UK Politics

Starmer refuses to rule out national insurance rise at PMQsYour support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreCloseRachel Reeves will announce Labour’s first Budget in 15 years later this month, leading one of the most highly-anticipated fiscal events in over a decade.As the chancellor looks to fill the £22bn “black hole” in public spending she announced in late July, speculation has mounted about what measures will be included on 30 October.During the Labour’s first few months in power, ministers have warned that “tough decisions” will be required to balance the books. Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the event is going to be “painful” but that there is “no other choice given the situation that we’re in”.This likely means tax rises and spending cuts can be expected. The government has already come under fire for its decision to cut back winter fuel payments for millions of pensions, sparking a row which has hung over its first 100 days in power.In their manifesto, Labour pledged not to increase “taxes on working people,” ruling out changes to national insurance contributions (NICs), income tax or VAT. This has given them “little room for manoeuvre” says Institute for Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson, as the top three sources of Treasury revenue are sealed off.However, experts are now criticising Ms Reeves after she and the prime minister refused to rule out an increase in employer NICs, which could raise £17bn a year.Officials have indicated that they do not believe the measure would represent a tax rise for working people. However, Mr Johnson has said the hike would be a “straightforward breach” of Labour’s manifesto.We’ll be bringing you all the latest updates ahead of the big event on 30 October here, on The Independent’s liveblog.Show latest update 1728997212Budget 2024: Latest news as proposed national insurance hike sparks rowHello and welcome to The Independent’s Budget 2024 live coverage where we’ll be bringing you the latest updates ahead of Labour’s fiscal event on 30 October.Labour has been criticised in recent days for refusing to rule out an increase to employer national insurance contributions (NICs). Some experts say the measure would break their pledge to not raise taxes on working people – but officials have indicated that the government does not agree.Institute for Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson said the measure would be a “straightforward breach” of the Labour manifesto, but added that Ms Reeves will “almost certainly” need to break a manifesto commitment to meet her spending targets.He says that a 1p hike in employer NICs would “probably not” be very damaging to jobs and could raise up to £17bn a year.Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Laura Trott said: “In 2021, the chancellor said increasing employer national insurance was a tax on ‘workers’. That’s why even in her own words it breaks Labour’s manifesto promise not to increase tax on working people.”However, it has been pointed out that Ms Trott and her party had criticised Labour for not ruling out the measure in the run-up to the general election, implying they did not believe the manifesto had done so.Albert Toth15 October 2024 14:00 More

Culture secretary defends Starmer taking ‘free tickets’ for Taylor Swift concertYour support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreCloseDowning Street has rejected suggestions that Sir Keir Starmer received free Taylor Swift tickets as a “thank you” after she was given taxpayer-funded police security while performing in London.No 10 would not say whether the prime minister was confident that perceptions of a conflict of interest had been avoided but insisted “operational decisions” were “ultimately” up to Scotland Yard and not the government.Last week it emerged that London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper were involved in talks around the security for Swift‘s sell-out summer shows at Wembley before the singer was granted a blue-light escort.The Sun reported that she was given the motorbike convoy on the way to the stadium despite initial police reservations, with her mother Andrea Swift also negotiating arrangements directly with Number 10 aide Sue Gray.Asked on Tuesday whether it was the prime minister’s view that there was no perception of a conflict of interest, his official spokesman said: “Operational decisions are for the Met (Metropolitan Police). That’s the bottom line.”Downing Street cited the terror threat faced by Swift in Vienna, which had forced her to cancel gigs on the Austria leg of her Eras tour, as one of the reasons the government was involved in security talks round her London shows.Show latest update 1729002002No 10 rejects suggestion Starmer got free Taylor Swift tickets as ‘thank you’ for taxpayer-funded securityDowning Street has rejected suggestions that Sir Keir Starmer received Taylor Swift tickets as a “thank you” after she was given taxpayer-funded police security while performing in London.No 10 would not say whether the prime minister was confident that perceptions of a conflict of interest had been avoided but insisted “operational decisions” were “ultimately” up to Scotland Yard and not the Government.Last week it emerged that London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper were involved in talks around the security for Swift‘s sell-out summer shows at Wembley before the singer was granted a blue-light escort.The Sun reported that she was given the motorbike convoy on the way to the stadium despite initial police reservations, with her mother Andrea Swift also negotiating arrangements directly with Number 10 aide Sue Gray.Asked on Tuesday whether it was the Prime Minister’s view that there was no perception of a conflict of interest, his official spokesman said: “Operational decisions are for the Met (Metropolitan Police). That’s the bottom line.”Downing Street cited the terror threat faced by Swift in Vienna, which had forced her to cancel gigs on the Austria leg of her Eras tour, as one of the reasons the government was involved in security talks round her London shows.Joe Middleton15 October 2024 15:201729000525Reeves warns there will be ‘difficult decisions’ on spending in BudgetChancellor Rachel Reeves said the Budget and spending review would be an “opportunity to put the country on a firmer footing”, but warned there would be “difficult decisions” on spending.The chancellor told a meeting of Sir Keir Starmer’s Cabinet on Tuesday that a £22bn black hole in the public finances left by the Conservatives needs to be filled just to “keep public services standing still”.She added that “the scale of inheritance meant there would have to be difficult decisions on spending, welfare and tax – and that the long-term priority had to be unlocking private sector investment to drive economic growth”.She warned that the government would be unable to “turn around 14 years of decline in one year or one Budget” but that it would deliver on priorities to “protect working people, fix the NHS and rebuild Britain”.Joe Middleton15 October 2024 14:551728999252Watch: Health secretary Wes Streeting denies using weight loss jabsHealth secretary Wes Streeting denies using weight loss jabsJoe Middleton15 October 2024 14:341728997931Starmer warned that employer national insurance increases could lower wages for workersSir Keir Starmer has been warned that any increase to employers’ national insurance contributions in the upcoming Budget could mean lower wages for workers.Helen Miller, deputy director and head of tax at the IFS said that any increase to employers’ national insurance contributions could be passed onto workers.She said: “Lots of questions about Employer NICs today. They are a tax on the earnings of working people. In the long run, expect the majority of a rise in employer NICs to be passed on to workers in the form of lower wages.”Joe Middleton15 October 2024 14:121728997226David Cameron hits back at claim he threatened Boris Johnson over Brexit backingDavid Cameron has hit back at the claim he threatened to “f***” Boris Johnson up forever if he backed Brexit in the 2016 referendum, saying he finds it “hard to believe”.Lord Cameron channelled the late Queen Elizabeth II in saying “recollections differ” after Mr Johnson had claimed those were his “exact words”.Speaking out for the first time since Mr Johnson made the explosive claim, Lord Cameron said: “I find that hard to believe.”Joe Middleton15 October 2024 14:001728996326Ex-Bank of England chief Mervyn King urges Rachel Reeves to raise national insurance in BudgetFormer Bank of England governor Mervyn King has made a dramatic intervention warning Rachel Reeves that she must raise national insurance in her Budget on 30 October.Our political editor David Maddox reportsJoe Middleton15 October 2024 13:451728995426Watch: Keir Starmer refuses to rule out raising national insurance contributionsKeir Starmer refuses to rule out raising national insurance contributionsJoe Middleton15 October 2024 13:301728994466Unemployed to be given weight-loss jab to help them back into workUnemployed people will be given weight-loss jabs to assist them back into work in a trial.The UK’s life sciences sector will receive £279 million from drugs giant Eli Lilly, to invest in developing new medicines and ways to deliver treatment.Amanda Pritchard, Chief Executive of the NHS praised weight-loss drugs as “game-changers” in supporting people to reduce their risk of life-threatening conditions.Jabed Ahmed reportsJoe Middleton15 October 2024 13:141728992846Hospitals programme will be delivered on ‘credible’ timetable, says health secretaryHealth secretary Wes Streeting has said the new hospitals programme will be delivered on a “credible” timetable.The government announced in July that all projects within the programme promised by the previous Conservative administration would be placed under a spending review, with 25 schemes still under consideration.Mr Streeting noted a proposed redevelopment is “desperately” needed for Whipps Cross Hospital, in east London, which serves his Ilford North constituency.He told Tory former minister Sir Iain Duncan Smith: “That is why, in common with so many Members right across the House, I am absolutely furious that the previous government had a new hospitals programme whose timetable was a work of fiction and where the money runs out in March.“The assurance I can give him, his constituents, my constituents and the constituents of every other MP across the House whose constituents are waiting for news on the new hospitals programme, is we will deliver that programme, we will deliver it on a timetable that is credible and a programme that is funded, giving our constituents the clarity that they deserve, the consistency that they deserve and also rebuilding faith in government amongst our construction industry and supply chain.”Joe Middleton15 October 2024 12:471728991358Analysis: Reeves will need lawyer’s language to break national insurance pledgeDuring the election Labour made a clear promise “not to raise taxes on working people”. This specifically included income tax, VAT and national insurance contributions.The problem Rachel Reeves has as her first Budget approaches on 30 October is that somehow she has to pay for an estimated £25bn in spending commitments and encourage economic growth with little room for manoeuvre.Her former Bank of England mentor Lord Mervyn King has warned her against extra borrowing even by rewriting the fiscals and suggested she raises national insurance instead to invest.It is clear from the prime minister’s words this morning that national insurance rises on employer contributions is now a strong possibility. But does this mean a breach in the manifesto promises from just over 100 days ago?The Tories say yes – they would – but so does the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson.It appears that Labour are planning on using a lawyer’s way out – appropriate for the prime minister – to emphasise that their pledge was “for working people” not employers.David Maddox15 October 2024 12:22 More

Your support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreCloseVoters do not believe a raft of key claims in Boris Johnson’s new memoir, covering everything from Prince Harry to Covid, according to a new poll.Mr Johnson was found to have lied to parliament over “Partygate” late-night bashes in Downing Street while the rest of the country was under Covid restrictions.And since the release of his new book Unleashed key passages have been disputed.Now a new poll by YouGov has found that Britons struggle to believe the claims.Just 35 per cent said they believed that former prime minister David Cameron had warned Mr Johnson he would “f*** you up forever” if he did not support Remain during the Brexit referendum, with the rest saying they did not believe him or did not know.Boris Johnson More

Your support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreCloseFormer first minister of Scotland Alex Salmond died as he opened a bottle of ketchup, a witness has claimed.The Alba Party leader died suddenly in North Macedonia on Saturday aged 69.He had made a speech at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy Forum in the city of Ohrid before collapsing at lunch in a crowded room.A post-mortem examination confirmed Mr Salmond’s cause of death as a heart attack, the Alba Party said on Monday.Eyewitness Mark Donfried, director of the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy, has explained what he saw in the moments before Mr Salmond’s death.Former first minister of Scotland Alex Salmond died as he opened a bottle of ketchup, a witness claims More

Your support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreCloseFormer Bank of England governor Mervyn King has made a dramatic intervention warning Rachel Reeves that she must raise national insurance in her Budget on 30 October.According to the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), the chancellor has an estimated £25bn black hole to fill in order to meet Labour’s spending commitments. But in an open letter published in The Independent, Lord King warns her against higher borrowing.Lord King, who was once the chancellor’s boss at the Bank of England, has told her: “Keep it simple and be ruthlessly honest with the public.”And he warned: “Resist the temptation to fiddle with the tax system – it is time to take a proper look at the various schemes that have been introduced by successive chancellors since the last major overhaul by Nigel Lawson.”Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver her first Budget at the end of the month (Stefan Rousseau/PA) More

Your support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreCloseAs Chancellor Rachel Reeves prepares to deliver Labour’s first Budget in 14 years, there is significant interest in the potential fiscal changes on the horizon. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has highlighted that the focus will be on “making people better off,” outlining three key priorities: improving living standards, strengthening the NHS, and rebuilding the country, particularly in terms of housing.While Starmer has acknowledged that those with the broadest shoulders may need to bear a heavier burden, he has also reinforced Labour’s commitment to not increasing taxes on working people. This has raised questions about possible adjustments to capital gains tax, inheritance tax, and pension contributions, as well as employers’ national insurance.We would like to hear your thoughts on what you would like to see introduced in Reeves’ Budget. Should she focus on measures to support homeowners, such as the Freedom to Buy scheme? Or would you prefer a focus on closing tax loopholes, such as abolishing non-dom status, to ensure a fairer tax system?Share your thoughts by adding them in the comments — we’ll highlight the most insightful ones as they come in.All you have to do is sign up and register your details — then you can take part in the discussion. You can also sign up by clicking ‘log in’ on the top right-hand corner of the screen. More

Your support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreCloseScotland Yard reportedly sought legal advice from the attorney general about Taylor Swift’s taxpayer-funded blue-light escort, amid fears the police could be held liable for any incidents.The Metropolitan Police reportedly felt pressured after talks with home secretary Yvette Cooper and London mayor Sadiq Khan about protection for the popstar at two of her Wembley Eras Tour gigs.Attorney general Lord Hermer was asked to step in after Scotland Yard warned giving Swift so-called VVIP protection would be a breach of the force’s protocols, according to reports.Taylor Swift was granted a blue-light escort to two of her Wembley Eras Tour shows More

Your support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreCloseA group of charities and online safety campaigners have written to the Prime Minister, urging him to ignore advice from Ofcom around which websites to categorise as the most dangerous under the Online Safety Act.The group of campaigners said the regulator’s advice that smaller websites should not be designated Category 1 – the rating which gives Ofcom the greatest scope of powers for oversight and regulation of that platform – left a number of “the most dangerous online forums” not fully in scope of the regulation.In guidance to the previous Conservative government, published in March, Ofcom proposed setting the threshold for what should be a considered a Category 1 service under the new rules as those which disseminated content easily, quickly and most widely, proposing among other things, that it should be for sites with at minimum, more than seven million UK users.But, in an open letter to the Prime Minister, the campaigners argue that this approach would leave a number of smaller, but dangerous “suicide forums” free of the most stringent rules, and urged the Technology Secretary Peter Kyle to use powers that enable him to determine which sites should be placed in Category 1 “based on functionality and other characteristics alone rather than requiring that they also be of a certain size”.“This would allow a limited number of small but exceptionally dangerous forums to be regulated to the fullest extent possible,” the letter says.“These include forums that are permissive of dangerous and hateful content as well as forums that explicitly share detailed or instructional information about methods of suicide or dangerous eating disorder content.“Given the cross-party support for such an approach to regulation of these platforms, we were dismayed to see that Ofcom, in its recently published advice to the previous Secretary of State on categorisation, explicitly recommended not using this power to address these extremely dangerous sites.”The open letter has been signed by a number of leaders from charities including Samaritans, Mind, the Mental Health Foundation, the Molly Rose Foundation and online safety groups such as the Centre for Countering Digital Hate and bereaved families.The letter highlights a report which links one such forum to “at least 50 UK deaths”, adding “we understand that the National Crime Agency is investigating 97 deaths in the UK thought to be related” to the site in question.The group argues that this “highly dangerous suicide forum” should be regulated “at the same level as sites like Facebook and Instagram” in order to make them “accountable” for the content they allow to appear on their platform.The letter also notes that there are similar issues around sites hosting antisemitic and Islamophobic content, as well as smaller platforms being used to “stoke this summer’s racist riots”.“We would argue that the events of the summer, in tandem with the ongoing human cost of a growing number of suicides, are sufficient evidence in themselves to justify the Secretary of State deciding to divert from Ofcom’s advice and set the categorisation thresholds for the regime in the most robust and expansive way the Act allows,” the letter says.“Ofcom’s current recommendations, which involve services having content recommendation systems, and having the functionality for users to forward or re-share content, in addition to having a large size, would do nothing at all to address the services we are concerned about.“We hope that you will be able to take action on addressing this major oversight in the advice that the government has been given by Ofcom.”Under the Online Safety Act, which is due to start coming fully into force next year, and will place new duties on social media sites for the first time, with the largest and most popular, as well as those which count children among their users, set to face the strictest rules.Platforms will be required to put in place and enforce safety measures to ensure that users, and in particular young people, do not encounter illegal or harmful content, and if they do that it is quickly removed, with those who do not adhere to the rules facing large fines.An Ofcom spokesperson said: “There should be no doubt that these sorts of harmful websites will be tightly regulated.“From next year, any sites that don’t comply with their illegal content and child safety duties will be in breach of our regulations, and we will use the full extent of our powers to take action against them.“Additional duties such as producing transparency reports will be a powerful tool in making larger platforms safer. But they would do little to tackle the harm done by smaller, riskier sites – and could even attract attention to them.”A Government spokesperson said: “Too many people are affected by the tragedy of suicide, which is so often preventable.“The Secretary of State is working steadfast to deliver the Online Safety Act, which will stop children seeing material that promotes self-harm and suicide.“He recently wrote to Ofcom to request an update on how it intends to monitor such services, using the full force of their enforcement powers.” More