UK Politics

Rachel Reeves has admitted that hardworking people feel “stuck” as economic growth continues to lag and pressure mounts on her to raise new taxes.In stark comments on the state of Britain’s economy, the chancellor acknowledged that families are “squeezing every penny to make ends meet” and that more needs to be done to help working people “get ahead in life”.But a defiant Ms Reeves also hit back at critics such as Nigel Farage who claim that “Britain is broken” – insisting she was working to boost the economy and “build a stronger Britain”. Writing exclusively for The Independent, she said: “Britain isn’t broken, but for working people, it feels stuck.Rachel Reeves (Anthony Devlin/PA) More

A shock new poll has revealed that even a majority of Reform UK supporters now want to unpick parts of Brexit and move the UK closer to the EU.The major YouGov survey of 2,224 voters has underlined a significant shift in attitudes to the Brexit debate and suggests that Nigel Farage’s continued hostility towards the EU is not even landing with his own party’s supporters.According to the findings, 55 per cent of Reform UK (previously the Brexit Party) voters want a permanent youth mobility scheme for young people in the UK and Europe to be put in place with just 34 per cent opposing.Even Reform supporters are now leaning towards closer ties with the EU More

While shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has become the British political poster boy for weight-loss jabs, one of his former colleagues has been less impressed.Tory peer Ed Vaizey has been left frustrated in his bid to trim his weight by taking Mounjaro.The ex-culture minister told The Independent that despite hundreds of thousands of people shedding pounds from taking weight-loss jabs, in his experience it was “certainly not a miracle drug” – but admitted he could have taken other measures to help him lose weight.“My suspicion is that I am a typical man in the sense that I think ‘I buy this drug, I inject it, it should do all the work.’ But I suspect that if I stop drinking and had a reasonably sensible diet, it would probably have helped me lose weight quicker than if I was just doing it as a diet,” he said. Ed Vaizey is a little frustrated with weight-loss treatments More

A senior cabinet minister has accused Nigel Farage and Reform UK of “whipping up anger” as tensions mount around migrant hotels.Education secretary Bridget Phillipson claimed that Reform leader Mr Farage has “no interest” in finding solutions to the migrant crisis and small boats and is using it to build political support.Her comments came less than 24 hours after Reform was forced to suspend a councillor in Epping, James Regan, over racist comments on social media while he was taking part in protests outside the Bell Hotel in the Essex town.The 61-year-old councillor described the hotel as “a third world paedophile babysitting centre”, among other remarks.Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson (Lucy North/PA) More

Sir Keir Starmer has been warned that Labour must take decisive action on the migrant crisis or risk losing voters to Reform UK, after the government won a significant court challenge over asylum hotels. Lord Falconer, who served under former prime minister Sir Tony Blair, backed the government’s decision to fight an injunction that would have seen asylum seekers moved out of the protest-hit Bell Hotel in Epping. He said people were demanding action to close asylum hotels. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’ve obviously got to move forward in relation to closing the hotels and also stopping the crossings.“The government always has the burden of doing what’s possible and the government is doing the right thing in relation to it, but there’s a lot more to do, and if we don’t, as a government, do it, then you’ll see those opinion polls raised yet further for Reform, because they don’t have the burden of having to be practical.”His intervention comes after Court of Appeal judges revoked a ban on housing asylum seekers at the hotel, which has been plagued by unrest. They said the move would have “obvious consequences” for the government’s duty to house asylum seekers and could “incentivise” other councils to seek similar legal action if allowed. Labour grandee Lord Falconer has said Labour must take decision action or risk losing voters to Reform UK More

Rachel Reeves has been warned she faces having to break Labour’s manifesto pledge not to increase taxes on working people after leading economists said “fiddling around” with smaller taxes – like a mansion tax and a gambling levy – would not be enough to fill the black hole in the Budget.The warning has been led by Lord Jim O’Neill, the economist, former Treasury minister and ex-Goldman Sachs chairman who was brought in by Ms Reeves as a top advisor.He told The Independent: “I don’t think fiddling around with smaller taxes any longer is likely to yield much fruit.”Instead, the chancellor has been told by leading think tanks that, if she wants to maintain her spending plans and fiscal rules on borrowing, she will likely have to raise income tax, VAT or employee national insurance – breaking one of Labour’s key manifesto pledges. Rachel Reeves is faced with a potential £41.2bn black hole in government finances (Oliver McVeigh/PA) More

Cabinet office minister Pat McFadden has suggested a digital ID card for every Briton could help to combat illegal immigration and benefit fraud.The Labour MP for Wolverhampton South East said that the UK was “behind the curve” technologically and could implement a system similar to the Baltic state of Estonia, where its citizens are given a unique identification number. This allows Estonians to register births, marriages, divorces, deaths, vote, book GP appointments and access their bank accounts.In an interview with The Times, the senior government minister said that at the moment Britons were asked to prove their identity through “a multiplicity of paper-based documents” but that a digital ID could improve access to services.The issue of national identity cards was first raised by New Labour and championed by Tony Blair, before the controversial policy fell out of favour by the time the party lost the 2010 election.Pat McFadden proposes a system similar to that used in Estonia More

Angela Rayner has faced criticism this week for purchasing an £800,000 seaside apartment in Hove, which will be a third home for the deputy prime minister.Ms Rayner divides her time between a £350,000 home in her constituency near Manchester and her central London grace-and-favour flat at Admiralty House in Whitehall.Initially, the criticism centred around allegations of hypocrisy, as it comes as Ms Rayner, who is also the housing secretary, prepares to levy an extra 100 per cent council tax charge on second homes.The deputy prime minister said a scheme to speed up house building is helping to ‘turn the tide’ of the housing crisis (Peter Byrne/PA) More