Newslinks for Wednesday 16th July 2025

Red tape is ‘boot on the neck of businesses’, says Reeves

“In a major City speech, the Chancellor on Tuesday night urged Britain’s regulators to ditch their “excessive caution” as she rewrote rules for banks and building societies to help more people on to the housing ladder, deliver better returns for savers and boost economic growth. She set out the plans in an address to City leaders and financial watchdogs at London’s Mansion House alongside Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England Governor. It marked her first major speech since the Government’s climbdown on welfare reforms, which have left the Chancellor scrambling to find billions of pounds to balance her Budget.” – Daily Telegraph

• Reeves forced to plead with bankers to boost growth – Daily Telegraph
• Chancellor tells regulators to loosen up to boost share investment – The Times
• Tax hikes will kill growth, Reeves is warned as she promises to axe red tape – The Sun
• Markets set to react to Reeves’ controversial Mansion House speech – Daily Express
• Ever-higher taxes ‘bad for growth’, OBR warns Reeves – The Times
• UK inflation rises unexpectedly to 3.6% – Guardian
• HMRC criticised by watchdog for failing to track billionaires’ tax – Guardian

Comment

• The pendulum has swung too far on risk – Rachel Reeves, FT
• This was too little, too late from the ‘iron’ Chancellor – Matthew Lynn, Daily Telegraph
• Reeves has just allowed the City to foist its undesirables upon the rookie investor – James Baxter-Derrington, Daily Telegraph
• I’m a successful entrepreneur. If Labour brings in a wealth tax, I’m out – Daniel Priestley, Daily Telegraph

>Today:

• ToryDiary: Fending of a potential economic collapse really depends on those that ‘get it’ and those that don’t

>Yesterday:

• Comment: Lord Ashcroft: The UK is bleeding people and money which is harming our economy and the British people

Afghan cover up ‘saved lives’ former defence minister Wallace insists

“The minister who requested a High Court injunction to cover up the Afghan data breach has insisted that the move “saved lives”. Ben Wallace, who was Defence Secretary in 2023 when the court order was requested, told The i Paper that the injunction allowed the Ministry of Defence to investigate the breach and to get thousands of at-risk people out of the country. His comments come as Labour Government insiders said that senior Tories must face questions over a secret breach of Afghan nationals that they said put lives at risk and cost hundreds of millions of taxpayer money. They said that the then-prime minister Rishi Sunak, Lord Cameron, the former foreign secretary, and Wallace should be made to give a “full account” of their decisions”. – The i

• Leak that risked lives of 100,000 Afghans — and £7bn cover-up – The Times
• Thousands of Afghans relocated to UK – Guardian
• The most expensive email in history – Daily Telegraph
• How one of the gravest security lapses in history was kept secret – FT
• Revealed: What the Government said in secret court sessions about relocating Afghans to the UK – Daily Mail
• UK set up secret Afghan immigration scheme – FT
• The Government’s £7bn secret airlift as 18,500 Afghans are brought to Britain – Daily Mail
• Farage attacks Government’s handling of Afghan resettlement plan – FT
• Afghans prioritised over veterans for housing, ex-soldiers fear – Daily Telegraph
• Toll of the Afghan data breach: what happens next? – The Times
• Did the risk ever justify the secrecy in this Kafkaesque calamity? – The Times

Comment

• Finally, the ineptitude I saw first-hand has been exposed – Johnny Mercer, Daily Telegraph
• I make no apology for the cover up – Ben Wallace, Daily Telegraph
• This is Watergate-level stuff – Tim Stanley, Daily Telegraph
• We need full transparency about the Afghan data breach – Editorial, Daily Telegraph
• Labour’s immigration fiasco is just a continuation of Tory betrayal – Richard Tice, Daily Telegraph
• Afghans being sneaked in is nothing short of sinister – Editorial, Daily Mail
• Keeping the £850m Afghani airlift to the UK secret for nearly two years is simply indefensible – Editorial, The Sun

Tories force Labour to vote to scrap two-child benefit cap

“Kemi Badenoch has embarrassed Labour MPs by forcing them to vote to scrap the two-child benefit cap, despite ministers saying that doing so was unaffordable. The Tories put down a symbolic motion to keep the restriction, which was imposed by George Osborne at the height of austerity. The tactic forced 344 members of Sir Keir Starmer’s party to vote against the motion, implying that they wanted to see the cap removed. The Tory leader tweeted: “Labour and the Lib Dems just voted against the two-child benefit cap. Reform didn’t even bother to vote on an issue they champion.” – Daily Telegraph

Comment

• Corbyn and Farage can educate one another – Daniel Finkelstein, The Times

Labour clearing way for gender identity lessons in schools, say Tories

“Labour has paved the way for lessons on gender identity in schools, the Conservatives have claimed. New sex education guidance, published on Tuesday, watered down Tory proposals to ban lessons on gender identity. The Government’s updated relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) guidance said schools should teach children the facts and law around gender reassignment, but did not rule out wider debates on gender identity. From September next year, secondary schools will be told to separate science from opinion in lessons on the topic and ensure they do “not teach as fact that all people have a gender identity”. – Daily Telegraph

Miliband to unleash new gas plants to back up patchy wind and solar

“Ed Miliband has opened the way for a fleet of new gas-fired power stations to back up Britain’s wind and solar farms. He has told the National Energy System Operator (Neso) – the UK’s grid operator – that by the end of the decade it must keep 40 gigawatts (GW) of spare generating capacity on standby for days when wind and solar cannot keep the nation’s lights on. The request is part of a system known as the capacity market, where companies are paid to keep generating capacity on standby for days when renewables output plummets or demand surges.” – Daily Telegraph

Russia and Iran ‘trying to recruit British schoolchildren for espionage’

“Hostile states are trying to recruit British schoolchildren to carry out acts of surveillance and sabotage in the UK, the head of counter-terror policing has warned. Detectives have identified several plots in which teenagers were allegedly recruited as criminal proxies by agents acting for Russia and Iran. At least one person in their mid-teens has been arrested and others have been investigated in recent months, according to Dominic Murphy, the head of Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command. The success of Britain’s counter-intelligence work since the 2018 Salisbury Novichok attacks has meant hostile states have increasingly been turning to criminal proxies to conduct their activities in the UK, it is believed.” – Daily Telegraph

• Russia ‘targets UK school children as proxies for hostile acts’ – The Times
• Trump promised to end ‘forever wars’. Five months in, he has matched Biden’s bombing record – Daily Telegraph

Comment

• Starmer is sacrificing our troops on the altar of human rights law – Allison Pearson, Daily Telegraph

Other political news

• Is Cleverly plotting a Johnson-style path to power? – The Times
• Ofcom chairman defends ‘Orwellian’ measures after Trump attacks – Daily Telegraph
• France to scrap two public holidays to fix budget black hole – Daily Telegraph

News in Brief

• Cleverly’s case against the revolutionary right – James Heale, The Spectator
• The Tories are responsible for the Afghan resettlement fiasco – Rachel Cunliffe, New Statesman
• Police megaforces would betray the legacy of Peel – Andrew Tettenborn, CapX
• Britain can’t tell its national story – Christopher de Bellaigue, UnHerd
• Socialist Spain is drowning in sleaze – Jorge González-Gallarza, The Critic

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