UK Politics

Cabinet ministers have been warned they will no longer be able to dip into Treasury reserves to fund public sector pay rises in a bid to ease mounting pressure on government finances.Chief Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, has written to ministers to remind them to keep a tight control of public spending and said access to reserves will only be granted on an exceptional basis.Any extra help paid to departments will also have to be paid back to the Treasury, as part of preparations for next month’s highly anticipated Budget.Mr Murray said: “To keep tight control on public spending, departments must take responsibility for managing pressures and making choices about priorities without relying on the reserve.“We must deliver the efficiency plans set out in June – reducing administrative budgets, including those of arms-length bodies and agencies – and deliver comprehensive digital transformation.”The chancellor Rachel Reeves is under growing pressure after gloomy economic figures led to predictions that she will have to raise taxes or break her own fiscal rules to plug a £50bn gap in Labour’s sums. But the crackdown comes just months after Labour offered above-inflation pay rises to most public sector workers shortly after entering power. Chancellor Rachel Reeves (Stefan Rousseau/PA) More

Britain should embrace voluntary ID cards, Sir Keir Starmer has said, just weeks after announcing that digital identification will become compulsory to work in the UK.The prime minister said that while mandatory digital IDs “are very important” for employment, Britain could gain a “significant advantage” by adopting the cards for wider use.His comments came on a plane to India for a two-day trade visit to Mumbai, where he will hold meetings on how the South Asian nation uses digital ID.Opinion polls suggest support for the cards plummeted after the PM announced they would become mandatory to work in the UK by 2029, his flagship statement on the eve of the Labour conference last month. But the prime minister batted away suggestions he had killed off public support for the scheme, saying the IDs were important to meet his party’s manifesto pledge to tackle illegal migration.“We need to address the fact that too many people can come to this country and work illegally,” he said. “And that’s why ID mandatory for working is really important. I think there is a case to be made about the benefits for voluntary ID into other areas, and obviously we need to make that case.“I think it’s a really important discussion for us to have. So on the one hand, it’s mandatory for work, but I actually think it would be a good passport.Starmer poses with business leaders before jetting to India More

For much of this Tory conference in Manchester, the world’s oldest and once most successful democratic party looked like it was teetering on the edge of oblivion.Key shadow ministers were delivering their speeches to empty seats, people slept in the main hall, corporates had deserted in terms of stalls, and there were vast open spaces in a sparsely attended Manchester Central conference centre; the buzz of previous years replaced by an echoing despondency.The only queues were for the fringe events for the man who many believe will replace Tory leader Kemi Badenoch in the coming months – shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick.He seemed to be the man of the moment, the preferred speaker for anyone who wanted to hold an event, a genuine crowd puller.Kemi Badenoch with her husband, Hamish Badenoch, after making her keynote speech (Danny Lawson/PA) More

Keir Starmer has called for a police crackdown on some of the chants heard at pro-Palestine protests.His comment came just hours after students defied his calls and took part in pro-Gaza marches on university campuses across the UK on the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel.Among the chants heard at the protests was: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, which some consider to be antisemitic as they believe it calls for the eradication of Israel.Proponents of the chant claim they are calling for an end to conflict in Gaza and the West Bank.The anniversary came less than a week after knife-wielding terrorist Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, killed two men at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester.The prime minister had described the protests as “un-British” and claimed they showed a lack of respect. Sir Keir Starmer called pro-Palestine protests ‘un-British’ More

Kemi Badenoch has vowed to abolish stamp duty if the Conservatives win the next election, as she unveiled a raft of tax cuts in a bid to win back voters and boost the party’s ratings.Outlining the major policy announcement to a packed audience at her Tory conference speech on Wednesday, she said the move to scrap the “bad tax” would “help achieve the dream of home ownership for millions”.The plans, which the Tories say would cost around £9bn, have been praised by economists, but questions remain over how the party would pay for it. After a lacklustre party conference, Ms Badenoch also used her speech to take aim at Labour, pledging to overturn a series of policies brought in by Sir Keir Starmer’s government, including: abolishing the controversial VAT on private school feesreversing changes to inheritance tax for farms, dubbed the tractor taxa promise to undo Angela Rayner’s workers’ rights reformsbanning doctors from going on strike, which she linked to higher NHS waiting listsscrapping the carbon tax Having focused on securing the UK’s borders by withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights in her opening address, Mrs Badenoch then set out her vision of a country where the state “does less but does it better” and “profit is not a dirty word”.Kemi Badenoch has promised to abolish stamp duty for primary residences More

Kemi Badenoch pledges to abolish stamp duty on all home sales in Tory conference speechConservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has vowed to scrap stamp duty on all homes as part of a conference speech in which she said only the Tories could deliver a stronger economy and “stronger borders”.To much applause, she said: “At the heart of a Conservative Britain is a country where people who wish to own their first home, can. But our housing market is not working as it should. The next Conservative government will abolish stamp duty.” The surprise announcement was one of many tax cuts Ms Badenoch promised if the Tories win the next general election, and that includes reversing Labour’s inheritance tax on farm estates worth £3m or more – the “tractor tax”.Outlining her “blueprint for Britain”, she received a huge round of applause when she said that farmers were the “backbone of our country” and “we fought for them before – we will fight for them again”. In another major policy announcement, she promised to ban doctors from striking, stating that industrial action has kept waiting lists high for far too long. “Enough is enough,” she said. Watch: Kemi Badenoch pledges to abolish stamp duty on all home salesKemi Badenoch pledges to abolish stamp duty on all home sales in Tory conference speechBryony Gooch8 October 2025 15:45Government could crack down on chants at pro-Palestine protestsThe Government could launch a crackdown on some of the chants used at pro-Palestine protests, Sir Keir Starmer has said.The Prime Minister’s intervention came after pro-Gaza marchers went ahead with demonstrations on Tuesday, the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel.The anniversary came less than a week after knife-wielding terrorist Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, killed two men at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester.During a trade mission to India, Sir Keir was asked what action he would take after the protesters defied his calls to step down their demonstration on the anniversary of October 7.He pointed to work being carried out by Shabana Mahmood to review protest laws, adding: “I’ve asked the Home Secretary to look more broadly at what other powers are available, how they’re being used, and whether they should be changed in any way.“I think we need to go further than that in relation to some of the chants that are going on at some of these protests.”Bryony Gooch8 October 2025 15:30Opinion: Robert Jenrick – keep my home town out of your mouthJane Dalton8 October 2025 15:15NHS drug prices to rise as Starmer caves in to Trump demandsJane Dalton8 October 2025 15:00Labour slates ‘same old’ Tory policiesLabour accused Mrs Badenoch of being in “complete denial” after her speech to the Conservative party conference.Anna Turley, Labour’s chairwoman, said: “Kemi Badenoch is in complete denial. The public saw the Tories’ disastrous blueprint for Britain across their 14 years of failure in government – and the Conservatives still won’t apologise for the mess they left.”Kemi Badenoch set herself a new ‘golden economic rule’ today and broke it immediately. It’s the same old Tories, with the same old policies without a plan. They didn’t work then and you can’t trust them now.”Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley (Stefan Rousseau/PA) More

Rachel Reeves has been handed a rare boost ahead of next month’s Budget after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced that government borrowing had been overstated by a cumulative £3bn due to mistakes in recent public finances data. Since January, public borrowing estimates have been out by around £200m-£500m a month, the ONS said, handing the chancellor some extra breathing space in her upcoming Budget. The statistics body blamed the error, which emerged in its tax and spending figures published on 19 September, on a mistake in the VAT receipts data supplied by HMRC. As a result, public borrowing for the year ending March 2025 was around £1bn lower than previously estimated. For this year so far, from April to August, it is £2bn lower. Reeves still has to locate £20bn-£40bn in savings to make up for her shortfall More

Kemi Badenoch has solidified her position as Tory leader with a policy-laden Tory conference speech aimed at silencing her critics. Addressing a packed hall at the Manchester Convention Centre, Ms Badenoch said the Labour government is “making one hell of a mess” and set out plans for how the Conservatives would fix it. The Independent looks at what policies Ms Badenoch promised party members in her headline address. Stamp dutyThe biggest headline-grabber in Ms Badenoch’s speech was her vow to axe stamp duty if the Conservatives win the next general election. Kemi Badenoch pledged to abolish stamp duty More