Senior Tories plot to replace PM with ‘Sunak-Mordaunt alliance’ – follow live

Bankers’ bonuses in the City of London have increased at more than twice the speed of workers’ wages since the 2008 financial crash, new research has found.

The TUC said its analysis showed that the average banker’s bonus is worth almost two thirds of an average worker’s pay in the UK.

Bonuses in the finance and insurance sector are now worth, on average, around £20,000 a year – their highest level on record, said the leading union organisation.

Average City bonuses have doubled in cash terms over the period since the last banking crash – which is 2.6 times as fast as wages have increased, according to the analysis of government figures.

My colleague Adam Forrest reports:

The city status granted to Southend in honour of murdered MP Sir David Amess has “given everyone a huge boost”, his successor said a year after his death, as she suggested Southend could bid for UK City of Culture in 2029.

Sir David was stabbed to death while meeting constituents at Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, on 15 October 2021.

The father of five had long campaigned for Southend to become a city and this was done after his death.

Sir David was posthumously made the city of Southend’s first freeman at a ceremony attended by the Prince of Wales in March.
Anna Firth, who was elected as MP for Southend West in February, said that Southend becoming a city had “given everyone a huge boost”.

“Civic pride is important and it’s given everybody a focus because what we all want to do now is to make the city of Southend the city that he would have been proud of,” said the 56-year-old.

“We’re all coming together and working out ways in which we can take Southend forward.

“Just one of the suggestions which I’ve come up with is that we go for UK City of Culture in 2029 because culture was really important to Sir David and he led the charge for Southend to be UK City of Culture in 2017 and we didn’t get it.

Consumers cannot afford to wait for vital protections against online fraud, campaigners and financial services industry bodies are warning.

Ten organisations, including Which?, MoneySavingExpert, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and UK Finance have joined forces to write a letter to prime minister Liz Truss, pressing for quick and effective action.

They are urging the government to ensure that fraud is tackled through the Online Safety Bill so that people are better protected against devastating financial and emotional harm.

Liz Truss is poised to tear up further elements of Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-Budget, with a U-turn on corporation tax expected as early as this weekend.

Discussions were understood to be taking place in 10 Downing Street on a means to avoid fresh market panic after the Bank of England withdraws its emergency bond-purchasing scheme at the end of trading on Friday.

It came after The Independent revealed on Tuesday that officials had been asked to go through the tax giveaway Budget line by line to see where there was scope for change.

Read the details in this joint report from Anna Isaac, Andrew Woodcock and Adam Forrest:

Senior Conservatives are holding talks about replacing Liz Truss with a joint ticket of former leadership candidates Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, according to reports.

Just weeks after Ms Truss became prime minister, MPs are said to be plotting to appoint a unity candidate in an unchalleged “coronation” of a new Tory leader.

It comes as Ms Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng are set to make a U-turn over the corporation tax cuts which were a key pledge of her leadership election campaign.

One Conservative former minister described the move as “desperate” and said it would not be enough to salvage Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng’s careers.

Read the details in this report from my colleague Maryam Zakir-Hussain: