UK Politics

Reform UK’s flagship council has been mocked as having “more clowns than Billy Smart’s circus” as councillors met for the first time since footage of a chaotic online meeting emerged.Several members of the party in Kent were suspended after footage of the meeting was leaked last month, in which council leader Linden Kemkaran could be seen berating backbench councillors when they questioned her.The administration was confronted by opposition leaders during a chaotic meeting at Kent County Council on Thursday, where they were branded a “laughing stock”.Harry Rayner, leader of the Conservatives, said the council had “more clowns on display since I saw Bill Smart’s last circus”.He was joined by leader of the Liberal Democrats in Kent, Antony Hook, who said the council is in “political crisis” and that he had heard of “bets being made” about whether the administration would last until Christmas.He urged councillors to “not act in a way that becomes a punchline on Have I Got News for You”.Harry Rayner, leader of the Conservatives, said the council had “more clowns on display since I saw Bill Smart’s last circus” More

Former prime minister Gordon Brown has called for the “total abolition” of the two-child benefit cap, putting pressure on ministers to do more to tackle the “scar” of child poverty in Britain.Speaking at a conference to mark the 60th anniversary of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), the former Labour premier and chancellor shot down proposals to water down the controversial policy, instead calling for its complete removal.Pressure has increased on ministers to abolish the measure in the approach to the upcoming Budget and publication of the government’s delayed child poverty strategy.Campaigners at CPAG say the policy pulls 109 children in to poverty a day, and that without action, the number of children in poverty in the UK will rise from 4.5 million will rise to 4.7 million by the end of this parliament.The cap, introduced under Conservative welfare reforms, blocks parents from claiming the child element of universal credit worth £292.81 a month for a third or subsequent child born after April 2017.Gordon Brown speaks at a conference to mark the 60th anniversary of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) More

David Lammy has been told to “get a grip” on the prisons crisis as the justice secretary continues to come under pressure after two prisoners were mistakenly released from a London jail.The shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick told the BBC that he has no confidence in Mr Lammy, and said that the deputy prime minister’s handling of questions about the matter at Prime Minister’s Questions this week was “a disgrace” and “a total dereliction of duty”.Police are working to track down Algerian national Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, who was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth just over a week ago on 29 October. They are also searching for another inmate, Billy Smith, 35, who was accidentally released from the same prison in southwest London on Monday (3 November).Mr Lammy is under fire after he failed to address the matter when standing in for Sir Keir Starmer in the Commons on Wednesday, when he repeatedly failed to tell MPs whether any more asylum seekers had been mistakenly released from jail since the case of Epping hotel migrant Hadush Kebatu.Kaddour-Cherif is not an asylum seeker. Mr Jenrick told Radio 4’s Today programme: “It took six days for the prison service supposedly to even become aware that this had happened and inform the Metropolitan Police, who are now a week behind in the manhunt to find [Kaddour-Cherif].Justice secretary David Lammy is under pressure following the mistaken release of two prisoners More

Kate Garraway told off Robert Jenrick for swearing live on Good Morning Britain as he criticised David Lammy.During Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday (5 November), the justice secretary failed to answer questions about the mistaken release of 24-year-old Algerian national Brahim Kaddour-Cherif from HMP Wandsworth, despite having been informed about the case.The Ministry of Justice said the deputy PM was asked questions about the release of an asylum seeker, but it was confirmed after PMQs that the individual was not an asylum seeker. The ministry added that Mr Lammy waited until after PMQs and further facts had emerged before making a statement.During Thursday’s (6 November) show, Ms Garraway contended that the deputy prime minister may not have wanted to talk about the release before it was confirmed. Mr Jenrick called this “total bullshit”, to which the host interjected: “Don’t swear, don’t swear.”She later apologised on the MP’s behalf, before urging him not to swear again as he’ll “get us all in trouble”. More

The Conservatives have accused Labour of treating motorists “like a cash machine” amid reports that drivers of electric vehicles could face a new pay-per-mile tax in Rachel Reeves’s Budget. The chancellor is considering a plan that will see drivers of electric cars charged 3p per mile, according to The Telegraph. The scheme is set to kick in from 2028, by which time as many as six million people will be driving electric cars. The 3p charge would equate to around £12 on a journey from London to Edinburgh, according to the newspaper, which also reported that drivers will have to estimate their own usage rather than it being tracked electronically. Shadow transport secretary Richard Holden said: “Britain cannot afford a spineless government that, rather than standing up to its own backbenchers to stop the exponential growth in welfare payments, instead treats motorists as a cash machine to plug the holes Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer are creating.” “Families are not an ATM for Rachel Reeves, yet under Labour, everyone who relies on a vehicle is being lined up for another shakedown.”It comes as the Treasury is facing a fall in fuel duty revenue as more people make the switch from petrol and diesel to electric cars. Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver the Budget later this month More

Any significant tax increases proposed by Rachel Reeves must be “temporary” and paired with reforms to aid businesses “bruised” by the last Budget, Sir Tony Blair’s think tank has warned. A report from the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) has called on the Chancellor to “bring businesses back onside” by moving beyond “the caution of the government’s first year in office” in her upcoming November 26 Budget.Ms Reeves has already fuelled expectations of higher taxes by refusing to commit to maintaining Labour’s manifesto promises not to hike income tax, national insurance, or VAT. The TBI insists that any such measures must be accompanied by bold, growth-boosting, pro-business reforms. These, it argues, are essential to “break Britain’s tax-and-spend doom loop” and allow the government to roll back the tax rises as the economy improves.It rejected the government’s proposal of giving workers “day one” protection against unfair dismissal, recommending instead a six-month qualifying period.In its paper, the TBI backed “decisive” action such as hiking a major revenue-raising levy instead of more incrementalism that “creates pain but rarely momentum”.Chancellor Rachel Reeves has already fuelled expectations of higher taxes More

Gordon Brown is set to issue a stark warning that child poverty represents both the UK’s most significant social division and its greatest long-term economic threat. The former Labour leader is also expected to intensify calls for Chancellor Rachel Reeves to increase taxes on gambling companies to find the lifting of the two-child benefit cap.Mr Brown, who has repeatedly spoken out on the issue of child poverty, will brand the issue a “shameful epidemic” in a speech on Thursday to mark the 60th anniversary of the Child Poverty Action Group (Cpag).Speaking at an event in London, he is expected to say: “What has become a UK-wide child poverty emergency is not only the biggest cause of social division in our country but – because of the failure to equip young people for future work – it is also the biggest threat to our long-term economic future.”The most recent official statistics showed there were 4.45 million children estimated to be in UK households in relative low income, after housing costs, in the year to March 2024 – the highest number since comparable records for the UK began in 2002/03.A previously published report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), backed by Mr Brown, suggested reforms to gambling levies could generate the £3.2 billion needed to scrap both the two-child limit and benefit cap.The IPPR said axing the policies could lift half a million children out of poverty and “reverse years of rising hardship for low-income families”.Brown will say that UK-wide child poverty emergency is the biggest cause of social division Britain More

Rachel Reeves has been warned that she must slash taxes again before the next election if she breaks her key manifesto pledge and hikes them in the Budget. Sir Tony Blair’s think tank also said that any tax hikes such as raising VAT or income tax must be done in tandem with pro-business policies to break Britain’s “tax-and-spend doom loop”. The warning comes after the chancellor put the country on notice that manifesto-busting sweeping tax rises are coming later this month, saying during an unprecedented pre-Budget address that “we will all have to contribute”. The Tony Blair Institute has now called for any major tax rises to be temporary, warning Labour should move to “targeted tax cuts” before the next election “once growth strengthens and public service reforms deliver results”. The group also called for the chancellor to bring businesses who had been “bruised” by last year’s Budget “back onside” with measures that move beyond “the caution of the government’s first year in office”.Rachel Reeves has said ‘each of us must do our bit’ and warned there are ‘hard choices’ ahead More