Dear John,

Someone find the party hats, light the candles and fetch the cake because today marks the 100th edition of Weekend Wire! Waheyyyy!

To mark this momentous occasion, I dug into the B4B archives to find our very first edition of Weekend Wire from 18th March 2022. Reading over it was a salient reminder of just how far we’ve come as a campaign and how much we’ve achieved, but also how important our work remains. Unfortunately we are still reporting on failed trade deals, authoritarian  Government policies, threats to EU-UK relations and, of course, lettuce Liz Truss attempting to stir up trouble.

If, like us, you’ve had enough, make sure you’re signed up to get alerts for GetVoting so you have all the information you need to make sure your vote counts, so that by the time our next anniversary rolls around, we will finally be rid of this awful Government. 

Anyway enough reminiscing for one newsletter - let’s get back to the present  👇👇👇

Hunt’s fiscal fantasy

The news agenda this week was suffocated by the Chancellor's Spring Budget; an underwhelming event which will have left many scratching their heads and wondering, was that it? Indeed, if this was Hunt's last bid to resuscitate the Conservative's dying electoral prospects, it seems the Government really has given up.  

Quite apart from the tax slashing bonanza many Conservative MPs had hoped for, the budget announcement centred around a pre-briefed 2 percent cut to National Insurance in a repeat of the Autumn Budget. 

What the Government won't admit is that this tax cut comes against a background of an overall rising tax burden - the OBR reckons the highest since 1948 - driven by frozen thresholds that have dragged taxpayers into higher brackets and earned Hunt the nickname 'the fiscal drag queen'. 

So watch out when the Tories start claiming they've cut your overall tax burden. They haven't. 

To the despair of many, this costly and short-sighted attempt at a pre-election bribe, leaves little in the way for much-needed public spending, and will most likely come at the cost of yet more austerity. 

Lucky for Hunt, however, he probably won’t be the one left dealing with the longer-term fall-out, leaving many to speculate that this was a budget calculated with the primary aim of setting traps for an incoming Labour government rather than addressing the country’s fiscal needs.

Budget busting scandal

If the budget alone wasn't enough to convince you that the Tories are totally incapable of managing the country's finances, then this will. Just days before the budget was announced, updated analysis from Best for Britain revealed this Government has squandered a stomach-churning £125 billion of taxpayers' cash since the 2019 election. 

Totalled up in our Scandalous Spending Tracker, this figure has grown £25 billion since late last year. To put that into perspective at a time of growing global instability, where top generals warn of reducing the size of the British Army, £25 billion is more than half of annual UK military spending and would have been enough to almost double the number of British army soldiers since 2019. 

New entries to the tracker include; £1.6million in bonuses to the people who presided over the Horizon scandal, £2.1million to hold scandal-induced by-elections, and almost £8,000 on a Downing Street party thrown by Boris Johnson to celebrate Brexit.

Taxpayer tab

However, the £125 billion update came too early to include the £15,000 tab that the British public will be picking up for damages paid to an academic whom Science Secretary Michelle Donelan falsely accused of supporting Hamas. 

Strategically announced on Wednesday evening, it seems Donelan was rather hoping the post-budget buzz would provide cover for the bad news…

Penny Mourdant attempted to defend the Science Secretary by explaining that it was clear Donelan valued public money because she had once turned down a redundancy payment after serving as education secretary for 36 hours. Well done Michelle!

Rwanda policy ping-pong

Besides the budget, the other big story of the week concerned the Government's Safety of Rwanda Bill, which returned to the House of Lords on Monday and Wednesday for a series of amendment votes. 

Over the two days, the Government suffered a series of defeats at the hands of Peers who forced through all ten amendments debated, many of which aim to ensure the bill is compliant with international and UK laws. 

Unfortunately, the votes don't scupper the bill entirely, but they do set into motion the process of parliamentary ping pong between the Lords and the Commons until an agreement is reached. Best for Britain said the plan needs to be abandoned not amended, read our CEO’s response here.

Women in Westminster

Weekend Wire's 100th edition, wasn't the only 100 being celebrated this week, and on Tuesday evening it was announced that Best for Britain's CEO Naomi Smith had made this year's Women in Westminster. 

The list, put together by the House Magazine, celebrates the achievements and invaluable role women play in public life by recognising 100 women who are leading the way in politics and public services.

😬 Cringe column 🫣

Keeping up with the Sunaks

Ending on what is definitely the most bizarre thing to happen this week. Rishi and his wife Akshata Murty sat down with Grazia magazine, ahead of International Women's Day, to delve into one of the more pressing questions facing the country: how the Sunaks divide up their domestic load.

An excruciatingly bland watch, Sunak and Akshata spend a long five and a half minutes desperately attempting to convince us that they are in fact relatable. Spoiler alert: they're not.

But perhaps the most revealing thing to come out of the interview was when Rishi confessed to breaking away from his pretty important day job to scuttle upstairs and make the bed because he can't deal with his wife's habit of leaving it in a mess - It's always reassuring to know your Prime Minister's has his priorities right!

And that's almost all from me for this week, but before I finish up I want to thank all our WW readers. Whether you've been with us from the start or joined along the way, we love bringing you the news round-up each week, from the common lowlights to the rare highlights, it's always good fun. 

Until next time!

Martha Harrison 
Press Manager 
Best for Britain