Jeremy Hunt to promise further tax cuts as pre-general election battle hots up

Published

1 year ago

May 16, 2024

admin

Jeremy Hunt will promise further tax cuts if the Tories win the next general election and will accuse the Labour Party of not being honest about how it will fund its spending pledges.

The chancellor will give a speech in London on Friday in which he will accuse his shadow, Rachel Reeves, of resorting to “playground politics” with her criticism of the high levels of taxation on UK households.

Mr Hunt will also reiterate his ambition to eradicate the national insurance tax – which the Tories have already slashed twice in a bid to move the polls – where they currently lag 20 points behind Labour.

Politics latest: Sunak ‘can still win election’ – as he’s hit with blunt question on Loose Women

Labour has attacked the policy as an unfunded £46bn pledge and likened it to the policies that saw Liz Truss resign from office after just 44 days as prime minister.

The chancellor was previously forced to make clear that his desire to abolish the “unfair” national insurance tax would not happen “any time soon”.

The chancellor described national insurance as a “tax on work” and said he believed it was “unfair that we tax work twice” when other forms of income are only taxed once.

The overall tax burden is expected to increase over the next five years to around 37% of gross domestic product – close to a post-Second World War high – but Mr Hunt will argue the furlough scheme brought in during the pandemic and the help the government gave households for heating both needed to be paid for.

“Labour like to criticise tax rises this parliament thinking people don’t know why they have gone up – the furlough scheme, the energy price guarantee and billions of pounds of cost-of-living support, policies Labour themselves supported,” he will say.

“Which is why it is playground politics to use those tax rises to distract debate from the biggest divide in British politics – which is what happens next.

“Conservatives recognise that whilst those tax rises may have been necessary, they should not be permanent. Labour do not.”

James Murray, Labour’s shadow financial secretary to the Treasury, said: “There is nothing Jeremy Hunt can say or do to hide that fact that working people are worse off after 14 years of economic failure under the Conservatives.”

Politics

Japan’s FSA backs joint stablecoin initiative by nation’s top banks

Published

6 hours ago

November 7, 2025

admin

Japan’s FSA backs joint stablecoin initiative by nation’s top banks

Japan’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), endorsed a project by the country’s largest financial institutions to jointly issue yen-backed stablecoins.

In a Friday statement, the FSA announced the launch of its “Payment Innovation Project” as a response to progress in “the use of blockchain technology to enhance payments.” The initiative involves Mizuho Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation and its financial arm and Progmat, MUFG’s stablecoin issuance platform.

The announcement follows recent reports that those companies plan to modernize corporate settlements and reduce transaction costs through a yen-based stablecoin project built on MUFG’s stablecoin issuance platform Progmat. The institutions in question serve over 300,000 corporate clients.

The regulator noted that, starting this month, the companies will begin issuing payment stablecoins. The initiative aims to improve user convenience, enhance Japanese corporate productivity and innovate the local financial landscape.

The participating companies are expected to ensure that users are protected and informed about the systems they use. “After the completion of the pilot project, the FSA plans to publish the results and conclusions,” the announcement reads.

The announcement follows the Monday launch of Tokyo-based fintech firm JPYC’s Japan-first yen-backed stablecoin, along with a dedicated platform. The company’s president, Noriyoshi Okabe, said at the time that seven companies are already planning to incorporate the new stablecoin.

Japanese regulators focus on crypto

Recently, Japanese regulators have been hard at work setting new rules for the cryptocurrency industry. So much so that Bybit, the world’s second-largest crypto exchange by trading volume, announced it will pause new user registrations in the country as it adapts to the new conditions.

Local regulators seem to be opening up to the industry. Earlier this month, the FSA was reported to be preparing to review regulations that could allow banks to acquire and hold cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) for investment purposes.

At the same time, Japan’s securities regulator was also reported to be working on regulations to ban and punish crypto insider trading. Following the change, Japan’s Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission would be authorized to investigate suspicious trading activity and impose fines on violators.