54 minutes ago UK politics live: Rachel Reeves to defend Budget to CBI after stark warning over tax rises

The chancellor is expected to tell the group there was ‘no alternative’ to tax rises

Events

62 minutes ago UK politics live: vote on assisted dying bill impossible to predict, says minister

Jess Phillips says ‘we do not know how this vote is going to go’ with the views of many MPs still unclearGood morning. There is plenty happening today. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, and Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, are both speaking at the CBI conference, where the CBI chief executive Rain Newton-Smith is warning about the impact of the budget on business. Keir Starmer is hosting a meeting at Downing Street about plans to protect women from spiking. “My government was elected on a pledge to take back our streets, and we will never achieve this if women and girls do not feel safe at night,” he says. There will be tributes to John Prescott in the Commons this afternoon. But one issue is going to dominate the week, the vote on the assisted dying bill on Friday, and already that...

Politics

64 minutes ago Businesses go to war with Labour: Half of CBI members are looking to cut jobs after monster Budget tax raid

The CBI is using its conference to sound the alarm on the £25billion hike to employer National Insurance.

Economics

71 minutes ago Kelly Brook says she is ‘childless by choice’ and enjoys living without ‘burden’

Former glamour model said couple were ‘all the more happier’ for not having kids

Politics

1 hour ago India complete huge win over Australia after Travis Head merely delays the inevitable

Australia 104 and 238; India 150 and 487-6 dec in PerthIndia win series opener by 295 runs despite Head’s defiant 89It’s funny to watch a day of Test cricket in which nothing matters. Not that any day of cricket really matters, if we’re honest, but a day when the play doesn’t even make a difference within the match itself. India in Perth on Monday had up their sleeve 522 runs and two bowling days to take seven wickets on a pitch already showing erratic bounce. The wickets would fall and the match would end, whatever the configuration. Travis Head slapping 89 runs and Mitchell Marsh launching some sixes on his way to 47 was great fun, but didn’t change the calculus in the slightest.Usman Khawaja was the only player with the pedigree to bat a day and a half late in a game, but he fell imm...

Politics

2 hours ago B&Q owner Kingfisher warns of £31 million hit from National Insurance changes next year

Blow revealed as CBI boss says NI reforms will hit profits, investment and growth

Events

2 hours ago India beat Australia by 295 runs: first men’s Test, day four – as it happened

Travis Head’s defiant 89 delayed the inevitable in Perth, where India completed a crushing victory just after tea8th over: Australia 19-4 (Smith 4, Head 1) A maiden for Siraj, bowling to Head, who is playing just about everything to the leg side, hopping about a bit just to keep the ball out.7th over: Australia 19-4 (Smith 4, Head 1) A couple of singles from the Bumrah over, both batters nudging to the leg side, keeping out the threat. Continue reading...

Politics

3 hours ago ScottishPower backs lung cancer research centre with up to £4million funding for Cancer Research UK

ScottishPower backs lung cancer research centre with up to £4million funding for Cancer Research UK to help beat cancer – here Andrew Ward, CEO of Customer Business at ScottishPower, explains why the firm is helping fund future research.

Economics

4 hours ago Foreign firms taking billions of litres from UK aquifers to make bottled water

Coca-Cola extracts largest amount of freshwater of any drinks company in England, FoI request finds‘It’s not drought - it’s looting’: the Spanish villages where people are forced to buy back their own drinking waterForeign multinational companies are extracting billions of litres of water from British aquifers to sell as bottled water, the Guardian can reveal.Coca-Cola extracts the largest amount of freshwater of any drinks company in England, the data obtained through freedom of information legislation shows. It has a licence to extract 1.59bn litres of water a year from boreholes in Sidcup, Kent for its soft drinks. On top of that, it has the right to take 377m litres for its bottled water brands Glaceau Smartwater and Abbey Well from Morpeth in Northumberland. Continue reading...

Economics