Fraser Nelson

Fraser Nelson

Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.

Monday

Fraser Nelson

Was Truss hiding under a desk?

14 min listen

This afternoon Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt stepped in for Liz Truss to field an urgent questions called by the Leader of the Opposition. What could the Prime Minister have been doing which was so urgent that she couldn't attend?Also on the podcast, after Jeremy Hunt reverses nearly all of Trussonomics, will there be a raft of departmental cuts? Could we be looking at a number of Cabinet resignations? James Heale speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth. Produced by Natasha Feroze and Oscar Edmondson.

Fraser Nelson

Trussonomics is dead

18 min listen

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt gave a statement this morning in which he outlined plans to scrap 'almost all' the tax measures announced by his predecessor, Kwasi Kwarteng just four weeks ago. In one of the largest U-turns in history, the markets have become the most important force in British politics.James Forsyth, Katy Balls, Kate Andrews and Fraser Nelson discuss what may happen over the next few weeks.Produced by Max Jeffery and Natasha Feroze.

Fraser Nelson

Will Jeremy Hunt’s U-turns deepen recession?

Just two weeks ago, Liz Truss told the Tory conference that her priority was ‘growth, growth and growth’. But how much of that can she expect now that her new Chancellor plans to jack up corporation tax from 19 per cent to 25 per cent as the economic headwinds strengthen?  As she never tired of telling us during the leadership campaign, it’s an unusual thing to do at a time of threatened recession: no other G7 country plans to put up taxes in this way. Now that she has agreed to go along with the Sunak plan in the name of assuaging the markets, City forecasters are doing a double-take. Instead of that ‘growth, growth and growth’ we are set for recession – and one that they say will be deepened by the U-turns.

Saturday

Fraser Nelson

Why Liz Truss failed

The markets did not crash, so there was not a Black Friday in the way some had envisaged. But this certainly was Black Friday for the Tories, a new low in the party’s history, a debacle to rival Black Wednesday but with none of the economic dividends. A new Prime Minister sacks a Chancellor for doing exactly what she told him to, then declares she will implement every single one of the corporation tax rises that she had spent the summer promising to stop. So it now emerges that Liz Truss stood for leader on a false prospectus, promising an agenda she has quickly proved unable to deliver. Her plan during her campaign was £30 billion of unfunded tax cuts – in a government that takes almost £1,000 billion a year in taxes, this was doable. But at a push.

Friday

Fraser Nelson

Can Truss calm the markets?

12 min listen

Liz Truss has delivered an 8-minute long press conference confirming the latest corporation tax U-turn and insisting she will stay on as Prime Minister. Did it do enough to reassure voters and calm the markets?Cindy Yu speaks to James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson.Produced by Cindy Yu and Natasha Feroze.

Fraser Nelson

What will Kwasi do?

9 min listen

It's one of those flight tracker days here in Westminster as Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is about to land from a trip to the IMF in Washington, cut short last night. Is the government about to U-turn on its three-week-old mini budget? If so, will the Chancellor resign? Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson.

Monday

Fraser Nelson

Nicola Sturgeon and the politics of hatred

One of the problems with nationalism – of any stripe – is its uglier undercurrents. The Scottish National Party has made great strides presenting itself as civic and progressive, but it’s usually never too long before blood-and-soil arguments start to come through. So you’ll hear fairly sinister arguments about how the SNP’s opponents are not really Scottish (a point made about me quite often) or that their opponents are not just wrong but malign, even evil and detestable. Speaking ahead of her party conference, Nicola Sturgeon forgot herself. 'If the question to me is: would I prefer a Labour government over a Tory government,' she told her fellow Scot Laura Kuenssberg.

Sunday

Fraser Nelson

Can Truss repair the damage of her first four weeks?

Soon after being elected Tory leader, Iain Duncan Smith summed up a test that he was soon to fail. ‘At the moment, I am a clean slate,' he said. 'It’s the next four months that count. If the wrong colours are applied to my slate, they will be there for ever. I have to be able to show in the first few months that my strengths are the dominant features, so that people will say, “That bloke looks as though he knows where he’s going.”’ William Hague, he said, never recovered from the baseball cap incidents. Early slips, he said, are fatal. Three or four months is a luxurious timetable. In an era where social media is Britain’s No. 1 source of written news, the whole process is accelerated.

Wednesday

Fraser Nelson

Suella Braverman: ‘Brexit isn’t a revolution – it’s a restoration’

During her leadership bid, Suella Braverman positioned herself as a Tory maverick – a firm believer in Brexit, a campaigner for low taxes, and a defender of controlled immigration. Once her campaign ended, she backed Liz Truss because, she said, she wanted to join a team that would change things. When Kwasi Kwarteng announced he would abolish the 45p rate of tax on highest salaries, she was delighted. And when Michael Gove and others rebelled against the plan, she accused them of orchestrating a ‘coup’. We meet a few hours after her remarks, at a Spectator event at the Tory party conference in Birmingham. She’s a little late, given the kerfuffle caused by a home secretary talking about a coup. ‘That word has followed me everywhere,’ she says.

Tuesday

Fraser Nelson

Is Truss facing another rebellion?

11 min listen

Liz Truss is coming under pressure over another of her policies. Should she increase benefits payments in line with inflation, or in line with earnings, as she would prefer? Will the PM change her mind again?Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.Produced by Max Jeffery.

Fraser Nelson

Why Penny Mordaunt’s pre-rebellion matters

Another day, another Tory rebellion. Liz Truss needs to think of ways to constrain spending and tough decisions lie ahead. One option is to increase benefits in line with average salaries (6.2 per cent), rather than CPI inflation (9.9 per cent). Her aides are preparing the argument. Why should someone on welfare see their income rise faster than someone in work? And with public sector wages rising at just 2 per cent, can government really give a near-10 per cent rise to those on benefits – while saying that there's not enough money to do the same for nurses, teachers etc? Those around the PM think that, unlike the 45p tax rate cut, this is a tough-love, fiscal-responsibility battle that can be won.

Monday

Fraser Nelson

Why has Truss u-turned?

13 min listen

The Prime Minister has abandoned her plan to scrap the top 45 per cent rate of income tax. Why?Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.Produced by Max Jeffery.

Sunday

Fraser Nelson

Did Gove just torpedo Truss?

14 min listen

Michael Gove this morning said that Liz Truss's plans to scrap the top 45 per cent tax rate are a 'display of the wrong values'. It comes as Jake Berry, the Tory party chairman, confirmed that MPs who vote against the budget would lose the Conservative whip. Has Gove just ruined Truss's conference?James Heale speaks to Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls.Produced by Max Jeffery.

Friday

Fraser Nelson

Liz Truss’s mea culpa moment

11 min listen

Despite rejecting the Office for Budget Responsibility's offer of a forecast to accompany last week's so-called fiscal event, this morning it appears that the government have u-turned. What can we expect from the OBR's statement ahead of the November budget?Also on the podcast, after last night's YouGov poll put Labour ahead by 33 points, how has the news been received by Conservative MPs? Will Truss row back on her economic plans?Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.Produced by Natasha Feroze and Oscar Edmondson.

Thursday

Fraser Nelson

Could Truss axe Kwarteng?

23 min listen

Liz Truss broke her silence this morning and embarked on a pre-Tory conference media round of regional stations across the UK. In a brutal set of interviews, the Prime Minister faced questions on tax cutting the rich at the expense of the poor, fracking and bankers' bonuses. With conference just three days away, what will be her next moves to take back control of her party, and win back the British public? Could Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng be sacrificed to save her instead?Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.

Wednesday

Fraser Nelson

Why is the Bank of England buying gilts?

18 min listen

The Bank of England has today announced a major intervention into gilts to prevent a 'material risk' to financial stability as a result of government policy. How unprecedented is this move? Will Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng break their silence? Are we heading for another leadership election?Kate Andrews speaks with Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Monday

Fraser Nelson

Will the Bank of England now move to steady the pound?

After a weekend where the markets digested the Kwasi Kwarteng plan for growth, the pound hit $1.03 in early trading in Asia – the lowest rate since the dollar was invented in 1792. The fall was shortlived – it later rebounded to $1.07 – but the fact that it touched such a low at all has set off speculation that the Bank of England will stage an emergency intervention putting up interest rates by as much as one percentage point. ‘We’ve entered the part of the currency crisis where psychology takes over. That could mean the markets continue to test the Bank and the pound falls further, suggesting that the Bank has to have another go to assert its authority,’ said Paul Dales, Chief UK Economist at Capital Economics.

Saturday

Fraser Nelson

The benefits scandal Kwasi Kwarteng should tackle next

I was at an end-of-summer party for the Centre for Social Justice last night, with some politicians and others interested in the welfare-to-work agenda. The reaction to the budget was mixed. The various donors there were stunned to have been given the biggest tax cut of their lives – the biggest since Nigel Lawson cut the top rate of income tax from 60 to 40 per cent. These are philanthropists, by and large, highly likely to give a chunk of their tax cut to causes they support. That's why Kwarteng's budget will have gone down very well amongst the charity fundraisers who depend on such people. The Charities Aid Foundation once calculated that 9 per cent of the UK population contributes 66 per cent of donations, a group they call the 'Civic Core'.

Friday

Fraser Nelson

Kwarteng’s audacious budget

17 min listen

Kwasi Kwarteng has today announced what has been dubbed as his mini-Budget, but looking at the scale of the package it is far from small. The Coffee House Shots team take us through what has been revealed. Who are the winners and who are the losers?Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Kate Andrews.Produced by Oscar Edmondson.