“Andrew Bailey has signalled there could be further pain to come for households as the Bank of England raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point. Policymakers at the Bank of England increased rates to 4.25pc on Thursday, a near 15-year high and the eleventh time rates have been raised in 15 months. It comes after official data showed that inflation grew unexpectedly last month. Mr Bailey…said policymakers need to see more proof of inflation falling to pause the…rate rises…He added: “There are signs of calming down and of course that’s encouraging… but we need to see this translated now into the big fall in inflation we expect.” In a later interview with broadcasters, Mr Bailey said that interest rates may not yet have peaked.” – The Daily Telegraph
“Britain will on Friday hold talks to deepen co-operation with the EU, including on university research and financial regulation, as UK prime minister Rishi Sunak seeks to build on his crushing defeat of Tory Eurosceptics in a key parliamentary vote this week. Foreign secretary James Cleverly will discuss ways to develop the relationship following the 515 to 29 House of Commons vote to ratify Sunak’s new post-Brexit deal for Northern Ireland, the Windsor framework. Many Conservative MPs view the result, which saw only 22 Tory MPs refuse to back the deal, as a watershed moment, in which the party moved on from its Brexit traumas and opened the way for more constructive relations with Brussels.” – The Financial Times
>Today:
>Today:
“All Albanian criminals in the UK who are eligible for deportation could be returned to their home country under a new agreement struck last night. Downing Street announced that a joint task force would assess Albania’s prison capacity by the end of next month with the aim of removing all those who qualified. At the end of last year, there were 1,336 Albanians in prisons in England and Wales, the largest nationality of foreign inmates in British jails. Only those who have been given a prison sentence of at least 12 months will be eligible for deportation. Albanians are ten times more likely to be given a custodial sentence than the average person in the UK. The deal was struck between Rishi Sunak and Edi Rama, the Albanian prime minister, who visited Downing Street yesterday.” – The Times
“Jeremy Hunt believes tax cuts this year remain unlikely because they could make it harder to control inflation after the Bank of England voted to raise interest rates again. The Chancellor privately warned that the persistence of high prices will make it harder for him to offer tax cuts or public spending increases in future. Another minister told i that Rishi Sunak “needs rates to come down” in the next year in order to convince voters that the economy is going in the right direction. The Bank’s main rate has risen to 4.25 per cent, the 11th consecutive hike … A Treasury source said that fiscal policy would need to remain tight in order to avoid counteracting the effect of interest rate increases… The Bank of England has upgraded its forecast for economic growth in the next quarter…” – The I
>Today:
“Dozens of organisations and charities have written to the education secretary, amid fears that sex education in England may become a casualty of the culture wars. More than 50 organisations concerned with education and tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) have written to Gillian Keegan to urge her to resist the “politicisation” of sex education, following a row in which Conservative backbench MPs claimed that children were being taught “graphic lessons on oral sex, how to choke your partner safely, and 72 genders”. Rishi Sunak responded by asking the Department for Education to “ensure schools are not teaching inappropriate or contested content” in the subject of relationships, sex and health education (RSHE)…” – The Guardian
>Today:
“Boris Johnson will step up campaigning in his constituency as concerns grow that he will face a by-election within months if he is sanctioned over the Downing Street lockdown parties scandal. The Times has been told that Johnson is already planning for the “worst-case scenario”, a ten-day suspension from the Commons, which could trigger a by-election in Uxbridge & Ruislip. Johnson has been more active in the constituency since becoming a backbencher and is campaigning for a new hospital in Hillingdon and a new police station in Uxbridge. His efforts have been focused on local issues and his personal brand and he does not mention Rishi Sunak as prime minister on his website at all.” – The Times
“Tory MPs are to mount an attempt to bar migrants from being housed in hotels after a backlash over the cost of more than £6 million a day. The MPs have tabled an amendment to the Illegal Migration Bill that would ban the use of hotels for any migrant held in the UK pending their removal. The move came as new figures released by the Government to the Commons home affairs committee showed that housing asylum seekers and Afghan refugees in hotels had cost £1.84 billion in the first nine months of last year – equivalent to £6.68 million a night…Jonathan Gullis, the former minister who tabled the amendment, said it was designed to put pressure on the Government to deliver on its commitment to end the use of hotels for asylum seekers.” – The Daily Telegraph
“New climate visas should be created to allow victims of natural disasters to come to the UK, and to bring in skilled workers needed for the transition to net zero, a Conservative thinktank has argued. Onward, whose co-founder Will Tanner recently became Rishi Sunak’s deputy chief of staff, is urging the government to prepare for the likely increase in global migration as a result of the climate crisis… “We cannot allow climate-related migration to become the defining crisis of the 21st century. The government needs to act now to build climate resilience in the most vulnerable regions on the planet and open up safe and legal visa routes for those fleeing environmental disasters,” said the report’s co-author, Ted Christie-Miller.” – The Guardian
“Labour’s deputy leader has suggested that the party should raise taxes on savings and investments. Angela Rayner made the comments as she criticised Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, for paying a lower rate of tax than most working people. It is understood that a large increase in capital gains tax is on the table if Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, wins the next election. Sir Keir and Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, refused to rule out an increase in the levy after being publicly confronted about their plans on Thursday. A capital gains tax rise would come on top of other raids on the middle-classes planned by Labour, including reversing the Government’s plan to abolish the lifetime cap on tax-free pension savings and cancelling tax breaks for private schools.” – The Daily Telegraph
“The SNP’s election fortunes look uncertain after a new poll revealed all the candidates battling it out to replace Nicola Sturgeon as first minister are far less popular with voters. Research by Ipsos found that Sturgeon will depart office as the most popular politician in the country with a favourability rating of plus 8, an increase of four points in the past month. This puts her not only ahead of the opposition leader but also clear of Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes and Ash Regan, the candidates to succeed her. Yousaf, the health secretary, who is widely seen as Sturgeon’s favoured replacement, scored minus 20 — which put him closer in popularity to Rishi Sunak than his current boss. The prime minister had a net popularity rating of minus 37.” – The Times