UK

Brilliant Led by Donkeys graphic puts Tories’ tax-cutting budget in perspective

Liz Truss warned the country faced a “difficult winter” ahead as she indicated she had no plans to reverse her tax-cutting agenda.

 by Jack Peat
2022-10-01 

LONDON ECONOMIC EYE


Liz Truss has admitted Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget caused “disruption” but insisted they were right to act to get the economy moving and to protect families from soaring energy bills.

As Tories prepared to head to Birmingham for their annual conference, the Prime Minister warned the country faced a “difficult winter” ahead as she indicated she had no plans to reverse her tax-cutting agenda.

“I recognise there has been disruption but it was really, really important we were able to get help to families as soon as possible,” she said in a pooled interview with broadcasters on Friday.


“This is going to be a difficult winter and I am determined to do all I can to help families and help the economy at this time.”

Her comments came at the end of a tumultuous week which saw the pound slump to an all-time low against the dollar and the Bank of England forced to spend billions buying up government debt to prevent a collapse of the pensions industry.

The sell-off of sterling prompted fears that millions of mortgage holders could face crippling rises in their repayments as the Bank moves to ratchet up interest rates to shore up the currency and put a lid on inflation.


The turmoil erupted after markets took fright at Mr Kwarteng’s £45 billion package of unfunded tax cuts – the biggest in 50 years – while committing billions to capping energy bills for the next two years.

Campaign group Led by Donkeys has put the numbers in the mini-budget in perspective with a brilliant graphic.


Check it out below:

Related: Kwarteng considering benefit cuts to fund tax cuts for the rich

UK

THIS IS THE STATE TRUSS WANTS TO CUT

Civil servants relying on food banks amid cost-of-living crisis – report

30 September 2022, 

Foodbank stock. Picture: PA

The PCS union has delivered a dossier to the Government on how its members are suffering.

A leading trade union is delivering a dossier to ministers, revealing the “depths of poverty” being suffered by the Government’s own employees.

The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said civil servants are now relying on foodbanks for the first time in their lives.

The 156-page dossier is being sent to Work and Pensions Secretary Chloe Smith, along with increased calls for a pay rise to help workers cope with the cost-of-living crisis.

In a letter to the minister, the union said: “Our members have been plunged into ever-increasing depths of poverty.

“They should not have to rely on food banks to feed their children or be forced to make the choice of either working from home because the journey into work is too expensive, or working in the cold under blankets because the cost of heating is too expensive.”

The dossier was compiled after the PCS asked members working for the Department for Work and Pensions what the cost-of-living crisis meant to them.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “These testimonies are a damaging indictment of the cruel effects of years of austerity and pay restraint imposed on our members.

“They are heart-breaking stories from government employees who have become the working poor.

“Struggling to pay for petrol, struggling to pay train fares, struggling to buy food, nappies and medication. Worn down by never being able to afford small treats.

“We call on Chloe Smith to study these testimonies carefully and to reopen negotiations on pay.”

The PCS is currently balloting more than 150,000 civil servants working in 214 Government departments for strike action over pay, pensions, jobs and redundancy payments.

Comments from PCS members include:

– I don’t sleep worrying about the cost of energy, food and wanting to live a full life in the years I have left.

– I have to rely on my mother-in-law to plug the gap and buy things the kids need, like shoes.

– To work five days out of seven and not feel able to light my flat or have a hot shower is the unimaginable reality in which I have found myself.

– I’m worried sick about how I’m going to afford heating and food this winter. I live on my own and my wage does not cover all my bills. I already cut down as much as I can. I don’t know what I’m going to do.

– As a family of four, we are unable to afford a social life anymore and are staying home the majority of time.

– I am barely scraping by, usually relying on my parents to help us out.

A DWP spokesman said: “We recognise these are anxious times, which is why we’ve brought forward a huge package of support for families through our Energy Price Guarantee and other measures.

“We are focused on delivering growth and cutting the tax burden to provide quality public services for people who are struggling.

“This year’s pay award was set at the highest level permitted within the Civil Service guidance, recognising the vital importance of public sector workers while providing value for the taxpayer.”

By Press Association

'When winter comes, I don’t know how we'll cope': DWP staff struggle to pay for essentials amid cost-of-living crisis

Civil servants describe being "let down, seriously underpaid and undervalued" as they choose between basics and visit foodbanks


Image: hrp_images now/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0

By Tevye Markson
29 Sep 2022
Exclusive

Civil servants at the Department for Work Pensions are having to go without showers, heating, food, and social lives as they cope with soaring inflation, rising energy bills and “paltry” wage increases.

The hardships suffered by officials working in the department amid the cost-of-living crisis are revealed in a 156-page dossier compiled by PCS, which the union will deliver to DWP’s Whitehall headquarters tomorrow afternoon.

The document, seen by CSW, includes testimonies from around 150 PCS members in the department who deliver key public services such as jobs and pensions support and who have received average pay rises of just 2%.

They tell of civil servants cutting down drastically on energy use and commuting costs, sometimes at the expense of their health; having difficulty sleeping; visiting foodbanks; running into overdrafts buying essentials; and turning to parents and payday loans to buy childrens’ clothes and other basics.

The union says the response underlines why it is balloting members nationwide on strike action over pay, pensions, redundancy compensation and jobs.

One work coach quoted in the dossier, a mother-of-three who has worked at DWP for six years, said this is the worst financial situation she has ever been in.

“With the cost-of-living crisis I have had to choose between heating my home for children or buying myself new work clothes. Mine are about four years old and are in bad condition (thank God for hybrid working),” Eve said.
Related

29 Sep

HR
'Scandalous': Union slams DWP over hundreds of redundancy offers
by Tevye Markson

“I had to buy school uniforms on my salary and still had to feed my children. I have a car which I am now contemplating giving up so I can keep my fridge fully stocked but will have to walk to and from my children’s school which is about a 20-minute walk then probably a 40-45-minute walk to work with a mobility disability – it’s not ideal.

“I have thought about foodbanks in the past, but my children are well fed and looked after; my needs come after theirs.”

An earlier survey by PCS found around one in 12 civil servants have visited foodbanks.

Kerry, an administrative officer working on Universal Credit, said she had started visiting foodbanks because after paying her bills and buying some groceries, “I’m left with no money for the rest of the month.”

“I live in overdraft to cover my family’s other needs, which has a knock- on effect. With the price hike in energy I am really scared of using the gas.... I often go without a meal, so my children have food,” she said.

A full-time AO in the department earns between £21,495 and £21,688. For the next grade up, executive officers, pay ranges from £23,700 to £28,117; while at the bottom end of the scale, pay for administrative assistants is set at £21,245. As in other government departments, grades are tied to job roles rather than years served.

Another AO, Jane, said she asked her MP to lower the age she could access her pension “so I can eat and keep warm in winter”.

“I am cutting back everywhere. I eat two meals a day. I have no treats. I have candles on at home, so I don’t switch the lights on. I am desperately doing all I can to survive,” she wrote.

“I am cutting back everywhere. I eat two meals a day. I have no treats. I have candles on at home, so I don’t switch the lights on. I am desperately doing all I can to survive

Tracey, a retirement pensions executive officer, said she is regularly putting food shopping on her credit card, and this year's £30-a-month pay rise has not helped. "I have no idea how I’ll survive Xmas and the winter months. I used to be proud to work for DWP, but I don’t anymore and feel insignificant,” she wrote.

Emma, a work coach, said she may have to turn off her fridge if her energy bills go up further, despite often working overtime.

“To work five days out of seven and not feel able to light my flat or have a hot shower is the unimaginable reality in which I have found myself," she said.

Employees of all ages have spoken out about their struggles.

Esme, a 23-year-old work coach who is pregnant, said: “I honestly don’t know how I am going to survive when my baby is born.

"I undoubtedly will end up in debt. But I have no other choice."

Meanwhile Tracey, a work coach who has been a DWP employee for 40 years, said: “I don’t sleep worrying about the cost of energy, food and wanting to live a full life in the years I have left without this cost-of-living struggle.”

A number of union members who supplied testimonies described having health conditions that make it difficult to cope with the changes they are having to make to cut down on costs.

Mina, a work coach who needs to work from home because she has a suppressed immune system, said she worries about not being able to keep warm after her energy bills have doubled.

“My pay has recently been uplifted to the national living wage and after more than 40 years of service I feel let down, seriously underpaid and undervalued,” she wrote.

Another longtime employee, Zoe – a jobcentre administrative officer also on the minimum wage – said she does not intend to put the heating on despite suffering from a health condition which is exacerbated by the cold. The "sheer worry" of rising food and utility prices is making her feel "very anxious, irritable and stressed, often resulting in sleepless nights", she added.

“My pay has recently been uplifted to the national living wage and after more than 40 years of service I feel let down, seriously underpaid and undervalued"

“I cannot believe that after spending a lifetime working for the department, that I now find myself in this position. It is truly shocking,” she said.

Others spoke of feeling "ashamed" and "anxious" at having to rely on others to help meet their needs – including Paula, a work coach and parent who described having to borrow her bus fare from an elderly neighbour to get to work.

"Life is a chore at the moment, and we take no joy from living and I just worry for the future as when winter comes, I really don’t know how we will cope," she said.

One respondent said they "no longer have any quality of life as we are working to not even be able to afford to pay for food and heating costs, let alone have any social life"; and another said she is lucky if she can afford to eat out with friends once a month and “works to pay bills, nothing more”.

“My attitude now is the heating is going on and they can chase me to the grave for payments of bills," she said.

‘A damning indictment of the cruel effects of austerity’

PCS has written to work and pensions secretary Chloe Smith and DWP permanent secretary Peter Schofield urging them to meet its delegation tomorrow to accept the dossier in person and to reopen negotiations on pay immediately. The union said the department has rejected the invitation.

PCS will ask DWP to study the testimonies closely and agree to reopen pay negotiations.

In an introduction to the document, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said the testimonies are a “damning indictment of the cruel effects of years of austerity and pay restraint imposed” on DWP officials.

“As inflation hits a new 40-year high we know many PCS members are struggling on wages that have not kept pace with inflation for decades as prices soar.

“These testimonies are all from DWP staff. They are heartbreaking stories from government employees who have become the working poor. Struggling to pay for petrol, struggling to pay train fares, struggling to buy food, nappies, medication. Worn down by never being able to afford small treats.”

A DWP spokesperson said: “We recognise these are anxious times which is why we’ve brought forward a huge package of support for families through our energy price guarantee and other measures. We are focused on delivering growth and cutting the tax burden to provide quality public services for people who are struggling.

“This year’s pay award was set at the highest level permitted within the civil service guidance, recognising the vital importance of public sector workers while providing value for the taxpayer.”

UK

MPs demand publication of OBR advice to Kwarteng

Think tank dubs chancellor’s rejection of further pre-budget advice “inexplicable”

Photo: amer ghazzal/Alamy Live News


By Jim Dunton
30 Sep 2022
CIVIL SERVICE WORLD

Members of parliament’s influential Treasury Select Committee have called on embattled chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng to publish an Office for Budget Responsibility outlook he was provided ahead of last week’s mini-budget.

Committee chair Mel Stride also said Kwarteng’s decision not to seek a further forecast from the OBR to be published alongside the £45bn package of tax cuts set out on 23 September had fuelled global financial markets’ lack of confidence in the UK government.

“Some have formed the unfortunate impression that the government may be seeking to avoid scrutiny, possibly on account of expecting the OBR forecast to be unsupportive of the achievement of the economic outcomes the government expects from the Growth Plan,” he said.

While the OBR had made preparations to provide forecasts to support the mini-budget, Kwarteng would have had to request the information and he did not.

However the OBR did provide the new chancellor with an initial baseline economic and fiscal forecast when he took office earlier this month, and Stride’s committee is demanding the immediate publication of that document.

In a letter to Kwarteng yesterday, Stride wrote: “As you know this forecast would have informed us as to how the outlook had changed since the last full OBR forecast (23 March) given the deteriorating economic conditions and policy interventions prior to your appointment. Please could you confirm that you will make public that forecast immediately?”

Stride also called on Kwarteng to bring forward his promised medium-term fiscal-policy statement, earmarked for November 23, to a date around the end of October or in very early November.

He said the OBR had confirmed it would be able to produce a full forecast by the end of October and a “meaningful” one beforehand. Stride said bringing forward the policy statement – which will explain how the government intends to make the mini-budget work – would aid market understanding.

“Given the continued uncertainty within markets, there would be a clear advantage to moving the MTFP statement and the release of the OBR forecast to as early a date as possible,” Stride said.

He added that the move would be particularly helpful to the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee.

“The MPC will benefit from clarity around your fiscal plans and access to an independent OBR forecast before their key meeting on 3 November, when they will be taking a critical decision around the level of base rate which will in turn have significant implications for the economy and for millions of people and businesses across the UK,” he said.

There was some good news for Kwarteng today, however.

Revised data from the Office for National Statistics showed that the UK economy grew by 0.2% between April and June, against earlier figures suggesting it had contracted.

The change indicates that the economy is not in recession, as the Bank of England predicted earlier in the month.

IfG raises alarm over Truss and Kwarteng’s disregard for “usual processes”

The past seven days have been hugely volatile for the UK economy. Sterling exchange rates with the US dollar reach an all-time low and the Bank of England was forced to intervene to halt rapidly declining values of government bonds.

While ministers have been quick to blame the uncertain international context, not least ongoing fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Institute for Government deputy chief economist Thomas Pope said Kwarteng and Truss’ disregard for “usual processes” was a significant contributory factor.

He said Kwarteng and Truss had rushed into a fiscal event that did not need to take place for weeks and that the decision to sack Treasury perm sec Sir Tom Scholar in the first hours of the new government was likely linked to his “revealed or anticipated” opposition to their approach.

“This was a radical and extensive package of tax measures delivered less than three weeks into the prime minister’s term,” Pope wrote in an IfG blog.

“This is not enough time for such consequential policies to be stress-tested or for the chancellor to take on the advice of Treasury civil servants, who have a wealth of experience and expertise.

“A budget in late November would have afforded more time to adapt and improve policies while also placing them in the broader fiscal context.”

Pope said Truss and Kwarteng bore particular responsibility for the decision to terminally shut out Scholar’s insight.

“Rather than seek to seek understand the Treasury’s head civil servant’s view on the merits of the plan, or take on his advice for how to manage the policy, ministers’ approach was instead to remove the obstacle and assume that anyone espousing ‘Treasury orthodoxy’ would be of no help in their pursuit of a different economic agenda,” he said.

“By doing this and then moving so quickly, Truss and Kwarteng indicated their intention to sideline and undermine the Treasury and its advice rather than work with it.”

Pope said Kwarteng’s decision to reject the OBR’s offer of an updated economic and fiscal forecast was equally hard to understand.

“Inexplicably, he refused this offer, preferring to announce tax cuts free from the apparent strictures of needing to make the numbers add up,” he said.

Earlier today, Truss and Kwarteng met OBR chair Richard Hughes in an apparent bid to build bridges with the watchdog and reassure markets.

UK AUSTERITY

Government wants to cut ‘very large welfare state’, says Truss cabinet ally

Britons living in ‘fools’ paradise’ with state ‘extremely large’, says levelling up secretary

Adam Forrest

THE INDEPENDENT
6 hours ago

Liz Truss admits to 'disruption' caused by tax-slashing mini-Budget

Liz Truss’s government is considering ways to shrink the size of the welfare state, a key cabinet ally Simon Clarke has suggested.

The levelling up secretary said ministers were looking at how to make sure “extremely large” state is aligned to a low-tax economy, as economists and unions warn of major austerity cuts ahead.

Mr Clarke said Britons and others in western Europe were living in a “fools’ paradise” in which they enjoy a “very large welfare state” despite sluggish economic productivity.

“I think it is important that we look at a state which is extremely large, and look at how we can make sure that it is in full alignment with a lower tax economy,” the cabinet minister told The Times.

Mr Clarke said: “My big concern in politics is that western Europe is just living in a fool’s paradise whereby we can be ever less productive relative to our peers, and yet still enjoy a very large welfare state and persist in thinking that the two are somehow compatible over the medium to long term. They’re not.”

Signalling spending cuts, he added: “I do think it’s very hard to cut taxes if you don’t have the commensurate profile of spending and the supply side reform … We are privileged to deal with very large budgets. My experience is that there is always something you can do to trim the fat.”

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Pound – live: Truss admits ‘disruption’ in markets as S&P downgrades UK outlook

Liz Truss admits UK faces economic ‘disruption’ because of mini-Budget

Environment secretary’s own constituency has sewage dumped in rivers 11 hours a day

The government is on course to make public spending cuts of almost £50bn a year after the “unenforced error” of chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget, according to the Resolution Foundation think tank.

Welsh secretary Robert Buckland signalled that major public spending cuts were on the way, as the government looks to reassure markets it can balance the books after a week of turmoil.

“We intend to be extremely rigorous when it comes to bearing down on public expenditure,” Mr Buckland told Sky News on Saturday – saying there would be announcements on spending in the weeks ahead.

The cabinet minister said the government wanted to reassure market to “will be seeking to balance the books in a sensible way” by making sure departmental spending is as “efficient and as lean as possible”.

It comes at the end of a chaotic week which saw the pound slump to an all-time low, the Bank of England forced to spend billions on government debt and Labour take an astonishing 33-point lead over the Tories.

Ms Truss has refused to commit to the annual uprating of benefits in line with inflation in April – something Rishi Sunak had promised to do when he was chancellor.

Pressed in her interview with broadcasters late on Friday, the prime minister said only that it was “something the work and pensions secretary [Chloe Smith] is looking at”.

Some Tory MPs have predicted that Ms Truss would struggle to push real-terms cuts to benefits through the Commons.

Robert Largan, Tory MP for High Peak, tweeted: “This is untenable. You cannot freeze benefits and pensions while cutting taxes for millionaires. A debt reduction plan needs to be both economically and politically sustainable to be credible.”

Some uneasy Tory rebels are also keen reverse Ms Truss’s axing of the 45p tax rate. Some backbenchers have to reportedly start talks with Labour about moves to vote it down in the Commons. “It is not all [the] usual suspects,” one figure involved told The Times.

The levelling up secretary also hinted that further radical plans for the economy announced by Mr Kwarteng in late November could include changes to the green belt.

“The fact the green belt is larger today than it was when Margaret Thatcher came to power is an extraordinary state of affairs,” said Mr Clarke.

The minister added: “We need to look at a planning system where we make sensible adjustments which don’t threaten communities and most fundamentally are about going with popular consent, and actually creating incentives that allow local areas to back growth.”

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Tory MPs ‘may help Labour to bring down’ parts of Chancellor’s budget

Lord Turnbull, former permanent secretary at the Treasury, accused the Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng of undermining the Bank of England, the OBR and the Treasury.

“The government’s continuing refusal yesterday to fill the information gap indicates it has still not understood what lies behind the issue,” he wrote in The Times.

 UK

Largest lead we’ve recorded for Labour amidst mini-budget backlash

Polling conducted yesterday (29th September) of 1,329 UK adults found Labour with the largest lead over the Conservatives that Survation has recorded. Our poll found that Labour would win a 49% share of the vote, with Conservatives at 28%.

 

Significantly, voters who backed the Conservatives in the 2019 general election are moving to Labour. 26% of these voters who are not undecided are now saying they would now vote Labour. 

Liz Truss has dropped to a net favourability rating of -32% from -25% within her first month as Prime Minister, reaching levels of unpopularity seen by Boris Johnson at the lowest point of his premiership in July.

 

 

With the cost of the UK’s Sovereign Debt on the rise, causing severe disruption in the mortgage market, we asked people who they trust with the economy, with a choice between Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, and Labour’s shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves. Reeves was the clear winner with 48% of people voicing their trust in her more than Kwarteng, at 23%.

 

 

 

Perhaps surprisingly, even those who currently intend to vote Conservative show some distrust of Kwarteng, with 9% saying they trust Labour’s shadow Chancellor more with the economy, 26% being undecided, and only 65% trusting Kwasi Kwarteng. 

 

When asked whether the mini budget held last week had made the UK’s economy better or worse, 65% of people asked said that they thought the economy was now worse off, versus only 11% who said the financial situation was worse off. 

 

Fallout from the mini-budget has brought the Government’s approval rating to new lows, surpassing low ratings seen over “partygate”:

 

 

 

 

 

With the energy crisis showing few signs of subsiding, Labour’s policy of creating a publicly owned clean energy company proved popular, with 62% of respondents to our poll supporting this.

 

 

 

Get The Data

 

Tables for these questions and more are available here. Online interviews of 1,329 adults in the UK were conducted on 29th September 2022. 

________________________________________

Survation. is an MRS company partner, a member of the British Polling Council and abides by their rules. To find out more about Survation’s services, and how you can conduct a telephone or online poll for your research needs, please visit our services page.

If you are interested in commissioning research or to learn more about Survation’s research capabilities, please contact John Gibb on 020 3818 9661 email researchteam@survation.com or visit our services page.

For press enquiries, please call 0203 818 9661 or email media@survation.com

BPC Statement: All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error. On the basis of the historical record of the polls at recent general elections, there is a 9 in 10 chance that the true value of a party’s support lies within 4 points of the estimates provided by this poll, and a 2 in 3 chance that they lie within 2 points.

UK

Tory Rebels Are Already Plotting, Less Than A Month Into Liz Truss's Government

Liz Truss outside Downing Street (alamy)

Adam Payne

After only weeks in office, the new Prime Minister is heading to Conservative party conference in Birmingham haunted by ominous opinion polls and irate Tory MPs.

It is hard to imagine even the most pessimistic reaches of Liz Truss's psyche envisaging that she could be heading to her first big gathering of the Tory party as Prime Minister in such dire circumstances.

After an extraordinary week that saw her plans for sweeping tax cuts trigger a dramatic fall in the pound, forcing the Bank of England to intervene to prevent even greater economic calamity, Truss is now facing down a Conservative backbench rebellion, and she hasn't even hit a month in the top job.

While the Prime Minister prepares for Birmingham, in Westminster Tory MPs – many of whom say they are staying well away from Conference – are starting to plot how they could unpick last week's 'mini-Budget', which has seen the Conservatives plummet in the opinion polls.

A jaw-dropping YouGov poll published on Thursday put the Tories 33 per cent behind Labour, the largest lead in decades, and a margin that would decimate the party if replicated in a general election.

 
Related

Several Top Tories Are Staying Away From Party Conference As Crisis Deepens
By Caitlin Doherty  30 Sep

Charles Walker, Tory MP for Broxbourne, yesterday told Times Radio that the question ahead of the next election was not whether the Tories could win it, but how much they would lose it by.

An ex-Downing Street official this week told PoliticsHome "it's over" already for the Truss regime, while a former minister said the new Prime Minister risks not just losing the next election, which is expected to take place in 2024, but "putting the Tories out of power for quite a long time”.

PoliticsHome understands that Conservative rebels have two core objectives.

Firstly, to force Truss and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng to bring forward the fiscal policies they currently intend to announce on 23 November, as well as publish the Office for Budget Responsibility assessment of their plan to tax cuts through borrowing worth tens of billions of pounds.

This, argue senior Conservative MPs like Treasury Select Committee Chair Mel Stride, could go some way to reassuring financial markets after a tumultuous week.

On Friday, however, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor rejected calls to accelerate the publication of the OBR forecast, setting up a battle in the coming weeks.

MPs' second objective is to convince the Prime Minister to bin her pledge to scrap the 45 per cent tax rate.

While Truss and Kwarteng argue it will help kickstart growth by encouraging investment, dismayed Tories say it is a politically toxic move in a cost of living crisis, and one that inevitably diverted attention away from support being provided to help people with their energy bills.

"There was no reason to cut the 45 per cent at this stage and had they not done that there could have been more focus on the help for individuals," said one ex-minister. Conservative MPs Julian Smith and Robert Largan have publicly called for it to be binned, and privately many more agree.

The current thinking is that Conservative backbenchers opposed to the policy will seek to stop it in its tracks by opposing parts of the forthcoming Finance Bill.

But for now at least the government is showing no signs of changing course.

One Treasury source said that the Prime Minister and Chancellor were "nowhere near" the point of reversing their tax policy, despite the backbench uproar and catastrophic opinion polling.

PoliticsHome understands that the view inside government is that the markets overreacted to Kwarteng's fiscal statement and that the subsequent economic chaos will go down as a short-term blip.

That was the position set out by Conservative party chairman Jake Berry on Friday when he told The Times that people should "ignore the commentariat" and judge the Truss and Kwarteng 'Growth Plan' after it had been allowed time to deliver in a year's time.

"Economic markets both react and overreact in these situations, and how I will judge whether this has been a real success is when today or tomorrow people’s pay packets drop through the letterbox, and they see the fact that this government has cut their tax, putting money back into the pockets of hardworking families," said Berry.

"I think people will judge us on where the markets are not tomorrow, or the day after, [but] in six,12 or 18 months’ time.”

Meanwhile, the mood within the Tory party isn't much less fractious than it was in the dying days of the Johnson administration, despite No 10 having been overhauled by Truss's appointment as Prime Minister less than a month ago.

Those who backed Rishi Sunak in the contest to succeed Johnson complain that the Prime Minister has assembled a government of loyalists at the expense of more talented MPs, doing little to unite the party after a bitter leadership campaign.

“Liz Truss came in to office promising to respect that by building a broad based Cabinet on talent rather than loyalty," one backbench source said.

“She then did exactly the opposite and went even further, revelling in showing utter contempt for anyone who didn’t support her. A risky strategy when the majority of the parliamentary party didn’t want her in the first place."

One Sunak backer said the events of the last week proved that Truss was out of her depth. "She'd drown in a petri dish," they quipped.

Truss will take to the stage in Birmingham on Wednesday knowing that the stakes are high.

Be it winning over the general public, the markets, or a sizable chunk of the parliamentary Conservative party, the Prime Minister is already under pressure to change minds – and fast.

PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY
Swedish arms maker reveals plans for India
Post dateSeptember 30, 2022

Swedish Saab wants to increase production to meet growing demand for “anti-tank capability”

Swedish arms maker Saab will build a new facility in India to make a shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon, according to a company executive, who noted that the plant would serve New Delhi’s armed forces in addition to more than a dozen other nations.

The plans were revealed on Tuesday by Saab senior vice president Gorgen Johansson, who said the company would build a new factory at an unspecified location in India to produce its Carl-Gustaf M4 weapon system, hoping to begin operations sometime in 2024.

“It is a natural step to set up a Carl-Gustaf M4 production facility in India given the long and close relationship we have with the Indian Army as one of the primary users of the system.” he told reporters in New Delhi, adding that Saab would “contribute to the Government of India’s objective of developing a world-class defense industry.”

The factory will manufacture the versatile shaft-launched weapon not only for India’s military, but for customers in 15 other countries, Johansson Addedproverb “we haven’t done this in any other country.”

The new production facility will help to satisfy the growing demand for the weapon, which in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine “more countries will seek anti-tank capabilities going forward,” according to Johansson. Ukraine received at least 100 Carl Gustav M2 rockets and 2,000 rounds of 84mm ammunition from Canada alone, while the Pentagon sent an additional 2,000 compatible grenade ammunition from its inventory.

Carl Gustaf has been in service in India since its introduction in 1976 and has undergone several upgrades over the decades. The Saab boss said the new factory will only manufacture the latest M4 variant, while previous generations will continue to be manufactured by a partner local company, Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited (AWEIL). He offered few other details about the plans, saying the production site had not yet been selected.

The new investment was announced as New Delhi declared a target to increase arms production, with Defense Minister Rajnath Singh saying on Tuesday that the country had increased annual exports by about thirteen times over the past eight years, from 10 billion rupees ($122 million) to 130 billion ( 1.5 billion dollars). By 2025, he said, India hopes to push defense exports up to 350 billion rupees ($4.2 billion) and total output to 1.75 trillion ($21.3 billion).

Sweden resumes arms exports to Turkiye after NATO membership bid


Turkish Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin (C-R) speaks during a press conference following NATO-hosted talks with Finland and Sweden in Brussels, Belgium on June 20, 2022. Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal (C-L) also attended. [Dursun Aydemir - Anadolu Agency]

September 30, 2022 

Sweden's Inspectorate of Strategic Products (ISP) said on Friday that it had reversed a ban against exporting military equipment to Turkiye, following the Nordic country's decision to join the NATO military alliance and agreement to overcome Turkish objections, Reuters reports.

Sweden and Finland sought membership to NATO earlier this year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but faced a hurdle as its application needs the approval of all 30 current members, with Turkiye raising objections.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had threatened to block their bids over Ankara's accusations that they supported the YPG in northern Syria, which it views as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which is also deemed a terrorist group by the United States and European Union.

Sweden and Finland effectively banned arms exports to Turkiye in 2019 after its incursion into Syria against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, with ISP revoking existing permits and granting no new ones since then, though no formal embargo existed.

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The three countries reached a breakthrough agreement on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid in June, where Sweden and Finland agreed on a set of steps to be taken to address Turkiye's concerns about the candidacies.

The ISP said in a statement it began giving export permits during the third quarter, but did not reveal which companies or products had been given the go-ahead, citing confidentiality.

"Taking into account the altered defence and security policy conditions, ISP has after a full review decided to grant a permit for follow-up deliveries from Swedish defence industry to Turkiye," the authority said.

Turkiye, in May this year, said it had received positive signals with regards to a lifting of the embargo.