Page 20 - Uk Govt

UK PM Liz Truss faces pressure from Conservatives over tax cuts policies

The Cabinet is attempting to rally behind embattled British Prime Minister Liz Truss on Thursday as her Conservative Party backbenchers are up in arms against her tax-cutting economic policies, which they see as favouring the rich amid a cost-of-living crisis and giving the Opposition Labour Party a lead in opinion polls. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly warned that it would be a disastrously bad idea to think about replacing Truss as the Tory leader, just over a month after she was elected by the party membership in a leadership battle with former Chancellor Rishi Sunak on September 6. Since then the government's mini-budget tabled at the end of last month has unleashed turmoil in the financial markets due to fears of unfunded tax cuts introduced by Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, despite a forced U-turn on abolishing the top rate for the wealthiest in the country. We have got to recognise that we do need to bring certainty to the markets, Cleverly told the BBC with reference to the ...

UK wants stronger trading relationship with India, says FM Cleverly

UK FM James Cleverly said Britain wanted to have an even stronger trading relationship with India after reports that remarks by a fellow minister about immigrants could put future deal in doubt

UK needs to cut 200,000 govt jobs over next few years to avoid debt spiral

Public-sector wages are on track to increase 5% this year, around half the current rate of inflation but higher than budgeted when spending plans were drawn up in 2021.

UK PM Liz Truss fires trade minister Conor Burns over alleged misconduct

A British trade minister was fired by Prime Minister Liz Truss and suspended by the Conservative Party on Friday over allegations of misconduct. The government said Truss had asked Conor Burns to leave the government with immediate effect after a complaint of serious misconduct. The prime minister took direct action on being informed of this allegation and is clear that all ministers should maintain the high standards of behaviour as the public rightly expects, the prime minister's office said. The Conservative whips' office said Burns had been suspended from the party's group in Parliament pending investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour earlier this week. He remains a lawmaker but will sit as an independent. British media reported that the alleged misconduct took place at the Conservatives' annual conference in the central England city of Birmingham. Burns is a long-time ally of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was forced to step down in July. Johnson

UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman objects to increasing visas for Indians

Suella Braverman has again risked upsetting No. 10 after saying she has "reservations" about Britain's trade deal with India because it could increase immigration to the UK, The Guardian reported

ISRO to launch 36 OneWeb satellites onboard LVM3 later this month

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that it will launch 36 satellites of UK's global communications network OneWeb onboard its heaviest launcher LVM3

Cutting taxes the right thing to do, both morally and economically: UK PM

''Will make difficult but necessary choices for economic growth''

U-turn in UK: Room for fiscal fireworks is limited

It is best to stick to tried and tested methods of reviving growth - deregulation, macroeconomic stability, and targeted investment

UK PM Liz Truss makes U-turn on tax after week of market turmoil

The U-turn comes after the govt's fiscal plans triggered a crisis of investor confidence, jolting markets to such an extent that the BoE had to intervene with a 65 billion pound bond-buying programme

Facing an economic crisis, is the UK turning into an emerging market?

The Truss government's two most problematic policies are the tax cuts for the wealthy and the energy subsidies

UK: TikTok may face $29 million fine over children's data protection

TikTok could face a 27 million-pound (USD 29 million) fine in the UK over a possible breach of UK data protection law by failing to protect children's privacy when they are using the video-sharing platform. The UK Information Commissioner's Office said Monday that it has issued the social media company a legal document that precedes a potential fine. It said TikTok may have processed the data of children under 13 without appropriate parental consent, and processed special category data without legal grounds to do so. The commissioner said special category data included ethnic and racial origin, political opinions, religious beliefs and sexual orientation. It also said TikTok may have failed to provide transparent, easily understood information to its users. The legal document covered the period from May 2018 to July 2020. Information Commissioner John Edwards said the body's provisional view was that TikTok fell short of providing proper data privacy protections. The body said its

UK scraps corporation tax hike, lifts cap on banker bonus to boost economy

The UK government on Friday scrapped a corporate tax hike and lifted a cap on bankers' bonuses in a contentious bid to boost the faltering economy. Treasury chief Kwasi Kwarteng made the announcement at Parliament as he presented a mini-budget to lawmakers. The U.K. government is expected to publish an emergency budget statement Friday outlining how it plans to slash taxes, tame soaring inflation and boost economic growth as a recession looms on the horizon. Treasury chief Kwasi Kwarteng's mini-budget, to be presented to lawmakers, is expected to scrap a planned increase in corporation tax. Prime Minister Liz Truss, who became the U.K.'s leader less than three weeks ago, has repeatedly stressed that her Conservative government's core mission is lowering taxes to drive economic growth. She declared this week that she is ready to make unpopular decisions such as boosting bankers' bonuses to attract jobs and investment. The Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts that even though Frida

A new kingdom: What will change as King Charles III ascends to UK throne

Following the death of the monarch, her son, Prince Charles will now ascend the throne and will be called King Charles III. However, that is not the only change which will be witnessed

UK PM Truss walks the talk, caps power bills at £2,500 a year for two years

British Prime Minister Liz Truss said Thursday that her government will cap domestic energy prices for homes and businesses to ease a cost-of-living crisis that has left people and businesses across the UK facing a bleak winter. Truss told lawmakers in Parliament that the two-year energy price guarantee means average household bills will be no more than 2,500 pounds ($2,872) a year for heating and electricity. Bills had been due to rise to 3,500 pounds ($4,000) pounds a year from October, triple the cost of a year ago. Bills are skyrocketing because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the economic aftershocks of COVID-19 and Brexit. We are supporting this country through this winter and next and tackling the root causes of high prices so we are never in the same position again," Truss told lawmakers. Business and public institutions like hospitals and schools will also get support, but for six months rather than two years. The government says the cap will cut the UK's soaring ...

Family rush to be with Queen Elizabeth as doctors voice concern

Doctors say queen, 96, under medical supervision; heir to the throne Prince Charles is with queen

UK PM Liz Truss' Cabinet is diverse in makeup and solidly on the right

Liz Truss's new Cabinet is Britain's most diverse ever, with women serving as prime minister and deputy prime minister and Black and South Asian politicians filling many of the top jobs. While they come from different backgrounds, the new ministers share Truss' small-state, free-market economic views and staunch support for Britain's exit from the European Union. The government's diversity reflects years of work by the right-of-centre Conservative Party to shake its pale, male and stale image. Former Prime Minister David Cameron, who was party leader between 2005 and 2016, made a push to draft diverse candidate shortlists for winnable seats. The drive has transformed the upper tiers of a party whose 172,000-strong national membership remains overwhelmingly white and largely male. Among Tory legislators, 24 per cent are women and 6 per cent belong to ethnic minorities. The main opposition Labour Party is more diverse and gets more support from non-white voters but has yet to have

Liz Truss beats Rishi Sunak in Tory leadership race to be new UK PM

'I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people's energy bills, but also dealing with the long term issues we have on energy supply,' Truss said in a speech following the result

UK approves second 'bivalent' booster for Omicron and Covid strain

The UK health authorities on Saturday approved a second bivalent vaccine to be used as a booster vaccine to target both the Omicron and original strain of COVID-19. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the updated booster vaccine made by Pfizer/BioNTech was found to meet its standards of safety, quality and effectiveness. The jab targeting two coronavirus variants has been approved for use in individuals aged 12 years and above. In each dose of the booster vaccine called Comirnaty bivalent Original/Omicron, half of the vaccine (15 micrograms) targets the original virus strain and the other half (15 micrograms) targets Omicron (BA.1). The clinical trial of the Pfizer/BioNTech bivalent vaccine showed a strong immune response against the Omicron BA.1 variant as well as the original strain, said Dr June Raine, MHRA Chief Executive. Bivalent vaccines are helping us to meet the challenge of an ever-evolving virus, to help protect people against COVID-19 ...

UK's outgoing PM Johnson pledges millions to fund new nuclear plant

Britain's outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday pledged 700 million pounds (USD 810 million) of government funding for a planned new nuclear power plant as part of a drive to improve the UK's energy security. Johnson said the spike in global gas prices driven by Russia's invasion of Ukraine showed why more nuclear generation capacity was needed in the UK. The plant, called Sizewell C, is located on eastern England's Suffolk coast. French energy company EDF, which will partly fund the project, has said it can generate low-carbon electricity for at least 60 years when the project is complete. The plant will reportedly cost about 20 billion pounds (USD 23 billion). Britain's government gave the greenlight for the plant in July, and talks about how to fund it are ongoing. Yes, nuclear always looks relatively expensive to build and to run, Johnson said in his final major policy speech as prime minister. But look at what's happening today, look at the results of Putin's war.

Microsoft's Activision Blizzard deal faces more UK scrutiny amid concerns

Microsoft's plan to buy video game company Activision Blizzard faced a potential setback on Thursday after British regulators said their antitrust inquiry needed to take a closer look at the blockbuster deal after identifying competition concerns. The Competition and Markets Authority said it was worried the USD 69 billion deal would hurt rivals by restricting their access to Activision Blizzard games. It also worried that the combined company would stifle competition in the emerging cloud gaming market. The authority gave both companies five days to come up with proposals to address its concerns, otherwise it would escalate its investigation with more scrutiny. The watchdog had opened an initial inquiry in July to assess whether the deal would result in a substantial lessening of competition in the United Kingdom. The all-cash deal is set to be the largest in the history of the tech industry. It would give Microsoft, maker of the Xbox console and gaming system, control of popular