Michael Simmons

Unsurprisingly, the Bank of England has voted to keep interest rates at 3.75 per cent. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which decides these things, split 7-2 in favour of the decision. A hold in rates is welcome but had largely been priced in already, given yesterday’s cooler-than-expected inflation figures, which saw the consumer price index increase by an unchanged 2.8 per cent. Then, if it was not already a certainty, this morning’s figures on the jobs market confirmed things, with a fall in the unemployment rate – albeit caused by a jump in economic inactivity rather than job creation. The conversation now moves to when the MPC will feel able to cut rates. Talk of future hikes to control inflation is starting to become redundant.

One of the things wrong with Britain is our inability to say no to campaign groups once they win a hearing on the One Show. One rare exception to that has been Starmer’s cabinet standing up to Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) – the least deserving compensation group in the history of these isles. At the beginning of this year, Welfare Secretary Pat McFadden recommitted the government to the decision to refuse compensation to the 3.6 million women born in the 1950s who claimed not to have been informed that their state pension age would rise to bring it into line with the male retirement age. McFadden was right to make that decision because the claim is beyond baseless.

The final tranche of the Mandelson files was released this afternoon – though no thanks to Lord Mandelson. A Cabinet Office note released alongside the 1,500 pages of documents covering Mandelson’s time as our man in Washington said that messages held on his personal phone would not be handed over. As this was not a statutory inquiry, the Cabinet Office concluded it ‘has no further recourse to search the personal devices of Peter Mandelson’. What they do have, though, are messages between Mandelson and members of the government who have had no choice but to comply. For those hoping for explosions, this particular minesweeper has not – at the time of writing – found much.

Having said she would make no further comment on the imprisonment of her husband, Nicola Sturgeon’s lawyer has issued two further statements on her behalf. Aamer Anwar – a sort of Better Call McSaul – is an odd choice to represent a former first minister who wants to be left alone, given that he’s perhaps the most limelight hungry lawyer in Scotland, if not all of Britain.  His latest utterance on behalf of his client addresses the claim that Sturgeon should have clocked her husband’s embezzlement through her oversight of the SNP’s accounts. Even if she had no idea what he was up to in the marital home, so the argument goes, she should have at least spotted the discrepancies in the SNP’s finances.