Closing post
Time to wrap up…
MPs have been told that Treasury officials may have broken the law when they failed to alert the Office for Budget Responsibility about £9.5bn of spending that should have appeared in the March Tory budget.
Richard Hughes, the head of the Office for Budget Responsibility, told MPs that the system in which the OBR and the Treasury shared information ahead of the budget had “very clearly broke down.”
That, he said, resulted in officials failing to disclose £9.5bn of spending pressures which the Treasury knew about, which “under the law and under the Act they should have”, Hughes said.
As a result, he said, the OBR is “moving from a system of trust, to a system of trust but verify” in its dealings with the Treasury.
The OBR chief also said the watchdog had expected the markets to react to the budget by pushing up UK bond yields, as indeed happened, as investors were being asked to buy more UK debt.
In other news…
UK borrowing costs have jumped, after an auction of British debt attracted the lowest demand in almost a year.
The US dollar has weakened against other currencies as the US heads to the polls, lifting the pound back over $1.30 for the first time in nearly a week.
Growth in the UK services sector has slowed, while in the US it has hit its highest in two years.
A planned strike by tube drivers that threatened to halt all London Underground services on Thursday has been called off, their union announced.
Shares in pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca have dropped over 8%, following a report that dozens of senior executives at its China unit could be implicated in the largest insurance fraud case in the country’s pharma sector in years.
AstraZeneca’s tumble has weighed on the London stock market, where the FTSE 100 index has just closed 11.85 points lower at 8172, a drop of 0.14%.
Shares are rallying in New York, though, where the S&P 500 index is up almost 1%.
Planned strikes by London Underground drivers over pay are suspended
A planned strike by tube drivers that threatened to halt all London Underground services on Thursday has been called off, the Aslef union has announced.
Talks between Aslef officials and Transport for London management on Tuesday led to a “significantly improved offer”, according to the union.
Aslef had called two 24-hour walkouts in the capital, for Thursday and Tuesday next week.
Finn Brennan, Aslef’s full-time organiser on London Underground, said:
“Following fresh talks, and an improved offer, ASLEF has agreed to suspend our planned industrial action on London Underground.
“Details of the offer will be discussed with our reps at a meeting on Thursday. We are pleased that this progress has been made and that strike action has been averted at this time. We are not able to reveal any further details until after that meeting with our reps on Thursday.”
