Allister Heath | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Born | Allister Georges Freund Heath 1977 (age 46–47) Mulhouse, France |
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | London School of Economics Hertford College, Oxford |
Occupation | Newspaper editor |
Allister Georges Freund Heath OBE (born 1977), is a French-born British business journalist, author and commentator. He was appointed as editor of The Sunday Telegraph in April 2017. [1] [2]
The son of Alexander and Sylviane Heath, Allister Heath was born in Mulhouse in Alsace, France, to a part-British family. [3] [4] Heath was initially educated at the College Émile Zola, Kingersheim, followed by the Lycée Lambert, in Mulhouse. He lived there until the age of 17, when he moved to England to study economics at the London School of Economics (1995–1998), followed by a post-graduate MPhil in the subject at Hertford College, Oxford. [2] [5]
From 2000 to 2002, Heath was editor of the European Journal and head of research at the European Foundation. Since then, he has mostly worked in journalism. In 2006, he became an associate editor at The Spectator , continuing in this role until 2008. He was a contributing editor at the magazine from 2008 to 2011. [2]
Heath undertook a number of roles at The Business , a London-based magazine. In 2002, he was its economics correspondent, then from 2002 to 2005 was economics editor and leader writer, rising to the roles of deputy editor (2005–06) and editor (2007–08). [2] The publication closed shortly after his departure in 2008. Heath was editor of City A.M. , a business newspaper, from 2008 to 2014. Since 2012, he has worked for The Daily Telegraph , initially as a columnist. From 2014 to 2017, he was deputy director for content and the paper's deputy editor. [2] He became editor of The Sunday Telegraph in April 2017, replacing Ian MacGregor. [1] [2]
Heath has been Wincott Visiting Professor of Business Journalism at the University of Buckingham (2005–2007). He was chairman of the 2020 Tax Commission from 2011 to 2012, authoring The Single Income Tax: Final Report of the 2020 Tax Commission for it in 2012. [2] His first book, A Flat Tax: Towards a British Model (co-written with D. B. Smith), was published in 2006. [6] [7] [8] In the book, he describes Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as "two of history’s most destructive and flawed thinkers". [6] His second book, At a Price: the true cost of public spending, was also published in 2006. [2] In July 2016, Heath spoke at the 60th Anniversary Gala of the Institute of Economic Affairs.
In 2014, Heath wrote that it was time to reject crony capitalism and embrace the real thing. [9] In June 2018, Heath said that "Cultural Marxism is running rampant." [10]
In October 2019, Heath backed the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement negotiated by Boris Johnson, arguing "it is as good as it gets" and urging MPs to approve it. [11] In December 2020, he said he believed Brexit was a "positive shock for Britain" and the time the country had spent in the EU was "a calamity for Britain". [12] In June 2021, Heath held that the Withdrawal Agreement's Northern Ireland Protocol "was imposed on the UK by Brussels at the moment of our greatest weakness", arguing it should be renegotiated. [13]
In September 2022, Heath welcomed the mini-budget submitted by the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, with unbridled enthusiasm. The budget was one of the primary factors which triggered a financial crisis in the UK. The chancellor was fired three weeks later and his tax cuts were withdrawn, followed six days later by the resignation of Prime Minister Liz Truss. In a front page commentary in The Daily Telegraph , Heath wrote: "This was the best Budget I have ever heard a British Chancellor deliver, by a massive margin. The tax cuts were so huge and bold, the language so extraordinary, that at times, listening to Kwasi Kwarteng, I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming, that I hadn't been transported to a distant land that actually believed in the economics of Milton Friedman and F A Hayek." [14]
In February 2012, Heath was announced as the winner of the Institute of Economic Affairs Free Enterprise Award for 2011. [15]
In October 2017, the commentator Iain Dale put him at Number 87 on his list of "The Top 100 Most Influential People on the Right"'. [16]
Heath married Neda in 2002; the couple have two daughters. He names his recreation in Who's Who as "family". [2]
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to Chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within His Majesty's Government, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the chancellor is a high-ranking member of the British Cabinet.
Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, was a British politician and journalist. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Member of Parliament for Blaby from 1974 to 1992, and served in Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet from 1981 to 1989. Prior to entering the Cabinet, he served as the Financial Secretary to the Treasury from May 1979 until his promotion to Secretary of State for Energy. He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in June 1983 and served until his resignation in October 1989. In both Cabinet posts, Lawson was a key proponent of Thatcher's policies of privatisation of several key industries.
George Gideon Oliver Osborne is a former British politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the Cameron government. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton from 2001 to 2017.
In economics, aggregate supply (AS) or domestic final supply (DFS) is the total supply of goods and services that firms in a national economy plan on selling during a specific time period. It is the total amount of goods and services that firms are willing and able to sell at a given price level in an economy. Together with aggregate demand it serves as one of two components for the AD–AS model.
The Bow Group is a UK-based think tank promoting conservative opinion. Founded in 1951, it is the oldest group of its kind, counting many senior Conservative Party MPs and peers among its members. It represents a forum for political debate with its varied programme of events and official journal.
Stamp duty in the United Kingdom is a form of tax charged on legal instruments, and historically required a physical stamp to be attached to or impressed upon the document in question. The more modern versions of the tax no longer require a physical stamp.
Christopher Ian Brian Mynott Philp is a British politician serving as Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire since October 2022. He previously served in Liz Truss's cabinet from September to October 2022 as Chief Secretary to the Treasury and then as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Croydon South from 2015 to 2024.
Sir Thomas Whinfield Scholar is a British civil servant who served as Permanent Secretary to the Treasury from 2016 to 2022. He was previously the prime minister's adviser on European and global issues in the Cabinet Office from 2013 to 2016. He has been a director of the nationalised bank Northern Rock, and served as chief of staff for Gordon Brown.
Mary Elizabeth Truss is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth day in office, she stepped down amid a government crisis, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. The member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk from 2010 to 2024, Truss held various Cabinet positions under three prime ministers—David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson—lastly as foreign secretary from 2021 to 2022.
Akwasi Addo Alfred Kwarteng is a British politician who served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 6 September to 14 October 2022 under Liz Truss and the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 2021 to 2022 under Boris Johnson. A member of the Conservative Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Spelthorne from 2010 to 2024.
Iain James Martin is a Scottish political commentator, author and public speaker. He writes a weekly column for The Times and is co-founder, editor and publisher of Reaction - a news site providing analysis and opinion on politics, economics and culture.
Britannia Unchained: Global Lessons for Growth and Prosperity is a political book written by several British Conservative Party MPs and released on 13 September 2012. Its authors present a treatise, arguing that Britain should adopt a different and radical approach to business and economics or risk "an inevitable slide into mediocrity".
Thomas Zoltan Newton Dunn, known as Tom Newton Dunn, is an English broadcast journalist and former newspaper journalist. He presented First Edition, an evening news programme on talkTV.
Mark Peter Fletcher is a British politician who served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Bolsover from 2019 to 2024. He is a member of the Conservative Party.
"Singapore-on-Thames", sometimes "Singapore-upon-Thames", was a hypothetical new model for the British economy after Brexit. Under it, the United Kingdom would greatly diverge from its neighbours in the European Union (EU), offering businesses low tax rates and a much lighter regulatory climate as an alternative, much like Singapore does within its region of Asia. The term arose in the media as a characterisation of remarks made by Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond to a German newspaper in early 2017, to the effect that if the EU refused access to its single market on terms favourable to the UK then the UK would necessarily have to change its economic system to one less like EU countries in order to remain globally competitive, an outcome he did not want.
Liz Truss's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom began on 6 September 2022 when she accepted an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II to form a government, succeeding Boris Johnson, and ended 49 days later on 25 October upon her resignation. As prime minister, she served simultaneously as First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union.
On 23 September 2022, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, delivered a Ministerial Statement entitled "The Growth Plan" to the House of Commons. Widely referred to in the media as a mini-budget, it contained a set of economic policies and tax cuts such as bringing forward the planned cut in the basic rate of income tax from 20% to 19%; abolishing the highest (45%) rate of income tax in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; reversing a plan announced in March 2021 to increase corporation tax from 19% to 25% from April 2023; reversing the April 2022 increase in National Insurance; and cancelling the proposed Health and Social Care Levy. Following widespread negative response to the mini-budget, the planned abolition of the 45% tax rate was reversed 10 days later, while plans to cancel the increase in corporation tax were reversed 21 days later.
The 1972 United Kingdom budget was a budget delivered by Anthony Barber, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 21 March 1972. The budget is remembered for its large tax cuts, and led to high inflation and demands for higher wages, as well as the 1976 sterling crisis when the UK government was forced to ask the International Monetary Fund for financial help. It also led the Conservative Party to abandon "Post-war consensus" policies.
The October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered by Liz Truss's announcement that she would resign as Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, amid an economic and political crisis.
The Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) is an economic consultancy based in London, United Kingdom.
![]() | The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for biographies .(September 2022) |