This week, the Conservative leadership competition Caravan moves from parliament to membership in the country. 150,000 Tory Party members are expected to land ballots on doormats over the next few days, while finalists Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak will face off in another televised debate Thursday at 8 p.m. on Sky News.
But have Tory members already made up their minds? Polls show Truss moving between rank and file from the former chancellor. Stephen Bush, who operates the Inside Politics newsletter, warns that Sunak has limited time to close the gap with the truce, as “most Conservative members will vote immediately when their ballots arrive”.
Whoever wins the race for leadership will inherit the wave of industrial discontent. Thousands of BT employees will walkout on Monday for the second of two strikes under the leadership of Sanchar Karmachari Sangh in the dispute over salary. In response to BT’s £1,500 wage deal awarded to employees in April, the CWU said the company’s owners had “put two fingers up” for workers. Dockers at the UK’s largest container port are also expected to strike in August.
Across the Atlantic, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, despite an international backlash he delivered a speech about race that led to the resignation of a close aide, who called it “pure Nazi”. Told.
Speaking of controversial international visits, Katherine Hille reports that China is pulling all stops – possibly including the military – to prevent US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi from visiting Taiwan over the next few days.
After the doom and gloom, we can look forward to a weekend revelation. The streets of Brighton will be lit up as one of Britain’s biggest Pride events coincides with International Beer Day on Friday. Thousands of people will flock to the south coast of England at the annual LGBTQ parade. and don’t miss love fire On the big screen, our film critic Danny Leigh writes.
economic data
The Bank of England will be in a tight (close to) position on Thursday as its monetary policy committee weighs in on how high to raise interest rates to bring inflation down to its 2 percent target. It is currently trading at a 40-year high of 9.4 per cent and is expected to climb further. Governor Andrew Bailey said a half-percentage increase – which would be the biggest increase in 27 years – is on the table.
The BoE is under pressure to step up efforts to contain inflation after the US Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate by 0.75 percentage points for the second consecutive month on Wednesday. The White House will trumpet any good news from US employment data this week to ease fears of a recession. The economy shrank for the second quarter in a row and “core” personal consumption expenditure rose 0.6 percent in June.
companies
The silence of August’s earnings is not upon us. FT corporate commentator Kat Rutter Polly says that after last week’s frenzy, things will calm down a bit in the coming days.
The story of raising sales forecasts on the back of rising inflation from the consumer goods and beverage groups is set firmly ahead of Heineken’s results on Monday and Kellogg’s on Thursday.
Windfall profits earned by oil and gas conglomerates have also been a major focus of the earnings season. After Shell netted $11.5bn in profits in a record quarter, it’s BP’s turn to step into a political storm on Tuesday. The UK imposed additional taxes on energy companies this year, but another round of record profits could raise calls for additional charges.
And while major US banks delivered their updates in what feels like aeons ago, reports from the European banking sector are still deceiving. HSBC will update on whether the lockdown in China has had an impact on Asian profits, both Bank of Ireland and Commerzbank report on Wednesday.
Read the full week ahead calendar here.