Politics

The devolved governments of the UK want an urgent meeting with Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng to discuss immediate action to reverse the damaging effects of the mini-budget. In a joint letter, the finance ministers of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are warning that the government’s spending plans are a “huge gamble” that will mean another decade

Liz Truss has for the first time acknowledged that “there has been disruption” to the UK economy following last week’s mini budget. Since the chancellor’s announcement of £45bn in tax cuts the value of the pound has plummeted, nearly half of mortgages have been pulled and the Bank of England launched a £65bn bail-out to

The mini-budget “seemed designed to provoke the markets” when they were already vulnerable, a backbench Tory MP has said, in the latest criticism of the new government from its own side. Writing in The House magazine, Waveney MP Peter Aldous joined the criticism of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng‘s mini-budget last week. He highlighted the

You have to go back to Tony Blair’s honeymoon period after his 1997 landslide general election victory to find a Labour opinion poll lead as massive as 33 points. All those critics of Sir Keir Starmer – mostly on the Corbynista left-wing of the party, who’ve claimed with the Tories in turmoil, Labour should be

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has insisted the government is focusing on “delivering the growth plan” and “protecting people right across the country” despite a week of market turmoil. The chancellor, who announced his mini-budget last Friday, said without the government’s plans it could not generate the income and tax revenue needed to pay for the public

A government minister has admitted that scrapping the top rate of income tax would benefit only the wealthy. Speaking to Sky News, the chief secretary to the Treasury Chris Philp said it was “true” that getting rid of the 45p rate would only help the better off. But he claimed it was “very often those

Sir Keir Starmer has called for a recall of parliament to discuss the financial market turmoil following Friday’s mini-budget. Speaking to reporters, the Labour leader said the move by the Bank of England to launch a temporary bond-buying programme to prevent “material risk” to UK financial stability was “very serious”. Politics Hub: ‘Growing movement’ for

Labour will tomorrow unveil plans to ensure every primary school child in England has access to fully funded breakfast clubs under a government led by Sir Keir Starmer. Announcing the scheme on the final day of the party’s conference in Liverpool, Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, will say the policy will be paid for

Sir Keir Starmer has announced that a Labour government will create Great British Energy – a new, publicly owned company that will generate renewable sources “to cut bills, create jobs and deliver energy independence”. The role of GB Energy will be to provide additional capacity alongside the private sector, to establish the UK as a

Sir Keir Starmer will claim a “changed” Labour can turn the UK into a “growth superpower” in his keynote conference speech – as a new poll gave the party its largest lead over the Conservatives in more than two decades. The Labour leader will tell party delegates in Liverpool on Tuesday that Labour’s Green Prosperity

Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has said the UK government is putting the economy in danger and attacked Prime Minister Liz Truss’s plan of “trickle-down economics” after the pound sank to a record low against the dollar. Sterling slipped to a low of $1.0327 on Monday, before stabilising at around $1.07, following lows seen after

Labour will pledge to “build British industry” through the use of a state-owned investment fund during the second day of the party’s conference in Liverpool. In her speech later today, Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, will set out the party’s industrial strategy, which includes promises to invest in national projects from battery factories to clean

Labour will reverse the cut in the higher rate of income tax if it wins power at the next election, Sir Keir Starmer has said. Around 660,000 of the highest earners on more than £150,000 will benefit from the scrapping of the 45p rate, getting back on average £10,000 a year. Asked if Labour would

After last year’s showdown with the Labour left on party rules and the resignation of a shadow cabinet minister, Sir Keir Starmer is hoping for a calmer, happier conference in Liverpool. But the leader knows he is not in control of all his party’s levers – and his bête noires in Momentum and the Corbyn-backing

Sir Keir Starmer has accused the Conservatives of showing their “true colours” by unveiling tax cuts that will benefit the wealthiest most. Arriving at Labour’s party conference in Liverpool, he vowed to set out a plan for “an economy that works for working people” – unlocking “growth for everyone”. According to the Opposition, the mini-budget

It may have been billed a mini-budget, but what Kwasi Kwarteng announced on Friday was massive. A package of tax cuts on a scale not seen for half a century, paid for through borrowing at increasingly expensive rates in the hope that it will deliver better growth. This is an administration that promised “shock and

In the end, Kwasi Kwarteng’s statement indeed cost more than £2 billion a minute and turned politics on its head. Threads that linked the three preceding Tory governments since 2010 were severed, while slogans, billboards and arguments about what it has meant in recent years to vote Conservative clattered into the waste bin. The new

Councils are calling on the new prime minister to honour her promise to put £13 billion into social care, as government plans to scrap the newly introduced national insurance levy were confirmed. Ahead of today’s mini-budget, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng said the tax hike – introduced in April to pay for social care and tackle the

The foreign secretary has called on countries to reject the “charade” of referenda to be held in Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine. Speaking at the United Nations Security Council, James Cleverly said Vladimir Putin plans to fix the results of votes on becoming parts of Russia. He said: “We have information which means

Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats are part of a desperate attempt to justify his “catastrophic” failure in Ukraine, Liz Truss has said. In her first speech on the world stage as prime minister, Ms Truss accused the Russian president of “sabre rattling” after he warned his country would use “all the means at our disposal” to