Starmer’s ministers look at new economic blueprint to quell voter anger
Cabinet ministers have been studying a blueprint for Labour to radically overhaul its economic offer and messaging, including devolving tax powers, abolishing national insurance, and major property tax changes.Passed around dozens of MPs, the paper argues that without a major rethink, the failure to tackle the discontent on the cost of living will hand the next election to a hard-right government.There is also increasing concern that the war with Iran – pushing up prices of fuel, energy, food and mortgages – will fuel further mass public anger.The report, which has the draft title of the Beveridge Report for the Economy, will say the British economy rewards grifters and exploitation rather than hard work, and that voter anger is fuelled by the belief that hard work and “doing the right thing” leaves many feeling cheated.Several potential Labour leadership candidates are understood to have requested to see the report, which was prepared as part of a partnership between the Labour Growth Group of MPs once considered loyal to Keir Starmer and the Good Growth Foundation thinktank.
Many MPs said they had been frustrated with the communications strategy to brand both Reform UK and the Greens as extremists or simply impractical.“The problem with the answers coming from the populists isn’t that they’re ‘not sensible’, it’s that they’re not radical enough,” one Labour source said.“Price controls and handouts actually accept the premise that things can’t be fundamentally changed.The truly radical thing is taking on why the system is broken in the first place.Why can’t we build homes? Why is energy so expensive? Why do many workers pay a higher marginal tax rate than a landlord?“Voters aren’t turning to Reform and the Greens because they’re becoming ‘extreme’.
They’re, fairly, concluding that the mainstream offer is managed decline and they’d rather roll the dice,The answer is to put forward something genuinely bolder that really changes things for them,”It is understood that advisers to Wes Streeting, Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham have read and engaged with the work over recent months, with some feeding back their own ideas to its authors,Several serving cabinet ministers have also read the paper, with some requesting copies, as well as ministers in the Treasury, Department for Education, Cabinet Office and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government,The paper is expected to be formally launched after the May elections at a time when Starmer may be facing a leadership challenge.
It will say that Labour must redesign the tax system to explicitly confront those who make money from taking advantage of people or creating scarcity in the economy – and instead reward both hard work and taking initiative.“People in my constituency work hard, play by the rules, but increasingly feel like the system isn’t on their side,” said the Rossendale and Darwen MP, Andy MacNae.“This is one of the most creative and serious attempts I’ve seen to actually remake that system, so work and initiative pay again while taking on the vested interests profiting from the status quo.”The work on the paper has been led by the Growth Group’s director, the strategist Mark McVitie, but draws heavily on contributions from Labour MPs such as the group’s parliamentary chair, Chris Curtis.Several Treasury ministers were previously senior figures in the group, including Dan Tomlinson and Lucy Rigby.
The paper will say there should be a vastly expanded fiscal devolution for mayors, including business rates and borrowing powers, and that the centre should not be administering or micromanaging local projects but be focused on the biggest structural and geopolitical challenges.It will also propose an overhaul of the tax system – abolishing employee national insurance, reforming council tax and moving towards a land value tax, and a greater taxation of areas of the economy that profit from scarcity rather than value creation.But it will argue there should be significant tax breaks for founders and entrepreneurs, which could encourage new companies to grow rather than sell up to bigger ones.The paper will also suggest significant reforms to the machinery of government, including abolishing the Cabinet Office and creating a larger department for the prime minister, as well as a larger number of appointees of external experts to set direction in departments.The Growth Group’s members have been more closely associated with Streeting’s wing of the party, though many are also close to Burnham.
Several MPs who spoke to the Guardian also said they were struck by the similarity of what the report was arguing with Rayner’s speech on Monday night at a reception for Mainstream, another internal Labour group vying for influence,Rayner warned Starmer that he “cannot go through the motions in the face of decline … The change that people wanted so desperately needs to be seen, it needs to be felt,And we have to show that it is a Labour government that will deliver it,”
Markets slide on report US to send more troops to Middle East, as UK borrowing costs hit highest since 2008 – business live
Shares in London are suffering an end-of-week sell-off, following a report that the US is to send more troops to the Middle East.The blue-chip FTSE 100 share index is now down 90 points, or 0.9%, at 9970 points, back below the 10,000-point mark. That’s its lowest level since 5 January, as the Iran war wipes out almost all of its gains during 2026.Energy company BP (-3
UK borrowing costs hit highest since 2008 as markets expect up to three interest rate rises
UK government borrowing costs reached their highest level since 2008 on Friday, while financial markets now expect as many as three interest rate rises this year as investors digest the impact of the Iran conflict.The yield, or interest rate, on 10-year borrowing was pushed to heights not witnessed since the global financial crisis, as investors dumped UK government bonds.The market move followed the Bank of England’s decision on Thursday to leave interest rates on hold at 3.75% and hint at a future increase. By Friday, markets were pricing in as many as three interest rate rises in 2026
First came the AI ‘teammates’, then the layoffs: the new reality for Atlassian staff now looking for work
Sacked from his “dream job” at software giant Atlassian, Rubio* wants just one thing – closure.“We were probably exceeding expectations and there’s no explanation from the company as a whole as to why any of this happened,” he says.“The only desire that I have, outside of receiving my severance package, is closure as to why I was selected.”On Thursday morning last week, Atlassian laid off 1,600 workers – about 10% of its total workforce. Nearly 500 Australian staff were among them
Fire experts ‘kept awake’ over growing hazard of lithium-ion batteries
Lithium-ion batteries represent a new technological hazard that one fire science expert has said keeps him awake at night, as fire service chiefs warn the ubiquity of the batteries in everyday products is outpacing public understanding and safety regulations.The blaze that devastated a historic building in Glasgow and resulted in the closure of Central Station, Scotland’s largest rail interchange, is believed to have started in a shop selling vapes, which are powered by lithium-ion batteries. Glasgow’s Central Station has since reopened.The latest data reveals a sharp increase in battery-related fires across Scotland, while firefighters in London attend an e-bike or e-scooter fire every other day.Paul Christensen, a professor of pure and applied electrochemistry at the University of Newcastle, underlined that, while the probability of a fire from a lithium-ion battery is very low, the hazard is “very, very high, as we’ve seen with this fire in Glasgow”
Calandagan to race in Dubai’s Sheema Classic despite conflict in the Gulf
Calandagan, the world’s top-rated Flat horse in 2025, will fly to Dubai from Paris on Saturday to run in the Sheema Classic at Meydan next weekend, despite the continuing conflict in the Gulf region.The gelding’s owner, Aga Khan Studs, consulted staff already in Dubai before deciding to give the green light to Francis-Henri Graffard’s five-year-old, the winner of four Group One events last season including the Japan Cup in November.“We’ve been very happy with Calandagan,” Nemone Routh, the owner’s racing manager, said on Friday. “If we didn’t run in Dubai then we’d have been looking at races in the summer. He’s in great form and we already have a filly out there with staff
Hodgkinson shrugs off kit mishap to cruise into world indoor 800m semi-finals
No opponent has come close to knocking Keely Hodgkinson off her stride in 2026. But after breezing into the semi-finals of the world indoor championships, she revealed that her preparations had been interrupted by an airline, KLM, losing her kit for 48 hours on the flight to Poland.It led to the overwhelming favourite for 800m gold having to train in whatever she could beg or borrow – and getting a blister as a result. Not that it seemed to bother her as she cruised into Saturday’s semi-finals with a dominant victory in 2min 0.32sec
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