Tag: Department for Transport

The tax-free personal allowance, which rises to £12,500 in April, should be scrapped and replaced with a flat payment of £48 a week for every adult, according to radical proposals welcomed by shadow chancellor John McDonnell. The proposal, from the New Economics Foundation thinktank, is for a £48.08 “weekly national allowance,” amounting to £2,500.16 a year from the state, paid to every adult over the age of 18 earning less than £125,000 a year. The weekly payments would be fully funded by the abolition of the tax-free personal allowance, which has seen inflation-busting increases under the Conservatives over the past 10 years, but which NEF said had benefited richer households most. This is worth £2,500. Costing more than the whole of defence, local government and the Department for Transport combined and enriching the highest income households almost seven times faster than the poorest.” The leftwing thinktank, which has developed close links with Labour to become a key influencer of shadow Treasury thinking, estimates the current cost of the tax-free allowance is as much as £111.2bn. The policy is likely to face opposition from some voters, as it would also mean bringing down the threshold for higher-rate taxpayers from £50,000 to £37,500. McDonnell said: “This is just the kind of innovative thinking we need on how to fix the imbalances and problems of our tax system. The Treasury said the personal allowance has removed nearly 2 million people from income tax, and that income inequality in Britain is falling. In a statement, it said: “We’re raising the personal allowance one year early, which will mean that by April this year, 1.7 million income taxpayers will have been taken out of tax altogether since 2015-16. In 2019-20, the lowest income households will receive over £4 in public spending for every £1 they pay in tax on average, and the highest income households will contribute over £5 in tax for every £1 they receive in public spending on average.

Theresa May rejects Donald Trump's criticism of Brexit deal Read more In a damning report released on Wednesday, MPs said businesses and members of the public had not been given adequate information about what might happen. They highlighted the department’s use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) while negotiating with the transport industry as hampering the spread of information. Quick guide What happens next if May's Brexit deal is voted down? MPs knuckle under and vote it through. A new leader then tries to assemble a majority behind a tweaked deal. Labour tries to force an election The opposition tables a vote of no confidence. If May lost, the opposition (or a new Conservative leader) would have two weeks to form an alternative government that could win a second confidence vote. Transport department officials have called the £35m project Operation Brock. “The slow progress and poor communication around work to avoid this through schemes such as Project Brock concerns us,” it said. The department on Monday opened applications from hauliers for internal road haulage permits, known as ECMT permits, which will be needed for British lorries to travel across the Channel in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Theresa May has been accused of bringing the honours system into disrepute after handing a knighthood to a former minister known to be wavering on whether or not to support her Brexit deal. Downing Street announced the award had been granted to John Hayes MP, a junior minister to May when she was the home secretary, on Friday afternoon. “People will rightly look at this knighthood and wonder how it relates to the looming Brexit vote in the Commons,” said a spokesman for the Scottish National party leader, Nicola Sturgeon. We need to know if anything has been promised in exchange for this honour.” Chris Green, a Conservative MP who followed the former Brexit and foreign secretaries, David Davis and Boris Johnson, in resigning from his Department for Transport job over May’s Chequers plan in July, told the Financial Times: “They will use whatever patronage is available to them. They are feeling the heat.” Theresa May prepares to face biggest threat to date: the Tory party Read more Will Dry, the co-founder of the Our Future, Our Choice anti-Brexit campaign group that focuses on younger people, highlighted the strength of Tory opposition to the prime minister’s Brexit deal. He said: “If this is May’s plan to win them round, will a knighthood mean anything by the time this Brexit mess is all over?” Hayes, 60, the MP for the Lincolnshire constituency South Holland and the Deepings, has been vocal about his discomfort with the deal. A week ago, he told his local paper, the Spalding Guardian: “Whilst I can live with much of this agreement, I have been clear that we must look again at the transition arrangements and how they end.” He added that he hoped May would listen to Tory opposition and come up with a deal that he found more acceptable. May was critical of the former prime minister, David Cameron, for handing out numerous honours as he left office in 2016. Responding to the allegations against May on Friday, a Downing Street spokesman highlighted that Hayes had said he remained undecided on the deal. Hayes had not responded to the Guardian’s request for comment but was quoted by the Sun as saying: “I still need a lot of persuading to vote for this [May’s Brexit deal].”