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Chancellor to lay out plans a week after Labour slashed welfare bill by £5bn
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Rachel Reeves is set to announce the biggest spending cuts since austerity in her spring statement, according to reports.
Certain departments could face reductions of up to seven per cent over the next four years as the chancellor looks to slash Whitehall budgets by billions of pounds more than previously thought, the Guardian reported.
Having reportedly ruled out tax rises, Ms Reeves is set to tell MPs her plans next Wednesday, with experts warning fresh cuts would hit vital public services, a week after her party slashed the welfare bill by around £5 billion.
Sir Keir Starmer and Diane Abbott clashed at PMQs, after the veteran Labour MP warned there was “nothing moral” about the move to axe around one million people’s disability benefits.
Sir Keir insisted that it is a “moral issue” that one-in-eight young people are not in employment, education or training.
The Conservatives are not going to have a “straightforward” or “easy” local elections in May, the party’s shadow communities secretary has admitted.
Speaking at the launch of the Tories’ local election campaign, Kevin Hollinrake said: “Since the general election, we’ve won twice as many seats in terms of net gains compared to any other party. We know we can do this.
“We also know that May 1 is not going to be straightforward. It’s not going to be going to be easy. We have been judged against the high water mark of 2021.
“We’ve got to be realistic, but we can win. And, my god, do we need to win.”
Conservative MPs Greg Smith (Mid Buckinghamshire) and Joy Morrissey (Beaconsfield), as well as former Peterborough MP Paul Bristow, were among those gathered at the event in Buckinghamshire.
UK interest rates are set to stay at 4.5 per cent, with another cut to borrowing costs unlikely while the Bank of England assesses mounting global uncertainty, experts have said.
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is widely expected to keep interest rates on hold on Thursday when they make their announcement at midday.
The MPC has been gradually cutting borrowing costs since August, easing pressure on some borrowers who have been able to offer lower mortgage rates.
This has been possible while the rate of UK inflation has been steadily falling from the highs reached in 2023, at the peak of the cost-of-living crisis.
But the Bank’s governor Andrew Bailey has been keen to stress that the committee wants to take a “gradual and careful approach” to reducing rates while monitoring changes in the UK and global economy.
Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation rose to 3 per cent in January, with price pressure mainly being driven by energy prices, water bills and bus fares.
At the same time, the UK economy has been teetering on the edge of decline – with gross domestic product (GDP) rising by 0.1 per cent over the final three months of the year but contracting by 0.1 per cent in January.
MPs have suggested car crushing and garrotting as punishments for fly tipping.
Paul Waugh, the Labour MP for Rochdale, told the Commons: “My council tells me there’s a real failure in the courts to issue consistent and tough enough fines, so does the minister agree with me it’s time to crack down harder on fly-tippers, for much tighter regulations on waste carriers, and treat the fly-tippers like the criminals they are by crushing their cars or putting points on their licence?”
Nature minister Mary Creagh replied: “I couldn’t agree more with (Mr Waugh).”
She described “enthusiasm from all sides of the House” when Mr Waugh asked his question, adding: “Our message to the waste criminals is clear – we are seeking powers in the Crime and Policing Bill and we are going to track you down.”
Conservative MP Sir Desmond Swayne later said: “Alas, the last government did not take up my suggestion that the offenders be garrotted with their own intestines. The first problem, however, is to catch them.
“Is there any way that local authorities can be encouraged to take advantage of the collapse in price and improvement in quality of internet-connected cameras?”
Ms Creagh replied: “I think there’d be some human rights implications with the garrotting option, but I do share his passionate hatred for these environmental criminals.”
In a nod to Sir Desmond’s New Forest West constituency, Ms Creagh added it “really upsets me to see ancient woodland run by the Forestry Commission fly-tipped – these are precious, irreplicable areas”.
Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of waging “war on the countryside” after the government quietly scrapped a grant that helped local groups buy closure-threatened pubs.
The Community Ownership Fund, which launched 2021 with the aim of handing out £150m worth of grants by the end of 2025, was cancelled early with £135m having been allocated to date.
As the number of pubs in England and Wales sits at a record low, with more than 400 closing their doors for good in 2024 alone, there is growing concern in rural areas that the cancellation of the fund just days before Christmas will damage communities across the country.
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Sir Keir Starmer is spending the morning in Barrow viewing the next generation of nuclear-armed submarines, before joining a summit of European leaders to discuss the continent’s future safety.
He is set to travel back to London to meet military planners from around 30 countries as part of the “coalition of the willing”, to strategise how a peacekeeping force in Europe would look, despite Putin’s insistence that he will not agree to a ceasefire if troops are in the region.
Foreign secretary David Lammy also has a speech at 2.30pm, where he may take questions on both Ukraine and the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Treasury Chief Secretary Darren Jones is also due to give his Institute for Government speech at 12.30 pm, where he will likely face tricky questions ahead of Rachel Reeves’ spring statement next Wednesday.
At midday, the Bank of England will also announce their decision on interest rates, which are widely expected to be held at 4.5 per cent considering the gloomy economic outlook.
A migrant has died after trying to cross the English Channel in an overloaded boat, French authorities have said.
Some 15 people were rescued after a boat containing 40 people picked up more migrants on the coast of Gravelines, in northern France, at around 3am on Thursday.
Three people were rescued from the water and a group of 12 others on board the dinghy asked to be evacuated, the French coastguard said.
One person rescued was unconscious and was declared dead despite medical treatment.
Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt has hit out at Brexiteers who inflated the economic benefits of the UK’s departure from the European Union.
Mr Hunt, who voted Remain in 2016, criticised what he described as some of the “more hyperbolic claims” of some Brexit’s backers – who included former Tory PM Boris Johnson.
But in a foreword to a new report, Mr Hunt also said he believed “many claims” about the negative impact of Brexit on the economy “were overly exaggerated” and the UK’s departure had “much less impact on British exports to the EU”.
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The accurate collection of data on biological sex is “vital”, a minister has said after a report warned of the risks of removing this information.
Defence minister Luke Pollard said the Government will look at recommendations from an independent review commissioned by the previous government.
He told Times Radio: “What is important is that we recognise that the accurate collection of data is vital, not just for the public health component, which much of this report, I believe, majors on, but across government.
“So, the accurate collection of data is vital and it is something that this Government is committed to ensure happens.”
Collecting accurate data on sex is vital for “the right prevention in health activities to make sure that we’re keeping people safe,” he said.
“We’re going to read the report … and use that as part of our efforts to make sure that we are preventing cancers, in particular, which is what the report majors on.”
A Conservative MP has said council tax is an area of “major concern” for future policy.
It was put to Nigel Huddleston on the BBC’s Today programme that residents in Westminster, central London, are paying £900 for a band D property each year compared to nearly £2,500 in Hartlepool in the North East.
Asked if his party would come up with a “potentially radical reform” of the tax while in opposition, the MP for Droitwich and Evesham and Conservative co-chairman said: “The policy commissions, the policy review, will be comprehensive, I can assure you of that, and this is a process that we’ve said will take time.
“We’re taking input from experts, from members, from activists, from people right across the area who’ve got input into these really important areas.
“We’re going to be using our time in opposition very wisely and Kemi laid out earlier this week the policy renewal work and policy renewal programme that we will be doing, which will look at every single area of government – and obviously council tax is an area of major concern because it is an important part of people’s annual expenditure.”
Ahead of local election campaigns getting under way, Mr Huddleston also told the programme: “We are under no illusions that this set of elections will be difficult, but we will be fighting – our goal is to fight every single seat and make sure we get as many votes as possible and in local by-elections.”
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