• Politics
    The Guardian

    Boris announces spending plan for neglected towns

    Prime minister says new measures will focus on rail links and pub closures. Boris Johnson has announced another election package costing hundreds of millions of pounds for neglected towns, some of which will be spent in marginal constituencies. Concentrating on rundown high streets, the closures of pubs and post offices and the restoration of rail links, the prime minister has claimed that the measures will build upon the £3.6bn towns fund first announced in July. Towns that have been singled out in the new measures include Cleveleys, near Blackpool, where the Conservatives are defending a majority of 2,023, and Willenhall in Walsall North, where they hope to improve on a 2,601 majority. Labour said last night the Conservatives were responsible for the destruction of the high streets they are now claiming they will help. Andrew Gwynne, the shadow communities secretary, said: “The Tories are destroying our high streets and towns. A decade of vicious cuts to the services that people in our communities rely on has taken 60p in every £1 from council budgets.” Johnson said a future Conservative government would extend the retail discount on business rates to 50% next year. For businesses with a rateable value of less than £51,000, this will mean an increase on the current retail discount of 33% in 2020-21. This would amount to “an effective £280m tax cut” for small businesses, the party claimed. A new £1,000 business rates relief for pubs would also be introduced under a Johnson majority government – an £18m tax cut for next year, it is claimed. The Conservatives said they would also introduce a £150m fund that will help groups trying to take over and run pubs and post offices threatened with closure. Following on from previous pledges to reverse rail cuts recommended by Dr Richard Beeching in the 1960s, Johnson has also pledged to set up a £500m Beeching Reversal fund. Towns such as Ashington, Seaton Delaval and Blyth, with a combined population of 100,000, will receive cash following a request from Northumberland council for £99m to reinstate stations, the Tories claimed. Willenhall and Darlaston in the West Midlands will receive £18m to reopen stations – a further £10m has already been provided by the government, the party said. Investment will also be provided to connect Skelmersdale to Liverpool and Manchester. A disused railway line will be funded to improve transport connections for Thornton-Cleveleys and Fleetwood. In a statement last night, Johnson said: “For too long, too many towns and villages across Britain have been overlooked and left behind. When the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016, many communities felt their voices had been heard for the first time in decades and that their lives would improve. “We will invest in these communities and help people put the heart back into the places they call home.” One organisation representing retailers said Johnson’s plans did not go far enough to revive the UK’s troubled shopping districts. Tom Ironside, director of business and regulation at the British Retail Consortium, said the majority of the UK’s 3 million retail workers were employed in businesses that would not benefit from today’s announcement. “It is essential that the next government scraps ‘downwards transition’, which costs retailers £1.3bn, freezes next year’s rates increase, and introduces an improvement relief to encourage investment in our high streets. “To ensure the long-term vitality of our town and city centres, the next government should follow the recommendations of the treasury select committee and commit to wholesale reform of our broken business rates system,” he said. The Conservatives have been accused of using public money to boost their election prospects after it emerged that funding from the towns fund was going to wealthier Tory marginals. An analysis by the Times found this week that a third of the 100 towns due to receive some of the £3.6bn pot were not among the 300 most deprived towns. These included Loughborough, which was won by Nicky Morgan, the culture secretary, at the last election, with a majority of around 4,000. Kirby was not on the list.

  • News
    The Guardian

    Boris Johnson’s messages are just the start of it: the government is run on WhatsApp

    If off-the-record messaging is a worrying trend, the real problem is that Westminster is one big gentlemen’s club, says French journalist Marie Le Conte

  • Business
    The Telegraph

    Brexit was 'a historic error', ex-US Treasury Secretary claims - latest updates

    Brexit will go down in history as a “historic error” that fuelled inflation, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has said.

  • News
    Yahoo News UK

    Boris Johnson: What happens if WhatsApps aren't handed over?

    Former PM Boris Johnson says he has now provided his unredacted messages to the Cabinet Office – putting his successor Rishi Sunak in an awkward position.

  • News
    Sky News

    Suspended Labour MP 'boasted' about taking sex workers to parliament bar, claim colleagues

    A Labour MP who has been suspended from the party over allegations of sexual harassment has "boasted" about bringing sex workers into parliament for drinks, two of his colleagues have claimed. One Labour MP and a Labour peer told Sky News it was "well known" in Westminster that Geraint Davies would take the women to one of the Commons' bars and "show them off" on the terrace outside.

  • News
    The Guardian

    Brexit will be known as ‘historic economic error’, says former US treasury secretary

    Larry Summers says departure from EU ‘contributed to higher inflation’ and calls economic policy ‘substantially flawed’

  • News
    The Guardian

    Grant Shapps urges No 10 to hand Boris Johnson’s WhatsApps to Covid inquiry

    Minister increases pressure on government to provide unredacted notes so inquiry can ‘get on with job’

  • News
    The Telegraph

    Boris Johnson ‘feared Covid left UK infantilised and in state of doublethink’

    Boris Johnson feared the Covid response left Britain infantilised and in a “permanent state of doublethink”, his former communications director has said.

  • News
    The Telegraph

    Labour MP Geraint Davies suspended after sexual harassment allegations

    A Labour MP has had the party whip suspended following allegations of sexual harassment.

  • News
    Sky News

    Labour MP Geraint Davies suspended over 'serious allegations of unacceptable behaviour'

    Labour MP Geraint Davies has been "administratively suspended" from the party pending an investigation into reports of "incredibly serious allegations of completely unacceptable behaviour". Allegations regarding the 63-year-old came to light in a report by Politico published on Thursday. Sky News has seen evidence the Labour Party whips' office was made aware of allegations many months ago, but did not take action.

  • Business
    The Guardian

    Non-EU workers outnumber EU ones in various UK sectors in post-Brexit shift

    Exclusive: Analysis shows shift towards non-EU and British workers in sectors which once relied on EU workforce

  • News
    Sky News

    Boris Johnson hands COVID material to Cabinet Office in 'full and in unredacted form'

    All of Boris Johnson's WhatsApp messages and notebooks that were requested by the COVID inquiry have been handed to the Cabinet Office in "full and in unredacted form", his spokesman has said. The spokesman said the former prime minister wanted the Cabinet Office to "urgently" disclose the material to the inquiry.

  • News
    Evening Standard

    Boris Johnson says unredacted Covid WhatsApp messages have been handed to Cabinet Office

    Notebooks and WhatsApp messages belonging to Boris Johnson have been handed over to the Cabinet Office so they can be disclosed to the Covid-19 inquiry, a spokesman has confirmed. Mr Johnson would immediately disclose it directly to the inquiry if asked.

  • News
    Sky News

    SNP's Westminster group submits accounts on time to avoid losing £1.2m in public funds

    The SNP's Westminster group has filed its audited accounts ahead of a deadline, the party has said. AMS Accountants Group took charge of the SNP's books earlier this month after it was revealed in April that previous auditors Johnston Carmichael quit in September 2022 following a review of the firm's client portfolio. First Minister Humza Yousaf admitted he was unaware of the situation until he became party leader following Nicola Sturgeon's resignation.