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Bank of England warns Reeves against supermarket price caps

Andrew Bailey joins retail bosses in opposing the Chancellor’s ‘unsustainable’ plans Daily Telegraph 20/05/26 Andrew Bailey has warned Rachel Reeves against capping supermarket food prices. The governor of the Bank of England said freezing the price of essentials would be “unsustainable” and risked backfiring. The intervention comes after grocers were asked to cap how much they charge shoppers for staple items such as bread, eggs and milk amid growing alarm in Government about soaring prices. Addressing MPs on the Treasury select committee, Mr Bailey conceded that there could be reasons in the “short run” to control prices. However, he added: “I think the question you have to think through with this sort of thing is: are you doing it for some well-grounded, very temporary reason? “I think if you start doing it as a matter of course, then you’re effectively artificially moving prices relative to costs, and that’s not a sustainable thing in the long run.” Another official at the ...
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Streeting: PM’s failures will put Farage in power

Daily Telegraph 20/05/26 Sir Keir Starmer’s failures will put Nigel Farage in power, Wes Streeting has warned. The former health secretary used his resignation speech to declare that the Labour Government must change course or risk handing Reform UK the keys to No 10. Mr Streeting, who quit Sir Keir’s Cabinet last week in the wake of Labour’s dire local election results, insisted he had “no regrets” over his resignation. He told MPs: “I left the Government because we are in the fight of our lives against nationalism, and it is a fight that we are currently losing. Unless we change course, we risk handing the keys of No 10 to Reform, and I do not want that on our consciences.” Mr Farage is on track to become the next prime minister, with Reform having enjoyed a comfortable lead in the polls for more than a year. The party won more than 1,450 council seats on May 7, taking control of 14 councils – nine of which it gained from Labour. Mr Streeting’s speech will be seen as the bas...
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Burnham’s plans won’t survive contact with the Treasury

Manchester Mayor’s push for public ownership relies on taxes and borrowing Daily Telegraph Published 19 May 2026 During the 2024 general election campaign, I worked as an adviser to Jeremy Hunt and remained at the Treasury to help ensure the basic machinery of government continued to function. But as the outcome of that election was pretty obvious, it was clear Treasury officials were starting to prepare for Labour. Now that Andy Burnham has a reasonable shot at quickly becoming prime minister, something similar will be happening at 1 Horse Guards Road. Civil servants will already be asking themselves what a Burnham premiership would mean for the next Budget, the fiscal rules and the tax system. The bond markets appear to have given their verdict. Ten-year gilt yields have remained above 5pc for days, prompting increasingly awkward attempts at reassurance from the Mayor of Greater Manchester. He first offered a vague commitment to “fiscal rules” in general before aides later c...
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Labour needs a plan. It has not got one

Starmer’s party is caught between Rejoiner instincts and Leave-voting heartlands it cannot afford to alienate Daily Telegraph 18/05/26 Brexit is an issue that divides us, both as a nation and as political factions within that nation. Europe was the key fault line within the Conservative Party from the late 1980s until our withdrawal from its political structures was finally achieved in January 2020. The downfall of at least four Tory prime ministers – Thatcher, Major, Cameron and May – can be attributed to internecine conflict about our place in Europe. Today it is Labour’s turn to suffer. The party has a problem that cannot be squared. Sir Keir Starmer and all his leadership rivals seemingly believe that Brexit was a colossal mistake and that they must do all within their power to reverse it in spirit if not in name. But natural Labour supporters in the party’s traditional heartlands overwhelmingly voted to take back control, to regain our sovereignty, in 2016. Most would do so a...
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Starmer’s challengers are merely rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic

Labour must grasp markets, incentives and the Government’s part in our economic malaise Daily Telegraph 17/05/26 This week promises to be a significant one, both politically and economically. The news and political sections of just about all the media are, of course, dominated by the wranglings over who, if anyone, will succeed Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister. But this subject has come to dominate the economics and business pages as markets try to assess the significance of the various candidates for economic and market performance. The truth of the matter is that there is probably not a cigarette paper to be put between them. On what we have heard so far, their different posturings correspond to rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. The fundamental reason is that all of the leading candidates for the top job are, unsurprisingly, shot through with Labour’s basic ideology, namely that fairness and the distribution of income are the main issues before us. And state-led acti...
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Andy Burnham is destined to be a disappointment

You cannot endlessly tax and borrow your way to prosperity, no matter how worthy the spending sounds daily Telegraph 15/05/26 The King of the North is assembling his troops, preparing to march on Westminster. Andy Burnham has finally found a seat for his long-awaited chicken run, hoping Labour’s National Executive Committee selects him as the candidate for Makerfield after Josh Simons stepped aside in the Wigan constituency. Simons was once touted as a Labour rising star before allegedly attempting to smear journalists investigating questionable accounting at Labour Together, the think tank he used to run. Simons says he is making way for a leader with the “radicalism, energy and immense courage to meet the moment”. Burnham certainly thinks he is the country’s saviour. He claims Labour has already “made changes to make life better” during its first two years in Government. Really? Voters appear unconvinced. At last week’s local elections, Reform secured 50 per cent of the vote ...
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Labour’s civil war is bizarre, shambolic and pointless

Politics is supposed to be about ideas and visions for dealing with the country’s challenges. Where is the great debate about these? Daily Telegraph 15/05/26 Winston Churchill famously wrote of the role of prime minister: “The loyalties which centre upon number one are enormous. If he trips he must be sustained. If he makes mistakes they must be covered. If he sleeps he must not be wantonly disturbed. If he is no good he must be pole-axed.” Good advice. And we all now know that Keir Starmer is no good at being Prime Minister. When he trips, he blames others. When he makes mistakes, it’s in the full glare of daylight. He’s a dud. Yet even now the Labour Party seems reluctant to conclude that he has to go. Even now Wes Streeting can’t quite bring himself to launch a leadership challenge and calls instead for a transition timetable. Personally I’m convinced Starmer is done for, but who could blame him for trying to tough it out against opponents so infirm of purpose? Things could ge...
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