Top story: Hikes expected from Thursday onwards
Hello, Warren Murray here bearing tidings of Monday.
The Bank of England is poised to raise interest rates this Thursday amid growing concern over high inflation and Britain’s cost of living crisis. Economists expect an increase from 0.25% to 0.5%. Official inflation reached 5.4% in December, the highest level since March 1992. The Bank has warned it could peak at close to 6% by April, three times the 2% target rate set by the government. Steffan Ball from Goldman Sachs said the Bank’s monetary policy committee might increase interest rates to as high as 1.25% by November this year. “We now expect the Bank of England to hike in back-to-back meetings through May.”
An increase in borrowing costs is likely to complicate businesses’ recovery from Covid. Economic activity has increased in recent weeks as consumers gradually return to socialising and working in town and city centres, and plan B restrictions in England were dropped. There are concerns that young people who lost their jobs during the pandemic in the UK have returned to less secure work, often in gig economy roles.
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Johnson barrels along – Westminster begins the week awaiting the Sue Gray report on No 10 parties, alongside which police inquiries continue. A beleaguered Boris Johnson will try to regain control of the agenda – today he is due to announce plans for a “Brexit freedoms” bill to make it easier to rip up EU regulations and protections. The prime minister is expected to visit Ukraine with the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, early this week, and the levelling-up white paper is scheduled for publication on Wednesday. Whitehall sources said they also expected developments this week on help for families struggling with the cost of energy bills. Dominic Cummings told NYMag on Sunday that it was his “duty to get rid” of Johnson as prime minister, describing it as “sort of like fixing the drains”.
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Doctor was fatal poisoner, court finds – An NHS doctor killed his partner’s father and almost caused the deaths of her and her mother by giving them coffee containing the heavy metal poison thallium, the family court has ruled. Mr Justice Williams made the finding in a case between the doctor and his now ex-partner over care arrangements for their child. The case is highly unusual legally because the medic has been found to have committed the killing in a civil court, on the balance of probabilities of the evidence, rather than in a criminal court, in which a jury has to be sure beyond all reasonable doubt. The judge ordered the parties’ identities be kept anonymous but said the poisoner was a Bulgarian-born doctor who moved to the UK in the late 2000s. The doctor is not currently working and has not been criminally charged. A statement issued by Delphine Philip Law, his solicitors, said he “vehemently denies” the poisonings and “he stated that the court took inadequate account of the fact that there was no direct evidence to corroborate [his former partner’s] allegations”.
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Vaccine waiver for NHS staff? – Hospitals in England could continue to employ unvaccinated NHS healthcare workers beyond the April deadline if not doing so risks leaving them dangerously understaffed, the sector regulator, the CQC, has indicated. Sajid Javid is planning to drop the requirement that health and care staff must be vaccinated, the Telegraph has reported. Spotify has said it will direct listeners to accurate Covid-19 information as uproar over the misinformation shared on Joe Rogan’s podcast continued to grow, with the streamer losing billions in market value and more musicians withdrawing their music.
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‘Rape trials will only get longer’ – The typical delay between a rape offence and the end of the resulting criminal case rose to 1,000 days in 2021 for the first time, figures show. The data also shows 576 rape cases waiting more than a year to come to court by the end of September 2021, well over double the average of the previous five years. Labour says the situation is getting worse every year. Jo Sidhu QC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said: “Rape trials are only going to get longer unless government puts the resources in place to ensure we have enough prosecutors and defenders to tackle the backlogs.” A spokesperson said the government was “overhauling our entire response to rape”, including boosting funding for support services to £185m, recruiting more police, introducing new justice scorecards and increasing court capacity “so victims get the justice they deserve quicker”.
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Southgate invests in Thank You Day – Gareth Southgate is hoping to help lead what could be the UK’s biggest ever appreciation party during the Queen’s jubilee celebrations. The England manager – alongside celebrities including Ross Kemp, Gary Lineker and Levi Roots – is aiming to encourage millions of people to take part in neighbourhood parties in June celebrating community spirit and the Queen on what they have dubbed National Thank You Day.
Ten million partygoers marked the Queen’s first 25 years on the throne in 1977 and similar numbers celebrated the marriage of Charles and Diana in 1981. Celebrity backers, also including Prue Leith, Alan Titchmarsh and Lorraine Kelly, will be raising the event’s profile in the run-up to Sunday 5 June, the final day of the Queen’s official jubilee celebrations.
Today in Focus podcast: Who will answer for Grenfell?
As the Grenfell inquiry heads towards its concluding stages, politicians will be called to account for their part in the deadly fire. Our social affairs correspondent Robert Booth has been watching on throughout.
Lunchtime read: The cost of living, abroad
In the next week, Great Britain’s energy regulator will announce the steepest rise ever in its energy price cap, effectively saddling millions of households with an annual energy bill of close to £2,000. While the UK government has remained silent, European governments have moved to protect households from the full brunt of the global energy crisis.
Sport
Rafael Nadal described his Australian Open triumph as his greatest comeback after he recovered from two sets down against Daniil Medvedev to win a record-breaking 21st grand slam title. West Indies won the T20 international series 3-2 as England failed to chase down 179 in game five, after Jason Holder saw off the tourists with the final four wickets in as many balls. England’s Six Nations plans have suffered fresh disruption with the Harlequins centre Joe Marchant having returned a positive Covid test.
Tom Pidcock made becoming the first Briton to win the men’s elite UCI cyclo-cross world title look easy as he broke away for a comfortable victory in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Rayo Vallecano has defended its decision to hire disgraced coach Carlos Santiso to take charge of its women’s team, despite being aware of a leaked recording in which he encourages his staff to find a girl to gang-rape to help team bonding. A man in his 20s has been arrested on suspicion of rape and assault, police have said, after Manchester United suspended the footballer Mason Greenwood. And the Los Angeles Rams rallied from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter in a narrow 20-17 victory over the San Francisco 49ers to book a spot in next month’s Super Bowl against the Cincinnati Bengals, who will play for the NFL title for the first time in 33 years after beating the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24.
Business
Asian stocks have followed Wall Street higher today – benchmarks in Tokyo and Hong Kong advanced while Sydney declined. Markets in mainland China, South Korea and Taiwan were closed with the arrival of the lunar new year. Hong Kong and south-east Asia are due to close later in the week. Futures trading suggests the FTSE could open 40 to 50 points higher. The pound is worth $1.341 and €1.201 at time of writing.
The papers
Leading the front page of our Guardian newspaper today: “Johnson tries to take back control amid party outrage”. Also on the cover: “Thousands still have no power as new storm hits”. It comes in the wake of Storm Malik, as northern parts of the UK brace for winds of up to 90mph with the arrival of Storm Corrie.
Boris Johnson wants to get out of the gate running (from partygate) this week and there are those ready to help. “Boris: we will go faster on Brexit freedoms”, says the Mail, while the Express has “Boris vows to ‘unleash benefits of Brexit’”. The i pricks the balloon: “PM’s policy blitz fightback not enough to silence critics”. The Metro says “PM facing a tax mutiny” after Rishi Sunak and the PM said the rise in national insurance contributions would not be cancelled.
The Times leads on “Burglars go unpunished as just 5% of cases solved” while the Telegraph has a good scoop: “U-turn on mandatory jabs for NHS workers”. And with interest rates expected to rise, the top story in the Financial Times is “Head of £1.3tn wealth fund warns inflation will sap returns for years”.
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