Markus Andrews

The shocking scale of the benefits cuts needed by Rachel Reeves to balance the books could see the disabled and long-term sick lose as much as £1,200 a year, a leading think tank has warned.The analysis by the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies comes as work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall will unveil plans to slash benefits by around £5bn.The government has already indicated that it will focus on working-age welfare claimants, particularly those claiming disability and incapacity welfare payments, with fears that the annual bill for these benefits will hit £70bn by 2030.The concerns come as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) downgraded the UK’s already low growth forecasts in the wake of the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs around the world.Chancellor Rachel Reeves met with regulators on Monday to discuss ways of cutting red tape to boost growth in a bid to kickstart the economy More

Keir Starmer has been told he is “running out of excuses” to press ahead with the controversial deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.It comes after a minister admitted that Britain actually has a protection in international law against one of the major reasons senior politicians have been briefed that the UK has no choice but to hand over the islands.The government is closing in on a deal to hand over the Chagos Islands on the back of an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that the archipelago belongs to Mauritius. The agreement would see the UK lease back the Diego Garcia airbase for 140 years at an expected cost of £18bn. Donald Trump has indicated he backs the deal but critics point out that the ICJ ruling is only advisory.The Independent has learned that senior politicians have been briefed that one of the main reasons to go ahead with the deal is that the UK would fall foul of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), preventing ships going to and from the base. But a written answer has revealed that the UK is protected under international law against UNCLOS challenges.US navy at Diego Garcia More

Nigel Farage’s unveiling of 29 new Reform UK councillors fell apart within less than an hour as it emerged just nine are new, with only three of those standing for election. The Reform leader used a press conference at a swanky London hotel on Monday to unveil the slew of new councillors, claiming their defections proved “this party is very much on the up”.But the lack of high-profile names among the new defectors fed speculation that a steady stream of turncoats has largely dried up as a result of a bitter spat between Mr Farage and Rupert Lowe, the ousted ex-Reform MP. The Conservatives said Mr Farage was seeking to distract from the open warfare engulfing Reform and hoodwink journalists. Tory officials pointed out that while Mr Farage claimed all the councillors had defected in the past two weeks, four had joined Reform a month or more before the press conference. The Conservatives said Nigel Farage used Monday’s announcement as a distraction from Reform UK infighting More

Russian interference networks tried to disrupt the UK general election last year, but did not cause a “notable” impact, the security minister has said.Efforts to promote pro-Russian messages during the election period were not deemed by officials to have influenced the voting process, which overall saw “relatively low levels” of attempted interference.Dan Jarvis told the National Security Strategy Joint Committee of the findings as he was quizzed on the Government’s approach to defending democratic institutions on Monday.Mr Jarvis said: “I can tell the committee that the UK witnessed relatively low levels of attempted interference activity, which we judged to have not reached the relevant thresholds to impact or influence the outcome of elections.“But I think the committee will also be interested to know that the FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) monitored known Russian foreign information manipulation and interference networks as part of the collaborative HMG effort to tackle the information threats to the general election.“We saw Russian attributed networks such as Doppelganger promote pro-Russian messages with the intent to disrupt normal functions of election and voting processes.“However, this was not judged to have caused a notable impact on the last election. But as I say, we are not remotely complacent about the potential for it happening in the future.”Doppleganger is known as a vast online network which floods social media with fake posts, counterfeit documents and deepfake material, according to the FCDO.Last October, the Government placed sanctions on Russian state-backed agencies it said was responsible for Doppleganger, called the Social Design Agency and a partner company, Structura, over their attempts to destabilise Ukraine.Asked if “we are too timid” in responding and taking action against “adversaries”, Mr Jarvis rejected the notion, adding: “I would say that we take these threats incredibly seriously.“We are well organised, and we’ve got the work strands in place that we need to make sure that we’ve got the policy foundation, and the resources in place to address the threats that we face.”Online safety minister Baroness Jones added that when faced with Russian bots trying to change the election “we acted very quickly” coordinating responses from across Government with the FCDO but also with “fellow” countries, including a response from the G7.“We do have the mechanisms in place, and we are watching very very carefully what’s occurring,” the minister added.Mr Jarvis also said he would come back to the committee with a response when asked what punitive action was taken in light of efforts made to disrupt the election last year. More

Only one in three women fleeing domestic abuse can be helped by refuges, the chief executive of Women’s Aid has said, warning that the sector’s services are on the brink of collapse. Giving evidence to the Commons Public Accounts Committee, Farah Nazeer warned that she has seen more services close – or sit on the brink of closure – in the last 7 months than she has in the previous four years.“We are in a real state of crisis and we are now at a point where we have a 65 per cent refusal rate into refuges, and a 50 per cent refusal rate into community based services”, she said. Farah Nazeer and Nicole Jacobs at the Public Accounts Committee More