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Protesters have disrupted proceedings in the House of Lords demanding the abolition of the unelected chamber and carrying leaflets reading “Aristocrats and oligarchs: Out.”
A group of around half a dozen people in the public gallery threw leaflets, shouted and sang during the demonstration at noon on Thursday.
The protest came amid moves at Westminster to reform the Lords by ousting hereditary peers.
Meanwhile, UK interest rates have been held at 4.5 per cent by the Bank of England (BoE) with another cut to borrowing costs unlikely, amid mounting global uncertainty.
While the interest rate is still expected to fall further over the remainder of the year, only two further cuts are now expected across 2025 amid an ongoing battle with inflation, rising costs for businesses and an uncertain wider economic outlook, partly due to Trump’s threat of tariffs.
It comes as reports suggest Rachel Reeves is set to announce the biggest spending cuts since austerity in her spring statement next week.
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.
When I resigned from David Cameron’s government as the secretary of state for work and pensions in 2016, welfare stood at £61.6bn. By the end of this parliament, it is projected to be £108.7bn. Sickness benefit alone, which was £19bn back then, is set to rise to £32bn. So it is with disability benefit, which is set to rise from £11bn to some £31bn. To govern is to choose. Against the backdrop of an increasingly unsafe world, the need to invest significantly more in defence, and a flatlining economy, further reform of welfare is a necessity.
The pandemic response has hit the welfare budget hard. The rise in sickness benefit claims poses a challenge to the government, particularly because some 60 per cent of claims since Covid are from mental health issues. The majority of these are for depression and anxiety. The health department has declared that the best treatment for depression and anxiety is going back to work.
That is why, as sickness benefit moves into universal credit, the possibility of large-scale reform opens up for the government.
Read the full opinion article here from Iain Duncan-Smith:
Anas Sarwar has denied that Labour’s decision to slash £5 billion a year from the welfare budget amounts to cuts.
The Scottish Labour leader rejected claims – including from within his own front bench – that the benefits system overhaul amounts to austerity because overall spending on welfare is still set to increase.
He said it is right that the UK Government focuses on encouraging more people into work and he criticised the Scottish Government for an “inefficient” benefits system north of the border which he said had wasted tens of millions of pounds.
UK Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announced on Tuesday £5 billion worth of proposed welfare changes, largely stemming from a big reduction in support for those off work due to disability and ill health.
Around a million people are expected to lose their disability benefits as part of the welfare overhaul, experts believe.
Speaking to reporters at Holyrood, Mr Sarwar denied the move amounts to cuts, and he said it will not come into effect this year.
Told the UK Government is cutting the welfare budget by £5 billion, he said: “No, you’re wrong actually because currently welfare spending across the UK is £50 billion, and the new proposals will mean it’s projected to be £64 billion.”
Sir Keir Starmer has said there was scope for greater co-operation with the European Union after Brussels’ plans to increase defence spending would block the money being used to buy from UK arms firms.
The Prime Minister told Sky News: “I’m very pleased that the EU is signalling their intent to spend so much on defence.
“I’ve been making the argument, as others have, that all of us in Europe need to step up, not just in relation to Ukraine, but more generally, in our own collective self-defence.
“That does mean more spend, more capability, more co-ordination, and I want to have those discussions with our European allies. We’re continuing those discussions with them, because I do think the scope for more joint work is here.”
Sir Keir Starmer said members of the so-called coalition of the willing were “working at pace” to develop plans for a peacekeeping force if there is a deal to end the Ukraine war.
The Prime Minister said the political momentum was being turned into “military planning” with a meeting of defence chiefs on Thursday.
He told Sky News the “timetable now is coming into focus” following talks between the US and Russia.
Sir Keir said: “That’s why it’s important today that we’re turning the political momentum that we had on the weekend, in the meeting that I convened of nearly 30 political leaders, turning it today from the political concept into military plans.
“So, that’s what’s happening and today those plans are focusing on keeping the skies safe, the seas safe, and the borders safe and secure in Ukraine and working with Ukrainians.
“Now, we’re working at pace, because we don’t know if there’ll be a deal – I certainly hope there will be – but if there’s a deal, it’s really important that we’re able to react straight away.”
Protesters have disrupted proceedings in the House of Lords demanding the abolition of the unelected chamber.
A group of around half a dozen people in the public gallery threw leaflets, shouted and sang during the demonstration at noon on Thursday.
The House was adjourned for a short time as the demonstrators were escorted out.
Protester Lucy Porter, 50, a primary school teacher from Leeds, said she was “campaigning for a house of the people”.
On the Lords, she said: “It’s a symbol of everything that’s outdated.
“We don’t have a functioning democracy in this country.”
The leaflets, apparently modelled on an album by the Sex Pistols punk band, had written on them: “Never mind the Lords here’s the House of People.”
On the other side it stated: “Aristocrats and oligarchs: Out.
“Posties, mums, nurses and neighbours: In.
“Replace the House of Lords to save the UK.”
Half of Reform UK voters have little or no confidence in Covid-19 vaccines, compared with the general public who overwhelmingly trust the jabs, a YouGov poll has found.
Those who back Nigel Farage’s party have a “distinct” attitude towards the vaccines, with 50 per cent saying they do not trust them.
That compares to 71 per cent of the public who said they trust the Covid jab a great deal or a fair amount, and just 24 per cent of voters who said they do not trust it much or at all. Reform voters are also significantly more likely to not have been vaccinated against Covid during the pandemic, the poll found.
Read the full article here:
The UK must increase the size of the army if it is serious about building the so-called coalition of the willing, the Liberal Democrats have said.
As Sir Keir Starmer is set to meet senior military leaders to discuss the operational phase of a Ukraine peacekeeping force, Helen Maguire, Lib Dem defence spokeswoman, said: “If Starmer is serious about building a coalition of the willing for Ukraine, he needs to give the British military more of the troops it needs to credibly support a reassurance force.
“As military chiefs meet in London today, the Lib Dems are urging the Prime Minister to now commit to reversing the Conservatives’ staggeringly irresponsible 10,000 troop cuts to the Army. That they allowed these reckless cuts to take place while there was a war raging on our continent is shameful.
“Reversing these cuts will send a clear message to both our allies and the dictator, Putin: that the UK is ready to step up and help guarantee a just peace for Ukraine, if one can be agreed.”
The dour Scotsman holding the title of chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Cabinet Office minister, Pat McFadden, doesn’t seem much of a space cowboy but he has in common with Elon Musk an apparent zeal to eliminate waste.
Being more sensible and considerably less excitable than his (rough) US counterpart, McFadden has not yet egregiously breached the British constitution but he has summarily abolished almost all of the civil service “credit cards”, a distinctly Doge-like action. It’s more than just a symbolic move…
What’s the problem?
Read the full article here:
David Lammy has confirmed that a British national was wounded in an Israeli attack on a UN compound in Gaza on Wednesday, as he said recent attacks had been an “appalling loss of life”.
The Foreign Secretary told MPs: “Yesterday morning a UN compound in Gaza was hit, I can confirm to the House that a British national was amongst the wounded.
“Our priority is supporting them and their family at this time.”
Mr Lammy added that the attacks on Gaza on Tuesday night had caused the largest Palestinian death toll on a single day since the war began.
He said: “A number of Hamas figures were reportedly killed, but it’s been reported that over 400 Palestinians were killed in missile strikes and artillery barrages. The majority of them were women and children.
“This appears to have been the deadliest single day for Palestinians since the war began. This is an appalling loss of life, and we mourn the loss of every civilian.”
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