Category: News Story

STORY

Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has said that the National Living Wage will rise to at least £11 next year. In a press release issued before the Conservative Party’s annual conference in Manchester, Hunt is expected to say that:

“At the moment it is £10.42 and hour and we are waiting for the Low Pay Commission to confirm its recommendation for next year. But I confirm today, whatever that recommendation, we will increase it next year to at least £11 an hour. A pay rise for over 2 million workers.”

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Low Pay Commission

STORY

Mark Harper, the Secretary of State for Transport, has said that he is unable to make any comment on the future of HS2, despite Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, having raised the suggestion that it could be cut back. Harper said in a statement:

“If the government has anything to say, we’ll say that in the usual way, in due course.”

Theresa May, the former Prime Minister, joined in with other former Conservative leaders David Cameron and Boris Johnson, in warning against any cuts to HS2. She said:

“We have to think about why HS2 was designed in the first place. It was because there was a lack of capacity on the west coast mainline. So if there is a lack of capacity on the west coast mainline, we need more railway capacity to serve the north-west.”

She added:

“If HS2 stops at Old Oak Common, it is going to make our railway journeys into London longer and disrupted potentially over the period that Old Oak Common’s building is being done to enable it to take that end point. So I am arguing with government: ‘Don’t stop at Old Oak Common. You need to take it into Euston because my constituents will be disadvantaged if you don’t.”

RESOURCES

Government Hints at HS2 Cut-Backs for Affordability Reasons

STORY

GB News have confirmed that they have suspended their presenter Calvin Robinson as controversy grows about the comments made by Laurence Fox earlier in the week. GB News presenter Nana Akua distanced herself from Fox, stating that he made “a misogynistic, nonsense comment” and Angelos Frangopoulos, the Chief Executive of GB News, said that Fox’s comments were “appalling”. Dan Wootton, the GB News presenter, was also suspended for his response to the comments made by Fox, with Calvin Robinson being suspended for his comments on the matter.

Fox and Wootton have apologised for their behaviour and an investigation will take place on all three presenters to decide on what further action might be taken. Laurence Fox suggested that he expected that both himself and Dan Wootton would be expelled from GB News.

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GB News

NEWS STORY

James Cracknell, the former Olympic rower, has been selected as the Conservative prospective Parliamentary candidate for Colchester. Will Quince, the current Conservative MP, has represented the constituency since 2015 and is standing down at the election. At the 2019 General Election, Quince secured a 9,423 majority over the Labour candidate Tina McKay. The constituency had been held by the Liberal Democrats between 1990 and 2015, having previously been won by the Conservative Party.

RESOURCES

Will Quince

Colchester Constituency

STORY

Armed police officers have returned to work in London amidst the Government’s admission that the army might have been required to support the Met Police. 300 armed officers had turned in their permits over the last week following the decision to charge an officer with the murder of Chris Kaba. The Met Police said in a statement:

“As of lunchtime on Monday, the number of officers who had returned to armed duties was sufficient for us to no longer require external assistance to meet our counterterrorism responsibilities.”

STORY

Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, has refused to rule out rumours that the proposed section of HS2 to Manchester is to be scrapped, raising fears about the economic situation in the UK where infrastructure projects need to be cancelled. The Prime Minister has faced substantial opposition today to his suggestion that the project should be delayed including from Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester as well as Boris Johnson and David Cameron, two former Prime Ministers. Burnham criticised the decision, saying “you really should not take this decision without listening to the voice of people here” and adding ““scrapping HS2 rips the heart out of Northern Powerhouse Rail. Basically it would leave the north of England with Victorian infrastructure probably for the rest of this century.”

Allan Cook, a former chair of HS2, questioned the decision to cut spending on the north of the country, saying “why in the north have do we have to make a compromise?”. George Osborne, the former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Michael Heseltine, the former Deputy Prime Minister, also criticised the Prime Minister’s decision to consider scrapping the Manchester section.

Rishi Sunak said that an announcement on the project would be made later this week. The current cost of the HS2 project is expected to be between £72 billion and £98 billion, but there are suggestions that the cost might increase to over £100 billion due to delays and changes to the plans. If completed in full, the project would be expected to fully open in the 2040s.

RESOURCES

Andrew Adonis – 2023 Comments on HS2 Delays

STORY

Dehenna Davison, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, has announced that she was standing down from her role due to health reasons. Writing in a letter to the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Davison said that she had been “battling with chronic migraine” for some time, and that the condition had made it “difficult, if not impossible” to carry out her ministerial duties. She added:

“Though I have tried to mitigate, and am grateful to colleagues for their patience at times, I don’t feel it is right to continue in the role. At such a critical time for levelling up, I believe the people of communities like mine, and across the country, deserve a minister who can give the job the energy it needs. I regret that I no longer can. And as my capacity is currently diminished, it feels right to focus it on my constituents and promoting conservatism from the backbenches.”

Davison was elected to Parliament in 2019, becoming the first Conservative MP for Bishop Auckland in over 100 years. She was appointed to her ministerial role in September 2022 at the age of just 29 and she was responsible for overseeing the government’s levelling up agenda. Davison had already announced her decision to stand down from Parliament at the next General Election.

RESOURCES

Speeches by Dehenna Davison

STORY

In a speech at the Institute for Government the former Prime Minister Liz Truss defended her economic policies, although wasn’t drawn on why she sacked her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng who had started to implement them. Truss spoke about the UK’s long-term economic problems and gave her proposed solutions. She argued that the UK has a problem with economic growth and that the government needs to take action to address it. She proposes a three-pronged approach of tax cuts, supply-side reforms, and public spending restraint, arguing that these policies will lead to higher economic growth and investment. Truss said:

“State spending now accounts for 46% of GDP, higher than it was in every year in Britain except for 1975 and up from 34.8% in the year 2000. No other European country has seen this level of growth in state spending, apart from Greece and Spain.”

Truss blamed the political balance in the economy, despite the Conservative Government having been in power for 13 years, saying:

“We’ve all got to admit that it’s the left that made the running. And we’ve seen that regardless of which government has been in power, from the energy price gap to the 2050 climate change target to the ESG agenda in companies. There’s been a cultural shift across both business and the public sector. Towards a lot more left wing policies. And despite the long record of failure of industrial policy, it’s back in vogue again, people are talking about it”.

RESOURCES

Liz Truss’s Speech

STORY

Chris Pincher, the Conservative MP for Tamworth, has announced that he intends to stand down from the House of Commons following the loss of his appeal against an eight week suspension over groping allegations. Pincher said that “I will make arrangements to resign and leave the Commons”, leaving the seat that he first won in 2010. The Conservative Party won the constituency at the 2019 General Election with a majority of 19,634.

RESOURCES

Chris Pincher

Tamworth

STORY

Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, has said following an interview that “does anyone ever say you’ve done a good job because everyone else has sat on their arse and done nothing? Any sign of that, no?” Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, has earlier denied responsibility for the crisis and stated that he made funding available when Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The BBC reported that Downing Street condemned the conduct of the Education Secretary, starting that she was “completely wrong”. Keegan has yet to issue a statement on the comments from Downing Street.

RESOURCES

Rishi Sunak Interview with Sky News on Concrete Crisis

EXTERNAL LINKS

BBC News Story