Great progress! #homes #Kensington

Palantir’s software helps the police catch criminal gangs, root out misconduct, and protect women from abusive partners. The Met Police wants this software to keep Londoners safe, but @SadiqKhan prefers sending political messages to Washington. Read my op-ed in @theLDNstandard ⬇️

Just brilliant. Kemi says it how it is. #conservative

Tomorrow, vote for cheaper energy, safer streets, stronger high streets, a stronger economy, and a stronger country. Vote Conservative and get Britain working again!

Thanks to @griffitha MP for supporting @KCFConservative in Notting Hill today. Lots of support for our brilliant Pembridge ward team: Georgia Hardisty ✖️ Natacha Tannous ✖️ to keep RBKC under @Conservatives control for top class local services and good value for money.

#RBKC is central London’s only Conservative council — and it shows! Under Conservative leadership, Kensington & Chelsea delivers some of the best services anywhere in the capital, while still providing value for money for residents. We have: • 𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐜𝐞-𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 • 𝐀 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡-𝐰𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐭 • 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 • 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧’𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 rated among the very best by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission On May 7th, do not risk ⚠️ losing the services that make this borough such a great place to live 💙 Vote 𝑵𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒂 𝑻𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝑹𝒊𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒆 & 𝑮𝒆𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒂 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒚 for #PembridgeWard on May 7th 💙✨ Polling station: Kensington Temple ⛪️ #Pembridge #Kensington #London Promoted by Natacha Tannous Ritchie, 44 Southern Row W10

E bikes are a great way to get around - but if you park them badly... Watch out! #Kensington #Chelsea youtube.com/shorts/zZNa0m9Ae…

Colour popping magnolias on the colourful streets of #Kensington! @rbkc #nottinghill

Fantastic that the Council made this work. We 'Stepped up for Step-Free' @rbkc #SouthKensington

Here in black and white is the impact on @RBKC , its residents and its local charities. All being punished by the incompetents in Government and their local stooges @josephpowell and @ChelFulhamBen

What was an £82m black hole in our finances has increased to over £100m. As a sleight of hand they’ve now lifted the council tax referendum. Meaning the choice is to punish residents with inflation busting tax rises or drastically cut services.

After months of supposed lobbying, Inner London MPs including @josephpowell and @ChelFulhamBen have managed to make their boroughs worse off! I know that when Labour negotiate the country loses - but I didn’t think they’d all be quite so able to make a bad situation worse.

After all the mayhem, the pre-budget briefings and Treasury hysteria about OBR growth downgrades, it turns out that if the chancellor had done precisely zilch yesterday, she would have almost met her main fiscal target, to generate a surplus on day-to-day spending. The miss would have been a rounding error £2bn. In fact, without her humiliating welfare u-turns - on disability benefit reforms and means testing the winter fuel payment - she would have hit that target by a slim £4.4bn. In other words the funding benefits of the £44bn of tax rises in last year’s budget were not wiped out by the Office for Budget Responsibility’s decision to downgrade its productivity and growth forecasts - for all the Chancellor’s very public frustration with that downgrade. Her fuss over the downgrade - which did happen, and which added £16bn to the deficit five year’s hence - was a red herring, a canard, a conjuror’s “look over there, not at what am I actually doing.” Because the OBR simultaneously calculated that the yield from existing taxes would fill that productivity induced hole almost twice over! So this was in no sense a fiscal and economic crisis budget. Her £26bn of tax rises were the Chancellor’s choice, not a necessity. For her personally and for her prime minister however there was a political crisis. Because they feared they were losing the confidence of Labour MPs and could lose the confidence of investors. So pretty much every penny of that £26bn in higher taxes had a political purpose - to placate MPs who wanted Starmer’s government to show more zeal in helping families on the lowest earnings, to cut energy, prescription and rail bills, and to prove to investors they are not red Liz-Trusses by adding £12bn to the headroom or buffer against future shocks. The big unanswered political question is whether placating Labour MPs and the mega investors is also addressing the nation’s priorities. On that hinges how Labour will perform in those important May elections, and whether the eviction of Reeves and Starmer is cancelled or merely delayed.

Rishi Sunak had Starmer and Labour bang to rights on taxation. “Mark my words, Labour will raise your taxes, it’s in their DNA”

Admiring the old - with the new - glazed tiles at Knightsbridge, important to keep our design heritage #knightsbridge #London @RBKC

This is *insanely* bad. Astonishingly bad. Unbelievably bad.

At a wonderful @macmillancancer coffee morning, organised by Karen and Alexandra. Lots of chats, cakes and a great cause. Thank you both & the @cadoganhotel #knightsbridge

Just chaired a councillor training for council homes. Lots of good info. #Housing @RBKC

Great to see this unused basement area being transformed into a new community room with residents at Bramley House. @RBKC #Kensington #Housing