Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury’s have vowed to refuse a business rates relief offered today’s Budget after supermarkets paid back the £1.7billion they saved in the Covid tax break last year. Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said that the business rates holiday will be extended until the end of June for hard-hit retail, hospitality and leisure … Read more
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was today accused of being ‘ineffective’ after mocking Rishi Sunak’s love of social media in his response to the Tory Chancellor’s radical Budget. The Chancellor announced that income tax thresholds are being frozen until 2026 and corporation tax is being hiked from 2023 as he revealed the Government’s ‘unimaginable’ £407billion … Read more
Rishi Sunak today unveiled the eight sites for the first freeports to be created in England. The Chancellor used the Budget to confirm the locations of the ‘special economic zones’ that were first announced in the Tories’ 2019 election manifesto. East Midlands Airport, the Suffolk ports of Felixstowe and Harwich, the Humber region in Yorkshire, … Read more
Rishi Sunak unveiled a raft of measures aimed at helping small businesses today. The Chancellor targeted high street firms with a business rate holiday extension until June, followed by a two-thirds reduced rate for the rest of the financial year. He also confirmed a freeze of VAT at 5 per cent for hospitality firms until … Read more
Budget 2021 at a glance Here are the main points of Rishi Sunak’s Budget today: Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicts economy will return to pre-Covid levels by the middle of 2022, six months earlier than previously though. OBR forecast economy will grow this year by 4 per cent, by 7.3 per cent in 2022, … Read more
Sir Keir Starmer accused Rishi Sunak of using today’s Budget to ‘paper over the cracks’ that have opened up in the UK economy during the Covid pandemic – as he took aim at the Chancellor’s love of social media. The Labour leader goaded Mr Sunak after he presented his plan to restore the nation’s finances, … Read more
Budget 2021 at a glance Here are the main points of Rishi Sunak’s Budget today: Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicts economy will return to pre-Covid levels by the middle of 2022, six months earlier than previously though. OBR forecast economy will grow this year by 4 per cent, by 7.3 per cent in 2022, … Read more
Cheers to that! Rishi Sunak freezes booze tax for a second year in a row in a boost for Covid-weary Brits and also keeps fuel duty frozen for the tenth successive year Increases in duty on beer, cider, wine and spirits axed for second year in a row Tax on a tankful of fuel will … Read more
London markets cheer on Chancellor’s budget: FTSE rises 0.8% or 53 to 6,667 points as Rishi Sunak unveils more big spending to boost Covid-hit economy FTSE 100 index of UK’s leading companies up 0.8% or 53 points at 6,667 today However it had been up further in early trading in London at 6,703 this morning … Read more
Keir Starmer is hammered by Labour bible the New Statesman over his opposition to Budget tax rises as it says the party has ‘no idea what it wants’ and has left voters ‘bewildered’ Magazine said that the party has ‘‘no idea what it wants’ under his leadership Starmer under pressure after refusing to call for … Read more