![]() Here's what you need to know this morning: Welcome back to the Politics Hub for another day in the heart of Westminster. Last week, Mr Sunak ruled out a general election on 2 May - the same date as many local elections around the country - after pressure from opposition parties to go to the public, and theories spreading through the newspapers.īut he has still not gone any further in revealing when he plans to face voters, only saying back in January that his "working assumption" was for it to happen in the second half of this year. The remarks came on the same day Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced he would host a European Political Community summit in the UK on 18 July, indicating a vote was unlikely to be held before the event. "And of course," he added, "if the general election is in October, that will mean it's very, very tight". Speaking at the Lords' Economic Affairs Committee on Tuesday, the chancellor was asked about the government's spending review - the detailed multi-year plan on how departments will spend their cash - and revealed the next one "has to be completed" by April 2025. Jeremy Hunt yesterday hinted at an autumn election as speculation continues to grow over when the country will head to the polls. This could change how vapes, which contain nicotine, are displayed in shops, moving them out of sight of children and away from other products such as sweets. The bill will also tackle youth vaping, by introducing new powers to restrict vape flavours and packaging intentionally marketed at children. Under the changes, smoking itself will not be criminalised and anyone who can legally buy tobacco now will not be prevented from doing so. Labour has given backing to the move, which is subject to a free vote in parliament, while there is some opposition on Tory backbenches. If the bill passes, ministers say smoking rates among those aged 14-30 could be near zero by 2040. It says this cost dwarfs the £10bn raised through taxes on tobacco products. Government figures show that smoking costs the UK around £17bn a year, including £10bn every year through lost productivity alone. It will effectively raise the age of tobacco sale by one year every year, with the aim of stopping today's youngsters from ever taking up smoking in the first place. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will restrict the sale of tobacco so that anyone turning 15 this year, or younger, will never legally be sold cigarettes. Now, the PM and the chancellor appear to be narrowing it down.Ī law banning the next generation from being able to buy cigarettes in their lifetime is being introduced to parliament later today. So Mr Hunt knew exactly what he was doing.Īpart from the soap opera of Tory plots against the PM, the date of the general election is all MPs are talking about and parliament's constant guessing game at present. Okay, so Norman Lamont's record as John Major's chancellor from 1990 to 1993 was hardly an unmitigated triumph.īut Terry Burns was a distinguished chief economic adviser and permanent secretary at the Treasury in the Thatcher, Major and early Blair and Brown period.Īnd Andrew Turnbull, the mandarin's mandarin, was also Treasury permanent secretary under Mr Brown and Sir Tony's cabinet secretary. The 14 peers who sit on their lordships' equivalent of the Treasury select committee in the Commons include some wise and experienced old timers: an ex-chancellor and two former Treasury mandarins. Jeremy Hunt's tantalising "if the general election is in October" aside to the House of Lords' economic affairs committee was surely no accident. "This requires thoughtful, well-informed consideration which promotes collaboration and common ground, not division." The Archbishop said: "It's widely acknowledged that our asylum system is broken - it needs rebuilding with compassion, dignity and fairness at the centre. The Most Rev Justin Welby, who in parliament's upper chamber has been a leading critic of the Rwanda bill, is joined by Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, Cardinal Vincent Nichols and Rabbis Josh Levy and Charley Baginsky. The proposals are made in a report by the independent Commission on the Integration of Refugees (CIR), which also calls for the reinstatement of a refugees minister in government. Under their recommendations, migrants would be eligible to work in the UK after six months of waiting for an asylum decision - and would be given free English language education. With the Rwanda bill set to return to the Lords today, a group of British faith leaders including the Archbishop of Canterbury have backed an overhaul of Britain's "broken" asylum system.
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