UK Politics

An extra 400,000 people could be signed off as unfit for work under Labour’s controversial welfare reforms, the government’s own figures show.Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall declared ministers were being “ambitious for our people and our country” as she announced plans to slash £5bn from the benefits bill earlier this month. Alongside the cuts, she pledged changes to the system designed to get the long-term sick back into work. ( More

The UK has pledged further action with allies and social media platforms to tackle people smuggling adverts online as part of efforts to cut small boat crossings and other illegal migration services.A new agreement made at the UK’s Organised Immigration Crime Summit on Tuesday will see the UK, US, Albania, Sweden, Tunisia and Vietnam take more collective action to target criminal gangs advertising illegal migration online, and share more data on the issue.The agreement will also see governments work with social media companies – including Meta, TikTok and X, who were present at the summit – to design out methods being used by criminal gangs to advertise and glorify their people smuggling activities online.The Home Office said 18,000 social media accounts used to sell spaces on small boats have been taken down by the National Crime Agency (NCA) since last July – 10,000 more than the previous year – but that further action is still needed.As part of the new collective action agreement, governments will work with online platforms to help improve detection and moderation tools for identifying content linked to people smuggling.Border Security Commander Martin Hewitt said: “Criminal gangs are exploiting online platforms to prey on vulnerable people, luring them into dangerous and illegal journeys that undermine our border security.“This international agreement is a vital step in shutting down their online operations and dismantling their networks across the world.“These organised crime groups operate across borders, which is why the UK has united with five nations to take decisive action – strengthening intelligence-sharing and taking away platforms that these criminals depend on for their business.“Under the Government’s Plan for Change, we will continue working with global partners to dismantle smuggling networks, bring perpetrators to justice, and protect vulnerable people from falling into their hands.”The summit has also seen nations agree to increased intelligence-sharing, including between law enforcement agencies, while the UK is to lead work on investigating how criminal gangs are using online spaces.Graeme Biggar, director-general of the NCA, said: “Yesterday we saw law enforcement from over 40 nations come together in a shared endeavour to stop these criminal gangs.“We have explored challenges, sought solutions, and reinforced our shared commitment to tackling the threat and harm caused by people smuggling.“International intelligence-sharing and co-operation is absolutely crucial to track criminal activity across borders, allowing us to put a stop to these dangerous criminals, and this summit has ensured that we can build on our work to put a stop to these gangs, protect our borders and save lives.” More

Sir Keir Starmer has reportedly offered big US tech companies a major tax break in a last-ditch bid to dodge Donald Trump’s damaging tariffs. The prime minister is prepared to lower the rate of the government’s digital services tax (DST) in a bid to win concessions from the president as a global trade war looms, it has emerged. It comes after a scramble in government to strike a deal with the US ahead of what Mr Trump has dubbed “liberation day”, with the president set to impose tariffs of up to 20 per cent on all imports to the US. The PM conceded this week that an agreement would not be reached before the tariffs take effect, but his business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said the UK could be the first country to do a deal with Washington on a carve-out from the levies. There is reportedly a deal on the table ready to be signed, covering areas such as artificial intelligence and other future technologies. But The Guardian on Wednesday also reported the UK has offered significant changes to the DST. The move would reportedly see Britain lower the headline rate of the tax, in a major boost to major American firms such as Amazon, Facebook owner Meta and Google owner Alphabet, while at the same time applying the levy to companies from other countries. The Government still hopes to secure a carve-out from Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs (Carl Court/PA) More

Britain “must prepare for the worst” from new import tariffs, the foreign secretary David Lammy said yesterday as the world awaits the start of Donald Trump’s trade war. The United States president has threatened to impose fees of 20 per cent or more on imports from around the world with immediate effect in measures expected to be announced on Wednesday – which he has dubbed “Liberation Day”. Global market jitters continued over the potential impact of a trade war, as one study estimated it could cost the world £1.1 trillion.In Britain alone, 25,000 jobs are at risk according to the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), which said the new White House trade policy would “completely destabilise the UK car manufacturing industry”.Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs analysts expected Britain’s GDP to suffer a greater hit than previously feared even if a UK trade deal were agreed, due to “larger negative spillovers” from tariffs levied against the European Union. As a result, the bank now expects 0.8 per cent of UK growth this year and 1.2 per cent in 2026 – down from 0.9 and 1.3 respectively.Chancellor Rachel Reeves told a cabinet meeting that there would be a serious impact from the tariffs.And while business secretary Jonathan Reynolds tried to be optimistic about the prospect of a UK-US deal, he was unable to give a timeline on when one might be completed. Ministers were also forced to deny the Trump administration was making demands about free speech in the UK as part of any potential trade deal.Mr Trump has previously announced a 25 per cent tax will be introduced on all cars imported to the US. He has also announced similar tariffs on steel and aluminium.However, the announcement on Wednesday is expected to be far more wide-ranging.Foreign secretary David Lammy More

Foodbank use and homelessness are set to rise, charities have warned as ‘awful April’ pushes up the cost of crucial bills, including energy and water, for millions of households across the country. People across the country are struggling to afford the bare essentials and with somany costs rising at once, from gas to council tax, has led to fresh calls for ministers to help limit the impact. From Tuesday, the annual average energy bill will go up by £111 a year, or £9.25 a month, to £1,849, after Ofgem raised the energy cap.Water bills are also set to soar by an average of 26 per cent, or £123 a year, in England and Wales, while council tax will rise by £108 a year on average, after ministers confirmed they would be allowed to increase by at most 5 per cent.Matt Downie, chief executive at Crisis, the housing charity, warned it was becoming “even harder for people on low incomes to afford the basic essentials. This is leaving them dangerously exposed, forced into debt and in real danger of being pushed into homelessness as the cost of living crisis continues to bite.” Rachel Reeves’ decision to freeze housing benefits from Tuesday in last October’s Budget would also “push people deeper into poverty and homelessness,” he added. Trussell warned more people would be forced to turn to food banks (Danny Lawson/PA) More

Watch as UK economists appear before parliament’s Treasury Committee on Tuesday, 1 April, to answer questions about Rachel Reeves’s spring statement.Last week, the chancellor outlined a fresh set of cuts to government spending without raising taxes, blaming a dramatic slowdown in growth.Ms Reeves faced a major setback in the hours before delivering her statement when the government’s official spending watchdog rejected its forecasts for how much its welfare cuts would save. That prompted the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to slash its economic growth forecast for this year from 2 per cent to 1 per cent.She was forced to go further than expected to fall back within her self-imposed borrowing rules, so set out fresh measures to cut the government welfare bills.Changes set out by the chancellor to previously announced welfare reforms will see the health element of universal credit cut in half for new claimants and then frozen. Elsewhere, the universal credit standard allowance will increase from £92 per week in 2025-26, to £106 per week by 2029-30. It had previously been expected to rise to £107 per week by that year.This week, millions of households across the UK are bracing for yet another wave of price hikes, as bills for energy, water, council tax, and more increase from 1 April.Dubbed “awful April,” these rising costs are putting even more pressure on household budgets, prompting fresh calls for government intervention.Energy bills for millions on standard variable tariffs will rise by an average of £111 a year, while water bills in some areas will jump by nearly 47 per cent.Council tax increases will also hit households across England, Scotland, and Wales, with some local authorities imposing hikes of almost 10 per cent. On top of this, the cost of road tax, broadband, and TV licences is also climbing. More

Donald Trump has formally signed off Sir Keir Starmer’s deal to hand the Chagos islands over to Mauritius, No 10 has said. The agreement is now being “finalised” between the UK and Mauritius.A Downing Street spokesperson said: “We are now working with the Mauritian government to finalise the deal and sign the treaty.” A source added: “It’s now between us and the Mauritian government to finalise the deal following the discussions with us. We have had the discussions with the US and we are now finalising with the Mauritians.”Trump signed off on Chagos when he met Starmer in the White House More

Kemi Badenoch has said Adolescence is based on a true story that has been “fundamentally changed” and that the real-life perpetrator was not white, a theory already rejected by one of the drama’s makers.Co-creator Jack Thorne recently dismissed an online theory that the series changed the race of the lead character and stressed it was not based on a real case.The drama about a teenage boy who is accused of killing a girl from his school examines so-called incel (involuntary celibate) culture and has prompted a national conversation about online safety.Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hosted a roundtable at Downing Street with Thorne and children’s charities on Monday to talk about young boys being influenced by misogyny they encounter online.Tory leader Mrs Badenoch said she had not watched the series.“I don’t have time to watch anything to be honest, but I have read about it … what I understand is that this is a fictional representation of a story that is actually quite different,” she told LBC.She said it “certainly touches on some of the things that are happening in the world today” but is not the biggest thing happening when it comes to people being radicalised on social media.“There are bigger problems, such as Islamic terrorism and that kind of radicalisation, and the story which it is based on has been fundamentally changed, and so creating policy on a work of fiction rather than on reality is the real issue.”She was later asked on GB News if she thinks white boys are being wrongly singled out.“Adolescence is a fictional story. It’s based on a real story, but my understanding is that the boy who committed that crime was not white,” she said.She said Sir Keir having meetings sparked by the reaction to the programme was a “gimmick”, after Labour had said the same about the Tories’ proposed mobile phone ban in schools.“It’s a gimmick. He thinks that he’s going to touch the people of this country. ‘They’re all watching Netflix, so I’ll just talk about the thing they’re watching on TV’.”Some have said the call for a ban on pupils using phones is unnecessary as many schools already do not allow children to use mobiles.A post on social media amplified by Elon Musk has suggested the story, which features a white actor, is based on the Southport attacker.Co-creator Thorne recently rejected the accusations of “race-swapping” in the series.It is not based on a true story and is “making a point about masculinity”, and not race, Thorne told the News Agents podcast.“It’s absurd to say that (knife crime) is only committed by black boys. It’s absurd. It’s not true. And history shows a lot of cases of kids from all races committing these crimes,” he said. More