Reeves confirms Treasury reviewing playing taxes, hinting she is open to Brown’s plan to make use of them to sort out baby poverty
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has prompt that she is open to the concept of elevating taxes on the playing sector to fund the elimination of the two-child profit cap.
The concept is being strongly promoted by Gordon Brown, the previous Labour PM who additionally spent 10 years as chancellor. He has been making this case at this time, in an interview on the As we speak programme and with an article within the Guardian. (See 9.14am.)
Requested on a go to in Port Talbot if she was contemplating Brown’s plan, Reeves mentioned:
I discuss to Gordon commonly, and noticed him final week once I was in Scotland.
Like Gordon, I’m deeply involved across the ranges of kid poverty in Britain. No baby ought to develop up hungry or dad and mom not be capable to afford the fundamentals for his or her household.
We’re a Labour authorities. After all, we care about baby poverty. That’s why one of many first issues we did as a authorities was to arrange a toddler poverty taskforce that will probably be reporting within the autumn and [will] reply to it then.
On playing taxes, we’ve already launched a assessment into playing taxes. We’re taking proof on that in the intervening time, and once more, we’ll set out our insurance policies within the regular approach, in our finances later this 12 months.
Reeves was talking throughout a go to to a coal tip, the place she was selling an announcement about £143m being spent securing coal tips in Wales.
Key occasions
Treasury says greater than 130 disused coal ideas in Wales to be secured with £143m funding from Westminster
The Welsh authorities has lobbying Westminster for years for cash to assist it cope with the issue posed by disused coal ideas within the nation. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is in south Wales at this time to publicise Treasury funding that may tackle the issue, though some council leaders declare the sum allotted “only scratches the surface”.
In its new release the Treasury says greater than 130 coal ideas will probably be secured on account of the £143m it’s spending. It says:
Disused coal ideas stay a legacy of Wales’ coal trade, and current extreme dangers for Welsh communities from landslides or flooding. Simply final November, a disused coal tip in Cwmtillery, Blaenau Gwent, partially collapsed, forcing round 40 houses and households to be evacuated.
The £118m offered on the spending assessment by the chancellor to guard Welsh communities comes along with £25m from final 12 months’s autumn finances, amounting to £143m to ship the important funding to guard present houses while enabling new areas of land to be secured for future housebuilding by the Welsh authorities. When mixed with funding from the Welsh authorities, £220m has now been invested to make coal ideas in Wales protected.
Reeves says rates of interest coming down beneath Labour partially as a result of it has returned ‘stability’ to economic system
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has additionally welcomed today’s interest rate cut. She informed broadcasters:
I welcome the truth that rates of interest have come down at this time.
That’s excellent news for owners, excellent news for companies.
Rates of interest have now come down 5 instances since Labour got here into workplace, partially due to the soundness that we’ve managed to return to the economic system after the chopping and altering, the mini-budget beneath the Conservatives and Liz Truss.
What which means, that fifth reduce in rates of interest, is that if you happen to’re taking out a mortgage for £215,000, you’re going to be paying on a variable price round £140 much less a month than after we got here to workplace simply over a 12 months in the past.
So, that is excellent news for folks eager to get on the housing ladder, folks remortgaging and in addition companies borrowing to develop.
Reeves confirms Treasury reviewing playing taxes, hinting she is open to Brown’s plan to make use of them to sort out baby poverty
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has prompt that she is open to the concept of elevating taxes on the playing sector to fund the elimination of the two-child profit cap.
The concept is being strongly promoted by Gordon Brown, the previous Labour PM who additionally spent 10 years as chancellor. He has been making this case at this time, in an interview on the As we speak programme and with an article within the Guardian. (See 9.14am.)
Requested on a go to in Port Talbot if she was contemplating Brown’s plan, Reeves mentioned:
I discuss to Gordon commonly, and noticed him final week once I was in Scotland.
Like Gordon, I’m deeply involved across the ranges of kid poverty in Britain. No baby ought to develop up hungry or dad and mom not be capable to afford the fundamentals for his or her household.
We’re a Labour authorities. After all, we care about baby poverty. That’s why one of many first issues we did as a authorities was to arrange a toddler poverty taskforce that will probably be reporting within the autumn and [will] reply to it then.
On playing taxes, we’ve already launched a assessment into playing taxes. We’re taking proof on that in the intervening time, and once more, we’ll set out our insurance policies within the regular approach, in our finances later this 12 months.
Reeves was talking throughout a go to to a coal tip, the place she was selling an announcement about £143m being spent securing coal tips in Wales.
Tories name for Rushanara Ali’s resignation over hire hike after tenants informed they must transfer
The Conservative social gathering is now calling for the resignation of Rushanara Ali, the homelessness minister, after she informed tenants in a home she owns they must transfer, after which elevated the hire by £700 a month when it was relet after that they had moved out. Ali says she needed to promote the home, and solely relisted it for rental when she couldn’t discover a purchaser, however she has been accused of hypocrisy as a result of the federal government is legislating to cease landlords who evict tenants on the grounds they wish to promote from then swiftly re-letting.
In a submit on social media, Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory chair, mentioned:
That is staggering hypocrisy from Rushanara Ali.
It’s completely unacceptable for the Authorities minister in command of Labour’s new renters legal guidelines and homelessness to have turfed out her personal tenants so as to hike the hire (by over 20%)
I’m sorry, however she should resign.
A spokesperson for Ali mentioned: “Rushanara takes her tasks significantly and complied with all related authorized necessities.”
Matthew Weaver has the complete story right here.
JD Vance reportedly set to start out household vacation in UK by staying with David Lammy at Chevening
JD Vance, the US vp, will begin his summer time vacation within the UK by staying with David Lammy, the overseas secretary, at Chevening, Lammy’s grace-and-favour nation residence, the Telegraph reviews.
In his story, Rob Crilly says Vance and his household will arrive on Friday and that, in addition to staying with Lammy, they are going to go to Hampton Courtroom earlier than heading for the Cotswolds, the place they are spending most of their break.
Lammy knew Vance earlier than he grew to become vp and he descibes him as a good friend. Talking concerning the relationship to the BBC final 12 months, he mentioned:
We share an identical working-class background with habit points in our household. We’ve written books on that. We’ve talked about that. And we’re each Christians, so I feel I can discover widespread floor with JD Vance.
Tories name for asylum seekers caught working to be robotically disqualified from having declare accepted
The Conservative social gathering can also be calling at this time for all asylum seekers caught working illegally to be robotically disqualified from having their declare accepted. In a information launch, the social gathering says:
The Conservatives are setting out new proposals that might imply asylum seeker caught illegally working ought to have their declare rejected robotically and face instant deportation, both to their nation of origin or to a protected third nation.
The dimensions of this failure was laid naked when Chris Philp MP, the shadow residence secretary, uncovered this situation after a go to to a taxpayer-funded asylum resort in June and located it working as a supply hub. Unlawful working was happening in plain sight, safety guards did nothing, and the platforms continued to revenue from this racket regardless of earlier House Workplace agreements.
Chris Philp MP additionally wrote to Deliveroo, Simply Eat, Uber Eats, and the house secretary calling for an instantaneous crackdown on unlawful working by asylum seekers. His calls for included pressing enforcement towards any firm failing to uphold immigration legislation, the elimination of all unlawful employees from supply platforms, and motion to cease unlawful working from House Workplace-run asylum lodging.
The next month, the house secretary introduced a measly settlement between supply corporations and the House Workplace to share info on the situation of asylum lodges. It does nothing to punish offenders or shut loopholes, equivalent to account sharing, and due to this fact, did completely nothing to sort out this downside.
Labour’s failure to implement the legislation is making a pull issue for unlawful immigration, resulting in file crossings, a collapsing border, and a booming black market in taxpayer-subsidised gig economic system jobs.
The choice view is that asylum seekers must be allowed to work within the UK whereas their declare is being thought of. It is likely one of the arguments that the journalist Nicola Kelly makes in her wonderful guide Anywhere But Here: How Britain’s Broken Asylum System Fails Us All. She says:
By permitting asylum seekers to volunteer and use the abilities they’ve – and loosening, or ideally lifting, the ban on the proper to work – analysis exhibits that the federal government may save £1bn over a 10-year interval. Germany and France permit asylum seekers to work after six months; Sweden after simply at some point. The US, too, provides folks permission to work whereas their claims are being processed. We may do the identical. There’s a web profit to the economic system from immigration.
Kelly’s guide is effectively value studying. It explains intimately how the asylum system within the UK does, or slightly doesn’t, work, but it surely’s a guide about folks, not coverage, with vivid, compassionate, first-hand reporting, and a robust narrative pull. I discovered it highly effective and revealing. Emine Saner wrote about it in way more element in an interview with Kelly we printed earlier this 12 months.
Financial institution of England cuts rate of interest for fifth time in a 12 months to 4%
The Bank of England has reduce rates of interest for a fifth time in a 12 months amid mounting concern concerning the energy of the economic system, Richard Partington reviews. The Financial institution’s financial coverage committee voted by a majority to cut back its key base price from 4.25% to 4%.
The Conservatives say they aren’t impressed by the information that the primary small boat migrants have been detained beneath the “one in, one out” cope with France. In an announcement, Chris Philp, the shadow residence secretary, mentioned:
Keir Starmer’s promise final 12 months to ‘smash the gangs’ has turned out to be nothing greater than a gimmick that didn’t work, and that is simply the identical.
They’re detaining a token handful of arrivals and in return we settle for unvetted migrants from France. The entire thing is riddled with loopholes, opt-outs and authorized escape routes that may make removals near-impossible.
One clause exempts anybody with a declare licensed as ‘clearly unfounded’ pending courtroom proceedings, making a area day for human rights legal professionals. Anybody claiming to be beneath 18 or making a contemporary slavery declare will get to keep away from the scheme too.
94% of unlawful arrivals will nonetheless stay within the UK beneath this deal. How precisely is that supposed to discourage anybody?
DfE welcomes enchancment in class absence figures for England, although downside nonetheless worse than pre-Covid
Richard Adams
Richard Adams is the Guardian’s eduction editor.
Faculty attendance in England continued to slowly enhance final 12 months, in keeping with new data published this morning by the Division for Training which claimed it was a “dramatic enchancment”.
The figures for the autumn time period of 2024-25 confirmed that absence charges in state secondary faculties fell by half a proportion level to 7.7% in contrast with the 12 months earlier than, whereas primaries additionally confirmed a slight enchancment to five%. Persistent absences – the proportion of pupils who missed 10% or extra of time within the classroom – additionally fell, from 19.5% in 2023-24 to 17.8% in 2024-25, and effectively under the 24% charges seen round 2022.
Nonetheless all the symptoms stay above the charges of absence seen earlier than the Covid pandemic, whereas extreme absence – pupils lacking 50% or extra – rose barely to 2%, and stays at file ranges, as do absences attributable to unauthorised household holidays.
The DfE emphasised that 140,000 fewer pupils had been persistently absent in autumn, together with 45,000 youngsters and younger folks from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Bridget Phillipson, the training secretary, mentioned:
The file enchancment in class attendance exhibits we’re turning the tide on a disaster that noticed a era go lacking from England’s faculties.
Getting youngsters again in school rooms, the place they belong, is non-negotiable if we’re to interrupt the unfair hyperlink between background and success so we will construct a fairer nation …
After we sort out attendance head-on, everybody advantages – pupils get the constant training they deserve, academics can deal with driving up requirements, and we construct the stronger workforce our economic system wants.
Inexperienced social gathering backs Brown’s name for taxes on playing trade to fund abolition of two-child profit cap
The Inexperienced social gathering has backed Gordon Brown’s name for brand new taxes on the playing trade to fund the abolition of the two-child profit cap. The social gathering issued this assertion from Natalie Bennett, a Inexperienced peer and former social gathering chief.
Having been on the coronary heart of the New Labour authorities, which unleashed the poisonous, harmful playing trade that we have now at this time with the 2005 Playing Act, it’s good to see Gordon Brown now calling for truthful taxation of the large money cow.
And wonderful that he’s calling for that to cash for use to finish the two-child profit cap, a coverage intentionally inflicting baby poverty that’s astonishingly nonetheless in place a 12 months into this Labour authorities.
And that is from Adrian Ramsay, the present co-leader.
Gordon Brown is correct: we will’t let Reeves’s obsession together with her fiscal guidelines push extra youngsters into poverty The reply is easy: tax wealth pretty
