Michael Simmons is The Spectator's economics editor. Contact him here.
From our UK edition
Despite having a £30 billion fiscal hole to fill Rachel Reeves might be about to splash the cash. If reports are to be believed, in the coming weeks the lifting of the two-child benefit cap will be announced. The cost is £3bn every year. The cap was introduced under George Osborne to stop families claiming
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Freddy Gray speaks to The Spectator’s economics editor Michael Simmons about Trump’s announcement at the Oval Office on Monday night that taking Tylenol, known as paracetamol, ‘is no good’ and that pregnant women should ‘fight like hell’ to only take it in cases of extreme fever. They discuss the data behind the claims, whether the
From our UK edition
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The Liberal Democrat party conference in Bournemouth has concluded with a speech from leader Sir Ed Davey. While the current crop of Liberal Democrats are the most successful third-party in 100 years, they have faced questions about why they aren’t cutting through more while Reform is. It’s something Davey is aware of and – hoping
From our UK edition
Rachel Reeves should shift the tax burden away from workers and on to those who take most from the state: our pensioners. That’s the view of the influential Resolution Foundation think-tank, at least. This morning it recommended increasing income tax by 2p on the pound while cutting employee national insurance (NI) contributions by the same
From our UK edition
The Bank of England has held interest rates at 4 per cent. Threadneedle Street’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted seven to two to keep rates where they are. The fact inflation now sits at almost double the Bank’s 2 per cent target outweighed concerns about the slackening jobs market and what its impact on Britain’s
From our UK edition
Prices are continuing to rise. Consumer inflation stayed at 3.8 per cent last month – matching the figure recorded in July and nearly double the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target. This morning’s figures on CPI, released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), were in line with the expectations of markets and pundits. Air
From our UK edition
Over the past year, some 142,000 payrolled jobs have been lost, according to the latest labour market figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Another 8,000 disappeared last month alone. Unemployment remained at 4.7 per cent – higher than a year ago. The bulk of job losses came in accommodation and food services, which
From our UK edition
As the Chancellor Rachel Reeves gets to work on her second Budget – to be delivered on 26 November – red lights flash everywhere. Gilt yields were up again as markets lost faith in her ability to balance the books. Reeves or Darren Jones – whoever is really calling the shots – will spend the
From our UK edition
‘UK in the drain’, a trader exclaimed earlier today as 30-year gilt yields punched through to their highest level since 1998. London stocks were down and the pound fell too. The message to trading desks was clear: dump Britain. Things have worsened, at least in part, because yesterday’s Downing Street and Treasury reshuffle included no
From our UK edition
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The summer transfer window comes to a close today but, as Parliament also returns from summer recess today, the only team Keir Starmer is focused on is his own in Number Ten. The Prime Minister has decided to reshuffle his advisers, including bringing in Darren Jones MP to Number Ten from the Treasury. Political editor
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Human rights barrister Dr Anna Loutfi and deputy political editor James Heale join Michael Simmons to unpack the latest court ruling over the migrants housed at the Bell Hotel. The government has won an appeal today – but how much of a victory is it really? Anna explains how the legal questions considered by this
From our UK edition
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First: an economic reckoning is looming ‘Britain’s numbers… don’t add up’, says economics editor Michael Simmons. We are ‘an ageing population with too few taxpayers’. ‘If the picture looks bad now,’ he warns, ‘the next few years will be disastrous.’ Governments have consistently spent more than they raised; Britain’s debt costs ‘are the worst in
From our UK edition
‘The problems of financing our deficits have seriously hampered progress in achieving our goals,’ wrote Labour’s chancellor Denis Healey in 1976 in his letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Half a century on, little has changed. Britain’s numbers still don’t add up. Our demographics are the problem: we’re an ageing population with too few
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12 min listen
As James Heale writes online for the Spectator today, ‘two issues continue to plague the government’: how best to attack Nigel Farage. and how to frame an incrementalist approach to policy ‘when the national mood favours radical change’. Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister responsible for UK-EU relations, attempted to tackle both today as he
From our UK edition
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Since the government’s decision to proscribe the group Palestine Action, arrests have mounted across the country, raising questions not only about the group’s tactics but also about the government’s handling of free speech and protest rights. On today’s special edition of Coffee House Shots, Michael Simmons is joined by The Spectator’s James Heale and journalist
From our UK edition
37 min listen
On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Svitlana Morenets says that Trump has given Zelensky cause for hope; Michael Simmons looks at how the American healthcare system is keeping the NHS afloat; Ursula Buchan explains how the Spectator shaped John Buchan; Igor Toronyi-Lalic argues that art is no place for moralising, as he reviews Rosanna McLaughlin;
From our UK edition
Britain is slowly drowning in debt. Figures just released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that in the financial year to July the state had to borrow £60 billion to tread water. That’s £6.7 billion more than by July last year and the third highest borrowing total for this period of the year
From our UK edition
‘A friend of mine who’s slightly overweight, to put it mildly, went to a drug store in London,’ Donald Trump said aboard Air Force One. Earlier he had told reporters: ‘He was able to get one of the fat shots. “I just paid $88 and in New York I paid $1,300. What the hell is
From our UK edition
Inflation is up again. CPI climbed to 3.8 per cent last month – up from 3.6 per cent in July, now well above the 2 per cent target that the Bank of England no longer seems all that bothered about missing. It throws fresh doubt on the wisdom of the Bank’s decision to cut rates
From our UK edition
Yesterday’s stronger-than-expected GDP growth raises questions for the Bank of England. Second quarter growth came in at 0.3 per cent (0.2 per cent per Brit) propped up by a strong 0.7 per cent in June alone. The rest of the national accounts however, paint a worrying picture when it comes to inflation. The GDP deflator
