Kate Andrews is deputy editor of The Spectator’s World edition.
‘We are in a horrible fiscal bind’ says the Institute for Fiscal Studies this morning, as it publishes its Green Budget report ahead of the Autumn Statement. A combination of stagnant growth, stubborn inflation, rising debt interest payments and a tax burden at a postwar high has produced a grim assessment of the UK economy, which the
It was a year ago this weekend that Liz Truss sacked her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, over the fallout of their ‘growth plan’. This marked the beginning of the end of Truss’s premiership: she then appointed Jeremy Hunt to the role, and he swiftly dismantled almost every part of her infamous mini-Budget. Since leaving No. 10,
The International Monetary fund has published its biannual World Economic Outlook report – and it’s more bad news for the UK. While the IMF’s predictions for 2023 fall broadly in line with other forecasts – which show Germany having the most economic trouble this year – the IMF predicts that the UK will be an outlier come
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Fraud, by some margin, is the biggest crime in Britain. How did it spin out of control? Who is responsible? And who do we call to tackle and prevent the biggest menace in the digital era? The Spectator’s economics editor, Kate Andrews is joined by an esteemed panel for this discussion, kindly sponsored by TSB and hosted
Rachel Reeves’s speech at Labour party conference was an attempt to show how the party’s economic strategy differs from the Tories. Oddly, the shadow chancellor decided to do this by cherry-picking the showstoppers from both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak’s highlight reels. Reeves’s accusations were numerous, though predominantly levelled at Truss and her disastrous 49-day
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Cindy Yu is joined by immigration minister Robert Jenrick, Fraser Nelson and Kate Andrews to discuss the Rwanda plan and whether it can truly stop the boats.
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This week: Katy Balls writes in her cover piece that after Tory conference the battle lines have now been drawn between the two main parties. She says we should prepare for a ‘presidential campaign’ ahead of the 2024 election and joins the podcast alongside The Spectator’s editor Fraser Nelson to discuss the dividing lines between Labour and
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After spending most of his conference refusing to say much at all, Rishi Sunak used his speech to make three big policy announcements on HS2, smoking and A-levels. Will these gambles pay off? Fraser Nelson speaks to Katy Balls, Isabel Hardman, Kate Andrews and John Connolly.
Is Akshata Murthy using the Ann Romney playbook? Rishi Sunak’s wife made an unexpected appearance on the main stage at Conservative party conference, delivering a speech that she insisted was even a surprise for the Prime Minister. This wasn’t just an introduction to her husband’s speech. It was ten minutes of glowing remarks about Sunak,
Speaking at the Centre for Policy Studies fringe event at Conservative party conference this afternoon, Jeremy Hunt reiterated once again that there would be no big tax cuts this year. ‘Debt interest payments have gone up so much in the past six months’, he told CPS director Robert Colvile, taking estimates for debt servicing payments
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The Spectator’s Fraser Nelson, Katy Balls and Kate Andrews are joined by special guest Frank Luntz for a live recording of Coffee House Shots from Tory party conference. It was at this event two years ago that Frank first declared Liz Truss to be the next Tory leader. Who might succeed Rishi Sunak? And is a Labour
The whispers going around last year’s party conference largely centred on the state of government – how it was deteriorating so quickly. This year’s whispers are about something that is by no means as dramatic, but possibly as existential to the future of the party: the prospect of tax cuts. The official line is simple:
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This week Freddy Gray takes a trip to Planet Biden and imagines what would happen if little green men invaded earth and found a big orange one back in the White House (01:15), Kate Andrews finds herself appalled by the so-called ‘advice’ routinely handed out to women that can be at best, judgemental, and at
The Office for National Statistics has released the UK’s quarterly national accounts this morning, which show growth in the second quarter of the year remains unrevised at 0.2 per cent. Meanwhile growth in the first quarter has been revised slightly upwards, from 0.1 per cent to 0.3 per cent. This means the economy is now 1.8 per
Adulthood was once determined by age, but now we’ve extended childhood far beyond the teenage years. If the government gets its way, the next generation will never grow up: there are reportedly plans to ban cigarette sales to anyone born after 2009. This would mean that, come 2060, 50-year-olds could be begging their elders to pop
Is the country morphing into ‘sick note Britain’? According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the average worker took 7.8 sick days in the past year: that’s up from 5.8 days from 2019 and the highest level reached since 2010. The number of days taken off is up in all sectors, but
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Jeremy Hunt said yesterday that it would be ‘virtually impossible’ to cut taxes in 2023. James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Kate Andrews about why the government has decided to spent more, rather than cut levies, and about whether Hunt and Sunak’s economic plan will come under criticism from Tory MPs at the Conservative
No one was expecting a big tax cut this year. Rishi Sunak’s government has been clear that 2023 is for the ‘difficult decisions’. If the Tories are to offer up a tax cut, it is much more likely to be announced in the Budget next March. Still, that didn’t make Jeremy Hunt’s comments on LBC
The Bank of England has voted to maintain interest rates at 5.25 per cent, rather than opt for a 15th consecutive hike. Reports that the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee decision was on a knife edge this week were bang on: the MPC voted 5 – 4 to hold the rate, with four members voting to
Will the government have room for tax cuts before an election? Politically, it’s thought to be non-negotiable that they must. Having put the tax burden on course for a post-war high by the end of this Parliament, Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt are going to have to relieve some of that pressure on taxpayers