Will no one think about poor Boris? Former PM smirks and sighs through Covid inquiry | John Crace

Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven. Just not if you happened to be a schoolkid during the pandemic. Then you were being asked to make the biggest sacrifices to protect elderly people, even though you were the least at risk. Still, I suppose there was a lesson in there somewhere. Almost everyone who comes into contact – however indirectly – with Boris Johnson generally finds they have been done over at some point

Reeves says economic damage caused by Brexit forcing her to take action in budget

Rachel Reeves has blamed a heavier than anticipated blow from Brexit and austerity for forcing her to take action to balance the books at next month’s budget.In her clearest attempt to draw Brexit into the framing of her imminent tax and spending decisions, the chancellor said leaving the EU was turning out to have caused more damage than official forecasters had previously outlined.The chancellor hinted she was braced for a sharp downgrade in growth forecasts from the Treasury’s independent watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), alongside what is shaping up to be a crucial budget.“The OBR, I think, are going to be pretty frank about this – that things like austerity, the cuts to capital spending and Brexit have had a bigger impact on our economy than was even projected back then,” she said at an investment event in Birmingham.“That is why we are unashamedly rebuilding our relations with the EU to reduce some of those costs, that in my view were needlessly added to businesses since 2016 and since we formally left a few years ago

Rachel Reeves set to launch ‘blitz on business bureaucracy’ to save firms £6bn

Chancellor to tell business leaders at government’s first regional investment summit she plans to ‘cut pointless admin’The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is poised to launch a renewed “blitz on business bureaucracy” ahead of next month’s budget to target savings for companies worth £6bn.With Labour under pressure to reboot the economy, Reeves is expected to tell business leaders in Birmingham for the government’s first regional investment summit that she plans to “cut pointless admin”.Measures include scrapping a rule for directors of small firms to file a directors’ report with Companies House, in the government’s latest push to demonstrate that it is listening to business concerns.More than 100,000 small business are expected to benefit, according to the Treasury, including microbreweries and family-run cafes, as part of a wider drive to slash red tape and regulations.It comes as the chancellor faces intensive lobbying from bosses amid growing boardroom unease over the prospects for a tax-raising budget on 26 November that would target companies and the wealthy

China spy case gives MPs the opportunity to discuss their favourite topic: themselves | John Crace

There are few things that MPs take more seriously than themselves. Their desire to put themselves front and centre of world events. Their need to imagine that everything they do makes a difference. No greater self-love hath any person than this. If they were to have a therapist, I am sure they would be having a field day

Tory MP criticised after demanding legally settled families be deported

A Conservative MP tipped as a future party leader has been condemned for saying large numbers of legally settled families must be deported, in order to ensure the UK is mostly “culturally coherent”.The Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, has been urged to condemn the comments by Katie Lam, a Home Office shadow minister and a whip for the party. Lam was previously a special adviser to Boris Johnson and is often described as a rising star of the new intake.Lam told the Sunday Times she believed large numbers of people with legal status in the UK would need to have their right to stay revoked and should “go home”.She said: “There are also a large number of people in this country who came here legally, but in effect shouldn’t have been able to do so

Nandy says it was wrong to exclude Maccabi Tel Aviv fans as safety option for Villa match given rising antisemitism – as it happened

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, claims the government has changed its story on this.He says the PM told MPs last week minnisters and special advisers were not involved in handling the prosecution. But yesterday the Sunday Times claimed that, when the home secretary heard the case might be dropped, she made representations to ensure the evidence was as strong as possible.He asks when the home secretary heard the case might collapse.He says the Sunday Times reported yesterday on a meeting organised by Jonathan Powell, the national security minister, to discuss this in September