Week Ahead: Rishi Sunak’s first anniversary as Chancellor as Budget looms

CHANCELLOR’S CHALLENGE

This Saturday, February 13, will mark the first anniversary of Yorkshire MP Rishi Sunak being appointed Chancellor.

After an extraordinary year where hundreds of billions of pounds has been committed to a wide variety of schemes to prop up the economy during the repeated coronavirus lockdowns, Sunak faces his next challenge in preparing for the Budget on March 3.

He has already indicated further economic support will be on the way in response to Covid-19.

The Chancellor is facing a series of demands, including from the Conservative benches, to extend support to businesses and individuals – including the £20 weekly boost to Universal Credit.

Mr Sunak estimates it will cost between £20 billion and £30 billion to help firms with VAT and extend the business rate relief, stamp duty holiday, self-employment scheme and benefits boost.

He told Parliament last month is “reasonable” to consider the suggestions “in the round at the Budget”, which is scheduled for March 3.

Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged the Chancellor to put long-term business recovery programme at the heart of the Budget following reserach suggesting more than 900,000 small firms are at risk of going out of business in the next few months.

ON YOUR MARKS

Ballot entrants for the 2021 London Marathon will find out from today whether they have won a place in the race.

The event on October 3 will have 50,000 places to run in central London and those who miss out can apply for one of 50,000 places to run 26.2 miles as part of the virtual event on the same date.

Hugh Brasher, the marathon’s event director, said last month he was confident the mass run could go ahead in October after Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that all adults would be offered a first vaccination dose by September. Mr Brasher said: “It is difficult in a way for a lot of people to imagine from where we are now about what October might look like but the Government has said that everyone in this country should be vaccinated by September.”

MISSIONS TO MARS

It is a big week for space travel, with the UAE’s Hope probe scheduled to reach its planned orbit around Mars on Tuesday - making the UAE the fifth nation to reach the red planet.

One day later, China’s Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter and rover are expected to reach Mars orbit on February 10. The lander and rover are due to land on the Red Planet in April. If successful, the China National Space Administration will be the second space agency after Nasa to land a functional mission on Mars. The mission aims to seek out pockets of subsurface water and lay the foundations for a potential sample return mission to Earth.

TIME FOR TENNIS

The long-awaited Australian Open tennis tournament is due to start today.

There have been complaints from some players in the build-up to the event after 72 players and officials were confined to their Melbourne hotel rooms for a fortnight following positive Covid-19 cases on flights that had taken them to the country.

The build-up was disrupted again last week after a man working at one of Melbourne’s quarantine hotels tested positive for coronavirus - meaning around 600 people connected to the tournament had to go into isolation until they could provide a negative Covid test.

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