6 h. ago As Rachel Reeves prepares to splurge billions on NHS and tech... will she stick to her promise NOT to raise taxes?

Rachel Reeves was last night urged to keep her promise not to hike taxes again amid fears more raids are on the way.

Economics

7 h. ago Rachel Reeves in standoff over policing and council budgets days before spending review

Chancellor still at negotiating table on Sunday as Home Office demands more cash Rachel Reeves has been locked in a standoff over the policing and council budgets just days before this week’s spending review, which is set to give billions to the NHS, defence and technology.Yvette Cooper’s Home Office and Angela Rayner’s housing and local government ministry were the two departments still at the negotiating table on Sunday fighting for more cash, after weeks of trying to reach a settlement. Continue reading...

Economics

8 h. ago Rachel Reeves strikes 11th hour deal with Angela Rayner to break cabinet civil war deadlock

Exclusive: The Treasury agreed a late deal with Angela Rayner’s Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government on Sunday evening, just days before Rachel Reeves publishes the spending review

Events

9 h. ago Rachel Reeves must do more than hope for the best when it comes to paying for Labour’s spending

Editorial: The chancellor has to balance the competing demands of ministers in her spending review but must make sure she keeps Britain’s finances on a secure footing

Economics

11 h. ago The Guardian view on child poverty: free school meals are a help, but not a panacea | Editorial

Giving lunch to more pupils is a good move – but poor nutrition points to deeper problems that ministers must faceIt was Ellen Wilkinson, education minister in the Attlee government, who announced in 1946 that free school dinners would be introduced, along with free school milk, at the same time as child benefit. No doubt Rachel Reeves, who has a picture of Wilkinson on the wall of her office, is aware of this – and also that the Treasury subsequently decided the policy was unaffordable. The meals were subsidised instead.Despite these initial charges, and later price rises, poorer children did gain, and keep, an entitlement to free school meals. The announcement last week that this is being extended in England to all those whose parents or carers claim universal credit – rather than restricted to families with incomes lower than £7,400 – should be welcomed by all objectors to child poverty. Being assured of a hot lunch in the middle of the school day makes pupils’ lives be...

Politics

11 h. ago Nicola Jennings on Rachel Reeves’s spending review – cartoon

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Politics

12 h. ago Rachel Reeves in crisis as cabinet civil war blocks spending review plans

The Treasury is scrambling to reach an eleventh-hour deal with Yvette Cooper and Angela Rayner as they push back against budget cuts

Events

13 h. ago Police told to stop asking for more cash to fight crime and 'do their bit' to repair the economy by Labour minister ahead of Spending Review

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle declined to rule out the prospect of a real-terms squeeze on areas such as policing this week.

Politics

13 h. ago Police 'must do their bit' warning as Rachel Reeves set to unveil spending cuts

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said 'every part of our society is struggling' as he faced questions about police funding ahead of Rachel Reeves' spending review on Wednesday

Events

16 h. ago Minister refuses to rule out cuts to police and housing budgets in spending review

As the Treasury continues to lock horns with Angela Rayner and Yvette Cooper over housing and police force budgets, Cabinet minister Peter Kyle sends a strong signal of the government’s intent

Politics

17 h. ago Spending review: Schools to get more funding but police warned to ‘do their bit’

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said the Government will commit to the biggest-ever spend per pupil next week.

Events

19 h. ago Rachel Reeves is like Steve Jobs and will rescue the UK economy in the same way that he saved Apple, insists minister ahead of Spending Review

Peter Kyle likened the Chancellor's stewardship of the public finances to the late Mr Jobs' role at Apple when the company was on the brink of insolvency in the late 1990s.

Politics

28 h. ago Labour at war over spending plans as Number 10 tries to stem threat from Farage

Keir Starmer is fighting to quell tensions over how to deal with the threat from Nigel Farage , as bitter Whitehall negotiations over the Government's Spending Review go down to the wire.

Events

28 h. ago Rachel Reeves to splash billions of pounds on NHS and schools

Chancellor Rachel Reeves admitted that some vital public services will lose out on funding in next week's Spending Review - 'I'm not able to say yes to everything'

Politics

28 h. ago Rachel Reeves to announce £86bn for science and technology in spending review

Regions will be handed up to £500 million with local leaders given powers to decide how investment is targeted in their communities.

Economics

34 h. ago Unions pile pressure on Reeves to avoid cuts and impose wealth taxes

Exclusive: The TUC has ratcheted up pressure on the government to introduce wealth taxes amid a growing expectation that the chancellor will unveil a swathe of spending cuts next week

Economics

35 h. ago 'Rachel Reeves looks exhausted. She can't deliver': Labour ministers drip poison to DAN HODGES on why the Chancellor is doomed... and tell the woeful reason she thinks it's all gone wrong

It was the expression that spoke for a nation. As Rachel Reeves delivered her speech on new transport investment, workers at the Mellor Bus factory appeared less than impressed.

Politics

36 h. ago NHS to get up to £30bn as other services squeezed in spending review

NHS leaders warn expected settlement will not be enough to enable recovery and reform

Economics

36 h. ago Voices: Rachel Reeves is undermined by a ‘spend now, pay later’ prime minister

John Rentoul says Keir Starmer is guilty of Trussonomics, albeit on a smaller scale, making promises without knowing how to pay for them – hoping that the chancellor can sort it out later

Politics

37 h. ago Pensions report cuts Reeves’ planned growth funds from £160bn to £11bn

Chancellor had anticipated surpluses from final salary schemes would boost investment in UK economyPlans to invest £160bn of surplus funds from final salary pension schemes to boost the UK economy over the next 10 years have been dealt a blow by a Whitehall assessment that found there was likely to be little more than £11bn available to spend.In a knock to Rachel Reeves’s growth agenda, a report by civil servants at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) found that the expected surpluses in occupational schemes would be used by businesses to offload their pension liabilities to insurance companies. Continue reading...

Economics