Inside Politics: Brexit freedoms

Hunt to give keynote speech on economy and HMRC chief questions Zahawi’s ‘carless’ claims, writes Matt Mathers

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Hello there, I’m Matt Mathers and welcome to The Independent’s Inside Politics newsletter.

Rod Stewart phoned in to Sky News calling for the government to step aside and give Labour a go.

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What next, Harry Redknapp calling for Rishi Sunak to resign from his Range Rover on transfer deadline day?

Have a good weekend when you get there.

Inside the bubble

Parliament is not sitting.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, to give keynote speech on the economy and growth from Bloomberg HQ in London, at around 9.20am.

Andrew Gwynne, shadow public health minister, has just been on Sky News (8.05am).

Daily briefing

Cash Hunt

Jeremy Hunt’s apparent invisibility in recent weeks – during the cost of living crisis and mass strike action in the public sector – led Marie Le Conte, one of our weekly politics columnists to recently ask, “where is he?”

Has the chancellor been locked away in the Treasury all this time, busily preparing for today’s address at Bloomberg? In his first major speech since the autumn statement, which was aimed at clearing up the economic mess left behind by Liz Truss and his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng, Hunt will set out his medium to long-term plans for economy and growth.

The speech comes against a backdrop of increasing disquiet among business leaders who fear that the UK has no plan at all, and growing calls from Tory back benchers to cut taxes, despite the chaos unleashed on the economy last time when the aforementioned Truss and Kwarteng went on a give away bonanza that sent the markets into freefall.

Reports this morning say Hunt’s strategy will focus on a few key areas which he hopes will get the economy going again: data, artificial intelligence and science. Hunt is also expected to dismiss misplaced “gloom” about the UK’s future prospects.

Britain stands ready to take advantage of its Brexit “freedoms” to become a new “world leader,” the former Remain supporter will say, according to extracts of the address briefed out overnight. “Declinism about Britain was wrong in the past and it is wrong today”.

Despite the optimistic tone, the chancellor is also expected to continue to resist calls for said tax cuts, which is unlikely to go down well with those calling for them. With a general election around the corner and those MPs worried that they have very little to sell to their constituents, that could be a problem for Hunt and his boss next door.

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Zahawi latest

Hunt’s speech comes less than 24 hours after the end of prime minister’s big cabinet away day at Chequers, where progress on his five priorities was discussed, as well as his party’s plans for the general election.

Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs, however, remained the only thing people could talk about as ministers got stuck into the nibbles and refreshments in the Buckinghamshire countryside.

Sunak gave another statement to broadcasters on the affair in the afternoon, essentially repeating what he said in the Commons on Wednesday.

The big update in this story was an intervention by the chief of HMRC, who said tax penalties were not handed out for “innocent” errors.

The Tory chair claimed he had “acted properly” with his tax affairs and that officials had judged his error to have been “careless and not deliberate”.

But James Harra, HMRC’s chief executive, told a cross-party group of MPs on Thursday that “there are no penalties for innocent errors in your tax affairs” – making clear that his organisation did not fine those deemed to have taken “reasonable care”.

In response to the comments, Zahawi said that he would give HMRC approval to speak to the investigation into him by No 10’s independent ethics adviser.

It seems this one has a little way to go yet. Jake Berry, Zahawi’s predecessor apparently agrees. Last night he told Newsnight that Zahawi should step aside until the probe is complete.

Today’s cartoon

See all of The Independent’s daily cartoons here

On the record

Jim Harra, HMRC chief executive, on Zahawi’s penalty.

“Carelessness is a concept in tax law. It can be relevant to how many back years that we can assess, can be relevant to whether someone is liable to a penalty and, if so, what penalty they will be liable to for an error in their tax affairs. There are no penalties for innocent errors in your tax affairs.”

From the Twitterati

Kevin Schofield, Huffpost UK politics editor, on Jake Berry’s calls for Zahawi to step down.

“Another helpful intervention from Boris Johnson ally Jake Berry…”

Essential reading

• Sean O’Grady, The Independent: Scandals pile up for top civil servant Simon Case
• Sebastian Payne, The Times: Quickest way to level up is to stop the yobs
• David Gauke, New Statesman: Rishi Sunak will pay a price for not sacking Nadhim Zahawi
• Mary Dejevsky, The Independent: Who benefits the most from Boris Johnson’s support of Ukraine?

Inside Politics first appeared in our daily morning email. You can sign up via this link.