4 h. ago Starmer fails to repeat commitment not to extend freeze on income tax

In the autumn budget, Rachel Reeves decided not to extend the freeze on the thresholds at which people start to pay different rates of income tax.

Events

4 h. ago DAN HODGES: The Labour minister whose disastrous Newsnight interview has made him the living embodiment of everything people hate about Keir Starmer's government

Torsten Bell and his colleagues can wave as many charts and statistics as they like. A storm is coming. The British people have had enough.

Politics

49 h. ago David Lammy says G7 considering further moves to pressure Russia into agreeing Ukraine ceasefire – UK politics live

‘We have more cards we can play,’ foreign secretary tells MPs as he says G7 foreign ministers found ‘common ground’ when meeting last weekThe Reform UK press conference is about to start. There is a live feed here.Nigel Farage is going to announce that 29 councillors have defected to his party, according to the Guido Fawkes website. Continue reading...

Events

52 h. ago 'Moral case' to slash Britain's benefits bill as Keir Starmer faces outcry from backbenchers

Diane Abbott, the Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP, says cutting money for disabled people ‘is not a Labour thing to do’

Politics

54 h. ago Keir Starmer faces outcry from backbenchers as Labour prepares to slash 'unsustainable' benefits bill

Diane Abbott, the Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP, says cutting money for disabled people ‘is not a Labour thing to do’

Politics

58 h. ago Keir Starmer faces backbench outcry as Labour prepares to slash 'unsustainable' benefits bill

Scale of backlash is reportedly forcing Labour to rethink plans to freeze the level of PIP rather than increase it in line with inflation

Politics

66 h. ago PM faces backbench discontent as Labour prepares to overhaul benefits system

Liz Kendall is expected to announce wide-ranging reforms to the benefits system on Tuesday.

Politics

66 h. ago Chancellor should raise taxes not cut spending to meet fiscal rules – think tank

Rachel Reeves faces a challenge to meet her fiscal rules amid faltering growth and higher borrowing costs.

Economics

3 d. ago ‘Nothing is off the table’ as Tories set to begin renewing policy offer

Kemi Badenoch has so far made only a few policy commitments, preferring to focus on principles and rebuilding trust.

Events

3 d. ago It is mission critical that Labour repairs the contract between citizen and state | Andrew Rawnsley

Proving that government can be a force for good is essential if Sir Keir Starmer is to see off the populist rightListening to Sir Keir Starmer’s recent lament that the “flabby” state is failing Britain was to experience deja vu all over again. More than a quarter of a century has passed since another Labour prime minister, one Tony Blair, vented his frustration with the public sector by complaining that trying to reform government had left him with “scars on my back”. In similar vein, David Cameron’s lot used to excuse their struggles to get stuff done by blaming resistance from the amorphous administrative “Blob”. Dominic Cummings told Boris Johnson that the solution was to pack Number 10 with “weirdos”, “misfits” and “wild cards” – a self-description if ever there was one – while purging the senior civil service. He was still working his way through his “shit list” of mandarins when he got the boot himself. You will not recall the Johnson administration as an able and stable outfi...

Events

3 d. ago Starmer should apologise to disabled people over cuts uncertainty, says SNP

Kirsty Blackman MP said any planned cuts to disability payments should be scrapped.

Politics

3 d. ago Disabled to get ‘right to try’ work without risk of losing benefits

The Government is expected to announce a series of reforms aimed at cutting the welfare bill in the coming days.

Events

4 d. ago DAN HODGES: Despairing Labour insiders are all telling me the same thing about Keir Starmer

Have Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves gone mad? Genuinely, do they have any understanding of the economic and political catastrophe that is about to befall them?

Politics

4 d. ago Voices: Keir Starmer has been on a journey: from Corbynism to being ‘more Tory than Tony Blair’

And yet Labour MPs and members are remarkably quiet – that will not last, predicts John Rentoul

Politics

5 d. ago Calls for inquiry after black children labelled 'subnormal' and 'made to wash white kids'

Labour MP Kim Johnson is calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to launch an inquiry for black children who were labelled 'educationally subnormal' and sent to schools for children with disabilities

Events

6 d. ago Watch: Keir Starmer sets out plan to save taxpayers £45 billion

Sir Keir Starmer set out Labour’s plan to save taxpayers £45 billion during a major speech today (13 March).

Economics

6 d. ago NHS England abolition shows ‘we have to take difficult decisions’, says Starmer – UK politics live

PM says he is ‘bringing management of the NHS back into democratic control by abolishing the arms length body NHS England’Starmer is now talking about regulatation, and giving examples of where he thinks it has gone too far.l give you an example. There’s a office conversion in Bingley, which, as you know, is in Yorkshire. That is an office conversion that will create 139 homes.But now the future of that is uncertain because the regulator was not properly consulted on the power of cricket balls. That’s 139 homes. Now just think of the people, the families, the individuals who want those homes to buy, those homes to make their life and now they’re held up. Why? You’ll decide whether this is a good reason because I’m going to quote this is the reason ‘because the ball strike assessment doesn’t appear to be undertaken by a specialist, qualified consultant’. So that’s what’s holding up these 139 homes.When we had those terrible riots what we saw then, in response, was dynamic. It was str...

Politics

6 d. ago Starmer has been ‘mugged by reality’ since general election, senior Tory claims

Shadow Commons leader Jesse Norman said Labour is becoming progressively more Conservative while it is in office.

Politics

6 d. ago Starmer announces NHS England will be abolished, with central government back running health service – UK politics live

PM says he is ‘bringing management of the NHS back into democratic control by abolishing the arms length body NHS England’Starmer is now talking about regulatation, and giving examples of where he thinks it has gone too far.l give you an example. There’s a office conversion in Bingley, which, as you know, is in Yorkshire. That is an office conversion that will create 139 homes.But now the future of that is uncertain because the regulator was not properly consulted on the power of cricket balls. That’s 139 homes. Now just think of the people, the families, the individuals who want those homes to buy, those homes to make their life and now they’re held up. Why? You’ll decide whether this is a good reason because I’m going to quote this is the reason ‘because the ball strike assessment doesn’t appear to be undertaken by a specialist, qualified consultant’. So that’s what’s holding up these 139 homes.When we had those terrible riots what we saw then, in response, was dynamic. It was str...

Politics

6 d. ago Watch live: Keir Starmer sets out plan to save taxpayers £45 billion

Watch live as Sir Keir Starmer sets out Labour’s plan to save taxpayers £45 billion during a major speech today (13 March).

Economics