News about George Osborne

Reeves is seeking to frame her proposed tax assault on drivers, strivers, gamblers, employers and better-off Britons as no different from what Tory chancellors have done in the past. Her team has been quoted as saying the 2024 budget is in the same mould as Norman Lamont and Ken Clarke after Britain's ejection from the Exchange Rate Mechanism (precursor of the euro) in 1993 and George Osborne following great financial crisis in 2008. The flaw in Rachel Reeves' message is that piling tax increases on a recovering economy would crowd-out rather than crowd-in private investment.

There have been signs of growing anxiety within government over how to find extra cash from already-struggling Brits. As the Treasury heads into the 'tunnel' of wrangling with the OBR watchdog ahead of the fiscal package on October 30, few firm decisions are said to have been taken with - denied - jibes about 'disarray'. Rumours have been circulating that manifesto measures such as imposing VAT on private school fees and cracking down on non-doms will not bring in as much as hoped. And having ruled out changes to headline income tax, VAT and national insurance rates, the Chancellor could be left relying on an array of smaller raids - the effects of which can be very hard to predict.

The story of Next, the £12.5bn retail giant, began 160 years ago in Leeds.. The company, then known as Hepworth, was the first high street clothing chain, supplying bespoke and off-the-peg tailoring. Next's transformation into a 21st century clothing and homeware powerhouse is an exemplar of how to survive and thrive in an industry that has changed at breakneck speed. Much of its success is down to its long-standing chief executive, Lord Wolfson (inset left), widely acknowledged to be one of the most brilliant business brains in Britain

Next's transformation into a 21st century clothing and homeware powerhouse is an exemplar of how to survive and thrive amid radical shifts in a sector. The company, which holds the number one slot in the UK clothing market, is preeminent in the shopping mall - and also on the internet. No wonder Next shares, which have soared by 33 per cent this year, are seen as one of the stocks to own if you want to back great British businesses that are also poised to become global stars.

So endeth the great windbag-athon. From the foot-stamping in the hall, James Cleverly took the day; yet there is still some game-time left. The four Tory leadership wannabes were each given 20-minute slots. Did they all exceed their limits? Certainly felt like it.

Thangam Debbonaire (right), who lost her Bristol seat to the Greens at the election, said the Elgin Marbles (left) did not belong in the British Museum. The comments, in an interview with Greek newspaper Ta Nea, comes amid continuing wrangling behind the scenes over the Parthenon sculptures. The dispute has been running for centuries, with Rishi Sunak and his Greek counterpart clashing bitterly on the issue last year. Tory former chancellor George Osborne has been trying to negotiate a deal in his role as chair of the British Museum's board of trustees.

Rachel Reeves is set to follow the example of previous Chancellors by changing the so-called 'fiscal rules' - the Government's self-imposed limits on debt and borrowing. The fiscal rules have been changed six times in the past nine years alone, notes Lindsay James, investment strategist at wealth manager Quilter.

Growth is a nebulous concept, and in the past has left many government efforts sinking in the treacle of bureaucracy. The ultimate irony would be the sight of a Labour government sweeping the rule-based system put in place by the Tory dominated coalition into the sea. Under Nikhil Rathi, the FCA rapidly has sought to simplify enforcement and make listings easier. Reeves is set to formally remind the FCA and the Bank of England's rigid Prudential Regulatory Administration of the 'growth' mission at the time of the budget.

Policy decisions made in the capital mean that it often receives the best of government and private investment. Regional productivity is hugely disappointing. But In the US, Germany, France et al the concentration of resources is much better distributed.

Rolls is closing in on contracts to build mini nuclear power plants in Sweden and The Netherlands. The British engineering giant was last week selected by the government of the Czech Republic as preferred supplier to state-owned power group CEZ, beating competition from French, American and Japanese rivals.

Thank goodness Sir Keir Starmer isn't a doctor. His bedside manner is so morose that he could probably persuade his patients to switch off their own life support machines. What's truly baffling about Starmer is that he came to power only a few weeks ago with so much goodwill and a whopping majority. He is the one who should be cheerful - he won after all.

Preparations have been quietly put in place for when the 17-year-old tabby passes away.

After the death of her mother in 2002, the Queen grew more carefree, as though relieved of the burden of parental judgment. She relaxed into her role and had more fun. Ten years on, at the age of 86, she readily agreed to perform a version of herself - or a version of a version of herself - in a short James Bond film commissioned for the opening of the London Olympics. Lord Janvrin, her private secretary from 1999 to 2007, doubted she would have gone ahead with the idea had her mother been alive, 'simply because she would have felt her mother wouldn't have approved - that it would have been a bit undignified'.

In the latest evidence of the UK's robust recovery, figures showed that growth this year is the fastest in the G7 group of advanced nations, while inflation remains subdued and unemployment falls. Yet, in what is seen as preparing the public for tax rises, Ms Reeves insists that Labour's economic inheritance is the worst since the Second World War . Critics expressed incredulity at the claim, coming as the Chancellor has been doling out huge pay settlements to public sector workers. One expert said Ms Reeves' comments were 'categorically false', while another described the latest figures as 'another gangbusters quarter' for the UK.

In a boost for the country's financial services industry, the City giant, led by boss Venkat (pictured), has ditched rules introduced by Brussels in 2014 that limited bonuses to two times an employee's annual salary. The idea was to put a brake on risky behaviour by traders and bankers in the wake of the 2007-09 financial crisis and to avoid a repeat of that meltdown.

A slew of foreign galleries are hoping to acquire invaluable but 'contested' cultural treasures that take pride of place in British institutions. Labour has hinted it could support a plan to send the Elgin Marbles on a long-term loan to Greece as part of Sir Keir Starmer's wooing of the EU for closer ties. Yet the marbles aren't the only prized artefacts that foreign countries want back. Museums across Britain are fighting to keep their treasures from a woke onslaught. In recent years, a number of items have been returned to their country of origins on loan agreements. This includes an agreement reached in January to loan a collection of gold items, referred to as Ghana's 'crown jewels',  back to the country. The agreement to return the artefacts, known as the Asante gold, is part of a three-year loan agreement with the option to extend for a further three years. Here, MailOnline can reveal the ancient treasures that are under threat from foreign governments amid suggestions Labour could hand back the Elgin Marbles to Greece.

I understand Labour will enact a policy whereby they can retrospectively charge VAT on any school fees paid from the date the policy starts, giving them time to put a framework around the VAT charging and claw back backdated VAT. Is this the case and if so how likely is challenging it to be successful?

Culture minister Chris Bryant has raised eyebrows by praising the British Museum's attempts to resolve international disputes - such as over the Parthenon sculptures (right). The dispute has been running for centuries, with Rishi Sunak (inset) and his Greek counterpart clashing bitterly on the issue last year. Tory former chancellor George Osborne has been trying to negotiate a deal in his role as chair of the British Museum's board of trustees. That could involve the Marbles being sent to Greece for a decade - although it is unclear Athens will agree as it would mean tacitly accepting the Museum's legal ownership. Ending the saga could boost Keir Starmer's (left with Emmanuel Macron) efforts to 'reset' relations with Europe, which he has made a priority for his premiership.

Sir Keir Starmer has faced his first Labour rebellion just two weeks after being elected during a vote on child benefits in the House of Commons tonight. The new prime minister saw seven of his own MPs defy the party whip to vote for an SNP amendment which would have scrapped the two-child benefit cap. The group was made up of prominent figures from the left-wing of the party, including former key Corbynites John McDonnell, Richard Burgon and Rebecca Long Bailey. The retribution to the mini-rebellion over the issue has been swift, with all those who voted for the amendment having the Labour whip withdrawn from them for six months. Plans by the new government to keep the limit in place had sparked anger among the Left, and more than 40 Labour MPs abstained from the vote on the issue.

Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield said the policy, introduced by then-chancellor George Osborne in 2015, was 'sinister' and had been the main reason driving her to stand for Parliament. Ms Duffield, who has criticised Sir Keir repeatedly over women's rights issues including gender ideology, also likened the 'social cleansing' policy to something from Margaret Attwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale . Like the book's dystopian society in in which women are deprived of their rights, Ms Duffield told the Sunday Times women were being 'subjugated according to their social class'. The new Government has already come under pressure to abolish the cap from campaigners, opposition parties and some of its own backbenchers, with some rebel Labour MPs set to move an amendment to the King's Speech calling for the policy to be scrapped.

For a brief moment, the Tories ' dilapidated attack machine sputtered back into life, writes DAN HODGES. 'The King's Speech was the most Left-wing in years,' the briefing declared. 'Nationalisation, new powers for the unions, abolition of heredity peers.' The Financial Times followed its lead. Sir Keir Starmer was portrayed sporting a Che Guevara beret, above an article heralding 'Starmer's never-ending insurgency'. The Prime Minister was set to embrace his 'inner radical', it claimed. Well if he is, that radicalism is set to be revealed via his political audacity, rather than the channelling of any great socialist ideology. Because the truth is that the new Prime Minister's first programme for government is one of the most conservative - and Conservative - ever unveiled by a Labour administration.

In her first major speech as Chancellor, Rachel Reeves began by giving herself a carte-blanche excuse for any future failings - or bringing in tax rises not included in her party's manifesto. Labour had inherited, she claimed, the worst set of economic circumstances facing any incoming government since the Second World War. Either through ignorance or selective amnesia, she neglected to mention one monumental exception. When George Osborne took over the Treasury from the last Labour administration in 2010, the nation's finances were in tatters.

Notoriously territorial Larry, 17, has served the Cabinet Office since 2011, now living in Britain's must famous address under six prime ministers. The no-nonsense moggy has gained a reputation for warning off rivals, famously taking on and chasing away a huge fox in 2022. His relationships with other cats has also been testy - maintaining a four-year feud with his former nemesis, the Foreign Office's Chief Mouser Palmerston, who retired from his post in 2020. And now Starmer's first piece of high-profile diplomacy could be to convince Larry to put aside his differences as he welcomes his counterpart to his new home, as the PM says JoJo is 'revered' by his children.

Were you up for John Nicolson? It was 4.23am when the news came in that the grandest of all SNP MPs had lost his seat. If Scotland had a Portillo moment it was this, not only because Nicolson's pristinely coiffured mane rivals that of the formerly fop-haired Tory grandee but because his notional majority was almost 13,000. I squinted at the BBC 's results table to inspect its outrageous conclusion, but the numbers added up. Nicolson had been unceremoniously dumped in favour of Labour . Perhaps it's his regal manner but it was almost as if the electors of Alloa and Grangemouth had voted out the Queen Mother .