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Budget 2021: chancellor limits spending to start building election war chest

Rishi Sunak intends to cut taxes before the next general election, after limiting his budget help to deal with a winter cost of living crisis in order to start building up a war chest for the coming years.

The chancellor made clear that the boost to spending made possible by a stronger than expected economic recovery this year would not be repeated as he reassured Tory MPs that he would take action to reduce the UK’s highest levels of taxation since the early 1950s.

Hours after delivering his third budget speech, Sunak told his backbenchers: “I won’t mince words with you … it is my view that going forward every marginal pound we have should be put into lowering people’s taxes, not more spending”.

Earlier, the chancellor had sought to ease tensions with the prime minister by announcing increases in spending for all government departments for the next three years and major reforms to alcohol taxation that will cut the cost of drinking. An extra £25bn will be spent next year.

The package – designed to show how Britain could move on after the pandemic of the past 18 months – was criticised by environmental groups for a lack of new green measures ahead of next week’s UN Cop26 conference in Glasgow.

“This budget was an own goal for a government that should be leading the world into a new low-carbon age,” said Luke Murphy, at the Institute for Public Policy Research.

And Labour condemned it for its failure to help households struggling with rising prices.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, who stood in for a Covid-stricken Sir Keir Starmer to give Labour’s response to the budget, said: “Families struggling with the cost of living crisis, businesses hit by a supply chain crisis, those who rely on our schools and our hospitals and our police – they won’t recognise the world that the Chancellor is describing. They will think that he is living in a parallel universe.”

Reeves highlighted the fact that Sunak had cut taxes on banks, sparkling wine, and domestic air travel, but had little to offer many voters. “At least the bankers on short haul flights sipping champagne will be cheering this budget today.”

After being upbraided by deputy speaker Eleanor Laing for revealing so much of his budget in advance, Sunak’s one surprise was to announce a partial government climbdown on its controversial decision to save £6bn by ending the temporary £20 a week increase in universal credit brought in at the start of the pandemic.

The chancellor handed back £2bn to working UC claimants by lowering the rate at which their benefits are reduced when their pay goes up, and made it clear he saw the move as the start of a new tax-cutting direction for the government.

“I want to say this simple thing to the House and the British people”, Sunak said. “My goal is to reduce taxes. By the end of this parliament, I want taxes to be going down not up.

“I want this to be a society that rewards energy, ingenuity and inventiveness. A society that rewards work. That is what we believe on this side of the House. That is my mission over the remainder of this parliament.”

Conservative MPs greeted the budget enthusiastically – particularly the spending pledges directed at a slew of constituencies for everything from turning derelict land into “pocket parks,” to a new Beatles attraction on Liverpool waterfront. Many later tweeted pre-prepared messages highlighting the investments in their local area.

Sunak’s spend now, cut taxes later approach was made possible by rosier short-term forecasts for the economy provided by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, which revised up its 2021 growth forecast from 4% to 6.5% and reduced its estimate of the long-term “scarring” to the economy from the pandemic.

The OBR said the stronger growth outlook coupled with the money raised from last month’s announcement of higher national insurance to pay for health and social care had provided Sunak with £50bn of additional resources to deploy in the budget, of which he spent £30bn.

But the government’s fiscal watchdog warned that rising inflation would offset rising wages and result in living standards being virtually unchanged next year.

“We expect inflation to reach 4.4% next year, with the risks around that tilted to the upside. News since we closed our forecast would be consistent with inflation peaking at close to 5% next year. And it could hit the highest rate seen in the UK for three decades.”

Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, described the outlook for household finances as “actually awful”.

Torsten Bell, chief executive at the Resolution Foundation thinktank, said Sunak had used his OBR “windfall” to deliver a “Boris budget”.

“He’s used that windfall to spend significantly more, especially in the next few years. The lasting effect of that extra spending is to allow him to partially reverse some of his own decisions by reinstating cuts to aid spending, and increasing universal credit generosity for working claimants.

“But the forecasts contained far less good news for household finances. Higher inflation will all but end income growth next year. The Chancellor’s welcome reduction in the universal credit taper will soften, rather than tackle, the cost of living crisis facing millions of families across the UK today.”

Neil Shearing, group chief economist at Capital Economics, said: “This budget was perhaps more notable for what the Chancellor didn’t do rather than what he did. The OBR handed Rishi Sunak a significant upgrade to its forecasts for the public finances but, while the Chancellor spent some of the windfall a substantial amount was saved – allowing the Chancellor to start building a war chest that could be deployed ahead of the next election.”

The current parliament will run until May 2024, although there is speculation Johnson is preparing to go to the country in 2023.

The Treasury said £30bn of green measures had been announced as part the government’s net zero package last week.

But Darren Jones, the Labour chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, said: “This budget was a missed opportunity on climate change, failing to set out the required leadership on the fiscal measures needed to accelerate progress towards our net zero target. Mere days ahead of the Cop26 international climate change summit, it’s concerning that the Treasury missed this chance to spell out the benefits of net zero and instead took regressive action, such as cutting taxes on domestic flights.”

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Man eaten alive by pet lion just days after buying the animal to keep in his back garden

A man was mauled to death and eaten by his pet lion just days after buying the beast to keep in his back garden.

A resident of Najaf, southern Iraq, was horrifically attacked by the predator before it consumed most of his body on Thursday, May 8.

“Today in a garden in the city of Kufa in Najaf, a citizen was attacked by a lion in his own garden and died immediately,” Mufid Tahir, spokesperson for the Najaf Police, told local news site Rudaw.

He added that the lion had to be k!lled because it had eaten a large portion of the man’s body, and refused to leave the remains.

The victim, 50-year-old Aqil Fakhr al-Din, had reportedly been keeping lions and other wild animals in his garden for several years, according to Tahir.

But on Thursday, the predator launched a surprise attack on its trainer before ferociously mauling him to death and devouring him.

One of the victim’s neighbours reportedly intervened and shot the lion with a Kalashnikov rifle, killing it with seven bullets, as per local TV reports.

The mans was immediately transferred to Al-Sadr Medical City Hospital in Najaf but did not survive due to the extent of his injuries.

Grisly images showed the man covered in blood as he laid on a hospital bed and an official investigation has also reportedly been opened into the circumstances of the incident.

A clip of the dead lion in the garden is also making rounds on social media, raising concerns about how al-Din was able to keep the wild animal on his property.

According to local reports, the victim had purchased the lion just days before the tragedy, with the intention of raising and taming it at home.

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Court jails T-dollar, TobiNation for spraying naira notes

The duo of Babatunde Peter Olaitan (T-Dollar) and Tobilola Olamide (TobiNation) have been sentenced to six months imprisonment each for mutilation of the Naira notes.

They were jailed by Justice Alexander Owoeye of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos.

The convicts were arraigned on a separate one-count charge of tampering with the Naira notes and spraying, to which they each pleaded “guilty”.

The charge against Olaitan reads: “That you, BABATUNDE PETER OLAITAN, on 8th April 2025, at 23, Macdonald Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, whilst dancing during a social event, tampered with funds in the denomination of N200 (Two Hundred Naira) issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria by spraying it, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 21(1) of the Central Bank Act, 2007.”

The charge against Olamide reads: “That you, TOBILOLA OLAMIDE A.K.A TobiNation, on 8th April 2025, at 23 Macdonald Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, whilst dancing during a social event, tampered with funds in the denomination of N200 (Two Hundred Naira) issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria by spraying it, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 21(1) of the Central Bank Act, 2007.”

In view of their pleas, prosecution counsel, C.C. Okezie and H.U.KofarNaisa, respectively, reviewed the facts of the cases through Ibrahim Bukar, an investigative officer with the EFCC.

In his evidence, Bukar specifically told the court that the Commission, on April 10, 2025, generated an intelligence-driven investigation on TikTok, where Olaitan, also known as T-Dollar, was seen spraying Naira notes.

He also told the court that “Upon the approval of the intelligence by the Zonal Director, a letter of investigation was sent to the defendant, requesting him to make a statement regarding the video.

“The defendant reported to the Special Operations Team, SOT, on May 5, 2025 and his statement was recorded under caution.

“He stated that he went to a night club on April 8, 2025 and met some of his fans sharing money.

“He also said that a fan, in the process, gifted him a bundle of N200 notes, which he sprayed on some of his other fans.

“He was shown a video of him spraying the money and he made a statement regarding it.”

Consequently, the defendants’ extrajudicial statements and video recordings were rendered and admitted in evidence by the court.

Okozie and KofarNaisa, therefore, respectively prayed the court to convict and sentence the defendants accordingly.

Justice Owoeye convicted and sentenced both Olaitan and Olamide to six months imprisonment each, with an option of fine in the sum of N200,000 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira).

The convicts’ road to the Correctional Centre started when they were arrested by operatives of the EFCC for Naira abuse. T

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Alleged N33.2bn arms procurement fraud: Re-arraignment of businessman stalled

The re-arraignment of Olugbenga Obadina, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Almond Projects Limited, on Monday, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) suffered a setback.

Obadina is being prosecuted over his alleged involvement in the misappropriation of N33.2billion meant for the purchase of arms by retired Col. Sambo Dasuki, a former National Security Adviser (NSA).

The matter, which was fixed for hearing before Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja, could not proceed because the amended charge, claimed to have been filed by the EFCC, was not in the court record.

Upon resumed hearing, the prosecution lawyer, Ibrahim Buba, informed the court that he had an amended charge filed on May 2 and served on the defendants.

But Justice Omotosho could not see the amended charge in the court record after a thorough search.

“Counsel, I do not have that charge before this court and I have checked our ledger and I do not see it there,” he said.

The judge said the amended charge might have been mistakenly taken to another court at the instruction of the anti-graft agency’s lawyer during the filing of the process.

Buba, who admitted that the amended charge might have been taken to Court 8, instead of Court 7 where the trial judge presides, tendered an apology for the mixup.

Adeola Adedipe, SAN, who appeared for the defendants in the case, also apologised to the court on behalf of the prosecution.

Justice Omotosho subsequently adjourned the matter until June 26 for re-arraignment of the defendants.

“This matter is adjourned to June 26 for arraignment of the defendants for the amended charge that is not before this court as a result of the prosecution given wrong number of the court at the Process Unit,” the judge said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Obadina, alongside his company, was earlier re-arraigned on Jan. 13, 2024, by the anti-corruption commission on eight-count charge bordering on money laundering to the tune of N2.17 billion before Justice Omotosho.

The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the counts and the judge ordered his remand in Kuje Correctional Centre pending the perfection of his bail conditions.

NAN reports that Dasuki, a former NSA during the President Goodluck Jonathan government, was accused of criminal diversion of funds to the tune of 2.1 billion U.S. dollars.

The money was allegedly part of funds earmarked by the Federal Government to fight Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast.

The EFCC had, in the charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/142/2016, sued Obadina and Almond Project Limited as 1st and 2nd defendants, following their alleged link with Dasuki’s misappropriated funds.

They were formerly being prosecuted before Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of a sister court before his elevation to the Court of Appeal.

In court three of the charge, Obadina and Almond Projects Ltd were alleged to have, on April 3, 2014 directly took possession or control of the sum of N 648,000,000.00 (Six Hundred and Forty Eight Million Naira) paid into the account of Almond Projects Ltd with Zenith Bank Plc Account No: 1010921116.

The money was allegedly to have been paid from the account of the Office of the National Security Adviser with the Central Bank of Nigeria without contract award.

The agency said the fund formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful activity of Col. Dasuki (rtd) and the offence is contrary to Section 15(2), (d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 as amended in 2012 and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.

NAN reports that Justice Dimgba had, on July 4, 2024, adjourned for adoption of final written addresses after the EFCC had closed its case with four witnesses and the defendants called two witnesses before he was elevated to the Appeal Court.(NAN)