Sick pay changes could benefit UK firms by up to £2bn, TUC says

Changes to sick pay to cover part of workers’ salaries from the first day off could end up benefiting British businesses by as much as £2bn, according to analysis commissioned by the UK’s main union body.The Trades Union Congress (TUC), which is pushing for the government to stick with its plans for workers’ rights, said modelling showed businesses would gain benefits of £2.4bn thanks to productivity boosts, while facing direct costs of £425m to pay for extra sick days.Sick employees in the UK are currently entitled to statutory sick pay only from their fourth day of illness, including weekends and days on which people do not usually work. The government’s employment rights bill, which is being debated in the House of Lords, proposes to abolish the wait, putting the UK in line with countries such as Germany and Sweden

HMRC criticised by watchdog for failing to track billionaires’ tax

HM Revenue and Customs has been sharply criticised by parliament’s spending watchdog for being unable to track how many billionaires pay tax in the UK.In a highly critical report on the collection of tax from wealthy individuals, the influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said HMRC could not say how much the super-rich either contributed to the exchequer or avoided.Highlighting “significant opportunities to collect more revenue”, it warned that the lack of clarity risked damaging public confidence and called on the tax authority to take immediate action.It comes as Keir Starmer’s government faces growing demands to increase taxes on wealth after Labour’s welfare U-turn earlier this month raised fresh questions over the health of the public finances.Ministers have warned of “financial consequences” after the backtracking on disability benefits and winter fuel payments for pensioners, which will cost more than £6bn

‘I was raped. And my dreams were shattered’ – Gina Miller on abuse, cancer and the toxic race for Cambridge chancellor

She is the activist who fought against Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal. Now she’s vying to be the university’s first female chancellor – all while going through chemotherapy. She talks about the attack that destroyed her own student yearsMy first question for Gina Miller is the same one I put to all interviewees – what did you have for breakfast? Since she’s not a chef or a famous foodie, but the businesswoman and activist who fought Boris Johnson over his Brexit plans, and is now standing for chancellor of the University of Cambridge, this is more a journalistic ritual designed to test whether the recording device is working. But her response is startling.“I rarely have time for breakfast,” says Miller, who turned 60 this year

John Healey and MPs bask in nauseating non-mea culpas over secret Afghan relocation scheme | John Crace

I suppose we might have guessed something like this. In August 2021, the then foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, had moaned about the “sea being closed” while on holiday in Crete. The fate of thousands of Afghans who had helped the UK and whose lives were in danger as the Taliban homed in on Kabul came a distant second. For Psycho Dom, it was a simple matter of priorities.So no wonder a government official and/or a soldier had been less than diligent with the names of Afghans at risk

Reeves says rules and red tape are ‘boot on the neck’ of business

Rachel Reeves has claimed that rules and red tape are acting as a “boot on the neck” of businesses and risk “choking off” innovation across the UK without bold reforms.In a speech to City bosses attending the Mansion House dinner in London on Tuesday evening, the chancellor heaped further pressure on regulators to allow for more risk in order to boost economic growth.“It is clear that we must do more,” Reeves said. “In too many areas, regulation still acts as a boot on the neck of businesses, choking off the enterprise and innovation that is the lifeblood of growth.“Regulators in other sectors must take up the call I make this evening, not to bend to the temptation of excessive caution, but to boldly regulate for growth in the service of prosperity across our country

Thousands offered UK asylum in secret scheme after personal data of Afghans who helped British forces leaked by mistake – as it happened

Healey says the leak happened when an official sent an email which he thought had the names of 150 people who were applying for resettlement under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap).But in fact the email contained the names of almost 19,000 Afghans who had applied for either the Arap scheme or the ex-gratia scheme, another programme open to Afghans who worked for the British in Afghanistan before the military drawdown.Journalists became aware of the leak, and a court granted a superinjunction preventing reporting of this.He says eight organisations and journalists have been told not to report what happened under this superinjunction, which has been in place for nearly two years.He says a scheme was set up to relocate Afghans particularly at risk