Why would the government pay Gerry Adams?

Coffee House Shots

The Spectator

News, Politics, Government, Daily News

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

With rumours swirling around Westminster and after Keir Starmer’s less than convincing defence of his Chancellor earlier in the week, Rachel Reeves has found some brief respite. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed that inflation dipped to 2.5 per cent in the 12 months to December, down from 2.6 per cent the month before. It’s welcome news for a Chancellor who is under pressure, so is she safe?

Elsewhere, there is a fresh row emerging concerning Gerry Adams. The government is proposing to repeal legislation, enacted in 2023, that prevents Gerry Adams and 400 others from claiming ‘compensation’ for having been detained in the 1970s for suspected involvement in terrorism. Keir Starmer has said that he and his ministers will look at ‘every conceivable way’ to block Gerry Adams from receiving government money, but will they end up paying out? And who is Lord Hermer KC, and why is he at the centre of all of this?

Katy Balls speaks to Michael Gove and Kate Andrews.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Spectator magazine is home to wonderful writing, insightful analysis and unrivaled books and arts reviews.
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0:11.8	Go to spectator.com. UK forward slash voucher.
0:18.4	Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, Expectator's Daily Politics Podcast.
0:22.5	I'm Katie Balls and I'm joined by Michael Gove and Kate Andrews.
0:26.3	Now, Kate, we have lots to get through today.
0:29.2	But before we move on to the grooming gang's inquiry, before we talk about what Richard
0:34.7	Herman is up to, and more, please can you bring us an update this morning that we had on inflation?
0:39.9	Delighted to you, Katie.
0:41.1	It was surprisingly good news for the Chancellor that inflation slowed to rising by 2.5% in the 12 months up to December.
0:50.4	That's down from 2.6%.
0:52.4	In November, it's very close to the Bank of England's forecast of 2.4%
0:56.7	for December. This is still above the bank's target, but it will have been a sigh of relief in the
1:02.9	Treasury, most certainly. And it comes at a good time after Rachel Reeves had quite an impressive
1:07.7	moment in the House of Commons yesterday when she went to talk about her
1:11.9	visit to China was boasting of the 600 million pounds of investment that she brought back. It was very
1:18.1	clear that opposition parties wanted to talk about what's been happening to borrowing costs in the
1:21.6	state of the economy. And they really failed to land a blow. It's more embarrassing for the opposition
1:26.8	than it was a real
1:27.6	win for Rachel Reeves, but her being back in the country has been a pretty productive week.
1:32.4	For the Chancellor, the only thing I would say is nobody should get too excited too quickly.
1:37.4	The OBR has been very clear that those NI hikes for employers, when they come in in April,
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