Yahoo Movies Tuesday evening UK news briefing: Bank of England signals 'significant' response to pound's fall
Good evening. The Bank of England has given a strong indication it will try to steady the value of the pound. After Sir Keir Starmer attacked the Tories at the Labour party conference, Liz Truss faces a tough choice.
Evening briefing: Today's essential headlines
Royal family | The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been "demoted" on the Royal family's website to bottom billing alongside the Duke of York. Until recently, the couple featured midway down the rankings, below senior members of the family but ahead of minor royals such as the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent, Princess Alexandra and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. Read the changes. Meanwhile, the Prince of Wales has no plans to stage an investiture to formally mark his new position, royal sources have revealed, as he and the Princess of Wales made their first visit to the country since gaining their new titles.
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Hips Don't Lie | Shakira to go on trial accused of €14.5m tax fraud
Premium Bonds | Biggest increase to prize rate for 40 years
Gwyneth Paltrow | Marks turning 50 by posing nude in gold paint
The big story: Bank signals 'significant' policy response
Is this how the ship will be steadied?
The Bank of England is preparing a "significant" monetary policy response after Kwasi Kwarteng's tax-cutting Budget, a top official has signalled.
Huw Pill, the Bank's chief economist, raised the prospect of rising interest rates as he told a conference that following the "significant market consequences" following the chancellor's announcements on Friday: "It's hard not to draw the conclusion that all this will require a significant monetary policy response."
The pound ticked up slightly against the dollar to just over $1.07, though it remained off its highs for the day. Mr Kwarteng is holding daily talks with Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey amid a market meltdown sparked by last week's mini-Budget.
Markets are predicting that the pound will tumble to parity with the dollar by the end of the year, after Mr Kwarteng unveiled the biggest package of tax cuts in 50 years in an attempt to avert a recession.
Rishi Sunak backers have claimed they warned that "Trussonomics" would cause market turmoil.
Get live information on how traders are reacting with our Markets Hub.
The prospect of the Bank taking action leaves home buyers facing severe restrictions on the amount they can borrow.
Rocketing interest rates have already forced banks to limit mortgage offers and in some cases customers could be able to borrow £90,000 less than previously expected.
Markets expect the Bank Rate to peak at 5.9pc in June 2023 and the fallout from Mr Kwarteng's mini-Budget could also see house prices fall by as much as 15pc as higher interest rates slash buyers' spending power.
Economists have warned the number of homes sold risks collapsing from 1.2m per year to just 800,000.
This threatens to blow a new £5bn hole in the Government's finances, as years of rapid growth in stamp duty revenues come to an end and are thrown into reverse.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard warns that Liz Truss has been left with the tough choice between a fiscal U-turn and a housing crash where several million will be pushed into distress and negative equity.
Read how high interest rates could go and what it means for your mortgage.
'No sterling crisis'
The blame game has begun, with the prominent hedge fund manager Crispin Odey arguing that the historic rout was actually triggered by Remainers in the City who "hate" the Government.
Mr Odey defended his bets against the pound after conspiracy theorists seized on Mr Kwarteng's brief consultancy for Odey Asset Management as supposed evidence of collusion.
Patrick Minford urges calm after the pound's collapse and insists there is no sterling crisis, except in the minds of idiots while Jeremy Warner points out that the sell-off is a generational opportunity for buying UK assets.
Mike Warburton warns the last big dash for growth ended in disaster – but says this time could be different.
Starmer's energy firm
Sir Keir Starmer vowed to "fight the Tories on economic growth" as he criticised the Conservative Party's handling of the economy in his speech to the Labour party conference.
He also announced a government led by him would set up a "Great British Energy" firm to generate more clean power for the nation.
Sir Keir said the company would be publicly-owned and it would be set up within the first year of Labour taking power.
However his speech, in which he hailed the party's efforts to overcome anti-Semitism, was marred by comments by Labour MP Rupa Huq after she sparked outrage by saying that chancellor Mr Kwarteng is only "superficially black".
She has since been suspended from the party.
Comment and analysis
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Simon Heffer | MCC deserved humiliation over Eton-Harrow games
Around the world: Europe suspects Russian sabotage
There may be greater upheaval ahead on energy prices. European governments suspect Russian sabotage after three offshore lines of the Nord Stream pipeline system supplying Germany with Russian gas suffered "unprecedented" damage in a single day. Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki blamed sabotage, while Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she could not rule it out. James Crisp analyses why Vladimir Putin would want to blow up Nord Stream 2. It came as nearly 100 per cent of voters in four sham referendums in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine support joining Russia, Moscow has declared. Russia is concentrating men and equipment near its border opposite Kharkiv for a possible renewed attack on Ukraine's second city, the general responsible for its defence has warned.
Tuesday big-read
How the Society of Authors gave in to groupthink
The literary trade union is facing unprecedentedly furious criticism. Jake Kerridge reports on a bitter saga
Sport briefing: Maguire's role untenable - Carragher
Just like that the preparation is done. For Gareth Southgate and his England team all roads now lead to the Khalifa International Stadium in Qatar on November 21, where Iran lie in wait. So who will carry the flag for England in that opening group game? Our writers have selected their starting XIs. Matt Law admits he was wrong and argues Jude Bellingham is ready to take the World Cup by storm. Harry Maguire's place in the squad, once assured, looks increasingly precarious. Jason Burt warns that Manchester United defender's performance against Germany totally undermined Gareth Southgate's faith, while Jamie Carragher says Maguire does not deserve this level of ridicule - but his England position looks untenable. With only 56 days until the World Cup kicks off, see who you think will win with our interactive predictor.
Editor's choice
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Business briefing: Why France beats Britain at nuclear
During the Second World War, even though London was repeatedly and badly bombed, the electricity supply did not give out. Britain had designed its system to be resilient, so the many stations around the capital kept feeding power to its citizens, even at the height of the Blitz. Yet today, despite 75 years of economic growth and technological progress, we are contemplating blackouts and demand curtailments. Nuclear power, for all its travails, has been a British success story but Tim Stone reveals why Britain does not have a fleet to rival France.
Tonight starts now
Industry, series 2, review | A lot of people these days watch "TV" on laptops with headphones. For them, Industry (BBC One) is the perfect show. One: the high-octane, bonk-busting banking drama has hands-down the best soundtrack on television. Two: once you turn it up, your headphones will reveal some of the hilarious backchat that goes on on the trading floor of Pierpoint & Co, the London office of the US investment bank at the series' centre. It's bawdy and relentless – perfect mood music for the show itself. As the programme returns on BBC One tonight in all its amoral glory, you can watch all of series one and two.
Three things for you
Read | Abyss by Max Hastings: superb account of Cuban Missile Crisis
Puzzles | Try all-new interactive versions of our world-famous games
And finally... for this evening's downtime
Turning Branagh into Boris | Vanessa White, make-up artist on new Sky drama This England, tells Alex Diggins how she made the astonishing transformation of Kenneth Branagh into Boris Johnson.
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