Tag Archives: Philip Hammond

Inquiry demanded into claims Boris Johnson backers will profit from ‘no deal’ – and it can’t come soon enough

The sign says ‘leader’: but is there somebody in the shadows, telling him what to do in their interest, rather than that of the UK as a whole?

The Labour Party has demanded an independent “conflict of interest” inquiry into Boris Johnson, over claims that the prime minister’s backers will profit hugely from a “no deal” Brexit.

John McDonnell, shadow chancellor, has written to the UK’s most senior civil servant, Cabinet Office secretary Mark Sedwill, calling for an investigation into alleged collusion with currency speculators.

The demand is based on comments by Mr Johnson’s sister Rachel and claims by former chancellor – now an Independent MP – Philip Hammond that speculators were investing in “short” positions – betting on the pound plummeting and inflation rocketing – after a “no deal” Brexit.

It has been reported that they could make more than £8 billion – while the rest of us suffer.

In his letter to Sir Mark, the shadow chancellor said there had been widespread reports of increases in short positions taken against sterling in the lead-up to a possible no-deal Brexit.

Mr Johnson and the Conservative party had received “a significant sum” in donations from no-deal backers, a number of who are involved in hedge funds, he said. Meanwhile, the PM has made it clear he is ready to go ahead with a no-deal outcome to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

“These three facts have caused concern that the prime minister may have a conflict of interest,” wrote Mr McDonnell. “Donors to the Conservative party and/or the prime minister could stand to gain from a no-deal Brexit – even if only through cushioning losses by adopting short positions. The prime minister could reasonably be seen as having an interest in securing a no-deal Brexit to financially benefit his donors.”

He added: “It is becoming increasingly apparent from public comment that the prime minister is bringing into doubt whether he is upholding the highest standards, thereby further undermining public confidence and trust in him and his government… It is important for public confidence and trust in the House of Commons that any real or apparent conflict of interest is investigated.”

“The prime minister could reasonably be seen as having an interest in securing a no-deal Brexit to financially benefit his donors.”

No UK public servant can serve two masters in such a way, and for a prime minister the good of the nation must come before any personal benefit to that person, their friends or supporters.

The Jennifer Arcuri scandal has already placed significant doubt on Mr Johnson’s loyalties. The British public consider him entirely capable of putting the interests of himself and his financiers before those of the nation.

And in the meantime the Brexit deadline clock is ticking down to October 31.

Mr Sedwill must agree to this inquiry, and it must be carried out with haste. Everybody needs to know the facts before it is too late.

Source: Brexit: Labour demands inquiry into ex-chancellor’s claims Boris Johnson backers set to profit from no-deal | The Independent

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The 21 Tories ejected from their party for voting with their consciences

Boris Johnson: How did it all go wrong so soon?

Dictator Johnson has gone through with his threat and withdrawn the whip from 21 now-former Conservative MPs.

The list includes extremely high-profile names including Father of the House Ken Clarke and Philip Hammond, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer until only six weeks ago (at the time of writing).

Also out are recent Conservative leadership candidate Rory Stewart, Oliver Letwin, Dominic Grieve, David Gauke and Nicholas Soames (who is entirely forgettable apart from being Winston Churchill’s grandson).

And Guto Bebb, who said he would vote against the government, has also been ejected for going through with it.

Others include: Richard Benyon, Steve Brine, Alistair Burt, Greg Clark, Justine Greening, Sam Gyimah, Stephen Hammond, Richard Harrington, Margot James, Anne Milton, Caroline Nokes, Antoinette Sandbach and Ed Vaizey.

Boris Johnson started his first Parliamentary session as prime minister with 311 MPs and a majority of one. He ends it with just 289 MPs and the stigma of being the first PM since Pitt the Younger to lose his very first Parliamentary vote.

It all bodes well for the future.

‘Terrible collaboration’ speech: Johnson flashes his fascist credentials

Hitler comparison: It seems more and more people are coming to terrifying conclusions about Mr Johnson.

One of the 14 warning signs of fascism is the identification of enemies as a unifying cause.

It’s third on the list in this article, if you need to refresh your memory.

Now watch the first minute or so of Boris Johnson’s “People’s PMQs”:

“There’s a terrible kind of collaboration as it were going on between people who think they can block Brexit in Parliament and our European friends, and our European friends are not moving.

“We need our European friends to compromise and the more they think that there’s a chance that Brexit can be blocked in Parliament, the more adamant they are in sticking to their position.”

He was falsely claiming that his viewers – you and I – are on his side and MPs who want to prevent a “no deal” Brexit have teamed up with “our European friends” (as he calls them) against us.

That’s the identification of enemies as a unifying cause, right there.

One of the “people who think they can block Brexit in Parliament” – if it’s Mr Johnson’s “no-deal” Brexit – would be Philip Hammond.

He said, earlier, that BoJob was setting the “bar” for negotiations too high by demanding that the so-called Northern Irish border backstop be dropped from the UK’s withdrawal agreement with the EU.

He said it was “effectively a wrecking tactic and the people behind this know that that means there will be no-deal”.

Such a move would be “just as much of a betrayal as not leaving at all”.

The Mirror quoted a “government source” who claimed Mr Hammond had done “everything he could to block preparations for leaving and undermined negotiations” when Chancellor.

“We are leaving on October 31 and we will be ready to do so despite the former chancellor’s best efforts to the contrary.”

That’s the identification of enemies as a unifying cause.

One person who has yet to be identified as an enemy by the Johnson camp is Commons Speaker John Bercow – although how long that continues is a matter for speculation.

Mr Bercow has made it clear that he will resist efforts by BoJob to prorogue Parliament in order to ensure it is not sitting prior to Brexit – thus ensuring that the UK leaves with no deal.

He told the Edinburgh Festival fringe he “strongly” believes the Commons “must have its way”.

“If there is an attempt to circumvent, to bypass or – God forbid – to close down Parliament, that is anathema to me,” he said.

“I will fight with every breath in my body to stop that happening. We cannot have a situation in which parliament is shut down — we are a democratic society.”

So Mr Bercow is drawing lines too – between democracy and Boris Johnson.

I’m not saying BoJob is a fascist. But he’s showing a lot of the warning signs.

How many more will we see?

Source: Johnson accuses MPs and EU of ‘terrible collaboration’ over Brexit | Politics | The Guardian

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Tory backlash against Boris Johnson as ministers line up to resign

Boris Johnson and Alan Duncan: The “pooper” and the “scooper”.

Boris Johnson seems likely to be heading a team of B-listers if he becomes prime minister tomorrow.

Now-former Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan has flounced out amid claims that he spent all his time cleaning up Mr Johnson’s mess when the Tory leadership candidate was Foreign Secretary.

Of course it’s just as likely that Mr Johnson would sack Sir Alan if he stayed on – so this is the optimum moment for the FO minister to… well… go.

He is on the record as considering himself to have been Mr Johnson’s “pooper scooper”, during the candidate’s term as Foreign Secretary – and more recently attacked his former boss for failing to support former UK ambassador to the US, Kim Darroch, after comments criticising President Trump were leaked.

Previously, he was most notable as the minister former Israeli embassy representative Shai Masot infamously wanted to “take down” in a conspiracy uncovered by the al-Jazeera documentary The Lobby.

Also set to go are Chancellor Philip Hammond and Justice Secretary David Gauke.

Neither will be a huge loss to the UK – but then, no Conservative minister would be. The concern is about who Mr Johnson might line up to replace them…

And how would these B-listers perform – not only in service to the UK but also on the world stage?

Sir Alan Duncan has quit as a foreign office minister in protest against a possible Boris Johnson victory in the Conservative leadership race.Chancellor Philip Hammond and Justice Secretary David Gauke have already said they intend to resign if he wins.

Source: Tory leadership race: Alan Duncan resigns as minister – BBC News

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The Tories could end austerity now – but you can bet they’ll use Brexit fears as an excuse not to

“End austerity? Me? But Brexit!” That’s what Philip Hammond would say.

The Conservative government could use £15 billion to end austerity policies after a surprise boost to the public finances – but you’d be a fool to think that will happen.

That’s the view of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, whose director Paul Johnson urged Philip Hammond to make good on the promises the Tories have been making for the past few months.

You see, it’s all very well saying austerity is over, but if the services the Tories have destroyed haven’t been restored, then it isn’t.

But even Mr Johnson admitted the Tories would be in a better position to boost public services if not for uncertainty over Brexit.

“There is a consensus that the economy would have been about 2 per cent bigger had the Brexit vote not occurred,” he said.

“In those circumstances the deficit would have been smaller still and the fiscal room for manoeuvre greater. The end of austerity could already have been rather more decisively with us.”

The IFS warned that the chancellor’s Spring Statement deferred crucial spending decisions in areas such as social care, public service funding and benefits which will put him under pressure to raise taxes further down the line.

The Treasury said on Wednesday that the “headroom” built up by the chancellor could go towards government priorities such as keeping tax low, reducing debt, public service spending and capital investment, so long as it is not soaked up coping with a no-deal Brexit.

Of course we should remember that George Osborne (remember him?) said on becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2010 that the public finances would be restored to health by 2015 – nearly four years ago.

We may reasonably conclude only one thing:

Tories will use any excuse to continue squeezing public spending – they’ve used a fictitious crisis in the public finances; they’re currently using Brexit. It will be something else in the future.

Source: Government has enough money to end austerity if it wants to, IFS report concludes | The Independent


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The Tories’ cruel benefit freeze continues – this year it will take £560 from poor families

Cruel: Philip Hammond.

Still-(just)-Chancellor Philip Hammond’s spring statement included a note of despair for poorer families – including those in work.

Anybody receiving benefits will have them frozen for a fourth year running, meaning families will have lost £560 each that would otherwise have been added to their earnings.

That’s according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies – but the real-terms loss could be much greater.

Brexit is robbing the UK of much of its economic muscle, meaning goods and services are going to be more costly in the future.

And the results of trade deals in the future – particularly if one is with the United States – may rob employees of important rights.

The benefit freeze is economic bullying – softening the most vulnerable of us up, ready to be exploited in the Tories cruel, post-Brexit Britain.

Millions of poorer families are poised to be stripped of £560 each because of the Tories’ cruel benefit freeze, economic experts revealed today.

Chancellor Philip Hammond snubbed calls for an end to the freeze, which has plunged hard-up households into despair, when he delivered his Spring Statement.

His stubborn refusal to loosen the purse strings will pile on the misery for struggling families, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Presenting the think tank’s analysis of the Chancellor’s announcements, director Paul Johnson said today: “There was no reprieve announced for the millions of working age families dependent on benefits – the fourth year of the benefit freeze is going ahead.

“Ten million families will have lost an average of £420 a year as a result of the freeze.

“Ignoring those only affected by the child benefit freeze, seven million poorer families will have lost an average of £560 apiece.”

Source: Cruel Tory benefit freeze set to strip poorer families of £560 each say experts – Mirror Online


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May condemned from all sides of Parliament for postponing Brexit vote

Jeremy Corbyn: “The prime minister… doesn’t even have the authority of her own party.”

Theresa May might have gone to the EU to seek help to get her duff Brexit agreement through the UK Parliament, but from the way MPs spoke about her, she would have been well-advised never to return.

Jeremy Corbyn’s emergency debate on her decision to postpone the “meaningful vote” on her deal demonstrated that there was little support for her in the House of Commons:

Rachael Swindon’s tweet isn’t quite accurate. Mr Corbyn’s motion was “that this House has considered the Prime Minister’s unprecedented decision not to proceed with the final two days of debate and the meaningful vote, despite the House’s Order of Tuesday 4 December 2018, and her failure to allow this House to express its view on the Government’s deal or her proposed negotiating objectives, without the agreement of this House”.

Alongside every other MP who voted on the motion, he voted against it, even though he had proposed it, to signal displeasure at Mrs May’s decision. So it was voted down by 299 votes to none, with the government not asking its MPs to take part.

The only Tory who did, Anna Soubry, voted with the opposition.

Opening the debate, Mr Corbyn said:

Mr Corbyn gained support for his viewpoint from an unexpected, foot-in-mouth, source.

Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, made the unforced error during Treasury questions, earlier in the December 11 Commons session – and was upbraided for it by Speaker John Bercow, as you can see in the following amusing clip by The Agitator:

No doubt some in the Conservative Party will use the incident to ramp up the feud between the Conservatives and Mr Bercow – Leader of the House Andrea Leadsom has already claimed his words show “bias” due to his own views on Brexit.

But here he was only making the obvious point – as were the 299 MPs who voted in the emergency debate – that Parliament has not been allowed to vote on Mrs May’s Brexit deal.

Mr Corbyn said: “The Government need either to bring a vote here, or to get out of the way and let somebody else take this issue seriously and negotiate properly on behalf of this country.”

Mrs May has already returned from her begging trip to Europe, empty-handed. Even the dimmest of the Tory loyalists must realise by now that she has nothing to offer that can possibly make her deal acceptable.

In the meantime, it seems a ‘no confidence’ vote in her leadership has been triggered by her own MPs.

Will she bring the vote that Mr Corbyn demanded? No.

But this will only provide further confirmation of her uselessness to Conservative MPs who may soon vote on whether to allow her to continue as leader.

Mrs May has put herself between a rock and a hard place. Let us hope they crush her.

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Hammond admits the fact about austerity that This Site has been trumpeting since day one

Have a gander at this infoclip, courtesy of Evolve Politics:

That’s exactly what This Site (and other like-minded commentators) has been broadcasting since Vox Political started back in 2011: Austerity as a way of paying off the national debt is a terrible idea.

Rather than restore the nation’s finances to balance, the lack of investment in jobs and growth – and indeed the concentration on reducing investment and the size of the state – is far more likely to shrink the economy, necessitating more cuts in an attempt to achieve the same outcome and throwing the nation into a spiral of ever-increasing debt and ever-diminishing productivity.

That is what we have seen. The national debt has more than doubled under Conservative rule, while productivity has stagnated. The Tories have tried to gloss over this fact by claiming employment has boomed – but this is a trick; companies have laid off full-time employees and replaced them with part-time, short-term contract or zero-hour contract labour that receives far less pay per day and none of the in-work benefits that the full-timers enjoyed. The only economic effect that has increased over the last eight years is poverty.

Matt Zarb-Cousin added: “The chancellor admits austerity is a political choice rather than an economic necessity. He even goes as far as to say cutting spending is not the best way to reduce the national debt. I mean ffs what’s been the point of the last 8 years then”.

I’ve been answering that one since Day One, too: The point of the last eight years has been to cut services for working people, based on a false pretence that the nation cannot afford them. Next comes the removal of workers’ – and human – rights on the pretext that they are harming our ability to earn a decent wage.

In fact, the only thing harming our ability to earn a decent wage is the greed of the nation’s employers, which has fuelled the Conservatives’ zeal to cut taxes for those who are already obscenely rich.

That is the point of the last eight years: More for the “haves” and nothing for the “have-nots”.

It is a stupid way to run an advanced first-world country – especially if you are among the millions upon millions of people who have been penalised by it.

Are you?

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Chancellor’s billions ‘will not halt universal credit humanitarian crisis’ | Disability News Service

I stated as much on This Site immediately after Philip Hammond’s budget speech, but John Pring provides expert comments. See:

The chancellor’s decision to pump billions of pounds into universal credit will not halt the “humanitarian crisis” that will be caused by its systemic flaws, disabled activists have warned.

Philip Hammond announced in this week’s budget that he had found £1 billion – spread over five-and-a-half years – to ease the delayed “managed migration” process that will see about three million claimants of “legacy” benefits such as employment and support allowance (ESA) moved across to the new universal credit.

He also promised another £1.7 billion a year to pay for more generous work allowances for universal credit, which combines six income-related benefits into one.

Bob Ellard, a member of the national steering group of Disabled People Against Cuts, which is campaigning to scrap universal credit altogether, dismissed any suggestion that the budget signified an end to austerity.

He said: Universal credit will still be the cause of a humanitarian crisis in this country, whatever last-minute tinkering the Tories do.

“And the elephant that wasn’t allowed into the room was the extreme poverty that many disabled people are living in, even before being forced to transfer to universal credit.”

Disability Rights UK said that “while these changes may be positive, all are subject to delay and overall do not remove universal credit’s delivery and design problems”.

Dr Victoria Armstrong, chief executive of Disability North, said her organisation witnessed the “devastating impact of the roll out of universal credit on a daily basis”.

She said: “Whilst in principle the idea to have a universal benefit could be seen as a step forward, we have seen it be used as a vehicle for cutting basic income for disabled people.

“The way that it has been administrated is not fit for purpose, for example the unacceptable waits, pushing people further into poverty, the use of food banks.

“The £1 billion … should be going to local, user-led organisations like ours so that people can be supported to understand and access the system (including digital access) and appeal incorrect decisions.”

Professor Peter Beresford, co-chair of Shaping Our Lives, said: “Pumping big money into a model failing because it is overly-simplistic and over-reliant on technology won’t solve its problems.

“Disabled people are among those worst affected by this government’s failing policies and politics.”

In a blog published the day after the budget, Professor Sir Ian Diamond, the new chair of DWP’s social security advice body, the social security advisory committee, welcomed the “positive steps” on universal credit announced in the budget, but said the managed migration process was still “enormously ambitious”.

He said his committee was concerned that the government’s plans “load an unreasonable level of risk onto the claimant” and added: “We fear that, in too many cases, they may be adversely impacted by the proposals or fall out of the social security system entirely.”

Disabled activists have repeatedly warned that universal credit is “rotten to the core” with “soaring” rates of sanctions and foodbank use in areas where it has been introduced.

Source: Budget 2018: Chancellor’s billions ‘will not halt universal credit humanitarian crisis’

It’s Phil the Bleak’s FANTASY BUDGET! Would you buy anything he’s offering before Brexit?

The kindest cut? Martin Rowson hits several nails on the head (and potentially puts one head in a bucket) in this cartoon.

Philip Hammond used the last Budget before Brexit pretending to spray a load of policies up the wall because he knows none of it will matter after March 30, 2019.

He spent his entire speech talking twaddle like a toddler because he knew he could say anything he wanted in the knowledge that the economy will crash after the UK leaves the European Union.

That means he can cancel anything he likes and say, “Times have changed – we must move with the times.”

It’s transparent – and sickening.

The most revolting lie of his speech was the claim that “Austerity is over”. What absolute tripe!

If austerity is over, where is the restoration of public sector pay to the level it would have been, had pay restrictions not been imposed?

Where is the restoration of benefits that were cut by the Tories – and the cancellation of the Tory benefit freeze?

When will we see the more-than-20,000 police officers who were removed from our streets restored to active duty?

When will the hated Bedroom Tax, responsible for so many deaths, be cancelled?

Never – under the Conservatives!

His hogwash claim that the Tories had repaired the public finances is easily-provable gibberish because – if they had been repaired – the UK would be able to afford all the services and investments that have been cancelled over the last eight years. Where are our Sure Start centres? Where are our libraries? Where are our nurseries?

About the only promise you can expect Phil the Bleak to keep is cutting taxes – and there’s a very simple reason for that.

He said he was raising the personal tax allowance from April next year. For those on the lower rate it will rise to £12,500 a year, and for those on the higher rate, to £50,000 – right?

To pay taxes at the increased rates, those on the lower right would have to have increased their wages from £11,500 in April 2017 to £12,500 next year, and on the higher right from £33,501 to £50,000 in the same period.

Which do you think is more likely?

These are increases of around eight per cent for those on the lower rate, and 50 per cent for those on the higher. People earning more money pay more of it in tax, but this is designed to ensure that many of them are taken from the higher rate to the lower rate.

It’s a swindle designed to shrink the tax take – and therefore the state.

Universal Credit had been a source of considerable tension before the Budget announcement. Tory rebels had claimed they had secured an extra £1 billion for the hopeless (in every sense of the word) system.

Mr Hammond confirmed that he had allocated this much money to help people move to the new system – although he did not say how this would be achieved.

And he said he was increasing the amount people can earn before losing benefits by £1,000 a year, costing the Treasury £1.7 billion.

Gosh, that’s a lot – until you remember that the Conservatives have already announced £7 billion of benefit cuts that have not yet bitten, and the change to work allowances reverses only half the cuts made in 2015.

As for the other announcements: He said Brexit would not affect spending plans because he had assumed an “average-type free trade deal” between the UK and EU after Brexit, and had £4.2 billion in reserve in the case of a no-deal scenario.

But you can bet that this will not be enough to deal with the consequences of a Tory Brexit. They want harmful effects because they will then be able to justify harsh cuts to your rights and living standards.

About the only welcome announcement in the whole sorry mess was the decision to stop using hugely-wasteful Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes.

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