English Status

He’s done nothing to help’: Britain reacts to the autumn statement
A taxpayer, a pensioner, a benefit recipient and a parent explain how the chancellor’s changes affect them – if they do at all

The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, delivered his autumn statement on Wednesday and in it announced increases in benefits and a cut in national insurance. We asked a taxpayer, a pensioner, a universal credit claimant and a parent for their views.

‘I hoped they’d be upping the tax thresholds’
Adam Houghton, 44, a psychological therapist from Leeds and a father of two, currently earns £50,952 before tax, but will see his pay rise to £57,349 next year, when he moves to the top of his NHS salary band.

Had the income tax thresholds been raised in line with inflation, today’s higher rate of 40% income tax would only kick in at £57,170, according to financial commentator Paul Lewis, and Houghton would have needed to pay the higher rate only on £179 of his annual pay in the new year, after his income increase.

But because thresholds have been frozen since April 2021, most of his pay rise will be taxed at 40%, meaning Houghton is one of millions of taxpayers affected by so-called fiscal drag.

Despite hopes that chancellor Jeremy Hunt might unfreeze the thresholds and bring tax brackets in line with inflation, the chancellor opted for a cut in national insurance instead.

Workers such as Houghton were given a bit of relief in the form of a two-percentage-point cut in NI, from 12% to 10%, but Houghton is “really disappointed”. He says: “I kind of got my hopes up that they’d be upping the tax thresholds. I’m on a good salary, but I do have two kids. We pay around a grand in nursery fees a month, and currently £1,250 for our mortgage – costs that absorb a lot of my salary. When our mortgage has to be renewed in July, it’ll rise to about £1,750 monthly, the cheapest rate I can find.”

He has been exploring ways to limit his taxable income, including opening a Sipp (self-invested personal pension). “However, that’s a strategy based on the idea that you have some slack in your budget, which we don’t. My family is finding the cost of living tough on our monthly budget. Food and energy have really increased. It must be really tough for people on less money: I have no idea how they’re managing.”

Nissan to secure UK’s largest car plant with two new EV models
Japanese carmaker expected to unveil plan to build replacements for its Qashqai and Juke crossover cars with £1bn investment

Nissan is expected to announce it will build two new electric models in Sunderland, securing the future of the UK’s largest car factory.

The Japanese carmaker will build replacements for its Qashqai and Juke crossover cars, according to Sky which first reported the news.

Investment in the factory could reach as much as £1bn, with significant government subsidy expected.

It comes after the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, announced £2bn of government support on Wednesday for investments in zero-emission technology in the UK’s automotive sector. Hunt said in his autumn statement that the measure had been “warmly welcomed by Nissan and Toyota”, both of which have large factories in Britain.

The investment will be welcomed by the UK car industry, as well as the factory’s 6,000 workers. It follows recent investment announcements from India’s Tata, which will build a £4bn battery factory to supply Jaguar and Land Rover, and BMW, which is spending £600m to upgrade its factory to build electric Mini cars.

The Sunderland plant is Britain’s single largest car factory, capable of making 600,000 cars a year at maximum capacity. However, its output has been significantly lower in recent years as the car industry has struggled with Brexit uncertainty, followed by the coronavirus pandemic and consequent supply chain problems.

The plant makes the petrol models of the Qashqai and Juke, as well as the electric Nissan Leaf. It receives batteries from a factory next door, run by Chinese-owned AESC, that it previously owned.

The AESC factory can make batteries with about 2 gigawatt hours (GWh) of capacity a year, but it is building much larger facilities that will aim to produce 9GWh by 2024, and eventually 38GWh, enough to make roughly 600,000 car batteries a year.

Nissan had already announced in 2021 that Sunderland would be an electric vehicles hub, but it has not so far outlined what models it will build there.

James Cleverly denies calling Stockton North derogatory term

Home Secretary James Cleverly has denied an allegation that he described Stockton North using an offensive term.

Labour MP Alex Cunningham alleged the swear word was used during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.

Mr Cunningham said it happened after he challenged the Prime Minister about child poverty in the constituency.

Mr Cleverly's spokesman said: "He did not say that, and would not. He's disappointed people would accuse him of doing so."

Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Cunningham had asked: "Why are 34% of children in my constituency living in poverty?"

Making a point of order in the Commons later on Wednesday, Mr Cunningham said: "Before the prime minister answered, the home secretary chose to add in his pennyworth.

"He was seen and heard to say 'because it's a sh****le'.

"Yes, I have contacted his office advising him I planned to name him, but sadly he has chosen not to be in the chamber.

"I know he is denying being the culprit, but the audio is clear and has been checked, and checked, and checked again.

"There is no doubt that these comments shame the home secretary, this rotten government, and the Tory Party. He is clearly unfit for his high office."

Energy price cap will rise in January adding pressure on households

Household energy prices will rise in January putting more financial pressure on billpayers at the coldest time of year.

Energy regulator Ofgem said the typical annual household bill would go up from £1,834 to £1,928, a rise of £94 or 5%.

It said the rise in bills would be "worrying" at a difficult time for many people, but was the result of higher wholesale costs faced by suppliers.

Analysts have predicted that prices will fall back in March.

The announcement comes the day after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivered his Autumn Statement.

The regulator's price cap affects 29 million households in England, Wales and Scotland. Rules are different in Northern Ireland. Ofgem sets the maximum amount that suppliers can charge for each unit of gas and electricity but not the total bill, so if you use more, you will pay more.

Specifically, the price of gas will be 7p per kilowatt hour (kWh), and electricity will 29p per kWh.

"It is important that customers are supported and we have made clear to suppliers that we expect them to identify and offer help to those who are struggling with bills," said Jonathan Brearley, chief executive of Ofgem.

Households to be £1,900 poorer, says think tank

Families will be £1,900 poorer at the end of this parliament compared with the beginning, a think tank has said.

The Resolution Foundation said this government would set a "grim" new record for living standards going down.

It also said Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's Autumn Statement changes, including a National Insurance cut, handed the next parliament "implausible" cuts to public sector spending.

But Mr Hunt said the tax cuts would put "more money in people's pockets".

Responding to the Autumn Statement, the Resolution Foundation said that with the next general election due within the next year, "this parliament is on track to be the first in which real household disposable incomes have fallen".

The independent think tank, which focuses on improving living standards for those on low to middle incomes, said Mr Hunt's plans "failed to end a wider economic stagnation".

It said people's purchasing power had been stagnating for 20 years, and that recent pay rises just reflected the reality of higher inflation.

Despite "tax-cutting rhetoric" and about £20bn of tax cuts announced in the Autumn Statement, there had already been £90bn of tax rises announced by the government - so taxes are rising by the equivalent of £4,300 per household between 2019-20 and 2028-29, the think tank said.

The chancellor managed to make these cuts at the expense of not raising public spending in line with the pace of general price rises, meaning departments such as justice, local government and the Home Office face a £17bn budget cut by 2027-28, it added.

Autumn Statement: Hunt denies tax cuts were pre-election giveaway

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has insisted he did not make "crowd-pleasing" tax cuts as giveaways ahead of the next general election in his Autumn Statement.

Mr Hunt used Wednesday's statement to announce a £10bn National Insurance cut for millions and an uplift in benefits.

The Conservatives claimed they had delivered the biggest tax cuts in decades in a move to boost the UK's stagnant economy and top up incomes.

But the UK's overall tax burden is still on course to hit a record high.

The percentage of the nation's income being paid in tax is set to rise to its highest level in 80 years, according the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Hunt denied the Conservatives were being "dishonest" about the UK's tax burden.

Mt Hunt said "contrary to speculation" about a spring general election, "we didn't choose the crowd-pleasers, the inheritance tax or income tax cut".

The chancellor argued he instead chose "tax cuts that are going to help businesses" and stimulate economic growth.

'We need to reduce our numbers' - home secretary

Home Secretary James Cleverly says the government remains "completely committed" to reducing levels of legal migration while also focusing on "stopping the boats".

“This figure is not showing a significant increase from last year’s figures,” he says.

He claims there are "a number of important and positive changes" driving the figures.

"The biggest drivers of immigration to the UK are students and health care workers - [they] are testament to both our world-leading university sector and our ability to use our immigration system to prioritise the skills we need," he adds.

And he says he is "proud" that over the last decade the UK has welcomed more than half a million people through humanitarian routes, principally from Hong Kong, Ukraine and Afghanistan.

“But we do need to reduce our overall numbers by eliminating the abuse and exploitation of our visa system by both companies and individuals," the minister adds.

Labour's shadow home secretary says today's figures show "the scale of utter Tory failure" on immigration, asylum and the economy.

Yvette Cooper says the increase in work visas, and health and social care visas, prove an "abysmal record" on skils and training - adding the government has "run our economy into the ground".

Cooper also cites the number of asylum seekers in hotels at a record high of 56,000 - saying this is costing "almost £3 billion a year".

"Once again, the British taxpayer is footing the bill for the Conservatives’ chaos," she adds.

She says Labour would:

Reform the points-based system
End hotel use
And clear the asylum backlog through fast-track systems, more caseworkers and a new returns unit

Suella Braverman’s fate remains unclear as No 10 says internal inquiry ongoing – UK politics live

Suella Braverman's fate remains in balance as No 10 says internal inquiry into unauthorised article still ongoing
Downing Street is still playing for time. The morning lobby briefing has just finished, and all the No 10 spokesperson would say about Suella Braverman’s fate was that the internal inquiry into what happened with her Times article is still ongoing.

The spokesperson would not even call this an “investigation”. Instead she said it was an “internal process”. That seemed to be a steer that no formal inquiry is under way into whether or not Braverman broke the ministerial code.

The spokesperson would not give any further details of what this “internal process” involves (“we are not providing running commentary”) and would not say how long it would take. But there was nothing she said that implied that a decision will come today.

Asked if the PM still had full confidence in the home secretary, the spokesperson replied: “Yes.” But this sounded more like a formality than a declaration that Sunak holds Braverman in high regard. No 10 almost always says the PM has full confidence in a minister still serving in government, and so the phrase can mean no more than that the minister in question has not yet been sacked.

Conservative party heading in ‘very dark direction’, says former minister

Chris Skidmore says use of negative political tactics by fellow Tory MPs is putting climate and people at risk

The Conservative party is going in a “very dark direction”, a Tory former minister has said, as misinformation around climate continues.

Chris Skidmore, the MP for Kingswood in Gloucestershire, served as energy minister under Theresa May when she signed the target of net zero emissions by 2050 into law. He was appointed last year as Liz Truss’s net zero tsar, and asked to review the UK’s net zero plan, which is now being published in paperback.

Skidmore, a loyal Tory who once served as vice-chair of the party, has found himself left behind as many of his colleagues turn their backs on net zero. He was the only Conservative MP to vote with Labour on its amendments to the energy bill in September.

“I don’t feel I have moved in my position,” he said. “I am a liberal Conservative who came in under David Cameron. We used that language of hope, of opportunity, of facing the future, not turning to the past and claiming that things were somehow better.”

Many critics believe Rishi Sunak has focused on stoking the culture wars since becoming prime minister. Ministers have referred to those campaigning for climate action as “zealots”, criminal law has been changed in a way that targets fossil fuel protesters, and there has been a change of tone on many other issues, from immigration to homelessness.

NatWest scraps £7.6m of Alison Rose’s payout after Farage scandal!

Move follows resignation of CEO over row linked to closure of former Ukip leader’s bank accounts. NatWest has scrapped almost £7.6m in potential payouts to Alison Rose, the banking group’s former chief executive, who was forced to resign over a scandal linked to the closure of Nigel Farage’s bank accounts.

The board of NatWest said that after her resignation, future unvested share awards worth £4.7m would lapse and not be paid out.

In addition, Rose, who was forced to resign in July over a leak to a BBC news journalist about the threatened closure of Nigel Farage’s bank accounts, will not receive a bonus or share-based pay awards for this year worth £2.8m.

“Following the announcement that Ms Rose stepped down from her role by mutual agreement, it has been confirmed that good leaver status is not applicable under the relevant share plan rules,” the company said on Friday. “No finding of misconduct has been made against Ms Rose by NatWest.

The banking group said that the cumulative value of the lapsed unvested share awards, bonus and variable remuneration for this year was £7.58m.

Rose, who received a £5.2m pay package last year, is still expected to receive a pay package of about £2.4m.

This comprises a £1.16m basic salary as well as a fixed share award, benefits and pension payments – but she will be forced to forfeit millions in as yet unvested share awards.

UK a ‘stagnation nation’ after economy fails to grow; Alison Rose to lose £7.6m over Farage row – business live

Today’s GDP report provides “some comfort” as the UK heads into a winter in which worries about a Bank of England-led recession are likely to dominate headlines, says Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg:

As part of a broader European story, the UK economy has struggled to produce any real growth since early 2022 as two overlapping shocks intercepted a solid rebound from the pandemic-driven recession.

The first of the shocks, namely from surging gas prices in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late-February last year, had mostly faded by summer 2023. But just as this shock started to ease, the cumulative impact of the Bank of England’s (BoE’s) aggressive monetary tightening to curb inflation began to weigh on demand.

But, Schmieding adds that K GDP has regularly beated consensus expectations over the last year, amounting to a cumulative 0.7 percentage points of upside surprises.

He argues there is a case for “modest” optimism over the outlook:

After a flat H2 2023, we expect a gradual pick-up of momentum through 2024 from a qoq rate of 0.2% in Q1 to a trend rate of c0.4% by Q4, with sustained gains at trend through 2025.

Our annual real GDP calls for 2023, 2024 and 2025 are 0.5%, 0.7% and 1.7% respectively