James Heale

After last week’s bond market jitters, the Chancellor pledged to go ‘further and faster’ to improve the UK’s anaemic economic growth. An early test of that resolve looks now to be looming in the familiar form of a third runway at Heathrow airport. As I reported earlier this month, Reeves is poised to make a swathe of announcements intended to increase economic growth in a speech later this month. Among them includes giving a political green light to Heathrow’s third runway and an expansion of Gatwick and Luton airports, according to Bloomberg. Successive governments – of various stripes – have ducked Heathrow expansion for decades, with the airport’s last remaining diagonal runway being decommissioned in 2003.

Less than 24 hours after Mark Carney's launch, Chrystia Freeland announced her bid to be the next Liberal party leader of Canada. The former finance minister – whose resignation last month triggered Justin Trudeau's downfall – put out a pithy six word statement this morning. 'I'm running to fight for Canada', it said, simply. She intends to officially launch her campaign on Sunday, having already gained public endorsements from Mark Holland and Diane Lebouthillier. The leadership field has narrowed considerably this week as possible contenders Christy Clark, Dominic LeBlanc, Francois Phillipe Champagne and Mélanie Joly all ruled themselves out. It leaves Freeland and Carney as the only two serious candidates for the post of Canada's next Prime Minister.

After nearly a decade of speculation about his political aspirations, Mark Carney has today formally declared that he wants be Canada's next Prime Minister. The former Bank of England Governor kicked off his campaign to be the next Liberal party leader at a community centre in Alberta, promising to build the fastest-growing economy in the G7 if elected. 'I'm doing this because Canada is the best country in the world, but it still could be even better,' he said. Carney was tipped as one of the first names to replace Justin Trudeau when the latter announced his resignation timetable ten days ago. He teased a bid on Tuesday when appearing on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, suggesting that for the Liberals to win an election 'in a situation like this, you need change.

It used to be said that parties were Eurosceptic in opposition but Europhile in government. The same might be true of China too. Under Keir Starmer’s leadership, Labour initially adopted a Sinosceptic stance, strongly condemning the Hong Kong crackdown and promising to recognise China’s treatment of the Uyghurs as genocide. Yet in office, they have abandoned such postures and instead sent various ministers out East. The latest to go and tout for trade is Rachel Reeves, in her never-ending quest for growth. For the first time in five years, the Chancellor will hold an Economic and Financial Dialogue between China and the UK tomorrow in Beijing.

State failure was a consistent theme of British politics in 2024. So as the new year begins, attention has turned to perhaps the most egregious instance of that malaise in modern times: the horrific scandal of grooming gangs in dozens of UK cities. Jess Phillips, the Safeguarding Minister, has rejected calls for a government inquiry into historic child abuse in Oldham, prompting a Tory backlash. Robert Jenrick, the Shadow Justice Secretary, called it 'shameful'; Liz Truss, the ex PM, labelled Phillips' title 'a perversion of the English language.' Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter/X, argues that the Home Office minister 'deserves to be in prison.

On Christmas Day, 12 million people watched the will-they-won’t-they couple Smithy and Nessa finally marry after 17 years in the finale of the hit BBC comedy series Gavin and Stacey. Yet for all the cheery sentiment, it’s a depressing thought that – statistically – in the real world the characters would be earning roughly the same amount at the series’ end in 2024 as they were at its beginning in 2007. Rachel Reeves’s task this year is to spring Britain from its low-growth trap. The early signs are not encouraging. Those captains of industry whom she once so assiduously courted are turning hostile. The Confederation of British Industry says private sector expectations are at their lowest since Liz Truss’s ‘mini-Budget’ fiasco.