UK Politics

A Starmer government minister says she has been too busy since the general election to accept concert tickets amid an ongoing row over Rachel Reeves going to a Sabrina Carpenter show for free. Transport secretary Heidi Alexander’s comments add to pressure piling on the chancellor, who has faced days of criticism for accepting the freebie gig tickets, saying that she a “very busy diary”. “I haven’t taken any tickets to be honest since I was elected back in June as a new member of parliament and going straight into the Ministry of Justice and then coming straight into the Department for Transport, Ms Alexander told Times Radio. “I actually sadly haven’t been to see any concerts at all over the last nine months, partly because I’ve been very very busy.The chancellor took a family member to see Sabrina Carpenter (Lucy North/PA) More

There appears to be confusion at the top of the government over proposed cuts to the civil service, as a minster has insisted there are no targets for redundancies – despite the chancellor saying there would be 10,000 job losses just one day earlier. Rachel Reeves has ordered mandarins to slash 15 per cent from departmental administrative budgets by 2029–30 – saving an estimated £2.2bn a year – and pledged the money will be redirected to “frontline” services.Over the weekend, when pressed on the number of jobs that could be cut, Ms Reeves told Sky News: “I’m confident that we can reduce civil service numbers by 10,000.”And during Covid, there were big increases in the number of people that were working in the civil service.”That was the right thing to do to respond to those challenges. But it’s not right that we just keep those numbers there forever.”Rachel Reeves indicated there could be 10,000 job losses More

Sir Keir Starmer has promised to clamp down on local authorities and force them to prove they are tackling potholes or lose the cash to fix them. Ministers “want to get our sleeves rolled up” and fix potholes for good, the prime minister said on Monday, as he announced an additional £4.8bn of funding to carry out work on motorways and major A-roads. Local authorities will start to get their share of £1.6bn in highway maintenance funding confirmed last year, up £500 million from the previous year, in mid-April.But from Monday, they will be required to publish annual progress reports or face having funding withheld.“It gives local accountability so we can see who’s doing the most and where they’re doing it”, the prime minister told BBC 5 Live. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaks to the media (Oli Scarff/PA) More

Keir Starmer has been urged not to appease Donald Trump as he considers cutting a major tax on US tech companies, following sweeping cuts to disability benefits and public sector jobs in the UK. As the government scrambles to agree an exemption for 25 per cent tariffs on British steel imposed by the US – alongside other possible tariffs currently being considered by the Trump administration – the chancellor confirmed ongoing discussions about the digital services tax, which hits major US tech firms including Meta and Amazon. The 2 per cent levy, which was introduced in 2020, raises about £800m a year for the UK. Rachel Reeves was optimistic that the steel tariffs could be scrapped if the UK strikes a deal with the US, but failed to deny there could be changes to the tax. “You’ve got to get the balance right,” Ms Reeves said.Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman says the government is engaging with the administration of US President Donald Trump over tariffs (Carl Court/PA) More

More than 200,000 jobs could be lost because of the government’s so-called tractor tax, according to new research. The move would also cost the economy £14.9bn, according to a study by the independent consultancy CBI-Economics, which was commissioned by the group Family Business UK and looked at more than 4,000 businesses and farms across the country.Nearly a quarter of family businesses – 23 per cent – and almost one in five family farms – 17 per cent – said they had cut jobs or halted recruitment since the planned tax was announced in the October budget. Just under half of family farms – 49 per cent – said they have also paused or cancelled planned investments. Changes to inheritance tax rules in the budget introduced new taxes on farms worth more than £1m More

Rachel Reeves is preparing to cut 10,000 civil service jobs as part of a sweeping £2bn Whitehall savings drive, ahead of a spring statement she has warned will involve “hard” choices.The Labour chancellor has ordered mandarins to slash 15 per cent from departmental administrative budgets by 2029–30 – saving an estimated £2.2bn a year – and pledged the money will be redirected to “frontline” services. But the plans triggered an immediate backlash from unions, who said public services would suffer after years of underfunding.“People want to know we’re getting value for money,” Ms Reeves said.Chancellor Rachel Reeves appearing on the BBC 1 current affairs programme Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg More

Keir Starmer hailed his “good relationship” with Donald Trump just hours before the US President’s special envoy slammed the PM’s Ukraine peace plan as “a posture and a pose”. Steve Witkoff said the Labour leader’s idea of a peacekeeping force made up of the ‘coalition of the willing’ was based on a “simplistic” notion of thinking “we have all got to be like Winston Churchill”.In an interview with the pro-Trump personality Tucker Carlson, Mr Witkoff also praised Vladimir Putin, saying that he “liked” the Russian president. “I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy. He’s super smart,” he said. Mr Witkoff is leading the US ceasefire negotiations with Russia and Ukraine. Asked about the plans to create a “coalition of the willing” to provide military security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, Mr Witkoff said: “I think it’s a combination of a posture and a pose and a combination of also being simplistic. There is this sort of notion that we have all got to be like Winston Churchill. (And thinking that) Russians are going to march across Europe. That is preposterous by the way. We have something called Nato that we did not have in World War Two.” Sir Keir said: “On a person-to-person basis, I think we have a good relationship.” More

Rachel Reeves has said she has “confidence” the UK can escape Donald Trump’s trade tariffs – due to be imposed within days. The chancellor did not rule out changing or ditching a tax on tech companies in a bid to duck the extra charges on goods entering the US, which experts have warned could shrink the already faltering UK economy. Ms Reeves told Sky News she had “confidence in our negotiators” working to try to secure a carve out for the UK. She added: “When our prime minister, Keir Starmer met Donald Trump a couple of weeks ago the US president said that he wanted to work on a deal and that’s what we are doing now. I believe in free and open trade. I want to reduce taxes.” She later described the US President as “rightly” concerned about countries that had a large trade deficit with the US, but insisted the UK was not in that position. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves (PA) More