14 h. ago Reeves facing spending review revolt by red wall MPs under threat from Farage

Chancellor is also in a standoff with cabinet ministers, including deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, over the details of her upcoming spending review

Events

32 h. ago Nigel Farage vows to reverse Keir Starmer's cut to winter fuel payments as part of £85bn package

The Reform UK leader unveiled a string of policies in a major speech, including scrapping the two-child benefit cap and fully reinstating winter fuel payments.

Economics

38 h. ago The Guardian view on Farage’s cynical pitch: Labour must be bolder to see off the threat | Editorial

The Reform UK leader spies a route to power through appealing to blue collar voters. His speech is another wake-up call for Sir Keir Starmer’s governmentLast July, concluding his election victory speech after winning in Clacton, Nigel Farage announced that after inflicting grievous damage on the Conservative party that night, Reform UK would now “be coming for Labour”. Since then, on issues such as the nationalisation of Britain’s beleaguered steel industry, Mr Farage has carefully positioned his party as sympathetic to working-class concerns and fears. His heavily-trailed speech on Tuesday, in Westminster, was the most direct attempt yet to present himself as a new spokesperson for Labour’s traditional blue-collar voters.The most talented and cynical political opportunist of his generation, Mr Farage knows where the openings lie. Labour has tied itself in unedifying knots over its deeply unpopular cuts to the winter fuel allowance, and agonised over reversing the Tories’ ...

Events

50 h. ago Labour is taking the Pip – and disabled people have had enough | Cherylee Houston

I am in tears reading the stories of what might happen if these further cuts go ahead, which is why I’ve joined forces with others to demand actionDisabled celebrities urge Keir Starmer to scrap ‘inhumane’ benefit cutsWhy have so many deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent public figures pulled together to launch the campaign #TakingThePIP?Every area of life as a disabled person is difficult – employment, social situations, healthcare, education, transport and by far the most pervasive and arduous: other people’s attitudes. Everything is a fight, but this feels like a fight too far. If Labour goes ahead with its proposed benefits cuts to tighten the eligibility criteria for personal independence payment (Pip) and reduce or lose the health element of universal credit, many people in my community don’t know how they will survive. Make no bones about it: this could be a matter of life and death for some people. Continue reading...

Politics

2 d. ago Labour pressure to ease welfare squeeze adds to Reeves’ headaches

The Chancellor faces demands to reverse the winter fuel payment cut, axe the two-child benefit limit and limit the scope of welfare reforms.

Events

3 d. ago New update on Winter Fuel Payment reversal could be due next month

An update on Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to issue the payment to ‘more pensioners’ could be given on June 11.

Politics

3 d. ago Winter fuel reversal details could come in weeks, suggests Rayner

The Deputy Prime Minister indicated an announcement could be made in the Spending Review on June 11.

Politics

7 d. ago Reeves reeling from triple blow: On humiliating day for Chancellor, PM U

The Chancellor was out of the country at a G7 meeting in Canada as the Prime Minister announced a screeching reverse on her hated decision to axe the winter fuel payment for 10 million pensioners.

Politics

7 d. ago Winter fuel allowance: Sir Keir Starmer wants more pensioners to be eligible in payment axe U

A reversal of the UK Labour government’s position on winter fuel payment cuts has been foreshadowed by Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Economics

8 d. ago Ministers in talks over possibility of ‘reversing winter fuel payment cuts’

The government has faced mounting calls to reverse the winter fuel cuts

Politics

8 d. ago Chancellor sidesteps calls to reverse cuts to winter fuel allowance and benefits

Ministers are reportedly considering making changes in a bid to placate Labour rebels.

Politics

9 d. ago Starmer and his allies spent so long attacking Labour’s left, they forgot how to govern | Owen Jones

Rehashing 20-year-old Blairite ideas that were stale then will inspire nobody. Britain is crying out for bold, transformative policy-makingJust why has Keir Starmer’s government proved such a catastrophe? This is a question that must be posed to his cheerleaders, or at least those who were at one time cheerleaders: the road from the last general election is lined with silently discarded pompoms. The idea here is not to rub their faces in a political project that is now both electorally toxic and morally bankrupt, but to determine what happens next.First off, the failure should be considered absolute. It is projected that a Labour government will drive more than a million Britons into – or more deeply into – poverty through an assault on disability benefits. The same government imposed hardship on many pensioners by stripping away the winter fuel payment, and it refuses to reverse the Tories’ two-child benefit cap, the UK’s biggest single generator of child poverty. Not content with ...

Events

3 w. ago DAN HODGES: Tripling down on rape gangs and inviting even more Indians over to take our jobs. The British people are sick of Keir Starmer

So now we know. Keir Starmer's response to the drubbing he and his party received in Thursday's local elections will not be a reverse on winter fuel. Or a clear response to spiralling immigration.

Events

3 w. ago Red Wall MPs demand Starmer ‘acts now’ to reverse winter fuel cuts as backlash grows

The prime minister’s official spokesperson ruled out a U-turn on cuts to the winter fuel allowance despite disastrous local election results for Labour

Politics

3 w. ago Poll of the day: Should Labour reverse the cuts to winter fuel payments?

Have your say: Labour’s cuts to winter fuel payments, blamed for heavy local election losses, have sparked a fierce debate over whether the policy should be reversed to win back voter trust

Politics