UK Politics

Labour is set to announce an end to the two-child benefit cap at Wednesday’s Budget, following months of intense pressure from backbenchers, campaign groups and political opponents.Ahead of the fiscal event on 26 November, government insiders have told The Independent that the chancellor will scrap the controversial policy in a bid to appease discontented MPs and boost ailing poll results.Rachel Reeves hinted earlier this month that Labour could abolish the controversial policy, saying she does not think it is right that children are “penalised” for being part of large families.Speaking on BBC Radio 5Live, the chancellor said it was important not to let the “costs to our economy in allowing child poverty to go unchecked”. She added: “In the end, a child should not be penalised because their parents don’t have very much money.”Rachel Reeves said it was important not to let the ‘costs to our economy in allowing child poverty to go unchecked’ More

Rachel Reeves could hit more than 100,000 high-value properties with a mansion tax at this week’s Budget as she seeks to raise money to fill her financial blackhole.The chancellor has reportedly scaled back plans for a property tax but is now expected to apply a tax to homes worth more than £2 million in a move which could raise between £400m and £450m for the Treasury. Some 2.4 million properties in the top three council tax bands – F, G and H – will be revalued to determine which will be subject to the surcharge, which will be worth an average of £4,500, according to The Times. People will be able to defer the cost until they die or move house to avoid forcing them to sell up, according to the newspaper.Follow our live updates on the Budget HEREEarlier reports had suggested that a mansion tax would apply to homes worth more than £1.5million and would have pulled tens of thousands more households in. But The Times reports that the threshold has been raised amid concerns it could affect those who are “asset rich and cash poor”, particularly in London. Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver the Budget on Wednesday (Leon Neal/PA) More

Rachel Reeves has been given a stark warning from business to avoid “death by a thousand taxes” in her long-awaited Budget this week. The CBI’s director general, Rain Newton-Smith, will tell the chancellor on Monday that the UK risks being stuck in “Groundhog Day”, where politics trumps growth and no bold decisions are taken. In a speech to hundreds of business leaders at the QEII centre in London, the government will be urged to “change course… and work with business to fix what’s broken”. “We face a fork in the road,” Ms Newton-Smith is expected to say. “Where our biggest fear is, if we get the wrong choices on Wednesday… more short-term tinkering; more bold choices not made; more politics over growth … then we risk getting locked in a stop-start economy.“Where large tax rises rear their head every year or even every autumn and spring. That is not the road to growth. That is a cycle of doubt and uncertainty. That is the road to decline.” Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver the Budget on Wednesday More

New research has suggested that 1.3 million more people will be dragged into paying the higher 40p tax rate if Rachel Reeves, as expected, freezes the threshold again.The chancellor is now widely believed to be ready to break her party’s manifesto promise on not raising income tax with what critics describe as “a stealth tax” on earners with another freeze in the point that tax rates start to apply.It comes as Ms Reeves is set to confirm that pensioners will benefit from a £550 rise in the state pension with an inflation busting increase of 2.5 per cent as she maintains the triple lock despite growing pressures on the government finances.Chancellor of Exchequer Rachel Reeves will finally unveil her Budget on Wednesday (Paul Grover/Daily Telegraph/PA) More

An overwhelming majority of Tory members believe that their party will need to prop up a Reform government led by Nigel Farage after the next election, according to a new survey.The survey of Conservative members by the ConHome website reveals that despite the two party leaderships attacking one another, they believe that the two will need to work together after the next election.When asked if Nigel Farage will be prime minister after the next election, the survey found that 53.9 per cent thought it was either highly likely (15.8 per cent) or likely (38.1 per cent).Then asked what sort of government would be required to keep Mr Farage’s Reform UK in power 24.4 per cent favoured a coalition with the Tories and 45 per cent a confidence and supply arrangement between the Tories and Reform.More than half of Tories polled said they believed Nigel Farage will become PM More

Official files have revealed that Boris Johnson took four days off during a crucial period in the run up to locking down the UK when the Covid pandemic struck.The revelation has come after the group campaigning for families of the Covid bereaved described the former prime minister as being “beyond contempt” for his attack on the damning report produced by the inquiry into his government’s handling of the pandemic.Mr Johnson has refused to apologise for an estimated 23,000 extra deaths the inquiry stated he caused by delaying lockdown for a week.Instead he used his column in a national newspaper to lambast the inquiry’s chair Baroness Heather Hallett and argue that Professor Neil Ferguson, whose estimates the figure was based on, was “hysterical”.Baroness Heather Hallett found Boris Johnson failed to exercise ‘proper leadership’ during the pandemic (Lucy North/PA) More

A key ally of Nigel Farage has broken Reform UK’s silence on its former party leader in Wales who was jailed last week for taking bribes from Russia.Zia Yusuf, the party’s former chairman and key member of Reform’s leadership, claimed that it was “unreasonable” to link Gill’s crime with the softer stance that the party and Mr Farage have taken on Vladimir Putin’s Russia and its criticism of the Ukraine war.Mr Yusuf described Gill as “treasonous, horrific, awful” in an interview with Sir Trevor Phillips on his Sunday morning political show on Sky News.Nathan Gill received £40,000 for making pro-Russian statements in the European Parliament (James Manning/PA) More

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are set to tack hard to the left in the budget to buy themselves time and prevent an attempted leadership coup by backbenchers.The Independent has been told that the chancellor will bow to pressure scrapping the two child benefit cap altogether and unveiling a series of wealth taxes to fill the spending black hole in her budget.Backbenchers and senior party members have been assured that the tax raid will include a mansion tax on properties worth more than £2 million, a profits tax on gambling companies demanded by former PM Gordon Brown, and a levy on bank profits.Added to that transport secretary Heidi Alexander refused end speculation that fuel duty could rise for the first time in 15 years and electric cars will be subject to a new pay by the mile tax.Chancellor Rachel Reeves is finally set to unveil her budget after months of speculationThe minister was challenged on the issues on Sunday morning by Sir Trevor Phillips on Sky News and Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC.Ms Alexander pointed out that the government is freezing rail fares but after being asked three times about fuel duty, she said: “You would not expect me to speculate on what is going to be contained in the budget next week.”It is also being briefed that Ms Reeves will raise capital gains tax but will fall short of equalising it with income tax levels.A minister told The Independent: “The ink definitely won’t dry on this budget until Tuesday night but it looks like the PLP [parliamentary Labour Party] is getting what it wants…wealth taxes and an end to the child benefit cap.”The contents of the budget now though are being tied to the future of Sir Keir and Ms Reeves with continuing speculation that the PM could be ousted following a Downing Street briefing accusing Wes Streeting of plotting to replace him.Along with Mr Streeting, former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, energy secretary Ed Miliband and home secretary Shabana Mahmood have been the centre of leadership speculation in the last fortnight.A senior party source told The Independent: “The PM and chancellor are buying themselves time. There will be elements of the media who hate these taxes but it will please members and the PLP.”It has also emerged that the decision to ditch an income tax rise breaking the manifesto commitment also came after pressure from backbenchers.One Labour MP said: “The message went up that it is hard enough for us to get a hearing on the doorstep as it is but if we did that [raise income tax], then the doors would have been closed on us and not reopened.“People would have just said ‘you lied, we can never trust you again.’”Health Secretary Wes Streeting was accused of trying to orchestrate a leadership coup (PA) More