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Why Reeves’s claims of petrol profiteering don’t stack up

The Chancellor is painting garages as the villains, but refuses to cancel plans to raise fuel duty Daily Telegraph 24/03/26 While Donald Trump’s assault on Iran rages on, Rachel Reeves is fighting a battle of her own. In an effort to appeal to hard-up households and backbenchers, the Chancellor has vowed to stamp out “price-gouging” and crack down on any company seen to be “profiteering” from the conflict in the Middle East. Her sights so far have been set on petrol station operators, which are increasing prices to combat the soaring price of oil. Politically, it is a savvy move as she attempts to recast someone else as the villain while refusing to cancel her planned increase in fuel duty. Ms Reeves told the House of Commons on Tuesday: “Let me say again, this Government will not tolerate any company exploiting this crisis at consumers’ expense.” However, whether her accusation stacks up is another matter. Petrol stations are the final step in a long global supply chain. Th...
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Reeves Faces war with Labour's big beasts

Daily Telegraph 19/03/26 Sir Keir Starmer’s dwindling circle of allies has pushed back against Angela Rayner’s criticism of what she called his “un-British” Indefinite Leave to Remain policy. In truth, Two-Tier had little room to manoeuvre – having personally authored the foreword to the white paper on “Restoring Control over the Immigration System.” Yet, it is Rachel Reeves who appears increasingly exposed, with Rayner, Miliband and Burnham all lining up to challenge the Chancellor on her own turf. Annabel Denham, Senior Political Commentator To listen to Sadiq Khan today, you’d think it was 2020. The Mayor of London has declared that “the evidence is overwhelming: Brexit has been a disaster for London and the UK”. According to Khan, rejoining the EU is now “inevitable”, which will come as news to the millions who voted the other way and the large number who’d really rather that politicians focused on the present. When pressed on the morning media round, trade minister Sir Chri...
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Reeves charts a course for ‘April Armageddon’

A year after tax rises removed thousands of jobs from the economy, businesses are braced for a new set of disastrous Labour measures Daily Telegraph 20/03/26 With just a fortnight to go, the reality of a new slate of socialist measures which will land on the heads of business in Labour’s “April Armageddon” is setting in. What started a year ago when the rise in employer National Insurance contributions kicked in and thousands of jobs were kicked out of the economy will continue this April when the next set of measures come crashing down on businesses. The broader economic context could not be worse. One in six young people are now unable to find a job, GDP per capita is falling, and gilt yields are rising as we battle stubbornly high inflation and rising oil prices. Even after a year of job cuts and hiring freezes, Labour’s choices have business confidence stuck at levels not seen since the global pandemic. All of this is down primarily to a Cabinet that neither understands nor ca...
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Labour’s economic vandalism is ruining the lives of the young

The pathway to long term employment has been disrupted by the Government’s punitive taxation changes Daily Telegraph 17/03/26 We need to talk about Neets. For the first time in over a decade, the number of 16- to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training has crept back towards the million mark. That’s roughly one in eight young people. And the details are more troubling still. Around 57 per cent are economically inactive – not working and not even looking for work. Nearly half say they have a health condition related to mental health: in just five years the number of young people claiming disability benefits has almost doubled. Our youth unemployment rate, now about 16.1 per cent, sits awkwardly above the European average. However one chooses to dress it up, this is not a healthy picture. We have a crisis. The truth is that much of this was predictable. A string of policy choices has quietly raised the cost – and risk – of hiring. The rise in employers’ National Insur...
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The meningitis outbreak is exposing the new world of post-Covid anxiety

The infection is not a random airborne hazard. There will not be a national epidemic Daily Telegraph 17/03/26 The Covid pandemic has left a heightened state of anxiety about any outbreak of infectious disease. This is easily inflated into mass panic, as we are seeing with the outbreak of meningitis among young people in the Canterbury area. Health Secretary Wes Streeting has gone as far as saying it is “unprecedented”. It isn’t. Yes, meningitis is a potentially serious, and – as we have tragically seen in recent days – even fatal infection, but it is well understood. Responses should be proportionate. An inflammation of tissues surrounding the brain, it can be caused by several viruses and bacteria. The bacteria are quite common in the UK population – around 10 per cent of us carry them at any one time. That figure is perhaps 20 per cent for teenagers and young people. These bacteria are transmitted by prolonged or close contact, such as sharing a household or kissing. People li...
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Landlords leave BTL sector even as rental yields increase

Property Industry Eye 11/03/26 With rental supply remaining tight across the capital, London’s buy-to-let market is presenting renewed opportunities for investors, with rents and yields rising in several parts of the city. That is according to Jeremy Leaf, a north London estate agent and former residential chairman of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He said: “Conditions for letting property are favourable at present given the level of stock being sold and demand remaining strong in most areas, so many longer-term landlords are taking advantage.” However, Leaf added that many landlords are choosing to leave the market rather than benefit from current conditions, citing tighter regulation and higher taxes – a trend reflected in the latest Savills report, which found that the UK’s private rented sector recorded its largest value decline this century in 2025, falling by £48bn. Leaf explained: “The reason why many are leaving the sector is the looming Renters’ Rights Ac...
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Rural Britain is at breaking point, and Labour just doesn’t care

Everywhere you go outside of the cities, you can feel the impact of Starmer’s policies Daily Telegraph 15/03/26 The narrative goes that Sir Keir Starmer is the most un-ideological Prime Minister that Britain has ever had. Try telling that to its rural communities. While the government has been buffeted around by a series of economic, diplomatic and internal crises, one part of its agenda appears to have remained perfectly consistent since the last General Election: a committed and unrelenting campaign to render rural life unviable. If one was in a forgiving mood, you might put it down to ignorance. Not a single member of Starmer’s cabinet represents a rural seat. Labour’s voter base is predominantly urban. For a Prime Minister who by own admission prefers the society of Davos’s “anywheres” to fellow countrymen and women in Parliament, England’s green and pleasant land and its inhabitants are unlikely to hold any particular charm. Perhaps the war on neighbourhood planning, or the...
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