2 V2 Thursday May 26 2022 | the times
News
Inflation for the poorest households
could rise even faster than for the rich-
est, reaching as high as 14 per cent in
October because of the surge in energy
bills, a leading think tank has warned.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)
said that the poorest could face almost
double the rate of inflation experienced
by the richest when the energy price
cap is lifted in autumn. Prices will rise at
a rate of 8 per cent for the richest tenth
of households if inflation hits 10 per
cent in October, as projected by the
Bank of England.
The surge in the cost of household
utilities such as electricity and gas
accounts for three quarters of the infla-
tion rate, which hit a 40-year high of
9 per cent last month, with the price of
food and fuel also rising rapidly.
Poorer households are more affected
because they spend a bigger proportion
of their income on essentials such as
utilities and food. The poorest 10 per
cent spend almost three times as much
of their budget on energy bills as the
richest households, the IFS said.
Ofgem, the energy regulator, expects
the average tariff cap for energy tochallenging Johnson yesterday, with
only one new backbencher calling on
him to quit. The prime minister faces a
parliamentary investigation over
claims that he knowingly misled MPs
when he repeatedly said he had been
unaware that rules had been broken in
Downing Street.
Gray’s 50-page report revealed that:
6 Martin Reynolds, Johnson’s principal
private secretary, told colleagues that
they had “got away with” a party in the
No 10 garden, having been warned that
the event was a “risk in the current
environment”.
6 One leaving party involved staff
taking part in karaoke outside the cabi-Sunshine and showers across most
of the country. Staying drier in the
southeast. Full forecast, page 65
2418311116
20
18161413THE WEATHER
Moss testifies
at Depp trial
Kate Moss told a court
that Johnny Depp did
not push her down a
flight of stairs while
they were in a
relationship. The
rumoured incident
had been brought up
by Amber Heard, who
is being sued by Depp
in a $50 million
defamation case. Page 5
COMMENT 29
LEADING ARTICLES 33
WORLD 34BUSINESS 37
REGISTER 53
LAW 56© TIMES NEWSPAPERS LIMITED, 2022.
Published in print and all other derivative
formats by Times Newspapers Ltd, 1 London
Bridge St, London, SE1 9GF, telephone
020 7782 5000. Printed by: Newsprinters
(Broxbourne) Ltd, Great Cambridge Rd,
Waltham Cross, EN8 8DY; Newsprinters
(Knowsley) Ltd, Kitling Rd, Prescot,
Merseyside, L34 9HN; Newsprinters
(Eurocentral) Ltd, Byramsmuir Road,
Holytown, Motherwell, ML1 1NP; Associated
Printing (Carn) Ltd, Morton 2 Esky Drive,
Carn Industial Estate, Portadown, BT63 5YY;
KP Services, La Rue Martel, La Rue des Pres
Trading Estate, St Saviour, Jersey, JE2 7QR.
For permission to copy articles or headlines
for internal information purposes contact
Newspaper Licensing Agency at PO Box 101,
Tunbridge Wells, TN1 1WX, tel 01892
525274, e-mail [email protected]. For all other
reproduction and licensing inquiries contact
Licensing Department, 1 London Bridge St,
London, SE1 9GF, telephone 020 7711 7888,
e-mail [email protected]SPORT 66
CROSSWORD 76
TV & RADIO TIMESCOMMENT
Henry Kissinger talks the talk on freedom but
is willing to reward Putin with Ukrainian land
DAVID AARONOVITCH, PAGE 29TODAY’S EDITION
FOLLOW US
thetimes timesandsundaytimes thetimesOFFER
Save up to 33% with a subscription to
The Times and The Sunday Times
THETIMES.CO.UK/SUBSCRIBEGervais comedy
show attacked
Ricky Gervais’s new
Netflix stand-up
comedy special has
been criticised for
featuring “dangerous”
jokes about
transgender women
and Aids. He also
received support for
“calling out” trans
activism in his hour-
long routine. Page 11Hundreds of
flights axed
Thousands of
passengers faced
disruption at UK
airports after British
Airways and easyJet
cancelled hundreds of
international and
domestic flights.
British Airways has cut
its summer schedule to
reduce on-the-day
disruption. Page 10European threat
to League Cup
Rick Parry, the EFL
chairman, has warned
that an extended
Champions League
could threaten the
future of the League
Cup. He also set out
the case for abolishing
parachute payments
for clubs relegated
from the Premier
League. Page 76Russian troops
making ground
Russian soldiers have
reached the outskirts
of Severodonetsk, a
town in the eastern
Donbas, as Ukrainian
soldiers conceded it
was becoming “harder
to defend ourselves”.
President Zelensky
said the Russian army
was concentrated in
the region. Pages 34-
Fed warns of
more rate rises
The Federal Reserve is
prepared to continue
raising interest rates
aggressively until the
autumn, according to
minutes from its
latest meeting, as
policymakers attempt
to bring runaway
inflation in the
United States under
control. Page 37DAB RADIO l ONLINE l SMART SPEAKER l APPTo day’s highlights
8am11am2pm3.35pm8.30pmSir John Curtice, professor of politics at
University of Strathclyde
Matt Chorley examines how the
government is dealing with immigration
Angela Hartnett, right, on her new
cookbook and how to be the
best party host
Kevin Maher and Larushka Ivan-
Zadeh review the latest film releases
Adrian McKinty on his novel The IslandInflation could be twice as
high for poorest families
Arthi Nachiappan
Economics Correspondentreach £2,800 in October, more than
double that of October last year. The
price cap rose by 54 per cent, or around
£700, last month.
Energy prices, which soared over the
course of the pandemic as natural gas
stocks were depleted by greater num-
bers of people staying at home, have
risen further as a result of the war in
Ukraine.
Heidi Karjalainen, an economist at
the IFS, said that the price cap rise in
October will “widen the gap” between
the rates of inflation faced by the poor-
est and richest households.
The poorest are facing an inflation
rate of almost 11 per cent, which is
around 3 percentage points higher than
the rate of price rises felt by the richest,
according to the analysis.
The pace of rising prices has
outstripped pay growth, which was just
over 4 per cent in the first three months
of the year. After adjusting for inflation,
this represents a 1.2 per cent fall in the
value of earnings, which is the biggest
decline since 2013.
Take-home pay is expected to fall by
the largest amount since records began
66 years ago, according to forecasts by
the Office for Budget Responsibility,
the official forecaster.that the government’s windfall tax
differs significantly from Labour’s
because it is less “blunt” in its approach.
“He will say that this is the Conserva-
tive way of doing it because it incentiv-
ises investment,” a minister said.
There is deep unease over the plan in
the cabinet. A succession of ministers
have made clear their opposition amid
concerns that the tax burden has risen
to the highest level since the 1970s.
They have called for Sunak to bring for-
ward tax cuts, particularly on VAT, to
stimulate the economy.
The chancellor is said to believe that
there is too much economic uncertain-
ty at present to reduce taxes. The Trea-
sury has warned that VAT cuts on
energy bills would significantly benefit
many larger households and would re-
duce average bills by only £140 a year.
The prime minister said yesterday
that the hundreds of billions spent on
dealing with the pandemic had left Brit-
ain in a “very difficult fiscal position”.
He acknowledged that households
“are going to see pressures for a while to
come” as a result of the sharp rise in
global energy prices and supply chain
problems after the pandemic. But he
said: “We will continue to respond, just
as we responded throughout the pan-
demic. It won’t be easy, we won’t be able
to fix everything. But what I would also
say is we will get through it and we will
get through it well.”The number of foreign students is
expected to increase by almost 50 per
cent in five years, the university
admissions service predicts today.
It says there is renewed interest in liv-
ing in the UK, since coronavirus
restrictions lifted, with the NHS and
the English language a particular draw.
International students are stereotyp-
ically drawn to business and law de-
grees but new analysis by Ucas shows
that statistics, materials science and
artificial intelligence are the three most
popular, with more than a third on
those courses from abroad.
More than half of international stu-
dents in the UK are from only seven
countries — China, India, Hong Kong,
Malaysia, Portugal, the US and Ireland
— with those from China making up
two in every nine of the total.
Ucas forecasts that the volume of
international undergraduate appli-
cants will increase by 46 per cent, from
around 144,000 last autumn to 208,
by 2026. Its report shows that during
the pandemic, 88 per cent of students
viewed the UK as a “positive” or “very
positive” place to study, while 77 perInternational student numbers
set to rise 50% over five years
Nicola Woolcock Education Editor cent said they were applying because of
the country’s academic reputation.
Students from different countries had
varying reasons for wanting to study
abroad, with 80 per cent of Nigerian stu-
dents wanting to gain skills that would
help them in their careers, while 75 per
cent of Indian students said that the
most important factor in their decision
were the “better-quality” universities
found abroad. Students are also five
times more likely to say securing a job in
their destination country, rather than
their home nation, is their top priority.
International students are more fo-
cused on the most selective universities
than domestic students, with a higher
proportion of their cohort going to
“higher tariff” universities.
More than 70 per cent of applicants
who gain places from Singapore, China
and Malaysia enter highly selective
universities. Nigeria, Pakistan and
Saudi Arabia have also seen a surge in
applications to the UK in recent years.
The number of applicants from
China has almost trebled in ten years
and it has more than trebled for those
from India, the United Arab Emirates
and South Africa. In the past five years
the number of applicants from Nigeriahas more than doubled while those
from Pakistan have risen by more than
half. Candidate numbers from Hong
Kong and Ireland are up by more than
a quarter in the past two years.
The Ucas report looks at how inter-
national students make their choices. It
finds one in ten decided by the age of 11
to study abroad and half are following
in the footsteps of a parent.
Prospects after graduation are more
important for those wanting to study in
the US, Singapore and the UK, whereas
experiencing life in that country is a
more important draw to those consid-
ering Italy and the Netherlands.
Clare Marchant, the chief executive
of Ucas, said: “Despite the challenges of
the pandemic, international students
have pursued the opportunities avail-
able to them and we forecast sustained
growth in interest to study in the UK to
continue into the next decade.”
The report says 5.6 million students,
equivalent to the entire population of
Singapore, study in a different country
to their home nation. It says: “The UK
continues to be a leading host destina-
tion... second only to the US with both
countries collectively hosting 30 per
cent of international students.”continued from page 1
Sunak to ease energy billsnet secretary’s office and ended with
one participant being sick and an alter-
cation between two civil servants.
6 Another party went on until 4am,
during which staff clambered over a
climbing frame belonging to Johnson’s
son, Wilfred, causing damage.
Gray said that leaders in Downing
Street, “both political and official”, must
bear responsibility for the rule-break-
ing. “The public have a right to expect
the very highest standards of behaviour
in such places and clearly what hap-
pened fell well short of this,” she said.
In a statement to the Commons
Johnson said he accepted that his previ-
ous statements, insisting that all Covid
rules and guidance had been followed,
were untrue. He said he had not know-
ingly misled parliament, arguing thatthe events he had attended were legiti-
mate and only subsequently became
illegal. He said: “At the time that I spoke
to this House I believed that what I was
doing was to attend work events. And
with the exception of the event in the
Cabinet Room [a party to mark John-
son’s birthday], that is a view that has
been vindicated by the investigation.”
Tobias Ellwood, the former defence
minister, said the controversy had
“eroded” the trust of the public and
Johnson should resign. Sir Keir Starm-
er, the Labour leader, called on Tory
MPs to tell Johnson “the game is up”.
News and analysis, pages 6-
No one fears Johnson, Iain Martin,
page 31
Gray report brings shame on PM’s
administration, leading article, page 33continued from page 1
Johnson ‘vindicated’ over partiesBanca do Antfer
Telegram: https://t.me/bancadoantfer
Issuhub: https://issuhub.com/user/book/
Issuhub: https://issuhub.com/user/book/