Kate Andrews is economics editor of The Spectator
Interest rates have been held at 4.75 per cent. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted 6-3 to maintain the base rate, with the minority voting to further reduce rates by 0.25 percentage points. This is an unsurprising move from the Bank of England. Markets weren’t optimistic that another rate cut would follow so
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The Bank of England has voted to hold interest rates at 4.75%. The Spectator’s economics editor Kate Andrews joins Katy Balls and Freddy Gray to discuss the decision and what this means for the economy. Also on the podcast they discuss how a potential donation from Elon Musk to Reform UK has rattled politicians across
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New figures have shown that, for the year to November, inflation rose by 2.6%. While unsurprising, how much will this impact the Chancellor’s plans going into the new year? Katy Balls speaks to Kate Andrews and Isabel Hardman about the impact on Labour, especially given their October budget. Also on the podcast: do the WASPI
It was already unlikely the Bank of England (BoE) was going to cut interest rates this week. Having pledged a slow and steady approach to rate cuts, the decision to cut the base rate by 0.25 per cent last month made it much more likely that the Bank would hold rates at their meeting in
Good news for workers: wages are up. According to the latest data, released by the Office for National Statistics this morning, annual pay increased by 5.2 per cent in the three months leading up to October. Despite inflation returning broadly to the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target, these above-inflation wage increases will be
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Today Downing Street has continued its reset – that is definitely not a reset – by providing more details on Labour’s plan to cut the planning red tape and deliver a housing revolution. Their target is to build one and a half million new homes over the next five years by building on green belt
Buenos Aires ‘I never wind down,’ says Argentina’s President Javier Milei when we meet in his Presidential Office at the Casa Rosada. ‘I work all day, practically… I get up at 6 a.m., I take a shower and at 7 a.m. I am already at my desk working. And I work all the way until
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Preparations are stepping up for the government’s spending review, due in June. The Chancellor has taken a more personable approach to communicating with ministers, writing to them to outline how they plan to implement the Budget – with a crackdown on government waste and prioritising key public services. So, expect money for clean energy, the
How will the £40 billion additional tax revenue raised in the October Budget be spent? Efficiently, says the Chancellor this morning, who is setting out her plans for a war on waste. Rachel Reeves has informed government departments this morning that there will be a ‘line-by-line review’ of budgets leading up to the Spending Review
‘Hear me when I say this – no more money without reform.’ That was the Prime Minister’s message to the NHS only in September, when he promised the biggest reform of the health service since its founding. But that’s not quite how it has panned out. Labour’s first Budget, which raised an additional £40 billion
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On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Kate Andrews examines the appointment of Scott Bessent as US Treasury Secretary (1:20); Mark Galeotti highlights Putin’s shadow campaign across Europe (7:10); Adrian Pascu-Tulbure reports on the surprising rise of Romania’s Calin Georgescu (15:45); Michael Hann reviews Irish bands Kneecap and Fontaines D.C. (22:54); and Olivia Potts provides her notes
How rare it is to be given a second chance. That’s what the American people have handed Donald Trump. His second shot at the presidency means avoiding past mistakes, which in TrumpWorld means finally harnessing the full power of the state. Even in the last year of his first term, Trump was struggling to fill
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The Spectator’s Michael Gove, Katy Balls, and Kate Andrews are joined by Paul Abberley, Chief Executive of Charles Stanley, to discuss and unpack Labour’s first budget in 14 years. Now the dust has settled from the policies, key questions continue to arise. Can Labour create the growth it desperately needs? Why are farmers so upset
Forecasts are one thing, results are another. It’s a tough morning for the government, as the Office for National Statistics publishes the first quarterly growth figures since Labour entered Downing Street. The figures are disappointing: the UK economy only managed to grow by 0.1 per cent between July and September, lower than had been expected
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The Chancellor is giving her first Mansion House address tonight, and she will be majoring on pensions, suggesting that public sector pension funds need to be expanded. But is this the road to growth? James Heale talks to Katy Balls and Kate Andrews. Produced by Cindy Yu.
As Chancellor Rachel Reeves prepares to deliver her first Mansion House speech in the City of London tonight, one word is set to be emphasised: growth. ‘Last month’s Budget fixed the foundations to restore economic stability and put our public services on a firmer footing,’ she will tell her audience of bankers and City workers.
When Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that over half the new tax rises in her first Budget would go straight into the National Health Service, an immediate question followed: where’s the reform? The big health promise made by this government, after all, was to tie any additional money to an NHS overhaul – the biggest in
What will happen to the additional £22 billion allotted to the NHS in Labour’s first Budget? Will it transform the service – and reduce the NHS England waiting list – or disappear into the abyss? This remains one of the biggest outstanding questions from the Budget just under two weeks ago. Over half the tax
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Kate Andrews, standing in for Freddy Gray is joined by Nick Gillespie, host of The Reason Interview and Freddy Gray himself. They discuss whether Trump 2.0 could be different in his final time in office. Will he ‘drain the swamp’? And will the Democrats learn the lessons from their election loss?
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Kamala Harris has delivered her concession speech, signalling the start of the Democrat post-mortem. Donald Trump has secured a total victory, the kind which gives him a mandate to make some pretty radical reforms. Americano guest host Kate Andrews is joined by Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of The National Interest, to discuss what a second Trump term
