Prince Andrew tied to controversial millionaire in fresh setback for King Charles
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Daily Mail
36 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Labour opens door to new Rachel Reeves tax raid as minister hints that middle-class earners will bear the brunt
Labour opened the door to a tax raid on middle-class workers yesterday, with one minister saying only those on 'modest incomes' would be spared. The party looks set to launch a fresh tax grab this autumn, having refused to rule out extending stealth taxes or a levy on wealth. Yesterday Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander again failed to deny that Labour is looking to hike taxes, but said the Government would be guided by 'fairness'. She told Sky News that Cabinet ministers did not 'directly' talk about the idea of a wealth tax during an away day at the Prime Minister's Chequers country estate on Friday. But she added: 'I think your viewers would be surprised if we didn't recognise that, at the Budget, the Chancellor will need to look at the [Office for Budget Responsibility] forecast that is given to her, and will make decisions in line with the fiscal rules that she has set out. 'We made a commitment in our manifesto not to be putting up taxes on people on modest incomes, working people. We have stuck to that.' Pressed on whether there would be tax rises this autumn, she refused to speculate but said: 'When it comes to taxation, fairness is going to be our guiding principle.' Huge rise in jobseekers The number of people looking for work has seen the biggest increase since the pandemic as employers scarred by tax rises step up redundancies. A poll of recruitment firms showed an 'accelerated decline' in activity – evidence that Labour's £25 billion National Insurance raid, combined with global political turbulence including Donald Trump's trade war and conflict in the Middle East, is taking its toll on growth. The figures from accountants KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) come after it was revealed last week that the economy shrank by 0.1 per cent in May, the second month of decline. Labour's general election manifesto promised not to increase taxes on 'working people', including national insurance, income tax or VAT, but ministers have struggled to define what a 'working person' is ever since. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out tax rises at the Budget since the Government was forced into a humiliating U-turn on welfare reforms that would have saved £5 billion. Fiscal watchdog the OBR last week warned that the UK's state finances are on an 'unsustainable' path due to a raft of public spending promises the Government 'cannot afford' in the longer term. Meanwhile, economists have warned that Ms Reeves' fiscal headroom could be eroded by unexpected economic turns. She is under pressure from Labour MPs, unions and senior figures to impose a wealth tax in order to balance the books. She could also increase business rates for department stores and supermarkets in a bid to raise £1.7billion, the Telegraph reported. Ms Reeves will tomorrow unveil plans for a Thatcher-style 'Big Bang' in the City by slashing red tape. In her Mansion House speech, she will pledge to reduce excessive regulation to make the UK 'the best place in the world to do business'.
Reuters
43 minutes ago
- Reuters
Wealth funds warm to active management - and China - to weather volatility, report shows
LONDON, July 14 (Reuters) - The world's sovereign wealth funds are turning to active fund management and investments in China, while central banks are diversifying reserves to weather a volatile global environment, an Invesco survey of sovereign funds and central banks managing $27 trillion in assets showed. Still, the dollar reigns supreme, with the bulk of central banks saying it would take two decades to dethrone it - if ever - as the top reserve currency despite growing concerns. "Institutions with greater than $100 billion - so the pretty large institutions - those are the ones that were most interested in moving more to active management," said Rod Ringrow, Invesco's head of official institutions. Whereas funds liked passive management in predictable market conditions, predictable was "no longer the case," he added. "I think that frames the whole approach... in this move to active management." On average, wealth funds made returns of 9.4% last year, the joint second-best performance in the survey's history. Nevertheless, market volatility and de-globalisation concerns have spiked - and over the 10-year horizon, big worries centre around climate change and rising sovereign debt levels. Over 70% of the 58 central banks polled for example now believe rising U.S. debt is negatively impacting the dollar's long-term outlook. Nevertheless, 78% think it will take more than two decades for a credible alternative to the greenback to emerge. That is a jump from 58% last year while just 11% of central banks now view the euro as gaining ground compared to 20% last year. The survey was carried out between January and March - before U.S. President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff announcements and at the peak of excitement around DeepSeek AI's emergence in China. Wealth funds are seeing a major resurgence in interest in Chinese assets with nearly 60% intending to increase allocations there in the coming five years, specifically the tech sector. That number jumps to 73% in North America despite the worsening U.S.-Sino tensions, whereas in Europe it sits at just 13%. Wealth funds, the survey said, were now approaching China's innovation-driven sectors with the "strategic urgency they once directed toward Silicon Valley." "There's a little bit of a FOMO," Ringrow explained, a view that "I need to be in China now" as it shapes up to be a global leader in semiconductors, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and renewable energy. Private credit has also emerged as a key focus for funds seeking alternative sources of income and resilience. It is now adopted by 73% of wealth funds, up from 65% last year, and with half actively increasing allocations. "This represents one of the most decisive trends in sovereign asset allocation," the report said. There is also growing interest, especially among emerging market wealth funds, in stablecoins - a type of cryptocurrency that is most commonly pegged 1:1 to the dollar. Almost half of funds said stablecoins were the type of digital assets they were inclined to invest in, although that was still behind the likes of bitcoin, where the share was 75%.
Times
an hour ago
- Times
The businesses using journalists to protect their reputation
A t the height of the pandemic, two journalists working at Dow Jones decided to use skills honed over years of reporting to address a novel but growing challenge facing businesses — reputational risk. Justin Williams, a former editorial executive at The Daily Telegraph, and Sophie Elsworthy, a journalist and former elite athlete, founded InsightX in 2020 as lockdown shuttered businesses. The London-based agency has taken a novel approach to due diligence, using investigative journalism to treat every target, whether it be a sponsor, celebrity or supplier, as a potential front-page story. In doing so, it is addressing the growing issues of reputational contagion, a new type of risk that is increasingly occupying decision-makers at big corporations and brands, alongside more prosaic concerns about solvency that have commonly formed the bulk of due diligence work.
