region”. The former prime minister also urged Israel to “think with with head as well as heart” as he said that “the right thing to do is not to escalate”. The weekend’s assault was launched in response to a strike widely blamed on Israel upon an Iranian consular building in Syria earlier this month, which killed two Iranian generals. It marks the first time a direct military assault has been launched by Tehran on Israel despite enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Lord Cameron told Times Radio on Monday: “Israel has every right to respond as an independent sovereign country being attacked in this way. But I think we’re very anxious to avoid escalation and to say to our friends in Israel ‘it’s a time to think with with head as well as heart’.“And in many ways this is a double defeat for Iran. Not only was their attack an almost total failure, but also the rest of the world can now see what a malign influence they are in the region and understand their true nature.Foreign secretary Lord Cameron said the attack had been a double defeat for Iran More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe health secretary has said that flights carrying asylum seekers to Rwanda will take off “within weeks” despite being unable to disclose whether the government had found a carrier.Victoria Atkins maintained she wants flights to take off “as quickly as possible”, adding that it’ll be “certainly within weeks”.But when quizzed on Sky News about which airline would be carrying out the return flights, Ms Atkins was unable to answer.She said: “The Home Office is working on this… believe you me the Home Office is ready to go.”Health secretary Victoria Atkins said flights to Rwanda will take off ‘within weeks’ More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe row over Angela Rayner’s previous living arrangements has deepened as her former aide reportedly wrote to police contradicting her claims.Former staff member Matt Finnegan, who made an employment tribunal claim against Ms Rayner in 2018, said there was “no doubt in my mind that this was Ms Rayner’s family home” when he visited her at what she says was her husband’s address in 2014.Police are investigating whether Labour’s deputy leader broke electoral law after Tory allegations that she may have given false information about her main residence a decade ago.She was registered at a former council house she bought in Stockport, but it is understood Conservative Party deputy chair James Daly has suggested neighbours say she lived with her husband at a separate property.Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has denied any wrongdoing over the row about her previous living arrangements More