George osborne

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Osborne’s Statement is likely to get stamp of approval

From our UK edition

George Osborne has delivered an autumn statement that, provided it doesn’t unravel in the next few hours, should give him very good headlines. He has abolished the old, unfair system for stamp duty and claims that his new system means 98 per cent of people buying new homes will pay less stamp duty as a result. The changes will come into effect at midnight tonight and those who have exchanged contracts but not completed will be able to take advantage of the reforms if they want. This is the measure that MPs will vote on in the mystery three-line whip division tomorrow, giving Labour 24 hours to decide what it thinks.

Fraser Nelson

George Osborne’s new stamp duty regime explained

From our UK edition

If you’re buying a house, or thinking about it, there’s only one fact you need to know about today’s Budget: stamp duty is changing. Gone is the old system of thresholds, and instead it will be a percentage chunk of the value. And no, this ist a disguised tax graph – the Chancellor expects to lose more money out of this reform than any other. So no tax will be paid on the first £125,000 of a property. Then it's 2% on the portion of the value of the flat up to £250,000, then 5% of the portion up to £925,000, 10% for up to £1.5 million and 12 % on everything beyond that. The new regime is above.

James Forsyth

Another very political mini-Budget from George Osborne

From our UK edition

A preview of James Forsyth's political column in this week's Spectator, out tomorrow: Autumn Statements lack the drama and traditions of the Budget. Gladstone never delivered one, there is no Autumn Statement box and no possibility of a dram of whisky as the chancellor delivers it. But this year’s Autumn Statement was more important, and more substantial, than next year’s Budget will be: the Liberal Democrats are adamant that March is too close to the general election for the Budget to do anything other than update the fiscal forecasts and set out the duty rates. The test this week isn’t economic but political.

The Spectator

Lesson of the Autumn Statement? Boldness is best

From our UK edition

Here is a preview of the leading article from this week's Spectator, out tomorrow, on George Osborne's Autumn Statement:  When George Osborne first became Chancellor, he asked to be judged on his ability to reduce the deficit. He does not make that request any more. This year’s deficit is almost three times higher than the £37 billion he originally planned, but he understandably glossed over this point when delivering his Autumn Statement. He has other interests now: pension reform, building motorways, or spending more on GPs. The mission to balance the books has been delayed until the end of the decade — or, perhaps, the start of the next. He said this week that his extra spending was made possible by ‘the hard decisions that we have taken’.

The Spectator

Full text: George Osborne’s 2014 Autumn Statement

From our UK edition

Mr Speaker, Four years ago, in the first Autumn Statement of this Parliament, I presented the accounts of an economy in crisis. Today, in the last Autumn Statement of this Parliament, I present a forecast that shows the UK is the fastest growing of any major advanced economy in the world. listen to ‘Osborne's Autumn Statement in full’ on audioBoom Back then, Britain was on the brink. Today, against a difficult global backdrop, I can report: higher growth, lower unemployment, falling inflation, and a deficit that is falling too. Today a deficit that is half what we inherited. Mr Speaker, our long term economic plan is working. Now Britain faces a choice.

Steerpike

Autumn Statement Tricks: Osborne confounds the betting market

From our UK edition

Ignore the numbers, the spin and the bleak borrowing – there is only one question that needs answering. What colour is the Chancellor's tie? Ladbrokes were offering bets on the subject, and Mr S understands a significant amount of cash has changed hands on the subject: 1/2 Blue 3/1 Purple 4/1 Green 10/1 Red 12/1 Pink 12/1 Grey 16/1 Yellow 16/1 Orange 16/1 Black 25/1 White 66/1 Hi-vis Ever the trickster, Osborne seems to have confounded the punters. Is his tie sludge green, grey or black? It seems like the matter should be referred to some sort of independent Office of Budget Betting Responsibility. Ladbrokes are yet to call it... UPDATE: Ladbrokes tell Mr S that they will pay out on grey, green and black as Osborne's tie is 'painfully ambiguous'.

Isabel Hardman

No 10: Autumn Statement is to ‘stay on course for prosperity’

From our UK edition

George Osborne’s pitch at today’s Autumn Statement will be for voters to give the Tories another five years leading the government to finish the job of balancing the books. Today the Prime Minister’s official spokesman summed up the address from the Chancellor that we’ll hear in just over half an hour as ‘an Autumn Statement to stay on course for prosperity’. Presumably we’ll get something a bit snappier than that from Osborne himself. We’re still waiting to see what the political trap is that he appears to be laying for Labour, with no more clarity on that mysterious three-line whip vote on Thursday.

Tuesday

Sebastian Payne

David Cameron and George Osborne still the most trusted on the economy

From our UK edition

Good news for the Tories: a new ComRes poll confirms that David Cameron and George Osborne are the most trusted pair to 'see the country through the current economic situation'. As the chart above shows, Labour's two Eds are lagging significantly behind the present Tory leadership in the trust stakes, even coming in below Ukip's Nigel Farage. These numbers reinforce the Conservatives' strategy of talking up the economy (instead of say immigration) as the key to winning the next election.

Isabel Hardman

What’s Osborne plotting now? Tories plan mysterious vote after Autumn Statement

From our UK edition

The Conservative party is all abuzz this afternoon, but it’s not about the Autumn Statement. They’ve been told that there is a three-line whip vote on ‘something’ on Thursday. Not even the whips know what the vote is on, other than that they must tell MPs to turn up. Labour is also on a three-line whip. Apparently all will be revealed tomorrow at the Autumn Statement, which suggests that this is going to be some kind of elephant trap laid by George Osborne for Labour.

Isabel Hardman

George Osborne’s Autumn Statement choreography makes life doubly difficult for Labour

From our UK edition

George Osborne is choreographing his autumn statement week to make things as difficult as possible for Labour. At present senior ministers are travelling the country handing out nice things to voters as they unveil details of the 2014 National Infrastructure Plan. Yesterday’s roads bonanza has been replaced by a garden city, better flood defences and a tidal project in Swansea today. You can almost hear the Chancellor singing ‘roll out the barrel’ as he and colleagues indulge in American-style pork-barrel politics by handing out many of these goodies to seats they want to hold or win (read Seb’s piece yesterday).

Monday

Fraser Nelson

In graphs: How George Osborne learned to stop worrying and love the debt

From our UK edition

I have just been on Adam Boulton's Sky News show, talking about the forthcoming Autumn Statement with Ann Pettifor, a left-wing economist. "I bet you didn't expect me to defend George Osborne," she told me, after our discussion finished. The UK economy is doing well, she argued, because Osborne has been borrowing like a drunken Keynesian (a good thing, in her book). And she does have a point. The left made a great error when they attacked Osborne for cruel, fast, deep cuts - he is shaving just 4pc from total government spending and giving himself eight years to do it. To give himself so much time. has had to borrow shedloads of money. As much as Alistair Darling planned to.

Sebastian Payne

The MPs who will benefit from George’s marvellous marginals medicine

From our UK edition

'The biggest, boldest and most far-reaching roads programme for decades' — or the biggest, boldest marginal constituency programme? George Osborne has magicked up £15 billion for 84 new roads, some 100 overall improvements, totalling 1,300 miles of new lanes across the country. Unsurprisingly for an overtly political chancellor like Osborne, a majority of these roads will benefit marginal constituencies. The Telegraph has figured out all of the MPs who will benefit from the road spending and has calculated as many of 2/3 of the proposed improvements will help marginal constituencies. These are the most marginal Tory seats who will benefit  from George's marvellous marginal medicine: A34: Nicola Blackwood [datawrapper chart="http://static.

Isabel Hardman

George Osborne’s roads bonanza is the most fun he’ll have for a while

From our UK edition

George Osborne has been looking forward to this particular Autumn Statement for a while because it is the opportunity for him and other colleagues to tour the country like Santa with a large infrastructure sack, handing out £15bn of road improvements to marginal constituencies and helping voters feel as though the recovery is making their lives better. Today is a day of jostling between the Chancellor and his Lib Dem colleagues who also want to take lots of credit for the goodies that they are handing out. But Wednesday looks as though it will be a little less cheerful, given the warning from the Ernst & Young Item Club that ‘the improvement in the public finances is in danger of not just stalling but going into reverse’.

Thursday

Martin Vander Weyer

Forget corporate social responsibility: just do a proper job

From our UK edition

A theme of this autumn has been conversations about corporate reputation and how it is guarded or lost. To name but three, I have kicked this around at a ‘Trust Forum’ sponsored by the lawyers DLA Piper at Oxford’s Said Business School, at a lunch hosted by the wealth managers McInroy & Wood, and in an interview with Lord (Stuart) Rose, former Marks & Spencer chief, at last week’s York Business Conference. The essence is that most big companies feel their reputations are increasingly fragile, and that public trust is now routinely and unfairly denied to them. Non-banks blame banks for letting the side down. All companies blame the media for failing to report good news, and social media for spreading false or subversive rumours.

Tuesday

Steerpike

Does George Osborne really lock his office fridge at night?

From our UK edition

It seems the most exciting thing to come out of today's Commons press gallery lunch with Danny Alexander was the Chief Secretary to the Treasury's claim that George Osborne locks his fridge in the department. Mr Steerpike has never been afflicted by an attack of the munchies while lurking in that part of Whitehall but he had a quick word with a Treasury source, who informed him that the fridge in question is Danny's fridge too, sitting right opposite his office and that it's only locked at night (which makes Mr Steerpike wonder what Alexander was doing going through the Treasury larder at night when officials are so happy to deliver expensive burgers). Apparently it has always been locked at night, ever since the Coalition parties pitched up in the Treasury in May 2015.

Isabel Hardman

MPs push George Osborne to give Autumn Statement wings

From our UK edition

This year's Autumn Statement isn't going to be full of a great deal of Christmas cheer. But as it'll take place just over five months before the General Election, Tory MPs are still pushing for small giveaways from the government to tempt voters to back their party. One such campaign comes from Andrew Bridgen, who has a track record of getting what he wants from the government by hook or by crook. He was a key figure in the rebellion which halted British intervention in Syria last year, and this year persuaded ministers to look at decriminalising non-payment of the TV licence fee. Now he wants the Treasury to abolish air passenger duty for children under 12.

Saturday

Fraser Nelson

Why did George Osborne spoil a genuine victory with spin?

From our UK edition

After spending so many years pointing out Gordon Brown’s tricks and deceits, I had hoped for a bit of a retirement when George Osborne took office. No such luck. The Chancellor seems to have learned too much from his old nemesis and seems unable to resist stretching the truth – sometimes until the elastic snaps. So it proved with yesterday’s EU negotiation. The Chancellor is blowing smoke, but it seems that the £1.7 billion bill has been halved automatically by the application of the UK rebate – in the same way that previous adjustments have been halved automatically by the UK rebate. Osborne’s achievement – a smaller, but genuine one – was to delay the payment.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Tory MPs react to Osborne’s ‘EU bill deal’

From our UK edition

So are Tory backbenchers happy with what George Osborne claims to have brought back from Europe after his talks on that £1.7 billion bill? While the government argues with the European Commission about what it has and hasn't secured this afternoon, the Right of the Tory party have already been working out what they think. Some had set a very low limbo bar of £400 million, and Britain certainly will end up paying more than that. The first thing is that they're naturally not happy with the idea that Britain is paying anything. The basic view of those in the No Turning Back and Cornerstone groups is that Osborne should have turned around to the Commission and say 'sorry chaps, we'll see you in court about this', given the court action would take place after the election.

Anne Jolis

Smoke, mirrors, magic: how George Osborne “halved” the £1.7bn EU bill

From our UK edition

George Osborne took a victory lap on Friday to declare that 'instead of footing the bill, we have halved the bill.' This would be the £1.7 billion EU budget invoice the European Commission handed to the UK government in October, with a pay-by date of 1 December. After meeting with his EU counterparts today, the UK finance minister announced a deal in which 'the bill instead of being £1.7 billion will be around £850 million'. Er...not quite, as it turns out. Here's what Osborne left out: the UK will still owe the full £1.7 billion, only not all in December, and would be able to quickly offset part of the cost with its usual rebate on EU contributions.

Fraser Nelson

Did Osborne halve Britain’s EU bill by admitting that growth still leaves him broke?

From our UK edition

George Osborne will tonight return from Brussels bringing peace with honour. He says he has agreed to hand over just £850 million to the EU, rather than the £1.7 billion it asked for, as a penalty  for having the fastest economic growth in Europe. If true*, how did he wangle it? I have a theory. He could have told the EU that yes, the UK has pretty strong growth – over 3 per cent this year and next. In theory, this leaves the UK better-able to pay bills. But not this time. Quite the reverse: the deficit is actually going up right now – a bit of an embarrassment for a Chancellor who asked to be judged on his performance on tackling it. In fact, Britain now stands as the greatest debt addict in Europe.