Top story: rate hike to heap pressure on households
Morning everyone. This is Martin Farrer bringing you the top stories this morning.
A hastily assembled package of measures to ameliorate the impact of the cost of living crisis, including money off energy bills and more help for the poorest households, could be announced by ministers as early as today. With the Bank of England widely expected to increase interest rates again today to curb inflation, No 10 and the Treasury are under mounting pressure from Tory MPs to act as millions of households brace for a sustained assault on their budgets. A record increase in energy bills is set to kick in from April, and the likely rise in borrowing costs will see variable-rate mortgage holders paying more on their home loan every month. With the Conservatives sliding in the polls and Boris Johnson under fire over parties in No 10 during lockdown, the prime minister and his chancellor, Rishi Sunak, met yesterday to stitch together a multibillion-pound package to address the cost of living crisis. Downing Street refused to comment on reports that the measures could include a £200 discount on energy bills, backed by a £5.4bn plan to make loans available to energy suppliers. There were also reports last night that Sunak was planning a council tax cut for the poorest households.
With energy bills the chief concern, Ofgem is set to reveal the how much more people will have to pay. Much focus will also be on Threadneedle from midday when most City economists say the majority of members on the Bank’s rate-setting committee will increase the base rate from 0.25% to 0.5%. They expect at least two more increases will follow this year.
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Met crisis – A Metropolitan police officer disciplined after an inquiry into misogynistic and racist messages has since been promoted, the Guardian has learned, as Cressida Dick was warned she could lose the confidence of the mayor of London. Misconduct was proven against the unnamed officer but he was later promoted from constable to sergeant. Sadiq Khan had a 90-minute meeting with Dick yesterday described as “frank” and a source close to the mayor said he would consider withdrawing confidence in her if she cannot prove she is the right person to stop the rot.
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PM pressure – A fresh wave of Conservative MPs have submitted letters of no confidence in Boris Johnson, breaking cover to criticise the prime minister as the fallout from the Downing Street parties scandal continued to imperil his premiership. In a sign that Johnson’s position is still under threat despite No 10’s desperate attempts to move on from the crisis, MPs Tobias Ellwood, Anthony Mangnall and Gary Streeter publicly called on him to resign. Seven MPs have now submitted no-confidence letters.
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Brexit clash – Northern Ireland’s agriculture minister has ordered all Brexit checks on food and farm products to be stopped in a unilateral move that will set him on a collision course with Brussels. Edwin Poots threatened the move last week after he failed to get the backing of other parties in Stormont to intervene in the face of a delayed resolution to the dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol. Sinn Féin, with whom Poots’s DUP shares power, said it was an “unlawful” stunt.
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Dementia clue – Having two or more chronic health problems in middle age more than doubles the risk of dementia. Work in the UK and France found that the risk of dementia was greater when conditions such as heart disease developed at a younger age (mid-50s) rather than later in life. For every five years younger a person was when multimorbidity occurred up to the age of 70 the risk of dementia went up by 18%. And another study suggests more exposure to bright daylight and dimming the lights in the evening could help to improve blood sugar control in people with pre-diabetes.
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Ukraine tensions – The US decision to deploy more than 3,000 US troops in Germany, Poland and Romania is a “destructive step” that makes it harder to reach a compromise over Ukraine, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said last night, as Moscow continues to build up its forces. In the latest round of diplomatic efforts to prevent a conflict, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will fly to Kyiv today to offer himself again in the role of mediator. It follows a phone call between Boris Johnson and Vladimir Putin yesterday in which the prime minister told the Russian president that invading his neighbour would be a “tragic miscalculation”.
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Ship fight – A dispute has erupted over HMS Endeavour, the ship on which James Cook made his voyage to Australia, after the Australian National Maritime Museum announced it had been identified in waters off the US east coast. Despite the museum’s boss declaring he was “convinced it’s the Endeavour”, local experts denounced his comments as “premature” and driven by “Australian emotions or politics”. The Endeavour was scuttled off Rhode Island in 1778 and has been the subject of extensive exploration for decades.
Today in Focus podcast
After a year in which the Met lurched from one crisis to another, we look at the challenges faced by the leader of the force, Cressida Dick.
Lunchtime read: James McAvoy on Cyrano, Hamlet and parties
James McAvoy is returning to the stage in his native Glasgow in a hard-rapping, homoerotic Cyrano, but minus the eponymous character’s outsized nose. The star of Atonement and X-Men talks to Arifa Akbar about partygate, snout size – and tackling Lear when he hits 100.
Sport
Ashley Giles has become the first casualty from England’s horror tour of Australia after being sacked as director of men’s cricket and replaced by Andrew Strauss on an interim basis. In the latest instalment of the women’s Ashes, England have made a decent start in the one-day international round in Canberra. Great Britain’s curlers Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds have continued their good start at the Winter Olympics in Beijing with an important win over fellow favourites Canada.
Tom Curry is being tipped to captain England in the Calcutta Cup Six Nations opener at Murrayfield on Saturday after both Owen Farrell and Courtney Lawes succumbed to injury. The round-ball game provided all the drama north of the border last night though when Celtic beat Rangers 3-0 to go top of the Premiership thanks to two goals from the Hoops’ Japanese import, Reo Hatate. In the African Cup of Nations, Sadio Mané sealed Senegal’s progress to the final with a 3-1 win over Burkina Faso last night. And Roy Keane could be set for a surprise return to management and Wearside after it emerged that Sunderland want him as their replacement for Lee Johnson, who was sacked this week with the club third in League One.
Business
Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, became the latest tech company to suffer a dramatic share price slump last night as it reported higher costs and slowing growth. Meta’s share price dropped 20% in after-hours trading, a fall that would represent $175bn in value if it holds when trading starts again today. At home, the boss of the CBI will warn ministers today that Britain risks a cycle of low growth without massive investment to raise skills, cut red tape and exploit the opportunities of the green economy. The FTSE100 is heading for a slight dip this morning and on the foreign exchanges the pound is on $1.356 and €1.200.
The papers
The government’s response to the cost of living crisis is the lead for many papers with the Mirror saying “D-Day on prices agony”, and the Mail splashing on “Energy bills to soar by £650 – now the heat is on Rishi”. The Times says “Millions of families to get cuts in council tax” and the Telegraph’s lead is “Sunak splashes out to ease bills crisis”. The FT reckons “Sunak and BoE work in tandem to head off ‘cost of living catastrophe’”.
The Guardian’s main story is “Pressure on PM as more Tory MPs call for him to go”, while the i reports “No more funding to ‘level up’ UK” and the Scotsman says “Gove calls for ‘Team UK’ to support levelling up plans”. The Express leads on Boris Johnson’s warning to Russia on Ukraine: “A tragic gamble!”.
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