Starmer to assault Farage’s spending plans as ‘mad experiment’
Keir Starmer will launch an assault on Nigel Farage by accusing the Reform UK chief of selling “fantasy” tax-and-spending plans that might unleash a Liz Truss-style financial disaster.
In a fightback towards makes an attempt by Farage to win over blue-collar voters with daring guarantees on taxes and advantages, the prime minister is to say Reform dangers spooking the monetary markets and driving up mortgage prices for tens of millions of households.
In a speech at a producing enterprise within the north-west of England on Thursday, Starmer will say:
Farage is making the very same wager Liz Truss did: that you could spend tens of billions on tax cuts and not using a correct manner of paying for it. And, identical to Truss, he’s utilizing your loved ones funds, your mortgage, your payments as a playing chip on his mad experiment. The consequence would be the identical.
The Reform chief laid out several promises throughout a speech on Tuesday designed to benefit from disquiet amongst Labour voters on the authorities’s insurance policies on taxes and advantages.
Starmer’s tackle is scheduled to happen at 11.30 am and shall be adopted by a Q&A with reporters.
Elsewhere, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner is predicted to be campaigning in Scotland right this moment and water minister Emma Hardy is on the morning media spherical, as is shadow native authorities minister Kevin Hollinrake. Extra updates from this in only a second, however first listed here are another key developments:
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The British arm of a US contractor that income from testing whether or not some folks within the UK ought to obtain incapacity advantages has paid out £10m in dividends to its traders. Maximus, a Virginia-based enterprise, reported a 23% rise in pre-tax revenue for its UK arm, from £23.6m to £29.1m, in its monetary 12 months to the top of September, accounts lodged at Corporations Home present. Its income rose 2%, from £294m to £300m.
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The well being secretary, Wes Streeting, has urged medical doctors to vote towards industrial motion because the British Medical Affiliation (BMA) ballots resident medical doctors, previously often known as junior medical doctors, for strike motion that might final for six months. Writing within the Instances on Thursday, Streeting mentioned: “We will’t afford to return to a steady cycle of standoffs, strikes, and cancellations.”
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The House of Lords watchdog has launched an investigation right into a Conservative hereditary peer who admitted he “erroneously” made claims final 12 months for journey bills he didn’t incur. He’s the fifth peer to face an inquiry after Guardian reporting into the higher home.
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Jobcentres will not pressure folks into “any job” accessible, the employment minister has mentioned, promising there shall be long-term, personalised profession help for these dropping out attributable to welfare cuts. Alison McGovern mentioned she was ending the Conservative coverage below which jobseekers have been obliged to take any low-paid, insecure work and that the service would now be centered on serving to folks to construct rewarding careers.
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Scotland’s first minister has warned that the Hamilton byelection is now a “straight contest” between the SNP and Reform UK as he urged voters to again his occasion. John Swinney claimed the Labour marketing campaign is in collapse and urged their supporters to behave and “unite behind our shared rules” to defeat Farage’s occasion.
Key occasions
Jobcentres will not pressure folks into ‘any job’ accessible, minister says
Jessica Elgot
Jobcentres will not pressure folks into “any job” accessible, the employment minister has mentioned, promising there shall be long-term, personalised profession help for these dropping out attributable to welfare cuts.
Alison McGovern mentioned she was ending the Conservative coverage below which jobseekers have been obliged to take any low-paid, insecure work and that the service would now be centered on serving to folks to construct rewarding careers.
McGovern, who’s tasked with a serious overhaul to employment help because of vital cuts to incapacity advantages, mentioned the division would use AI to unlock the workloads of job coaches, giving them extra time to supply “human” help to these with complicated wants and long-term unemployment.
The federal government is dealing with open revolt amongst Labour MPs over the proposed cuts – which some in No 10 concern might imply dropping the vote in parliament.
McGovern mentioned she needed to acknowledge there have been many disabled individuals who would really feel “frightened” by the cuts to private independence funds and incapacity advantages, with many dropping help completely.
“I don’t blame anyone for being scared or apprehensive about it as a result of given what’s occurred with adjustments to incapacity advantages earlier than, I perceive that,” she mentioned.
However she added she was deeply involved concerning the numbers of younger folks out of labor – with many needing specialist assist to even have interaction with job help due to excessive social anxiousness.
McGovern mentioned that individuals whose advantages have been lower below Labour would obtain radically totally different help. Work help shall be provided by GPs and physiotherapists, along with the prolonged help in jobcentres.
US agency that assessments eligibility for UK incapacity advantages pays £10m in dividends
Lauren Almeida
The British arm of a US contractor that income from testing whether or not some folks within the UK ought to obtain incapacity advantages has paid £10m in dividends to its traders.
Maximus, a Virginia-based enterprise, reported a 23% rise in pre-tax revenue for its UK arm, from £23.6m to £29.1m, in its monetary 12 months to the top of September, accounts lodged at Corporations Home present. Its income rose 2%, from £294m to £300m.
The corporate is the largest supplier of purposeful evaluation companies, or FAS, for the Division for Work and Pensions (DWP). These assessments decide an individual’s degree of perform and skill to carry out on a regular basis duties.
The UK arm of the enterprise paid out £10m in dividends to traders, equal to £10,000 per atypical share, based on accounts filed at Corporations Home. The corporate additionally paid out £10m in dividends to its traders within the 2023 monetary 12 months.
Maximus secured a five-year contract from the federal government in 2023 to supply purposeful evaluation companies, at an estimated worth of £800m over the interval, with the choice to increase for an extra two years.
In a inexperienced paper revealed in March, the Division for Work and Pensions mentioned experiences of assessments for the private independence cost (Pip) have been “not all the time constructive”.
The nationwide incapacity charity Sense mentioned “no one needs to be rewarded for treating disabled folks with disrespect”.
Tom Marsland, of the charity, mentioned:
Sense’s analysis discovered that half of disabled folks with complicated wants who’ve been via a advantages evaluation discovered it humiliating, and virtually half didn’t get the suitable communication help to correctly display why they want help.
These statistics are surprising and present a deep-rooted drawback with the present evaluation course of.
Helena Horton
The federal government has ordered the constructing of two reservoirs, the primary to be inbuilt England for greater than 30 years.
The shortage of reservoir capability, mixed with a rising inhabitants and drier summers attributable to local weather breakdown, has put the nation susceptible to water shortages. The federal government warned in recent weeks of an impending drought if there was not vital rainfall quickly, and reservoirs have been reaching worryingly low ranges.
The atmosphere minister, Steve Reed, has awarded the standing of “nationally vital” to 2 new reservoir tasks in East Anglia and Lincolnshire and ordered that they go forward. These would be the first to be constructed since 1992.
The federal government mentioned this may shore up water sources for greater than 750,000 houses in England’s most water-stressed areas.
With out extra capability, the UK shall be susceptible to operating out of water within the medium time period. The Atmosphere Company has predicted a shortfall of just about 5bn litres a day by 2050.
The water minister, Emma Hardy, mentioned:
In the present day we’re backing the builders not the blockers, intervening within the nationwide curiosity and slashing purple tape to make the planning course of sooner to unblock 9 new reservoirs. This authorities will safe our water provide for future generations and unlock the constructing of hundreds of houses as a part of the plan for change.
The constructing of hundreds of houses within the areas to be served by the reservoirs is being held up as there may be not the water supply to sustain them.
Anglian Water is proposing to construct Lincolnshire reservoir to the south of Sleaford, which needs to be working by 2040. It has partnered with Cambridge Water to suggest the Fens reservoir, situated between the cities of Chatteris and March, to be accomplished in 2036.
Authorities is ‘critical’ about guidelines water corporations should comply with, says water minister
The federal government is “critical” concerning the guidelines which water corporations should comply with, Emma Hardy has mentioned in response to fines imposed on Thames Water of £122.7m, studies the PA information company.
Talking at a reservoir, the water minister advised Instances Radio the penalty was the “largest advantageous there ever has been on document” within the sector and added:
It is a authorities that’s critical about enforcement.
For years, water corporations have been allowed to get away with poor behaviour, and we’ve mentioned below this authorities that isn’t going to occur as a result of not solely is that this the most important advantageous that there ever has been, we’ve additionally launched the Water (Particular Measures) Act, so as much as two years’ imprisonment for water bosses.
We’ve banned unfair bonuses and simply final week I used to be out chatting concerning the 81 prison investigations which are going into water corporations. So we’re critical once we say that we’re taking enforcement significantly.
Requested why the federal government had not thought-about particular administration for Thames Water, Hardy mentioned this mechanism was for corporations which go “bankrupt”. She described the agency as “secure”, including: “We’ll monitor it intently.”
Second Lib Dem MP withdraws help for England and Wales assisted dying invoice
Peter Walker
A second Liberal Democrat MP has mentioned they’ve modified their thoughts over the assisted dying invoice and can vote towards it on the subsequent Commons stage, in one other signal of a wider, in that case far slight, ebbing away of help for the measure.
In an e mail to constituents, Brian Mathew, the Melksham and Devizes MP, mentioned that whereas he had backed the invoice at its second studying vote, in April, scrutiny of the plans had left “a number of considerations I really feel have been inadequately answered”.
His announcement follows feedback final week by Steve Darling, the Torbay MP who can also be the Lib Democrat work and pensions spokesperson. Darling mentioned that whereas he had backed the invoice in April he was now “marginally towards” it, however had not but determined whether or not he would vote towards it or abstain.
About eight different MPs who both supported the non-public member’s invoice, led by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, at its second studying or didn’t vote have mentioned they’ll now oppose it.
Nevertheless, at the least two who abstained in April are actually supporters, whereas the Runcorn and Helsby byelection earlier in Might resulted in a Labour MP who opposed the plan changed by a Reform UK one who backs it.
Given the second studying of the invoice was handed with a majority of 55, the numbers to date point out it also needs to get via the third studying, scheduled for 20 June.
When “one thing sounds too good to be true, it’s as a result of it’s too good to be true”, water minister Emma Hardy has mentioned, studies the PA information company.
Requested concerning the “risk” which Reform UK poses to Labour, Hardy advised GB Information:
I believe it’s actually necessary that any political occasion is held to account for the guarantees that they’ve made and we all know – gosh, don’t we simply know – what occurred when [former prime minister] Liz Truss made her £45bn of unfunded tax cuts: the financial system tanked, mortgages went up, rents went up, payments went up.
The minister mentioned she heard “much more Truss than Liz Truss popping out from” Reform UK chief Nigel Farage, including:
When one thing sounds too good to be true, it’s as a result of it’s too good to be true. If [Farage] needs to be taken significantly as a political occasion, then he must give you some critical insurance policies and he must be held to account.
Now, had I come in your programme and mentioned, ‘have you learnt what? I’m simply saying £80bn of tax guarantees’, the very first thing you’d have mentioned to me is ‘I don’t imagine you’.
And the second factor you’d have accomplished is laughed me out of the studio as a result of we must be credible within the insurance policies that we announce, and that’s what we needs to be seeing from each single political occasion.
Responding to the US courtroom ruling that blocks a lot of Donald Trump’s tariffs, Liberal Democrat chief Ed Davey mentioned:
The federal government should urgently summon the US ambassador to make clear what this courtroom ruling means for Starmer’s current cope with Donald Trump.
The degrees of chaos from Trump’s financial coverage is placing Liz Truss to disgrace.
Lisa O’Carroll
The UK has mentioned it needs to speed up negotiations to conclude a commerce cope with Donald Trump within the wake of the US court ruling that the sweeping tariffs he imposed on imports from greater than 60 nations have been unlawful.
Regardless of Keir Starmer sealing the first deal with Trump since his so-called “liberation day” initially of April no authorized textual content exists to deliver the concessions he received into pressure. The UK can also be nonetheless threatened with a ten% reciprocal tariff on all exports outdoors the deal which was seen as a life saver for the automobile and metal industries.
The enterprise secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, is predicted to satisfy US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick at a gathering of the OECD in Paris subsequent Tuesday.
A UK authorities spokesperson performed down the US courtroom ruling on Thursday plainly indicating it will proceed to barter regardless of a technical opening to stroll away from the deal. The spokespeson mentioned:
These are issues for the US to find out domestically and we notice that is solely the primary stage of authorized proceedings.
We have been the primary nation to safe a cope with the US in a transfer to guard jobs throughout key sectors, from autos to metal, and we’re working to make sure that companies can profit from the deal as rapidly as attainable.
Commerce specialists mentioned the US courtroom’s verdict simply added extra uncertainty to the worldwide markets already closely disrupted by the volatility of US commerce coverage.
“This courtroom ruling doesn’t have an effect on the tariffs that the UK negotiated down on vehicles and metal, however clearly provides one other layer of complexity and uncertainty to what Trump is doing. When companies don’t know what tariffs their product would face within the US that may’t be good for the financial system,” mentioned David Henig, director of thinktank European Centre for Worldwide Political Financial system.
John Casson mentioned the case of Alaa Abd el-Fattah will not be remoted as any British nationwide travelling to Egypt faces arrest and unlawful detention.
He advised the BBC:
After 4 years as ambassador in Egypt, if a pal or household got here to me right this moment and mentioned, ‘Ought to we be reserving our winter solar in Egypt?’, I might be saying you’re taking an actual danger.
When you get into any form of difficulties, you submit the incorrect factor on social media even, there’s no assure [of] your proper to be protected.
There’s no assure of due course of, and we are able to’t even make certain that the British embassy will be capable to go to you or help you within the regular manner.
He added:
After all, our civil servants are all the time cautious about offending a rustic like Egypt, and that’s why we’re actually saying this: this wants political will. It takes political will and a readiness to take actual motion and say that Egypt can’t have it each methods.
Egypt pretends to be a pal. It is determined by British guests to maintain its financial system afloat, and we have to display that that isn’t appropriate with abusing our residents and blocking our embassy.
We will’t have enterprise as standard.
Final week, 100 MPs and friends urged prime minister Keir Starmer to “deploy each instrument” accessible to assist free Abd El-Fattah.
Authorities ought to advise towards journey to Egypt, former British ambassador says
A former British ambassador to Egypt has referred to as for the Overseas Workplace to warning towards journey to the nation amid fears British nationals face an elevated danger of arrest, studies the PA information company.
John Casson, who was British ambassador to Egypt between 2014 and 2018, described the nation as a “police state” which is “violent and vindictive”, when he spoke on BBC Radio 4’s In the present day programme on Thursday.
His feedback comply with a ruling by a UN panel that Alaa Abd el-Fattah, a British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist who in December 2021 was sentenced to 5 years in jail after being accused of spreading false information, is being illegally detained by the Egyptian authorities.
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) mentioned Abd El-Fattah was imprisoned due to his political opinions.
“It is a police state in Egypt: it’s violent, it’s vindictive,” Casson advised the In the present day programme.
In response to the PA information company, Casson mentioned:
It’s abusing a British citizen, Alaa Abd el-Fattah – tortured him.
It’s stored him in jail on bogus expenses. It’s inflicting a number of misery to his household. However it’s additionally abusing the rights of the British authorities to do its regular enterprise, and it’s blocking our embassy for essentially the most elementary perform of visiting and supporting British nationals once they get into bother.
And that’s why, with different parliamentarians right this moment … I’m calling now for our authorities to make use of all of the instruments it has to guard not simply Alaa Abd el-Fattah, however all British residents in Egypt. And which means, particularly now, our official journey recommendation must warning towards journey to Egypt.
Casson joined political figures together with Helena Kennedy and Peter Hain, the former Center East minister, to induce the federal government to overview its journey recommendation for Egypt in a letter revealed in The Instances on Wednesday.
Well being secretary urges no strikes as poll of junior medical doctors begins
The well being secretary, Wes Streeting, has urged medical doctors in England to vote towards industrial motion because the British Medical Affiliation (BMA) ballots resident medical doctors, previously often known as junior medical doctors, for strike motion that might final for six months.
Writing within the Instances on Thursday, Streeting mentioned:
We will’t afford to return to a steady cycle of standoffs, strikes, and cancellations … Strikes ought to all the time be a final resort, and I don’t assume they’re in anybody’s curiosity right this moment.
I’m interesting to resident medical doctors to vote no within the poll, and as a substitute proceed the progress we’ve made, working collectively to rebuild our NHS.
Resident medical doctors say their pay has declined by 23% in actual phrases since 2008. In the event that they select to go on strike, walkouts might start in July and doubtlessly final till January 2026.
The federal government accepted wage suggestions from pay overview our bodies earlier this month, leading to a mean 5.4% rise for resident medical doctors.
The Sufferers Affiliation mentioned it was “deeply involved” concerning the prospect of strike motion over the busy winter interval within the NHS. Earlier strike motion from medical doctors in coaching led to 1.3m appointments, procedures and operations being postponed, it mentioned, with the true determine “more likely to be a lot greater”.
Shadow native authorities secretary Kevin Hollinrake added that he “can perceive” why Keir Starmer is “attempting to mainly purpose his fireplace throughout him”.
Hollinrake advised Sky Information:
The opposite hazard the prime minister’s obtained is from his personal backbenchers – there’s a whole bunch of his personal backbenchers who’re very dissatisfied in that he’s doing proper now.
So I can perceive, he’s attempting to mainly purpose his fireplace throughout him. It’ll find yourself in a round firing squad, I believe, and it seems very dangerous for the prime minister proper now.
Requested about his personal occasion’s standing, Hollinrake described Conservative chief Kemi Badenoch as an “inspirational determine – sturdy and brave and a correct Conservative”, and added:
She didn’t wish to rush insurance policies out that have been undeliverable. She needed to take her time, develop insurance policies that individuals might belief, that we might ship and that have been deliverable, and that takes time.
He mentioned his occasion’s proposed deportation invoice was an “indication of the form of insurance policies that can come ahead”, and added it will put a “cap on numbers, however crucially will disapply the European conference on human rights – human rights legislation – to immigration circumstances, so we are able to deport these folks that our courts forestall us from deporting proper now on spurious grounds”.
Voters have ‘misplaced curiosity in Labour’, says the Tory shadow native authorities secretary
Voters have “misplaced curiosity in Labour”, the Conservative shadow native authorities secretary has mentioned, studies the PA information company.
Requested about prime minister Keir Starmer’s speech due afterward Thursday, through which he’s anticipated to criticise “fantasy” economics proposed by Reform UK chief Nigel Farage, Kevin Hollinrake advised Sky Information:
The prime minister’s obtained issues wherever he seems.
He continued:
And he’ll see rising issues from our occasion as we deliver ahead our insurance policies which shall be far more coherent and far more workable by way of taking our financial system ahead.
The general public’s misplaced curiosity in Labour. I imply, I don’t assume they have been ever standard on the despatch field – we have been simply unpopular and we’ve obtained an enormous job to do on that individual rating, however I imagine we are able to do it.
But in addition Reform, the ‘purple wall’ as we name it, the working-class voters, have fully misplaced religion in Keir Starmer and [Chancellor] Rachel Reeves and others, not least due to the disgraceful stripping away of the winter gasoline allowance which, as quickly because it was introduced in parliament final 12 months, you understand, I used to be certainly one of many who mentioned: ‘That’s a U-turn coming.’
And that’s what’s occurred, and when you’ve introduced ahead a coverage like that, no U-turn will make any distinction. It’ll make a short-term distinction by way of folks getting the winter gasoline allowance once more, as they need to, and they should get it for this 12 months – that’s essential for this winter.
However by way of the damaged promise round that, by way of what it says concerning the Labour occasion, the Labour occasion won’t ever get well from it.
Authorities minister Emma Hardy has urged medical doctors to “vote no” in an upcoming strike poll.
The water minister advised Sky Information:
We massively worth all people who works within the NHS and we massively worth our medical doctors: that’s why they’ve had a 28% improve of their wage in comparison with three years in the past, and why we’re providing above-inflation pay [rises].
The MP for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice continued:
However what sufferers are telling me, sufferers the place I’m from in Hull and up and down the nation, is that they’re actually happy with the federal government for lowering ready lists by 200,000 however they wish to see that progress proceed with the NHS, and so they actually don’t wish to see strikes.
So my message to the medical doctors is: we worth you, that’s why we’ve provided the above-inflation pay rise.
Please vote no within the poll, proceed speaking to authorities as a result of we have to proceed to ship the enhancements in our NHS that sufferers desperately want.
Starmer to assault Farage’s spending plans as ‘mad experiment’
Keir Starmer will launch an assault on Nigel Farage by accusing the Reform UK chief of selling “fantasy” tax-and-spending plans that might unleash a Liz Truss-style financial disaster.
In a fightback towards makes an attempt by Farage to win over blue-collar voters with daring guarantees on taxes and advantages, the prime minister is to say Reform dangers spooking the monetary markets and driving up mortgage prices for tens of millions of households.
In a speech at a producing enterprise within the north-west of England on Thursday, Starmer will say:
Farage is making the very same wager Liz Truss did: that you could spend tens of billions on tax cuts and not using a correct manner of paying for it. And, identical to Truss, he’s utilizing your loved ones funds, your mortgage, your payments as a playing chip on his mad experiment. The consequence would be the identical.
The Reform chief laid out several promises throughout a speech on Tuesday designed to benefit from disquiet amongst Labour voters on the authorities’s insurance policies on taxes and advantages.
Starmer’s tackle is scheduled to happen at 11.30 am and shall be adopted by a Q&A with reporters.
Elsewhere, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner is predicted to be campaigning in Scotland right this moment and water minister Emma Hardy is on the morning media spherical, as is shadow native authorities minister Kevin Hollinrake. Extra updates from this in only a second, however first listed here are another key developments:
-
The British arm of a US contractor that income from testing whether or not some folks within the UK ought to obtain incapacity advantages has paid out £10m in dividends to its traders. Maximus, a Virginia-based enterprise, reported a 23% rise in pre-tax revenue for its UK arm, from £23.6m to £29.1m, in its monetary 12 months to the top of September, accounts lodged at Corporations Home present. Its income rose 2%, from £294m to £300m.
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The well being secretary, Wes Streeting, has urged medical doctors to vote towards industrial motion because the British Medical Affiliation (BMA) ballots resident medical doctors, previously often known as junior medical doctors, for strike motion that might final for six months. Writing within the Instances on Thursday, Streeting mentioned: “We will’t afford to return to a steady cycle of standoffs, strikes, and cancellations.”
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The House of Lords watchdog has launched an investigation right into a Conservative hereditary peer who admitted he “erroneously” made claims final 12 months for journey bills he didn’t incur. He’s the fifth peer to face an inquiry after Guardian reporting into the higher home.
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Jobcentres will not pressure folks into “any job” accessible, the employment minister has mentioned, promising there shall be long-term, personalised profession help for these dropping out attributable to welfare cuts. Alison McGovern mentioned she was ending the Conservative coverage below which jobseekers have been obliged to take any low-paid, insecure work and that the service would now be centered on serving to folks to construct rewarding careers.
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Scotland’s first minister has warned that the Hamilton byelection is now a “straight contest” between the SNP and Reform UK as he urged voters to again his occasion. John Swinney claimed the Labour marketing campaign is in collapse and urged their supporters to behave and “unite behind our shared rules” to defeat Farage’s occasion.
