But he stuck to an optimistic prediction that the economy would grow by between 3 and 3.5 per cent next year, even though the Bank of England expects it to be about 2.5 per cent.Oliver Letwin, the shadow Chancellor, said: “The tide is going out on the Chancellor’s credibility. Not, Mr Speaker, exaggerated gloating but the words of the Leader of the Opposition.”He insisted he would meet his much-trumpeted “golden rule” that borrowing would not exceed public investment over the economic cycle. His aides insisted there was “no black hole”, saying City experts had underestimated government revenues from the oil industry.Mr Brown conceded a slight deterioration in public borrowing for this financial year and next. Paid maternity leave will rise from six to nine months in 2007, and eventually to a year, and will be transferable from the mother to the father for the first time. A 10-year plan for child care will include higher tax credits and the opening of 3,500 children’s centres by 2010.In his pitch for the pensioners’ vote, Mr Brown announced an extra £50 on top of the winter fuel allowance, taking it to £250 for those over 70 and £350 for those over 80 from next winter. To head off a pre-election revolt by motorists, he gave up £665m of revenue by maintaining the freeze on fuel duties.Mr Brown could not resist a sideswipe at his old foe Peter Mandelson, now a European commissioner, who accused the Chancellor last month of “exaggerated gloating” about the British economy.Mr Brown told MPs: “‘Inflation is low Unemployment is low We are growing faster than many other European countries’. He said increases should be “substantially below” this year’s 5.9 per cent figure, but local authority leaders warned that the one-off subsidy would not prevent huge rises in future.Mr Brown tried to scotch City forecasts that he would raise income tax or cut spending after the election because of a looming “black hole” in his finances.
Tories and some independent analysts claimed there was a £10bn gap in his figures. The most eye-catching announcement was his pledge to create a “family-friendly welfare state” and “the most generous maternity support and support for young children ever in the history of our country”. “She is not the greatest sinner this country has produced … We must have a sense of humanity, fairness, justice and reasonableness.”Mr Blunkett and the 44-year-old publisher of the Spectator began their affair three months after she married Mr Quinn..
Gordon Brown unwrapped a £2.2bn package of pre-election sweeteners yesterday that he shared among householders, working families with young children, pensioners and motorists. Days later it was approved.Mr Blunkett maintains he looked over her visa application – and not the Home Office letter – to see it was in order, and played no further role.Ms Casalme received permission to stay before the normal qualifying period of four years’ working in Britain.Stephen Quinn appealed for his wife to be left alone. The inquiry must allow civil servants to establish what their role was as this could prove the key to confirming Blunkett’s innocence.”Mr Blunkett faced further pressure yesterday when Ms Casalme alleged that Kimberly Quinn, who is pregnant, told her of a “friend” who might be able to help with her visa.Ms Casalme told the Daily Mail she had given Mrs Quinn a Home Office letter warning she could face a 12-month wait to have her visa issued in the hope that she would use her “power and influence” to help. “It is serious if there is a climate within the Government that it is considered normal to provide a special service for ministers, and then the Home Secretary can wash his hands of it,” he said.Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: “What is becoming increasingly clear is that this particular application had unusual treatment. It has included threats on the internet and other disturbing incidents at our home.”. The investigation into whether David Blunkett “fast-tracked” the visa of his former lover’s nanny should be widened to examine whether civil servants accelerated the application without his knowledge, the main opposition parties said last night. The development, which was widely expected to be tourism-based, turned out to be a housing estate.The inquiry, in its first report 17 months ago, found flaws in the planning system, inappropriate relationships between developers and members of government and discovered that a Treasury minister knowingly misled the island’s House of Keys while he was serving as tourism minister.Mr Corkill recently told the Manx parliament that the latest dispute had included physical threats against him.
“What does surprise me is that this building dispute appears to have prompted an extraordinary level of quite unjustified but sustained harassment of myself and my family, much of which still remains unknown to the public,” he said.”It has included previous criminal allegations investigated by the police which have been found to be without foundation. Council tax bills rose by an average 5.9 per cent this year, and some homeowners, particularly pensioners, are likely to object to further rises of 5 per cent, more than twice the expected 1.75 per cent inflation rate.Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat spokesman, said: “Ministers are shielding the council tax rises until after the general election. Mr Moore and an associate claim that they are owed more than £102,000 by Mr Corkill, and the Chief Minister has issued a counter-claim, arguing that the firm owes him and his wife more than £90,000.Mr Corkhill claims that Mr Moore is the source of allegations that the tourism grants were illegal. The builder has declined to comment, but the island’s Tourism and Leisure minister, David Cretney, indicated in an internal memo four months ago that Mr Moore had made “serious allegations”.A subsequent internal government audit found the Tourism Department to blame for “unacceptable” administrative failures and put Mr Corkill in the clear.The police inquiry, which has included a search of the Corkills’ home, continues.The timing of the saga is unfortunate, coming months after an inquiry headed by Nigel Macleod QC into how lucrative planning consent was granted for a development at farmland on the coast near Mount Murray. “This development increases the pressure of public suspicion and speculation to a point where I have to step aside to protect the good name and credibility of the Isle of Man government.”The investigation, by the island’s serious crime squad, centres on the payment of £91,000 in tourism development money for the couple’s business, which doubles as their home at Ballacain, Onchan, near the island’s capital, Douglas.The investigation coincides with an acrimonious legal battle between Mr Corkill and a local builder, Colin Moore. Richard Corkill and his wife, Julie, have been asked about grants paid by the island’s Department of Tourism and Leisure to their holiday-cottage business. The chief Minister of the Isle of Man resigned yesterday after being arrested and questioned by police over a corruption allegation.
David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, said it would mean police forces could maintain the increases in police and community support numbers.. Councils are being told to stop allowing workers to take their pension before the age of 55 and to stop retirement before 65 unless the staff are prepared to take a cut in their pension payout.Five million teachers, police, firefighters and town hall staff will be required from 2008 to increase their pension contributions by up to two thirds to fund their final-salary schemes.Police authorities that protested at shortfalls in funding this year are to get an extra 5.1 per cent. He is raising a further £512m by raiding budgets across Whitehall departments, including the departments of health and education.Opposition MPs last night demanded details from the Treasury on the cuts that would be made in budgets announced after the spending review in June to pay for the pre-election support for councils.Council workers are likely to react with anger at the squeeze on their pension entitlement. This is the calm before the storm.”Council taxpayers face the prospect of a big increase in bills in 2007, the date for revaluation of rising property values. Protests in Wales are seen as a taste of worse to come in England. John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, has also ordered a review of council tax to be delivered after the election.The Chancellor provided only £125m from the exchequer to limit the rise in council taxes in England.
