Economics Correspondent Channel 4 News .Reporting on monetary & fiscal policy + what it means for households + inequality. PP: Bank crises + health economics
ICYMI, we had a big story on big oil tonight - exclusive research for Channel 4 news revealed that:
🛢️ BP is the biggest beneficiary of tax rebates in the North Sea
‼️➖‼️ But, in 2019 it paid an incredible -54% effective tax rate (MINUS 54) !!!!
(1/4)
It’s been a while.
But I’m back
@Channel4News
in time for the budget after a year of cancer treatment
Here’s my piece about getting cancer, the NHS +the friends +fam who get u thru
“You may have many defeats
But you must never be defeated”
What Brexit uncertainty? U.K. employment jumps 141k in latest 3 months. And full time jobs account for all the rise in employment in the last year. Employment rate at record high. Earnings growth of 3.3% ex bonuses at highest since 2008 crash. Pay with rising at 3.4%
So, here’s something a little more personal 💛
My take on the ups + downs of going back to work after being away for cancer treatment -
🔸Why asking for support matters
🔸And why a sense of purpose helps you get through
@macmillancancer
BREAKING:
➡️ Interest rates raised to 0.5%
➡️ inflation now set to peak at 7.25%
(A figure NEVER seen before in a Bank of England forecast)
➡️ the biggest hit to post-tax income since record began (1990)
➡️ down 2%
➡️ But BP is not alone
🛢️ 19 North Sea operators have taken £2.4bn in rebates since major targets on climate change were agreed in Paris.
🤔 BP agrees its North Sea business hasn’t paid corporation taxes for years. But says it's invested $7bn in north sea operations here
(3/4)
These taxpayer rebates and profits in the billions could bolster demand for a windfall tax. Soaring energy prices are forcing millions of people in the UK into fuel poverty.
Last week, I spoke to Lowri Williams about the struggle to pay the bills.
(4/4)
“It’s soul-destroying, waking up every day, looking at the bank and seeing nothing.”
Single mother Lowri Williams describes the struggle of not having enough money to eat and pay bills with the cost of living crisis forcing her to sell her possessions online.
"Do you accept that we're now staring down the barrel of a recession?"
That was what
@heliaebrahimi
asked Chancellor Sajid Javid after the UK economy shrank for the first time since 2012.
EXCLUSIVE: My story tonight about the soaring prices of PPE paid for by Government – leaked documents show how Government paid vastly different prices for the same masks during the same period of time
"He was ambushed with a cake."
A Conservative MP says that a birthday celebration held in Downing Street for Boris Johnson wasn't a "premeditated party".
Conor Burns tells
@cathynewman
that he supports Boris Johnson and that "the public will ultimately judge".
Our exclusive story tonight:
The polling shows
🔹ONLY 1/7 people say they actually want tax cuts if it ALSO means cuts to public services
🔹Even within Tory voters, just 1 in 6 believe giveaways are worth it if you end up with cuts elsewhere
🔹In fact, 1/3 of people would
Here’s the latest stark data on WEALTH in Britain from the
@ONS
(1/3)
➡️ The wealth of the richest 1% = £3.6m or MORE
➡️ The wealth of poorest 10% = £15,400 or LESS
➡️ The wealth of the richest
1% is 233X
the wealth of the bottom 10%
@Channel4News
(3/3)
But under the new Government proposals:
With assets under £106k = 80% wd be what you could lose on care costs
With assets £500k = 17.2% wd still be most you wd lose
Hugely amplifying the relative exposure of poorer homeowners +putting them at risk of catastrophic risk
This is what the OBR downgrade means: £44bn knocked off the UK economy by 2021
#Budget2017
@Channel4News
Basically, equal to the current Brexit divorce bill
Inflation at 30-year high this morning
@HLInvest
notes: (1/2)
➡️ this time last yr petrol prices
= 114.1p/ litre
➡️ this December = 145.8p
➡️ It means filling up a 55 litre car now costs £17.44 more
➡️ Overall cost of transport up 11.9% in a year
But food was even worse…
My first time in the Leeds studio tonight with the amazing
@C4Ciaran
🔹Talking tax, Autumn Statement and problems with the British economy…
🔹 watch
@Channel4News
Living standards are expected to fall by 6% over this fiscal year and next as inflation outstrips income growth. This is less than the 7% fall we expected in November but still the largest two-year fall since ONS records began in the 1950s.
#SpringBudget
#Budget2023
The
@bankofengland
has told
@c4news
it received several approaches from Greensill Capital, including personally from
@David_Cameron
, to help the now collapsed firm with funding during the crisis
UK may be looking to join TPP but hard to see how countries like Peru can rival Germany given exports hit a modest £223m in 2015 vs £46.5bn to Germany
#trade
#Brexit
US Oil price goes negative - spectacularly so - there are technical factors at work but it’s an extraordinary measure of the times we’re living through
“You cannot rant against the elite when you’re behaving like one of its members.”
@Nigel_Farage
is challenged about taking a private plane overnight to get from London to Strasbourg.
#72DaysToBrexit
Net Zero Carbon plan a remarkable symbol of a dramatic shift in UK politics. But unlikely to satisfy Extinction Rebellion who demand zero carbon by 2025
NEW:
So Inflation has not tamed in March despite fall in fuel prices.
Why?
🍓🍓🍓🍓🍞🍞🍺🧉🧁
Food and non-alcoholic beverages were up by a whopping 19.2%
This is the HIGHEST rate seen for over 45 years
#CostOfLivingCrisis
@Channel4News
BREAKING: "Our country is facing a national emergency" CBI and TUC send joint letter to PM telling her to change Brexit approach and asking for urgent meeting
@CBItweets
@The_TUC
The West has tried to contain President Putin by sanctioning his oil industry - imposing a $60 a barrel price cap on its key export.
The UK government says this has cost Russia hundreds of billions of dollars: but how effective has it really been?
@heliaebrahimi
explains.
EXCLUSIVE: Tonight, we reveal the amount spent by the British Business Bank on management consultants. Since the pandemic £37m paid to consultants
(1/3) Top of that list……
Andy Haldane tells me (2/4)
‘If I had my way, we'd NOT be talking about HS2 being thin-sliced, but about HS3, HS4, and HS5’
He also criticises the Government’s CURRENT fiscal rules saying they need to be changed w BOTH Tories + Labour needing to re-think NOW
"If I had my way, we'd be talking not about HS2 being thin-sliced, but about HS3, HS4 and HS5."
Andy Haldane, former Bank of England chief economist, speaks to
@heliaebrahimi
about his support for HS2 and expansion of similar projects.
BUDGET ANALYSIS
🔹While
@Jeremy_Hunt
says the Government believe in tax cuts
🔹
@OBR_UK
analysis shows since 2020 :
👉🏻Tax increases 🟰 £62bn
👉🏻Tax cuts 🟰 £29bn
✋🏻 less than half handed back to people
#Budget2024
BREAKING: David Cameron publishes text messages to the Senior Treasury officials that describe him:
“Riding to the rescue with supply chain finance” ....in rather chummy tones
#Greensill
Great piece in the FT about how profits have rocketed for water companies amid cost of living crisis
@thameswater
UK water company dividends jump to £1.4bn despite criticism over sewage outflows via
@FT
CONFIRMED: The Prime Minister will launch an independent review into Greensill+ its contact w Gov’nt led by legal expert Nigel Boardman in the wake of the David Cameron lobbying scandal
The investigation will look at how Supply Chain Finance has been used within government
Breaking: The government announces that 87% of imports will hv zero tariffs in a no deal.
CBI boss Carolyn Fairborn says on
@BBCr4today
this is no way to run a country and says business hasn’t been consulted
#tariffs
#NoDealBrexit
NEW:
🔹Business Department awarding a new series of contracts totalling £6.5 million to legal firms to advise on handling of Post Office scandal, according to government procurement analysists Tussell
🔹Tune in at 7pm as we breakdown staggering costs across fees + compensation
As the conflict in Ukraine continues, the West is clearly determined to push Russia to the economic periphery.
Is a new economic order emerging?
@heliaebrahimi
reports.
This is why the energy prices matter AND why it impacts the poorest in society the hardest (1/3)
➡️ In April the proportion of unemployment benefit spent on energy bills is set to jump to a staggering 🔌 33%
➡️ fuel poverty = 10% of income spent on energy
@CitizensAdvice
TONIGHT: (1/3) We look at the Government's controversial social care plan, which one red wall MP tells me has 'angered' backbenchers.
A vote is now expected on Tues w many abstaining in protest.
Here r some of the numbers behind the social care changes + how impacts rich+poor...
Breaking: Chancellor Jarvis says £1.1bn to be spent now. Here’s the breakdown:
£434m on medical supplies inc stockpiles
£344m more border officers etc
£138m public info campaign
£108m biz support
How will NHS pay increase be funded? via
@heliaebrahimi
Plus: exclusive research from the
@TheKingsFund
on how the UK's healthcare system stacks up internationally and why NHS funding matters so much
#NHSStrikes
Thank you Laura Trott!
🔹The new chief secretary to the Treasury on
@BBCr4today
credits
@bankofengland
when discussing inflation reduction
🔹The way
@Jeremy_Hunt
+
@RishiSunak
hv been talking lately u wd think the Bank obsolete given Downing St says it has halved inflation
BREAKING: UK will legally commit itself to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 says the Prime Minister. Legislation will go to Parliament tomorrow. May's bid for a legacy beyond
#brexitchaos
LATEST: Greensill/Cameron scandal - will now have 6 inquiries:
1. Boardman - announced
2. Treasury Select Committee announced
3. PACAC announced
4. CSPL - announced
5. BEIS - set to announce
6. PAC- expected to announce
Plus the work of Simon Case....
@Channel4News
ICYMI I interviewed
@RishiSunak
today on the back of GDP results(1/4)
➡️ He pledged to support the PM “completely”
➡️ Denied he was a “loan shark”
➡️ talked about public sector pay restraint
He's “cautiously optimistic” on the economy
But here's the UK picture in 3 charts….
🔹St Mary’s hospital in london -where the lead pharmacist shows us sewage leaks + urine trickling down fr the floor above
🔹While chair of IMB HMP Wandsworth tells us the prison’s like a ‘gulag’
🔹These are the tales of deep cuts to capital investment since 2010
@instituteforgov
Food prices are at a 45-year high and inflation's still soaring, and it's women who are often bearing the brunt of the cost of living crisis.
We follow the lives of three women from different backgrounds living with this deepening financial inequality.
NEW UK GDP slumps 0.5% in July:
➡️ worse than City expected
➡️ reverses 0.5% increase in growth in June
➡️it doesn’t make for a great start to Q3 and won’t do much to lift fears that Britain might edge into recession
NEW
Britain is growing. And not just that, the
@ONS
says:
Real GDP per head is estimated to have increased by 0.4% in first three months of 2024, following seven consecutive quarters without positive growth.
BUT before you get to excited - It is estimated to be 0.7% lower
This morning:
➡️ The debt interest bill for Public Sector borrowing in UK surged to 3rd highest level since records began (the other two were in covid)
➡️ Interest payments = £9.8bn April 2023 vs £3.1bn last yr
➡️ Debt-to-GDP ratio = 99.2%
EXCLUSIVE: (1/5) As David Cameron defends his role at Greensill in parliament, we reveal more details the firm’s involvement in the British state
➡️ The much discussed CLBILS +CBILS guarantees from the British Business Bank - are STILL in place...
➡️ Shadow banking is now $239 trillion - with hedge funds, money markets + real estate funds rivalling banks in how much they lend
➡️ Much of this market remains unregulated + FPC today warned sector remains vulnerable to interest rate shocks
👉🏻 What can it do? Not much.
Worth remembering
#oxfordvaccine
is MUCH cheaper than its German + US peers costing around ➡️ $4
➡️v $20
#BioNTech
➡️or as much as a reported $37
#Moderna
Plus doesn’t require storage temperatures of -70ºC + -20ºC
Which’ll make it much easier to transport around the world
WATCH
@Channel4News
TONIGHT as we unveil our “Brand Britain” advertising campaign with
@StLukesLondon
Here’s a taster of just one the campaigns: Meghan Markle as Britannia!
Can this image help unite the country and sell Britain to the world?
#brexit
After historic defeat, sharp words from the business community. Here's the British Chambers of Commerce:
“There are no more words to describe the frustration, impatience, and growing anger amongst business after two and a half years on a high-stakes political rollercoaster ride."
As inflation hits 5.5% - the highest in 3 decades...
Why is a short term price shock turning into a long term inflation problem?
Here's my 30 second explainer:
NEW: In his first interview since the sleaze scandal broke Chancellor
@RishiSunak
tells me the Government's actions were wrong:
"We need to do better than we did last week. And we know that
Q: Was it a mistake?
"Of course it was a mistake...and I think that’s fair to say that."
🔹UK GDP 0% = July-Sept
🔹 September itself saw stronger growth than expected 0.2%
🔹BUT…. Don’t be fooled we’re hovering at basically flat all year which is paltry compared to how economy used to perform
🔹watch
@Channel4News
at 7pm tonight for interview with
@Jeremy_Hunt
Breaking: manufacturing in 3 months to July drops for 1st time since March 2016 says
@CBItweets
confirmation of the rocky economic backdrop for Boris to inherit
READ THIS! An incredible book that offers a rare + v human glimpse into the British justice system through 11 cases + the eyes of my beautiful freind
@wigsandwords
V thought provoking questions about how fair justice is
Such an important story
➡️ UK’s ambition to be a science power house 🟰 on shaky ground w/out access to
@HorizonEU
➡️ it was supposed to be 1 of big wins of the NI detente
➡️ But a new dispute re our contribution cd block UK re-entry via
@FT
NEW
Inflation UP at a HIGHER pace than expected in February
10.4% 🟰 Feb
Up fr 10.1% in Jan
MORE than the 9.9% expected by
@bankofengland
Driven by higher costs for drinks in pubs and vegetables 🥦
FOOD prices rose to their highest rate in 45 years
@Channel4News
Unbelievable: Bank of England having to defend £390,000 in travel bills for just 2 of its highflying FPC members, including a &11k ticket to Washington + £469 taxi fare
EXCLUSIVE: Sanjeev Gupta has defended his choices in a leaked internal memo to staff after Govn't turned down his £170m bailout request. He also denied any rule breaking in relation to the COVID support loans - with the Biz Select Committee now poised 2launch an investigation