International briefing for June 2017

It has been a very eventful month in the UK with the surprise outcome of the general election on 8 June resulting in a hung Parliament and at the time of writing the prime minister is still in talks with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) for them to provide support to the government on a ‘confidence and supply’ basis although media reports suggest these negotiations are not going smoothly. The DUP’s manifesto was light on tax policy but it is safe to assume they will be pushing for devolution of corporation tax varying powers to take place in April 2018 despite the current impasse with other parties in Northern Ireland (NI). Any decrease in tax or increase in spending in NI will have a knock-on impact on the Barnett formula across the UK and it will...