Rishi Sunak

Further links have emerged between Whitehall and Greensill Capital, the collapsed lender that David Cameron lobbied for. David Brierwood combined a role as a crown representative in the Cabinet Office with being a director at Greensill for three and a half years. The Cabinet Office stressed that Brierwood’s role was nothing to do with supply […]

The government’s links with collapsed finance firm Greensill Capital are to come under further scrutiny as ministers continue to face questions over David Cameron’s lobbying activities. The head of the watchdog which exposed the way the former head of government procurement was able to take a position as a part-time adviser to the firm while […]

MPs have asked what Rishi Sunak is “afraid of” by avoiding the House of Commons during an urgent question on David Cameron and his involvement in the Greensill lobbying row. Text messages revealed Sunak revealed “pushed” officials to consider plans that could have helped the firm Cameron was lobbying for. Labour MP Andrew Gwynne told […]

Ministers are expected to face questions in the House of Commons over David Cameron’s lobbying activities on behalf of the collapsed financial firm Greensill Capital. Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds has been granted an urgent Commons question calling on chancellor Rishi Sunak to explain how Greensill was granted access to a Covid loan scheme for businesses, […]

Boris Johnson has commissioned a wide-ranging independent review into Greensill Capital, the collapsed financial firm for which David Cameron lobbied ministers. Downing Street announced that lawyer Nigel Boardman is due to lead the probe, which will examine how government contracts were secured by the company and the actions of the former prime minister. Cameron accepted […]

David Cameron has accepted he should have communicated with the government “through only the most formal of channels” as he acknowledged he made mis-steps over the Greensill Capital lobbying controversy. Breaking his weeks of silence, the former prime minister said in a statement that having “reflected on this at length” he accepts there are “important […]

Rishi Sunak has been defended by a fellow Cabinet minister amid calls for an investigation after text messages showed he “pushed” officials to consider plans that could have helped a firm David Cameron was lobbying for. Labour questioned whether the chancellor had broken the ministerial code, while the SNP urged Mr Sunak to appear before […]

Calls for an investigation have been made after Rishi Sunak revealed he “pushed” officials to consider plans that could have helped a firm David Cameron was lobbying for. Labour also questioned whether the chancellor had broken the ministerial code, while the SNP urged Sunak to appear before parliament next week to “set the record straight” […]

Legal campaigners are taking the government to court contending the £4.8billion Levelling Up Fund is unlawful as 40 out of 45 scheme to be approved had at least one Tory MP. The Good Law Project claim Rishi Sunak and Robert Jenrick’s constituencies are among the areas to have benefitted from that a funding formula that […]

Rishi Sunak has admitted he was opposed to having a circuit break lockdown in September, insisting there “wasn’t a clear-cut case” for doing so. Ministers last year were accused of ignoring scientific advice after Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) recommended at a meeting on September 21 that a lockdown should be implemented to slow […]

Former ministers like David Cameron need to be “very careful” how they conduct themselves, the communities secretary has said, amid growing controversy over the ex-premier’s lobbying activities. Robert Jenrick said it was important that those who had had the “privilege” of serving in Government did not act in a way which “does harm” to the […]

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has called for firms to reopen their offices as he declared the traditional workplace superior to remote working. Companies across the UK are looking at how to tackle the issue of remote versus office working once lockdown ends, with many backing a hybrid model. But Sunak has touted the benefits of the […]

The UK’s lobbying watchdog has launched an investigation into whether David Cameron persuaded government figures to grant loans to a financial firm he worked for. Cameron reportedly sent a number of texts to the chancellor’s private number requesting financial support for Greensill Capital through the government’s Covid business relief scheme. He is also alleged to have […]

Questions are bring raised about David Cameron’s latest lobbying attempt after it emerged he pressured the chancellor in private texts to issue hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of emergency Covid loans to a company he was advising. The Sunday Times reported the former prime minister sent multiple texts to Rishi Sunak’s private phone in April 2020 badgering […]

Comedian Mitch Benn hands out his alternative awards of another week in politics… REPEAT OFFENDER OF THE WEEK Rishi Sunak, who followed up last week’s excruciating “I’m just a guy, standing in front of a country, commending my budget to the House” video with an equally bizarre sequel in which he was interviewed by a […]

Shadow business secretary Ed Miliband said that he does not believe the Budget passes the “Bevan test”. Speaking in the House of Commons the former Labour leader said: “120,000 people have died from Covid. Our way of life has been dramatically restricted. Our key workers have stepped up and put themselves in harm’s way for […]

A Conservative former minister has suggested the majority of Britons are economically illiterate for supporting the chancellor’s corporation tax increase. Sir Christopher Chope criticised the move to raise the tax on company profits from 19% to 25% from 2023, suggesting it was a policy which had more in common with those proposed by former Labour […]

The allocation of £1 billion funding to mainly Conservative seats “feels like pork-barrel politics”, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has claimed. He said of the 45 areas allocated cash under new towns deals, 40 were represented by Tories and it sounded “fishy”. But Boris Johnson said it was partly due to his success in the […]

Labour has accused the chancellor of failing patients due to planned cuts to day-to-day spending in the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). Written Budget documents revealed that there is a planned cut of £30 billion in day-to-day spending from April of this year, falling from £199.2 billion to £169.1 billion. NHS England will […]

JAMES BALL on the mounting national debt, and what should be done about it. Think, for a moment, about your home. This should not be a difficult task for most of us, given we’ve all been spending a lot more time than usual stuck there. There’s probably a bed, a kitchen, hopefully a TV – […]

Rishi Sunak has handed 90% of a £1billion towns fund to Tory constituencies in the Budget yesterday. Of the 45 towns benefiting from the fund, 40 have at least one Tory MP with almost half of the towns in the so-called “Red Wall” northern seats taken from Labour in the 2019 election. Those towns will […]

The Commons speaker has lashed out at Rishi Sunak’s pre-Budget PR drive, telling the chancellor policies should be announced to MPs first. Sir Lindsay Hoyle said it was important the chancellor follow “tradition” after it emerged journalists had been pre-briefed on the Budget by the Treasury. Sir Lindsay said that “at one time the Budget was never […]

The UK’s spending watchdog has said in its latest analysis to accompany Rishi Sunak’s budget that the prime minister’s Brexit deal will shrink the economy by 4%. The Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) said there was very little in Johnson’s deal that would change the prediction of a long-term loss to productivity over 15 years. […]

Union leaders said the Rishi Sunak’s silence on pay for public sector workers was “deafening”. Officials of unions representing hundreds of thousands of public sector workers and civil servants described Rishi Sunak’s Budget as an “insult”. Many public sector workers face a pay freeze this year despite calls for an increase because of their efforts […]

The Labour left is arguing that Keir Starmer risks being “outflanked” by the Tories during this week’s budget if it does not go far enough. Socialist campaign group MPs Apsana Begum, John McDonnell and Richard Burgon are calling for a “People’s Budget” to reflect the “1945 moment” the country as it leaves lockdown. Burgon is expected […]

Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds has accused the government of “furiously trying to manage expectations down” over its post Brexit trading arrangements for financial services. Ahead of Rishi Sunak’s Budget, the Labour frontbencher said she was “particularly concerned” over the uncertainty surrounding the memorandum of understanding with the EU for the sector. There was she added a […]

Labour has warned Rishi Sunak against immediately raising taxes in his Budget on Wednesday, urging him instead to focus on securing the economic recovery. Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said now is “not the time” for tax rises, but signalled that she could support an increase in corporation tax in the future. Her comments came amid […]

Reports claim that chancellor Rishi Sunak will not include a pay boost for health workers in England’s forthcoming budget, despite warnings it could cause an exodus among frontline staff. Sunak will not make any decision on salaries for NHS staff until he receives the NHS Pay Review Body’s conclusions, which are due to be delivered […]

Former chancellor Philip Hammond has urged Boris Johnson to tell the public “some difficult home truths” ahead of next week’s Budget. The ex-occupant of Number 11, who was a close ally of Theresa May, also said the government should ditch “very extravagant” promises from its manifesto. Lord Hammond of Runnymede told the BBC he broadly […]

TIM WALKER on the list of the chancellor’s engagements, and the mystery of the missing BBC Boris Johnson documentary. When it comes to ingratiating himself with the media, Boris Johnson will be alarmed to learn that his ambitious chancellor Rishi Sunak, pictured, is beating him at his own game. In the third quarter of 2020, Sunak ate out to help […]

TIM WALKER on the latest in-house spending at the Treasury. Plus, how Steinway pianos have suffered from Brexit. With a £500 million-plus personal fortune and a father-in-law who’s a billionaire, Rishi Sunak inevitably seems to struggle sometimes to empathise with lesser mortals. Already in these straitened times, the chancellor has allowed annual running costs for his flat in […]

Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds has launched an attack on Rishi Sunak’s handling of the pandemic, claiming his policies have costs job and left the UK with the highest death toll in Europe. Dodds has accused her Tory opposite number of repeatedly taking the wrong policy options, with the government setting up a “false choice” between protecting public […]