UK Politics

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 moreCloseRachel Reeves is set to unveil Labour’s first Budget in a generation on Wednesday – and the first ever written by a female chancellor. She has warned that it will involve “difficult decisions” – as she blamed the last Tory government for leaving a £22bn black hole in the public finances. Paul Johnson, the director of the high-respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank has already said it could be the “biggest tax-raising budget” ever and yet it still could leave “a lot of public services still feeling squeezed”. Here we take a look at some of the key measures expected:Ms Reeves is expected to raise employer national insurance payments. Labour has pledged before the election not to raise NI, but the party insists that applied only to employees, not employers.But critics have accused ministers of breaking their promises and planning to bring in a ‘tax on jobs’.Rachel Reeves will be unviling Labour’s first Budget in a generation More

Keir Starmer refuses to rule out raising national insurance contributionsYour 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’ tax-hiking Budget will hit workers however Labour frame it, the former governor of the Bank of England has said. Lord Mervyn King, who was head of the Bank of England for a decade until 2013, said that the debate around who Labour are classifying as a “working person” is “a terrible illusion”. Speaking on Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Lord King said: “Taxes are paid by people, they’re not paid by companies or institutions, ultimately, they fall on the amount that people can spend, and you only can raise significant amounts of money by raising taxes on most people, however you care to define that, but it’s most people will have to pay higher taxes.”He added: “Ultimately, the impact of these higher taxes has to be on the consumption of most people, however you care to define that group.”Ms Reeves has promised a Budget “for the strivers” but admitted tough decisions have been made.We’ll be bringing you all the latest updates ahead of the big event here, on The Independent’s liveblog. Show latest update 1730039990Scheme to boost French school trips to Britain ‘in peril’A scheme that brings more French children to the UK for school trips is reportedly in peril as a result of new Brexit rules.The Financial Times has reported that the scheme is at risk because of the UK’s new electronic travel authorisation (ETA) scheme, which is due to come into force on 2 April 2025. This will require all EU visitors to the UK to register before their travel. Registering will require the children to have a passport. French president Emmanuel Macron and then-prime minister Rishi Sunak had agreed that French school children could travel to the UK just on ID cards, however this seems to have been scuppered by the new ETA requirements. Holly Bancroft27 October 2024 14:391730038383Rachel Reeves’ expected tax hike will hit working people, says ex-Bank of England governorFormer Bank of England governor Mervyn King has said the debate around not putting up taxes on working people is a “terrible illusion”.Lord King told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “All this debate about not putting up taxes on working people is a terrible illusion, really.“Taxes are paid by people, they’re not paid by companies or institutions, ultimately, they fall on the amount that people can spend, and you only can raise significant amounts of money by raising taxes on most people, however you care to define that, but it’s most people will have to pay higher taxes.“And if they, instead of unwinding the cuts in employees’ national insurance contributions, put up employers’ national insurance contributions, that will make it less likely that companies will exceed to wage demands, they will press down on that, they will probably be less enthusiastic about creating new jobs.“Ultimately, the impact of these higher taxes has to be on the consumption of most people, however you care to define that group.”Holly Bancroft27 October 2024 14:131730038159Daughter of murdered MP says he was failed by governmentThe daughter of murdered MP Sir David Amess said he was “catastrophically” failed by the government’s Prevent programme, as she called for a full inquest into his death.The veteran MP, 69, was stabbed to death by Ali Harbi Ali, then aged 26, at Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex in October 2021.Katie Amess, 39, said she was told Ali had been reported to Prevent in 2014, but after one meeting his case was not followed up by the anti-radicalisation programme “due to an admin error”.She told The Sunday Times: “He was reported. People were trying to help us, and so why was he allowed to just go on and do whatever he wanted for seven years?“What happened to my dad should not have been an admin error.”Sir David, a father of five, had been holding a surgery in his Southend West constituency when he was attacked by Ali, who was sentenced in 2022 to a whole-life prison term for the murder.In an interview with The Sunday Times, Ms Amess, an actress who lives in West Hollywood in the United States, said the pain of his death was “unbearable” and “unspeakable”.She added: “It’s pretty obvious that Prevent isn’t fit for purpose, it has consistently failed people.“It failed me. It failed my family catastrophically, it failed the public and also it failed other Members of Parliament.”( 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 moreCloseThe daughter of David Amess, murdered by an Islamic State supporter at his MP surgery, says she was “catastrophically” failed by the government’s Prevent programme.Katie Amess reportedly launched a High Court civil case for personal injury against the Home Office and Essex Police earlier this year following her father’s murder in 2021.Sir David, 69, was stabbed 21 times by Ali Harbi Ali, who pretended to be a constituent interested in local churches before launching an attack he had planned for seven years outside the constituency surgery held at a Methodist church in Leigh-on-Sea.Ali, 28, had been referred to the Home Office’s deradicalisation scheme Prevent seven years earlier but boasted he was able to look compliant when dealing with the organisation.Sir David Amess with his beloved pugs Lilly and Botox 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 moreCloseRichard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, has admitted his party’s policy of picking up and taking migrants back to France could result in a “friendly stand-off” between the countries in the English Channel. Speaking to Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme, he said: “It’s very simple. The government’s policy of smashing the gangs is clearly not working, and sadly people are literally dying… The only way to stop the boats is a variant of what Australia did.“We’ve talked about it before. I will repeat it again: You’ve got to safely pick up and take back to France, which we are legally entitled to do under the 1982 UN Convention of the Law of Sea.“And by the way France has a legal obligation to do the same, which they are in breach of. So we are legally entitled to do this.“If the French coastguards say ‘you’re not coming in’ they’re in breach of international law.”When pressed on what would happen if French authorities refused, Mr Tice said: “Well then we’ve got a stand-off… I’m not saying go to war but you can have a friendly stand-off with friends. It’s the only way you’re going to stop the deaths. Ours is the kind and compassionate policy.”An inflatable dinghy carrying around 65 migrants crosses the English Channel on March 06, 2024. This year’s crossings are higher than 2023 but lower than the peak in 2022. 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 moreCloseRachel Reeves claimed her Budget was for strivers as she tried to draw a line under a furious row over Labour’s definition of working people. The chancellor, who is expected to raise taxes on Wednesday, warned that she had had to make “tough decisions…Not everything is going to be easy”.But she said her reforms, which Labour hope will kickstart economic growth, were for “hardworking families up and down the country who have been crying out for change. “To these people I say, I’ve got your back…. I will deliver for you. It’s a Budget for the strivers,” she wrote in The Sun on Sunday.Her comments risk a backlash for echoing George Osborne’s claims when he was chancellor that strivers would be better off under his budgets.Rachel Reeves in her office at no 11 Downing Street (Jordan Pettitt/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 moreCloseThe new Labour government is considering a ban on smacking, a cabinet minister has said. Bridget Phillipson said she was “open-minded” about the move and wanted to hear from experts.Smacking bans have already been brought in in Scotland and Wales, to outlaw the use of physical violence to punish children.The move follows fresh calls for a change in the law from the Children’s Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de SouzaEducation secretary Ms Phillipson told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme “we do need to look at how we keep children safe”.Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson was speaking to Laura Kuenssberg 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 moreCloseMilitary families are set to be protected from Labour’s decision to impose VAT on private school fees.Critics of the plan have warned it is unfair to those in the Armed Forces who have to move countries and homes frequently and put their children in boarding schools. There have even been warnings some could leave the services altogether as a result of fee increases which could come as a result of the changes due to come in in January.Military families already receive support through an existing scheme, and now they are set to get extra help to ensure they are not affected by VAT under a package in the Budget, to be revealed on Wednesday.But the move risks fuelling the outcry from other parents.Military families are to be protected VAT on private schools (Ben Birchall/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 moreClose Georgia’s pro-Western opposition disputed the results of the parliamentary election after officials declared Sunday the ruling party led the crucial vote that could decide whether the country remains on the path to joining the European Union or comes under Russian sway. The Central Election Commission said Georgian Dream won 54.8% of Saturday’s vote with almost 100% of ballots counted. Following a divisive pre-election campaign, initial figures suggested turnout is the highest since the ruling party was first elected in 2012.Georgian electoral observers, who stationed thousands across the country to monitor the vote, reported multiple violations and said the results “do not correspond to the will of the Georgian people.” Georgian Dream has become increasingly authoritarian, adopting laws similar to those used by Russia to crack down on freedom of speech. Brussels suspended Georgia’s EU membership process indefinitely because of a “Russian law,” passed in June.Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of Georgian Dream who made his fortune in Russia, claimed victory almost immediately after polls closed and said, “It is rare in the world for the same party to achieve such success in such a difficult situation.” He had vowed ahead of the election to ban opposition parties should his party win.Tina Bokuchava, the chair of the United National Movement opposition party accused the election commission of carrying out Ivanishvili’s “dirty order” and said he “stole the victory from the Georgian people and thereby stole the European future.”She indicated the opposition would not recognize the results and “will fight like never before to reclaim our European future.”The UNM party said its headquarters were attacked on Saturday while Georgian media reported two people were hospitalized after being attacked outside polling stations. The pre-election campaign in the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million people, which borders Russia, was dominated by foreign policy and marked by a bitter fight for votes and allegations of a smear campaign.Some Georgians complained of intimidation and being pressured to vote for the governing party.Georgian Dream scored its highest share of the vote — polling almost 90% — in the Javakheti region of southern Georgia, 135 kilometers (83 miles) west of the capital Tbilisi where it failed to get more than 44% of the vote in any district. The Associated Press traveled to the region before the election where many people are ethnic Armenians who speak Armenian, Russian and limited Georgian. Some voters suggested they were instructed how to vote by local officials while several questioned why Georgia needed a relationship with Europe and suggested it would be better off allied with Moscow. Around 80% of Georgians favor joining the EU, according to polls, and the country’s constitution obliges its leaders to pursue membership in that bloc and NATO.Many fear that Georgian Dream is dragging the country toward authoritarianism and killing off hopes of becoming and EU member.—Associated Press producer Sophiko Megrelidze contributed to this report More