On Thursday (21st May), the National Audit Office released a report on the ballooning cost of the measures taken by the UK Government in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Excluding data beyond 4th May, the independent Parliamentary body revealed the Government had spent a total of £127bn on COVID-19 initiatives. The bulk of the £127bn…

As the fifth and final week of the hybrid, virtual Parliament comes to end, its impact cannot be downplayed. Centuries of tradition have been upended, with proposals that some have called for over the last few years, such as remote voting, entirely accelerated. While these changes were necessary to allow Parliament to continue to sit,…

Navigate Politics produces a daily evening roundup of all the key announcements in the UK’s attempts to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, from the four governments across the nation. If you’d like to sign up to our daily updates for free – please get in touch Daily Coronavirus Update – 11th May 2020 10 Downing Street press…

Navigate Politics produces a daily evening roundup of all the key announcements in the UK’s attempts to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, from the four governments across the nation. If you’d like to sign up to our daily updates for free – please get in touch Daily Coronavirus Update – 31st March 2020 10 Downing Street…

The Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered his Budget Statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday. Below is a summary of the announcements in his speech. A full list of the documents published alongside the Budget and a list of consultations announced can be found at the bottom of this post. OBR figures and forecast…

Political Backgrounds As you would expect with a new intake of MPs, a large proportion of them have a background in politics, with around half having previously held elected office. This includes a significant number of councillors, a sitting MEP (Alun Smyth), two London Assembly Members (Gareth Bacon and Florence Eshalomi), and four members of…

The Scottish National Party published their 2019 Election Manifesto on Wednesday. The manifesto includes pledges to: fight for a second independence referendum in Scotland, support a second EU referendum with Remain on the ballot paper, call on the UK government to match Scottish per capita NHS spending, demand an end to austerity, call for the…

The Conservative Party published their 2019 Election Manifesto on Sunday, alongside a document providing costings of their manifesto policies, mirroring similar documents published by the Lib Dems and Labour. The manifesto includes pledges to raise the National Insurance threshold to £9,500 in 2020, with an ambition to raise it further to £12,500, rules out any…

Labour have published their General Election manifesto, titled ‘It’s Time for Real Change’, and a ‘manifesto costings summary’ setting out their spending plans and how they will afford to fund their proposed policies, such as through reversing cuts to corporation tax and also taxing multinationals. Their manifesto includes pledges to launch a Green Industrial Revolution,…

The Lib Dem’s have published their General Election manifesto entitled ‘Stop Brexit: Build a Brighter Future’ and a ‘manifesto costings summary’ setting out their spending plans and where they predict the additional Government income required to pay for their proposals will come from, which includes a £50m ‘Remain Bonus’ dependent on the UK not leaving…

Headline Summary The 2011 Fixed-Term Parliaments Act (FTPA) requires the support of 434 MPs for an early General Election to be granted, which Boris Johnson failed to achieve twice since becoming Prime Minister. An extension to Article 50 will almost certainly to be granted in the coming days, and the structure of this extension will…