Rachel Reeves denies lying to public in run-up to budget
Rachel Reeves has denied lying to the public in the buildup to last week’s budget, insisting that she needed to raise taxes to a record level to ensure economic stability.The chancellor said on Sunday she had announced £26bn-worth of tax rises on Wednesday in part to build a buffer against her fiscal rules and reduce the risk of further tax increases in the future, and in part to protect public spending.Her messaging contrasted, however, with what she said before the budget, when she said tax rises would be necessary because of an expected decision by economic forecasters to reduce their growth expectations.In the end, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) did downgrade its expectations for economic productivity, but said unexpectedly strong wage growth and tax receipts would more than make up for that.The OBR’s comments have kickstarted a political firestorm, which has led opposition politicians to demand Reeves’s resignation.
Keir Starmer is expected to defend the chancellor in a speech on Monday, during which he will also announce new measures to boost economic growth,On Sunday, Reeves told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “I wanted to build up the fiscal, economic resilience,The headroom that I had in the spring statement of £9,9bn, I’ve taken that up to £21,7bn.
”She added: “I know that some people are suggesting that there was a small surplus that the OBR published on Friday.But if I was on this programme today and I was saying £4bn surplus is fine, there was no economic repair job to be done, I think you would rightly be saying that’s not good enough.“That would have been the lowest surplus that any chancellor ever delivered against the fiscal rules.I was clear I wanted to build up that resilience, and that is why I took those decisions.”She added that she was confident in her position as chancellor despite calls from the Conservatives and Reform UK for her to resign.
“I was an MP in opposition for 14 and a half years.I have been underestimated all the way through my life.As a young girl from an ordinary background, people make assumptions about me.I’ve defied them before, and I will defy my critics again.”Starmer and Reeves have spent the past few days defending the decisions they made in the budget, which included freezing income tax thresholds to help pay for more headroom and about £8bn more welfare spending than previously planned.
Much of the criticism directed at Reeves has centred on comments she and her aides made in the buildup to the budget as she contemplated breaking a manifesto commitment and raising income tax rates.In a speech earlier this month, she said: “It is already clear that the productivity performance that we inherited from the last government is weaker than previously thought.“A less productive economy is one that produces less output per hour worked.That has consequences for working people – for their jobs and for their wages, and it has consequences for the public finances too, in lower tax receipts.”Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said on Sunday she thought the chancellor should resign.
“The chancellor called an emergency press conference, telling everyone about how terrible the state of the finances were, and now we have seen that the OBR had told her the complete opposite,” Badenoch told the BBC.“Because of that, I believe she should resign.”Badenoch defended the tone of some of her criticisms, including her personal mockery of the chancellor in the House of Commons.She accused Reeves in her official budget response of “wallowing in self-pity and whining about misogyny and mansplaining” – comments that Reeves said on Sunday made her “uncomfortable” because of their personal nature.Badenoch insisted, however, she was right to criticise the chancellor in the tone she did, saying: “My job is to hold the government to account, not to provide emotional support for the chancellor.
”Downing Street defended Reeves over the weekend.A No 10 source told reporters: “The idea that there was any misleading going on about the need to raise significant revenue as a result of the OBR figures, including the productivity downgrade they contained, is categorically untrue.”Starmer will repeat those sentiments on Monday morning in a speech from Downing Street in which he is expected to praise the budget for reducing the cost of living and inflation.He will also announce a fresh push to cut business regulation in a renewed effort to boost economic growth, including reforming the rules on building nuclear power plants.The prime minister is also expected to announce that the business secretary, Peter Kyle, has been asked to look again at the processes surrounding large infrastructure projects in general.
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In April, the supreme court ruled in a long-running case against the Scottish government brought by gender critical campaigners For Women Scotland (FWS). The landmark judgment said that, for the purposes of the Equality Act, the legal definition of a woman was based on biological sex. We look at what has happened since the ruling.The judgment has significant ramifications for who can now access women-only services and spaces, such as refuges or toilets, but most public bodies, businesses and other service providers are still waiting for an updated code of practice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which will offer practical guidance on how to apply the ruling.A few companies, such as Barclays, moved quickly to bar transgender people from using toilets of their lived gender, as did Virgin Active, after a legal threat this summer
Rage rooms: can smashing stuff up really help to relieve anger and stress?
If you find it hard to count to 10 when anger bubbles up, a new trend offers a more hands-on approach. Rage rooms are cropping up across the UK, allowing punters to smash seven bells out of old TVs, plates and furniture.Such pay-to-destroy ventures are thought to have originated in Japan in 2008, but have since gone global. In the UK alone venues can be found in locations from Birmingham to Brighton, with many promoting destruction as a stress-relieving experience.According to Smash It Rage Rooms in south-east London, where a 30-minute solo session costs £50, “each smash is a cathartic release, a burst of pure, primal joy”
Cuts to insulation scheme will leave homes cold over winter, experts say
Cuts to a scheme for insulation and heatpumps for low-income households will leave homes damp, draughty and unsafe over winter, experts have said.Housing have asked for a one-year extension to the scheme to ensure continuity and prevent small retrofit firms going bust. Companies say funding for solar panels and insulation is already being withdrawn, leaving homes cold and draughty as winter sets in.Rachel Reeves announced in her budget that she would cut £150 a year from the average energy bill, partly financed by axing the £1.3bn energy company obligation (ECO) scheme that helped fund upgrades for homes owned or rented by households earning under £31,000
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Streets named after Andrew, formerly known as Prince but now plain Mountbatten-Windsor, can be found from Broadstairs to Belfast to Birmingham. Roads, avenues, terraces, lanes, crescents, closes, drives and ways are all afflicted – to the dismay of some residents.In Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, Prince Andrew Way, celebrating Mountbatten-Windsor’s 1986 marriage to Sarah Ferguson, will be purged after Mid and East Antrim council passed a motion, described by one councillor as “sad but necessary”, to rename. A public consultation is under way.In Maidenhead, Berkshire, there is a double whammy of Prince Andrew Road adjoining Prince Andrew Close, where some residents have complained of “surface-level embarrassment” , “smirks” and “raised eyebrows” whenever they give their address
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For Bethany Clarke, poison tasted like nothing. There was no bitter aftertaste, no astringent sting at the back of the tongue. If anything, she thought in passing, the free shots she and her friends were drinking at a hostel bar in Laos had probably been watered down – she wasn’t detecting a strong vodka flavour through the veil of Sprite she had mixed it with.All in all, Clarke remembers drinking about five of those shots, sitting with her best friend, Simone White, and a crowd of others at the hostel’s happy hour. CCTV footage shows the group laughing in the warm air of the open bar in the town of Vang Vieng, green and red lights dancing over their shoulders
Londoners told to be vigilant with messages after cyber-attack on council
A London council has urged thousands of residents to be “extra vigilant” when receiving calls, emails or text messages after confirming that data had been taken in a cyber-attack.The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), which has 147,500 residents, said some data had been copied from its systems in an attack this week.The council said it believed the theft related to “historical data” but it was checking whether it contained any personal or financial details of residents, customers or service users.“With advice from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), we are encouraging all residents, customers and service users to be extra vigilant when called, emailed or sent text messages,” the council said.Three London councils have been affected by cyber-attacks this week, with RBKC and Westminster city council saying a number of systems had been affected across both authorities, including phone lines
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