It’s time for yet another by-election.
Watch the video above to see Guido’s Adam Cherry in Holborn and St Pancras.
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The lads at the Social Market Foundation, “Britain’s leading cross-party think tank” led by ex-Gordon Brown SpAd Theo Bertram, have let the cat out of the bag with their new report on council tax and social care this week. Save the Labour votes…
A new report from the SMF argues that old age social care should be taken off councils and funded nationally,after which council tax should be reformed or abolished and replaced with another tax. Which would no doubt detonate another bomb in the economy…
The think tank says it’s not that simple, however, because London specifically gains least from nationalising social care thanks to its young population and strong tax base. It meanwhile loses most from council tax revaluation because its property values have risen furthest above 1991 levels. It argues that this makes its proposals a problem because… Labour would lose votes:
“London cannot be assumed to accept large losses simply because it has historically voted Labour: its electorate is diverse, high housing costs are widely felt, and voters can shift to other parties when policy cuts against their interests. The package therefore still requires equalisation, affordability protections and a credible national funding mechanism, but it turns two reforms repeatedly judged too difficult into a single, more coherent political offer.”
SMF insists that “we do not take sides in party political debates but work to inform people, of all parties and none, about how public policy can improve outcomes.” It spends large amounts of time pushing for Gordon Brown’s pet gambling taxation. The mask slips…
The state-owned body that runs Britain’s electricity grid is spending more than £75,000 on an ‘investigation’ into its own staff after some of them leaked details of the UK’s critical grid weakness. Critics of Labour energy policy say that unreliable renewables are making it impossible for grid operators to balance the grid, especially in tough weather conditions…
During the heatwave week beginning 22 June, low wind, gas outages, high demand, and network constraints left the grid extremely stretched on the evening of the 23rd. There followed severe alerts as to the electricity capability of the grid. Whistleblowers told then-Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho that senior managers instructed control room staff to keep “live documents” running with no version history, such that full records would not survive for FOI purposes. Coutinho has been campaigning on the issue over the summer in a war with NESO executives who insist everything was fine…
NESO’s public line is that “no lines or cables were overloaded.” Whistleblowers also alleged Corporate Affairs staff pressed for certain stabilising actions not to be taken, to protect the quango’s reputation…
Labour ministers defended the quango and accused Coutinho of “scaremongering.” Energy minister Michael Shanks told the Commons that “at no point did we come close to breaching” electricity reserve standards. Whistleblower documents allege otherwise…
NESO announced an ‘external’ investigation by law firm Eversheds Sutherland International into the allegations in July. Coutinho said it is a “sham” because it won’t examine into whether the grid is being run securely nor if there was a breach of security standards on 23 June. It has yet to report back…
In an FOI response NESO says it holds no record of the complete total cost “as the investigation has not concluded” but that “our initial fee estimate for the investigation is £75,000 plus VAT.” £90,000 for a whitewash?
Reform’s party conference opens tomorrow at the NEC in Birmingham. As always, here’s Guido’s guide…
MAIN SPEECHES
Friday and Saturday are on the main stage. Thursday’s business day is all in the Sovereign.
WHERE TO GET DRINKS (THE BIT EVERYONE REALLY CARES ABOUT)
WHERE ARE THE WONKS
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Realistically, everyone will spend the late hours of Friday night at the sky bar…
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Andrew Griffith was promoted from Shadow Business Secretary to Shadow Chancellor this week. He became Tory MP for Arundel and South Downs in 2019, having previously worked as a senior executive in the media industry. He was Sky’s CFO from 2008 – the youngest FTSE 100 finance director at the time – and later COO…
In government he did a stint as junior exports minister in 2022 and had other roles including minister for science, research and innovation, economic secretary to the Treasury, and director of the Number 10 Policy Unit. He also served as Boris Johnson’s chief business adviser prior to becoming an MP. Reform has attacked various bog-standard releases from Griffith from his ministerial days celebrating Net Zero…
Guido has done some digging on Griffith’s policy views. He:
The abolition of Inheritance Tax is seen as a likely Conference policy rabbit. Griffith has railed against it for years…
Former Treasury minister and adviser to Burnham in the Makerfield campaign Lord Jim O’Neill, who has turned down a role in his government, said Burnham’s first statement Commons was:
“The last thing investors wanted to hear… gilt yields have risen by a 0.25% in one day, which is a lot. We’ve not had that since Liz Truss days… If your country is under the focus of ‘can they come up with a sensible fiscal strategy’ on a day when the markets think ‘well no, you’re not showing any sign of it’ you’re going to have a tough day…if it stays like this your mortgage rate is going up.”