Government ‘committed’ to financial regulators’ independence says City minister in Tory U-turn The government has made a U-turn on plans to introduce sweeping powers that would allow ministers to override regulators, including the Bank of England, after multiple warnings that such a move would harm the UK’s global reputation. The Treasury confirmed on Wednesday evening that it would “not proceed with the intervention power at this time”, noting that the government was “committed” to the

Prime minister may be forced to scrap local housing targets to avoid relying on Labour votes Rishi Sunak could be forced to compromise with rebel MPs over the scrapping of housing targets to avoid relying on Labour votes to pass the levelling up bill. It comes as the former cabinet minister Simon Clarke attempted to amend the same bill to allow new onshore windfarms, on which he hopes to attract Conservative and Labour support. Onshore

NHS heads warn patients dying every day as A&E logjams cause 169,000 hours of crew delays in worst-ever month Ambulance crews could not respond to almost one in four 999 calls last month – the most ever – because so many were tied up outside A&Es waiting to hand patients over, dramatic new NHS figures show. An estimated 5,000 patients in England – also the highest number on record – potentially suffered “severe harm” as

Chancellor says he or Treasury was not source of alleged briefing and he did not support ‘moving away’ from Brexit agreement Jeremy Hunt has repeatedly refused to deny that the Treasury briefed a newspaper that the government was considering a closer, Swiss-style relationship with the EU, while insisting that this had never been the government’s plan. In sometimes confusing exchanges before the Commons Treasury committee, the chancellor said the UK could never, like Switzerland, be

Lawyer says home secretary failed to consider ‘serious consequences’ of removing 23-year-old’s citizenship Shamima Begum would face the death penalty if sent to Bangladesh, her parents’ country of origin, and is now effectively stateless, a court has heard. The 23-year-old’s legal appeal at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) was told that the then home secretary, Sajid Javid, had failed to consider the “serious practical consequences” of removing Begum’s UK citizenship in 2019. Continue reading…

Documents suggest husband passed on money from PPE Medpro, which secured £200m contracts after Mone lobbied ministers The Conservative peer Michelle Mone and her children secretly received £29m originating from the profits of a PPE business that was awarded large government contracts after she recommended it to ministers, documents seen by the Guardian indicate. Lady Mone’s support helped the company, PPE Medpro, secure a place in a “VIP lane” the government used during the coronavirus