BEST FOR BRITAIN'S 



WEEKEND WIRE



Dear John,



We’ve made it past Blue Monday, but unfortunately, we still have a blue Government. Doubly unfortunately, you can’t get rid of them by booking a holiday, but that hasn’t stopped Boris Johnson from trying. Let’s see how they got on.



Cosying up, not levelling up <[link removed]>



Well, you can’t dink the PM for being honest. After last summer’s leadership election, when hot-mic’d Rishi Sunak boasted about redirecting funds from ‘deprived urban areas’ to Tunbridge Wells, the latest allocation of levelling-up funds revealed <[link removed]> the plan had not changed.



The 111 grants announced this week include £19m magically landing in the PM’s own constituency of Richmond (Yorks), ostensibly for the benefit of servicemembers stationed there, and more money for London’s boroughs than for all of the North East. The South East was the biggest winner in funding, and a Guardian analysis showed <[link removed]>that Tory-held constituencies received nearly £20 more per capita than similarly deprived non-Tory seats.



The whole kerfuffle over levelling up has left many Tories eager to drop the whole programme as a political liability. News this week emerged that many in Sunak’s government want to ditch <[link removed]> the term, while the latest fund allocation set <[link removed]> Tory West Midlands mayor Andy Street on the warpath against the ‘begging bowl culture’ around funding after most of his region’s applications were rejected. 



Britishvolt zaps out







The pride and joy of the Government’s levelling-up agenda was, well, levelled <[link removed]> on Tuesday when the electric car battery start-up Britishvolt went into administration. The factory in Blyth, Northumberland was meant to bring thousands of jobs and kick-start a homegrown electric car industry in the UK.



How the company flamed out is a long and complex story that began with its founding in 2019 and the beginning of factory plans without any orders secured. Despite touting from Government ministers eager to Get Brexit Done and flex the UK’s economic might, mismanagement and profligate spending on company perks and promotion alongside a lack of necessary technology plagued Britishvolt from the beginning.



The killing blow, according to both Sir John Amitt <[link removed]>, chair of the National Infrastructure Commission, and former Tory leader William Hague <[link removed]>, was Brexit, with Hague chalking up Britishvolt’s difficulty in securing large enough orders to make the factory viable to being shut out of the single market. Eco-conscious Brexiters everywhere will hang their heads, because the Leave bus’s battery is dead.



Former Taxman settles with current taxman



It’s one offshore company <[link removed]>, Rishi. What could it cost? £3.5m, if Nadhim Zahawi is being forthright in his agreement to pay millions in back taxes <[link removed]> amidst allegations that he funnelled capital gains from the polling firm YouGov through a Gibraltar-based company.



If there’s one thing British overseas territories are known for, it’s financial propriety, right? Undeterred by the fact that Zahawi’s finances were flagged <[link removed]> before his brief stint as Chancellor, the current Prime Minister insisted that the very-much-still open matter was already closed.



In solidarity, B4B is dreaming of a team trip to each of the exotic locales Tory ministers have stashed their cash. We’re thinking of climbing to Nadhim’s Notch on the Rock of Gibraltar, jetting off to California wine country <[link removed]> to see how the PM spent his domiciled time there, and swinging by the Cayman Islands <[link removed]> for some beach time on the way home.







UKTBC takes construction and manufacturing



On Thursday, the UK Trade and Business Commission, organised by B4B, held a live evidence session focused on the future of the construction and manufacturing sectors in the UK and the challenges they face post-Brexit. The six witnesses giving evidence represented industry bodies, sector researchers, and academics.



Witnesses at the session highlighted major issues facing their sector, like energy costs, skills deficits, and pandemic knock-on stressors. They additionally took the Government to task for their failure to set out a long-term strategy to enhance the UK’s manufacturing and building capabilities as they look to achieve net zero goals, and lamented Brexit-related labour shortages costing the economy billions per year.



A full recording of the session can be found here <[link removed]>. A write-up of the session appeared in Peter Foster’s Financial Times Brexit newsletter <[link removed]> (Paywall warning). The next UKTBC session on culture and the arts will be held on Thursday 26th January. 



Swedish straight-talk in Switzerland



The world’s leaders, luminaries, and lizard people climbed the Swiss Alps this week for the yearly World Economic Forum Davos summit, and the verdict on Brexit is unanimous: it’s not great!



An Ikea executive speaking at the summit lamented <[link removed]> Brexit’s “chaos” and its effect on the megaretailer’s cross-border operations, calling for an end to the regulatory dumpster fire and closer alignment between the UK and EU. 



Meanwhile, Grant Shapps admitted to the gathered audience that leaving the EU has “caused significant challenges” as he half-heartedly tried to hail the UK’s newfound “agile, forward-looking approach”. Turns out regaining the advantages of EU membership isn’t as simple as photoshopping <[link removed]>the UK into the group picture.



Government blocks GRR







On Tuesday, the UK Government announced <[link removed]> it intends to block legislation passed last month by the Scottish Parliament intended to make it easier for transgender people to obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). This would mark the first time the Government has invoked Section 35 of the 1998 Scotland Act and struck down a law passed by a devolved legislature.



The Government maintains that the Scottish legislation would skew UK law and create an unbalanced situation if different rights for trans people exist in Scotland from those in the rest of the UK. Leaders in the Scottish Parliament, however, have slammed the Government’s actions as an attack on devolution and vowed a legal challenge.



Many commentators have also condemned the move as an exploitation of trans people’s struggles to gain political points. Government and Opposition politicians have come under criticism <[link removed]> for their equivocation on transgender rights surrounding the debate over the GRR.



Tragic crash in Kyiv



The Ukrainian government was rocked when a helicopter carrying three top officials, including interior minister Denys Monastyrsky, crashed <[link removed]> near a nursery on the outskirts of Kyiv Wednesday morning. At least 17 people were killed, including three children, and dozens on the ground were injured.



Monastyrsky’s death makes him <[link removed]> the highest-profile Ukrainian official to be killed since the war’s beginning. Officials stated that the helicopter was on its way to visit combat-stricken regions in northeastern Ukraine. Leaders around Ukraine and Europe issued <[link removed]> tributes to the crash’s victims.



We could have choo-chooed for less cha-ching



Who knew that flipping over the negotiating table didn’t absolve you of picking up the cards? Certainly not Rail Minister Huw Merriman, who during a Wednesday select committee admitted <[link removed]> that resolving the dispute with the railway unions months ago would have cost less than the £1bn in add-on costs triggered by repeated waves of strikes.



Merriman claimed <[link removed]>he does not want to “interfere in a negative manner” in the pay disputes with rail unions, insisting that the Government has been negotiating in good faith, providing measured concessions to the big bad unions, attending church every Sunday, and helping old ladies cross the street.



Perhaps realising <[link removed]> he’d been caught out, Merriman then pivoted to a refreshing helping of word salad, citing “reforms that don’t get talked about”, “overall impact on the public sector”, and how an accountant he met at summer camp did all the maths showing why the Government can’t cough up the funds. Has he asked <[link removed]> the rail workers to start ironing passengers’ tickets?



That’s all from us at the end of a very chilly week–get cosied up by a fire, grab a drink of something warm, and daydream about sunlit uplands. Bye for now!



Best wishes,



Tommy Gillespie

Press Officer, Best for Britain







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Best For Britain - United Kingdom

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