will mean difficult choices on public spending.” He will say that the personalisation of the differences between Kenneth Clarke, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Eddie George, Governor of the Bank of England, risked undermining the credibility of interest rate and inflation policy.”This risk has become a reality now that the argument between the Governor and the Chancellor is conducted through speeches and interviews on both sides.”In an attempt to show that he means business, Mr Brown will say: “Inflation undermines business success It creates instability. It harms investment and the damage it does, as the experience of the late Eighties shows, takes years to undo There is an additional reason why Labour hates inflation. The people who suffer most are those on fixed and low incomes, especially the elderly, the people who are least able to defend themselves.”. Police launched a murder inquiry last night after the body of missing nine-year-old Kayleigh Ward was found in the river Dee, near Chester. Police had been conducting an extensive search for the girl, described as “streetwise”, since she vanished on 19 December, after leaving the Chester hostel where she lived with her mother and her sister, to buy chips. A post-mortem examination was conducted by a Home Office pathologist and police are treating her death as murder.

The body was found yesterday by a man walking his dog along a stretch of the river just over the border in north Wales.. Douglas Hogg, the Minister of Agriculture, yesterday put a new proposal to Europe aimed at lifting the ban on British beef. Under the proposal, meat and beef products from herds certified as BSE-free would once again be exported. The Export Certified Herds Scheme is an important step along the road to the restoration of British beef on the world market, according to Mr Hogg “We need to get this ban lifted We have made a judgement that we have to move step by step. We aim for this to be followed as swiftly as possible by another.” However, the scheme, which will apply to farmers in Northern Ireland in particular because of the lower incidence of the disease there, may yet be frustrated by Europe, he said.. John Barr, the butcher whose shop was linked to the E. coli 0157 outbreak in Scotland which claimed 18 lives, last night prepared to re- open for business on Thursday.

But Paul Santoni, the lawyer for some of those hit by Europe’s worst outbreak of the infection, called the re-opening “surprising”. The decision to resume business was announced yesterday by Mr Barr’s lawyer, George Moore, who said the butcher had worked closely with environmental officials and had received their agreement to open again. Mr Barr, 51, is awaiting trial on a charge of culpable and reckless conduct in relation to the alleged supply of contaminated meat.. Tony Blair, the Labour leader, was last night urged by the Conservative Party to refund part of a BBC journalist’s pounds 40,000 salary after the disclosure that he is on paid leave to stand as a Labour Party candidate for Exeter, a Tory marginal, in the general election. The discovery that Ben Bradshaw, 36, was on paid leave from Radio 4’s The World at One increased Tory anger about alleged bias at the BBC. Brian Mawhinney, the Tory party chairman, said it was a “disgrace” that licence payers’ money was being used to fund Labour Party candidates “Mr Blair should refund the money to the BBC,” he said But Mr Bradshaw dismissed the criticism as “sour grapes”.

A BBC spokesman said Mr Bradshaw would be given a new BBC role on Monday.. The tempest that tore across Britain yesterday and on Monday night, causing 11 deaths and extensive damage, might return by the weekend, weather forecasters warned yesterday. The London Weather Centre said the country is in the middle of a “very windy and unsettled weather system”. The violent storms have caused fatal road accidents, flash floods and have left fallen trees littering roads. Winds gusting up to 80mph were common place, with one of 90mph recorded at Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire.. A Zulu boy who was brought up by a white foster mother in England but subsequently returned by the courts to his natural parents in South Africa will stay in Britain, it emerged yesterday.