In an interview Keir Starmer also rejected suggestions Labour broke its manifesto promise on tax.When this was put to him, he told Sky News:We kept to our manifesto in terms of what we’ve promised.But I accept the challenge that we’ve asked everybody to contribute.But he also defended the need to raise taxes.Explaining why, he told the BBC:I tell your viewers precisely why that is: to make sure that we can protect our NHS, which needs to be there for them and their families when they need it.

Everybody understands that.We want to make sure that we have got schools which are fit for the future so that every child can go as far as their talent will take them, and I absolutely wanted to bear down and reduce the cost of living, because for most of your viewers that will be the single most important thing.BREAKING: Sir Keir Starmer has insisted Labour "kept to our manifesto" promises despite raising taxes in the budget - as he asked "everybody to contribute".🔗 Read more https://t.co/RvJTYs2Xg6Rachel Reeves has positioned Labour to fight the next general election with tax increases and spending cuts that resemble a work of “fiscal fiction”, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said.

Richard Partington has the story,The charts from the IFS’s budget analysis are here,Rachel Reeves has summoned telecoms bosses to a meeting to demand more protection for consumers from mid-contract price hikes, PA Media reports,PA says:Reeves and technology secretary Liz Kendall said more must be done to ensure “hard-working consumers” do not face price rises they have not signed up to,They have told telecoms chief executives that “more needs to be done to protect consumers so that ordinary people feel empowered when engaging with the sector and confident they are getting a good deal”.

In a letter to bosses, the government has called on the sector to reinforce its commitment to treating customers fairly, including by confirming customers under contract will not face price rises beyond those that they signed up to,The ministers said they will shortly convene a roundtable with industry leaders to discuss further action to support customers, as well as areas where the Government can do more to drive investment in the UK’s digital infrastructure,The move follows increasing anger from customers and consumer groups over rising mobile and broadband tariffs,Last month Virgin Media O2 announced it would put up prices for 15,6 million of its mobile customers by £2.

50 a month from spring next year, having previously said the increase would be £1.80.Other operators including BT, TalkTalk and VodafoneThree have also announced above-inflation price rises for new customers or those who renew their contracts.They come after Ofcom changed its rules in January to ban inflation-linked mid-contract price rises for TV, broadband and mobile contracts.However, the regulator has continued to allow companies to put up prices if they expressed them as pounds and pence, considered clearer for customers than inflation-linked percentage terms.

Operators were also told they had to let customers know about increases in advance or give them 30 days to cancel contracts penalty free after any change,Downing Street has said it does not accept a claim from the Office for Budget Responsibility that its proposed digital ID scheme could cost almost £2bn,In its report yesterday, the OBR said:The implementation of digital ID cards is provisionally forecast to cost £1,8bn in total over the next three years, split across £0,5bn (day-to-day spending) and £1.

3bn (capital spending).Asked to confirm these figures, the PM’s spokesperson said:The number in the OBR forecast was an initial early estimate spread over a number of years.We don’t recognise it as an accurate cost of the programme, the scope of which is yet to be decided, let alone costed.Any costs in this spending review period will be met within existing settlements.The government will run a full consultation in due course.

Words can explain the budget quite well, but charts do it far better.Here are some of the most revealing from the Resolution Foundation’s budget analysis.1) The tax rises in the budget hit hardest towards the end of this parliament.2) No government has raised taxes so much in two budgets in a row since John Major was PM in the early 1990s.3) The nine-year freeze in the personal tax allowance has reversed 78% of the rise in the allowance that happened in the 2010s.

Raising the tax allowance was a key coalition policy, championed by George Osborne.Over time, freezing the allowance removes all the benefits (because of the impact of inflation).Rishi Sunak announced a four-year freeze, Jeremy Hunt extended it for two years, and Rachel Reeves has extended it for another three years.4) People on low incomes would have done better if Reeves had chosen to raise income tax by 1p in the pound, instead of freezing thresholds for three years.The Resolution Foundation says both measures would have raised about the same amount.

But the income tax rise would have been more progressive, particularly because of the sums raised from the highest paid.The thinktank says this shows “the manifesto tax pledge has cost working people”.(See 8.03pm.)5) Tax and benefit changes introduced since the election have been progressive.

Overall, the poorest households have gained, and wealthier households have lost out.The Treasury published its own distributional impact assessment yesterday which government changes look even more progressive – but that used a different methodology, including “benefits-in-kind from public services”.6) Children have gained most from the tax and benefit changes announced since the election.7) This parliament is set to be the second worst for improvements to real household disposable income since 1955.The worst was the 2019-2024 parliament.

Here is Rajeev Syal’s story on the fall in the net migration figures.(See 9.50am.)The Conservatives say the fall in net migration is largely down to visa restictions they introduced when they were in government.This is from Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary.

The fall in today’s figures is driven by the Conservative reforms we put in place on work visas, dependants, and students, but we need to go much further.And under a future a Conservative Government, only those who make a real contribution can stay permanently, and only British citizens will be eligible for benefits funded by British taxpayers.The IPPR, a left-leaning thinktank, has backed up this claim.This is from Marley Morris, the IPPR’s associate director for migration, trade and communities.After reaching exceptional highs following the introduction of the post-Brexit migration system, net migration has now plummeted to just over 200,000.

Much of this is driven by a sharp decline in student dependants and health and care visas under the previous government,New reforms by the current government are expected to lead to a further fall,The government will need to be careful to balance the need to manage migration with its other priorities on boosting economic growth, supporting housebuilding, and protecting public services,In response to the figures, Jonathan Portes, an economics professor and an immigration specialist, has posted this on Bluesky,Today’s migration stats illustrate the migration doom loop in action.

,,(from my presentation at the IMF last week)Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor,John Swinney has ruled out any increases to income tax rates in Scotland despite widespread concerns the chancellor’s tax tweaks in her budget could impact Scotland’s Treasury grant,Swinney was pressed by Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay during first minister’s questions at Holyrood today whether his administration would raise Scotland’s income tax rates after Rachel Reeves opted to freeze tax thresholds in the rest of the UK.

Although the Scottish National party government has raised tax rates before – despite manifesto pledges not to do so – Swinney seemed to take the wind out of Findlay’s sails by saying it would not do so this time.He said Scotland’s finance secretary, Shona Robison, had confirmed this morning that after studying the details of the UK budget, “the Scottish government will not increase income tax rates or introduce any new bands.” Scotland has had the power since 2017 to set its own income tax bands and thresholds (above the personal threshold which is set by the Treasury), and already has higher rates for the better off – a policy the Conservatives have repeatedly criticised.Scottish income tax funds 32% of devolved spending, adding £4bn to its spending power since 2017, helping ensure overall public spending in Scotland is 20% higher than the UK average.In Scotland, anyone earning above £35,000 pays more than in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

At £50,000 they pay £1,528 a year more and £3,332 more at £100,000,Under the complex fiscal framework agreement between the two governments, any increase in UK income tax rates means a pro rata cut in the Treasury grant to Scotland,This is to ensure Scotland does not benefit financially from Westminster’s policy on income tax,It seems Reeves’ decision to freeze thresholds for England and Northern Ireland (and by default for Wales, since it has so far always followed Treasury policy for its partly-devoved income tax rates) has not significantly impacted Swinney’s budget,Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said Wednesday’s budget would add £820m to Scotland’s devolved budget over the next four years, in addition to a “transformative” £9.

2bn uplift from the previous UK budget.Labour’s decision to scrap the two-child limit will also increase Swinney’s budget by £150m, by removing his need to fund a Scotland-only policy to scrap the limit from April next year.Swinney said thanks for abolishing the two child cap, but was dismissive about that £820m budget lift; Labour’s decision to raise national insurance would cost Scotland’s public sector an additional £400m in a single year, he said - dwarfing any Treasury grant gains.In an interview Keir Starmer also rejected suggestions Labour broke its manifesto promise on tax.When this was put to him, he told Sky News:We kept to our manifesto in terms of what we’ve promised.

But I accept the challenge that we’ve asked everybody to contribute.But he also defended the need to raise taxes.Explaining why, he told the BBC:I tell your viewers precisely why that is: to make sure that we can protect our NHS, which needs to be there for them and their families when they need it.Everybody understands that.We want to make sure that we have got schools which are fit for the future so that every child can go as far as their talent will take them, and I absolutely wanted to bear down and reduce the cost of living, because for most of your viewers that will be the single most important thing.

BREAKING: Sir Keir Starmer has insisted Labour "kept to our manifesto" promises despite raising taxes in the budget - as he asked "everybody to contribute".🔗 Read more https://t.co/RvJTYs2Xg6In his interviews today Keir Starmer also rejected suggestions that he was only getting rid of the two-child benefit cap to boost his support with the parliamentary Labour party.When he was asked by Sky’s Beth Rigby if this was the reason for the move, Starmer replied:It’s impossible to argue that this is a position that has been adopted just in the last few weeks.It is my long-standing ambition.

I’m proud to be the prime minister who has done more on child poverty than any prime minister ever.BBC’s Chris Mason put it to him that polling suggests keeping the two-child benefit cap would be more popular than getting rid of it.Asked if those in favour of keeping the cap were wrong, Starmer replied:I think it’s really important that we don’t make children pay the price.I don’t think that, anybody wants to see children growing up in poverty.He also said three quarters of families affected by the two-child benefit cap are working.

“This is the working poor in modern Britain,” he said.“I want to end that.”Keir Starmer has been defending the budget in interviews with broadcasters while on a visit to a community centre in Rugby.And he has rejected suggestions that the budget showed Labour has lost interest in promoting growth.In its response to the budget yesterday, the CBI said: “The government’s growth mission is currently stalled.

” Today the Institute for Fiscal Studies has made a similar point.(See 11.04am.)But when the BBC’s political editor, Chris Mason, put it to Starmer that the budget would not help growth, Starmer replied:I’m sorry, growth was predicted at 2025 at 1%.The figures came in yesterday, it is 1.

5%.When it was put to Starmer that 1.5% growth was still not much, he replied:It is 50% more than was forecast.That is significantly more.He claimed the government was doing a lot to boost investment