‘Unelected power’ of ultra-rich is reshaping British politics, report claims

Structural corruption and the rise of “conduits for unelected power” are reshaping British politics, according to a stark report from the Equality Trust.Unelected influence has increased over the past two decades, the report claims, driven by the growing political clout of the ultra-rich and the institutions that enable it.Priya Sahni-Nicholas, the co-executive director of the trust, said: “Our new Concentration of Power Index shows that wealth concentration aligns with power. Our index rises almost exactly in step with increases in the top 1% share of wealth. This correlation is strong and statistically significant

Keir Starmer says Labour ‘kept to our manifesto’ over budget tax rises

Keir Starmer has conceded that the budget “asked everybody to contribute” but argued that it had “done it in a fair way” as he sought to rebuff claims that Labour had broken its tax promises.The prime minister said the Labour government had “kept to our manifesto” despite raising taxes by £26bn, including by freezing income tax and national insurance thresholds for an extra three years.Labour had promised during the election campaign not to raise taxes on working people. Asked whether he would apologise for breaking that promise, Starmer said: “I accept the challenge that we’ve asked everybody to contribute. I want to be really clear on why we’ve done that,” he told Sky News

Is Farage right to claim that racism allegations are response to a dislike of his politics?

Nigel Farage has again denied allegations of racism as a schoolboy and repeated his claim that some had been concocted because people disliked his politics.During a press conference, he snapped at one reporter who asked about the issue, saying: “I think we’ve gone quite a long way towards answering all this, don’t you?”Farage, who prides himself on answering numerous questions at press conferences, took 10 this time, but did not include any from the Guardian.So what did he say – and is it true?The claim: Farage said the director Peter Ettedgui is the “one person that said I directly abused him”.He added: “One person says they were hurt, and if they feel they were hurt, then I’m genuinely sorry. But I never, ever, ever would have said or done anything like that directly to a human being

OBR’s leak was the only leak Reeves wasn’t responsible for in pre-budget shambles

Just maybe Rachel Reeves had a cunning plan all along. Most budgets have a tendency to be moderately well received on the day, only to fall apart when the economist wonks have had a chance to go through the small print 24 hours later. Rachel has tried a rather different approach. The budget of dialectics. Her mission has been to get her budget to fall apart in the weeks and months before she delivered it

Starmer calls on Farage to apologise to his alleged victims of racial abuse at school

Keir Starmer has called on Nigel Farage to apologise to his school contemporaries who claim the Reform leader racially abused them while at Dulwich College.The Guardian reported last week the testimony of Peter Ettedgui, who said a 13-year-old Farage “would sidle up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers”.At prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Starmer said: “[Farage’s] explanation in recent days in relation to the stories about what he may have said in the past is unconvincing to say the least.“He says he never engaged with racism with intent. ‘With intent’

Racism claims against Nigel Farage are no surprise to us | Letters

I was at a private boys’ school similar to Dulwich College, at the same time as Nigel Farage. I was also in the combined cadet force. The sorts of racist behaviour described in your article were normal (‘Deeply shocking’: Nigel Farage faces fresh claims of racism and antisemitism at school, 18 November).As the child of a refugee from the Nazis, I chose not only to ignore but even to join in with some of the antisemitism, much to my shame these days. It is striking that, with the exception of Chloe Deakin, teachers at the time seem to have viewed Farage’s behaviour as more like “high spirits” or “naughtiness”