Good morning. With less than six weeks so go until the budget, economics is rising up the agenda at Westminster. The Bank of England is announcing its latest interest rate decision later – Graeme Wearden will have all the details on his business live blog – and Andrew Griffith is giving his first major speech since being appointed as shadow chancellor just over two weeks ago.
Not surprisingly, Griffith is urging the chancellor, John Healey, to rule out tax rises in the budget. He has been doing interviews this morning and he told BBC Breakfast:
The taxes or the fear of taxes … are driving really big taxpayers to leave our country for overseas, taking hundreds of millions of pounds of tax revenues that will pay for public services …
The thing that they (the government) could do right now is take off the table the fears of ordinary small businesses, the self-employed, who are getting up now, going to work, and allow them to get on with their lives with confidence that the taxes are not going to go up.
The speech will focus on small businesses, and Griffith will announce that he has appointed two advisers – the Tory peer and former MP Craig Mackinlay, a chartered accountant, and Robert Colvile, the outgoing head of the Centre for Policy Studies thinktank – to produce a report for him on cutting red tape for business.
The Tories are keen to present Burnham’s administration as what Andy Haldane would call just another “traditional tax and spend socialist government” and yesterday Kemi Badenoch leapt on what she thought was new evidence to confirm this theory. She posted this on social media.
Only one party has ever rescued the country from trade union control. We’re ready to do so again.
If you weren’t sure what kind of Labour government we have, or want to know what’s in store for you and your family finances, the news below is a big clue and it’s not good news 👇
She was responding to a tweet from the Sun saying Paul Nowak has been made a director at the Bank of England.
It was true; he has. There are up to 14 directors on the Bank’s court of directors and Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, has been appointed as one of its non-executive directors. The court is not the body that sets interest rates; it just oversees the Bank’s administration.
But there is nothing very new or surprising (or socialist) about this. Nowak is replacing Frances O’Grady, who was also TUC general secretary. She was made a non-executive director at the Bank under a Tory government. As was her TUC predecessor.
In fact, this has been happening for decades. Rupert Harrison, who was chief of staff to George Osborne when he was chancellor, took to X yesterday to suggest to his Tory colleagues that they keep things in perspective.
Got no take on this particular candidate but worth noting that it’s been a tradition to have a trade union representative on the Court of the Bank for decades. Since the War I think.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government publishes figures on local government spending.
11am: Andrew Griffith, the shadow chancellor, delivers his speech.
Noon: The Bank of England announces its interest rate decision.
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