Michael Simmons is The Spectator's economics editor. Contact him here.
From our UK edition
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has just voted to hold interest rates at 3.75 per cent. While market expectations and pundit’s predictions overwhelmingly foresaw a hold, the vote came in slightly tighter than expected at five against four. The decision came alongside new forecasts from the Bank that predict inflation falling back
From our UK edition
8 min listen
Housing minister Steve Reed has been boasting about Britain’s housing market since Labour came into office – but is he right to celebrate? The country’s housing crisis seems to be delivering the worst of both worlds. Young people trying to get on the property ladder are being priced out by stubbornly high costs, while older
From our UK edition
I want to congratulate the Department for Work and Pensions. They’ve made the excellent decision to – once again – refuse compensation to the Waspi women. The cohort of 3.6 million women born in the 1950s claim to have not been informed that their state pension age would rise – bringing it into line with
From our UK edition
30 min listen
When Andy Burnham put forward his bid to stand in the Gorton & Denton by-election, the bond markets wobbled. What does this say about the state of Labour and their reputation with the markets? Michael Simmons speaks to former Treasury and Downing Street advisor James Nation about Labour leaders and fiscal policy, why Rishi Sunak
From our UK edition
9 min listen
The SNP announced their budget last week promising to cut taxes for low income earners. Could this be the smallest tax cut in history? Michael Simmons has the data.
From our UK edition
Last week the Bank of England was warned to prepare for a financial crisis triggered by the discovery of extraterrestrial life. But the really worrying scenario isn’t aliens. It’s us. A century ago the state pension as we know it was introduced. Taxes from employers and their staff were used to pay out benefits to
From our UK edition
Inflation has crept back up. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 3.4 per cent in December. That’s up slightly from the 3.2 per cent rise in prices recorded in November – though it is roughly in line with what markets had expected. The main
From our UK edition
Rachel Reeve’s jobs collapse is trundling on. Figures just released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that 155,000 payroll jobs were wiped out in the year up to November. Some 33,000 were lost in a single month. In total, over 200,000 jobs have disappeared since the Chancellor’s first Budget when she announced a
From our UK edition
Donald Trump has announced that he will impose tariffs on goods from the UK, Denmark and other European countries. The 10 per cent levies on exports to the US will apply to ‘all or any goods’ and come into force from the beginning of next month. The move is in response to Europe’s opposition to
From our UK edition
Britain’s economy is standing still. Figures just released by the Office for National Statistics show GDP grew by just 0.1 per cent in the three months to November. The numbers were dragged down by the construction sector, which saw a contraction of 1.1 per cent – its largest fall in nearly three years. GDP grew
From our UK edition
24 min listen
Thousands of homes across the South East have been without water for four consecutive days. South East Water’s record on water supply interruptions is one of the worst in the sector. Ofwat, the regulator, has placed it in the bottom three companies for disruptions each year from 2020 to last year. What has happened to
From our UK edition
Yesterday, Shona Robison, Scotland’s finance minister, delivered her tax and spending plans for the coming fiscal year. The headline message from the SNP was the following: the majority of Scots will pay less tax than those living in the rest of the UK. That’s thanks to a very slight lifting of the threshold freeze on
From our UK edition
Keir Starmer has just made his 13th u-turn since taking the No. 10 keys. The government, this evening, decided that the digital ID scheme would no longer be compulsory. The IDs were to be used to verify if job applicants had the right to work in the UK – something that is currently done using
From our UK edition
7 min listen
Reform UK may be leading in the polls on a mandate to hit net zero migration – but could this come sooner than Nigel Farage may think? Michael Simmons returns to Reality Check to explain what’s really going behind Britain’s migration figures.
7 min listen
Reform UK may be leading in the polls on a mandate to hit net zero migration – but could this come sooner than Nigel Farage may think? Michael Simmons returns to Reality Check to explain what’s really going behind Britain’s migration figures.
From our UK edition
11 min listen
Another year, another U-turn. We expect that the Labour government will be forced to climb down on forthcoming increases to the business rates bills faced by pubs in England. This comes after ferocious industry backlash, spearheaded by figures such as Tom Kerridge, who has been out in the media this week drawing attention to the
From our UK edition
35 min listen
A far cry from the ‘roaring twenties’ of the early 20th Century, the 2020s can be characterised as the ‘boring twenties’, argue Gus Carter and Rupert Hawksley in our new year edition of the Spectator. Record numbers of young people are out of work but even those with jobs face such a dire cost-of-living situation that they
From our UK edition
33 min listen
Michael Simmons reflects on some of the economic highs and lows of 2025.
From our UK edition
The Spectator’s Michael Simmons in conversation with Greg Jackson, CEO & Founder of Octopus Energy and non-executive member of the Cabinet Office Board.
From our UK edition
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has just voted to cut interest rates to 3.75 per cent and in doing so has delivered the Chancellor an early Christmas present. The five to four decision brings rates down to from the 4 per cent they’d been held at since August. The cut is the fourth this