As Labour refuses to rule out additional taxes on banks Guido can reveal that the flagship “single front door for international financial services firms wishing to set up or expand their operations in the UK” only contains six people. Who also have other duties in DBT…
Reeves personally announced OfI:FS alongside the City of London Corporation’s Chris Hayward, promising a “strategic one-stop shop” for international investors and the launch press release claimed it “could help the UK unlock £10 billion in additional investment by 2030.” It was described as a “public-private partnership” bringing together OfI, Treasury, PRA, FCA, City of London Corporation, and “secondees from leading professional services firms”…
Guido’s FOI Unit can reveal that the Office for Investment’s Financial Services unit, launched in October last year, contains only six individuals. One secondee, no contractors, a team that started at fewer than 5 and grew to 6, with staff who “may undertake additional duties unrelated to Financial Services”…
The unit’s staffing budget actually fell from 2025-26’s £568,000 down to £497,000 for 2026/27. DBT also has no internal or ministerial briefings, submissions, or assessments evaluating the performance or operational effectiveness of OfI:FS produced since its launch. So no KPIs then…
OfI:FS does claim it has “engaged with 116 international financial services firms since its launch in October 2025” and is “currently providing substantive assistance to more than 30 international financial services firms in relation to plans to establish or expand their operations in the UK.” It is not helped by the party of government’s own policies…
All of this sits against growing noise about additional taxes on banks, who narrowly avoided a surcharge hike at the Autumn Budget after Reeves extracted lending commitments as a quid pro quo. Reeves has refused to rule out a bank tax rise for this parliament as she considers a left-wing pitch to help keep Starmer in. If Rayner gets in you may as well shut down the tiny investment unit altogether…
Andy Burnham speaking to Bloomberg:
Meanwhile the Starmerites are briefing out threats to block Burnham’s return at any cost. The NEC elections in the summer will make it more difficult to pull the same defensive manoeuvres again…
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has disagreed with comments made last night by the government terror adviser Jonathan Hall KC. Hall told broadcasters that a spate of antisemitic attacks amounted to a “national security emergency”…
He compared the situation to the 2005 attacks:
“the government was prepared to say did say the rules of the game have changed and they really went for the underlying causes. I think that existing laws of course can be used and the police cannot be criticized for the protection that they are trying to give to the Jewish community. But just as they went after the hateful ideologies in 2005 and they changed the law and they were prepared to be quite assertive and aggressive, I do think the government needs to do something along those lines now.”
Hall added that the government should consider a “moratorium” on marches that use “Iran-style language” like “death to the IDF” and “globalise the intifada” and deport antisemitic preachers:
“If people are for example preaching in mosques and we know that there are people preaching in mosques it doesn’t matter frankly whether it’s based on the Quran or not um they should look to remove people to deport people they should make the straightforward argument that if you want to live in this country you cannot be anti-semitic and they should use the many many tools that are available to the government.”
On BBC Breakfast this morning Shabana Mahmood insisted an extra £25 million for security would be enough:
“I think the the phrase national emergency has particular connotations… And it means that for a period you uh change your uh your your democracy uh and disapplying some elements of democratic society. I it is an emergency uh for me as home secretary to respond to because we have seen a spate of attacks and I know we need to do more in order to secure the safety of our Jewish community. It’s why we brought forward the investment of £25 million. It’s why I’ve already been changing the law in relation to protests and it’s why we’ve got this wider review on public order legislation and hate crime as well. And it is my job to make sure all of our legal powers are commensurate to the risks that we are seeing and that we have the powers that we need in order to deal with these issues.”
That line may not hold for long…
Local MP and minister Sarah Sackman has been heckled as she spoke alongside Met Commissioner Mark Rowley to a crowd in Golders Green. Police have declared the stabbing a terror incident…
Among cries of “shame on you” she said:
“I want to say this to everybody listening – specifically to the British Jewish community – an attack on Britain’s Jews is an attack on Britain itself.
We cannot tolerate this. I’ve been with the home secretary just now. The prime minister has called a COBRA meeting. It speaks to just how serious this incident is and what we need to see.”
Badenoch said: “Jewish people in our country are under constant attack. This is no longer a growing pattern. There is an epidemic of violence against Jewish people. It is now a national emergency and needs to be treated as such by the Government and public authorities.” Enough is enough…
Red Wall Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash told GB News that Starmer should resign:
“I’m completely fed up about it, and I think it’s got to the point now where I genuinely think that, as far as the Prime Minister is concerned, it’s not a case of if, it’s when.”