Dodger

This Labour MP wants me investigated and silenced. He makes my case for me. Labour’s rebranded “Islamophobia” definition is designed to censor us. So Mr Khan, here’s my reply: Get lost.

Bond markets not thrilled about Torsten Bell having a bigger say in the Budget, presumably because this makes spending cuts even less likely... 👇 (Echoes of the sell-off in July when Rachel Reeves was visibly upset at PMQs - investors feared any replacement would be even worse)

I am deeply disturbed by last night’s debate and vote to decriminalise abortion. The biggest change to abortion law in fifty years passes the Commons after a two hour debate. It is a profound change that leaves the unborn child and women themselves extraordinarily vulnerable. I worry intensely about the unintended consequences of this. The combination of rushed amendments on decriminalisation and pills by post is very dangerous. A woman will now be able to end her pregnancy herself - at any stage including up to birth - without legal consequence. She will also have the means to do it - with tablets that should only be taken before a baby in the womb is at ten weeks gestation, available after a phone or video call with a medic. Dr Caroline Johnson tabled a perfectly sensible amendment, which I supported, to say that abortion pills should only be prescribed after a woman has seen a medic at a clinic - to verify that she is pregnant, at the correct stage and not being coerced (none of which can be established online). She set out the medical reality of an abortion. We should not underplay how extraordinarily distressing a thing it is to lose a baby for a woman - whether wanted or not - and the amplified risk now of that happening at home, alone, with the delivery of a viable child, exposes her to serious medical complications and psychological trauma. The law does not exist simply to punish but to deter. And in deterring, it protects the vulnerable. It being a criminal act for a mother to abort her child at any stage has for decades protected the unborn child but also the woman herself. With that gone, the ability to prosecute coercive or abusive partners is also undermined because the termination being encouraged by them no longer amounts to a criminal offence. All this is aside from any moral duty to the unborn child - something that was skirted over yesterday. Only six people got to speak on our benches. I was lucky that I even got three minutes to have a say. Others did not get called at all. I am grateful that there were some on the Labour benches with the courage to express their worries. Abortion votes are unwhipped so each MP votes according to their conscience not party policy. But Labour MPs - with their huge majority - voted overwhelmingly to decriminalise (291 to 25). 92 Conservatives voted against, with 4 in favour. 2 Lib Dems voted against, 63 in favour. Reform were 4 against and their leader didn’t vote. It is now over to the House of Lords, where I hope this proposal receives the scrutiny it failed to get in the Commons.

*UK 10-YEAR BOND YIELD RISES TO THE HIGHEST LEVEL SINCE 2008

This story below reveals the true extent of Angela Rayner's cluelessness when it comes to economics, the public finances and financial markets. I say that not with glee - but deep alarm and regret. If this is really how the probable next Prime Minister of the UK thinks - betting markets put a more than 50% chance on leadership coup by June - then the ousting of Starmer/Reeves by Rayner (or Miliband) is likely to spark an instant spike in gilt yields, from their already elevated levels. Just the fact that Rayner has said what she has below will put yet more upward pressure on the market-driven borrowing costs – whatever the Bank of England says is these days mere mood – that drive the interest rates faced by firms and households. I have nothing against more social housing – on the contrary, the arguments in favour of building more are at the heart of my book "Home Truths", along with policy mechanisms that could get that done. But if you think that, in the current environment, hard-nosed international creditors do - or even should - give a monkey's about the "social benefits" of subsidised housing then you are utterly and dangerously deluded. Again, I say this in sorrow, not glee. I knew plenty of smart people at the top of successive Blair governments. The architects of New Labour – at least the Blairites – always made sure there were financially literate and market-savvy people in the room when big decisions were made. That was important back then - when the national debt Britain had to service was 35pc of GDP. Now – with the same metric pushing 100pc of GDP and Britain paying more than Morocco to borrow money – it is absolutely vital. It seems that there is no-one – NO-ONE AT ALL – near the top of today's Labour government who has the first clue about the realities of public accounts and global finance. These are – once again – NOT tribal or party-political points, but statements of cold fact ....