UK

The government is struggling to cut the amount of money from the foreign aid budget it spends on asylum seekers in the UK, new figures show. Home Office figures show the department expects to spend £2.2bn of overseas development assistance (ODA) this financial year, of which £2.1bn is expected to be spent on asylum support. The predictions for this year are only slightly less than the £2.4bn spent in 2024/25. Official development assistance (ODA) – which was slashed earlier this year to 0.3 per cent of GDP to pay for a boost to defence spending – is used to promote the economic development and welfare in developing countries around the world. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper appeared before the Home Affairs committee on Tuesday (House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA) More

Zia Yusuf has announced he is returning to Reform UK – just 48 hours after quitting as the party’s chair. The businessman, who said his decision to leave was an error that came as the result of exhaustion, will take up a new role in the party following peace talks with leader Nigel Farage. While his formal title has not been decided, he is expected to lead Reform’s Elon Musk-inspired Doge unit, modelled on the Department of Government Efficiency set up by Donald Trump in the US. Reform’s Doge UK team was set up to identify spending cuts in councils the party now controls and was formally launched this week.Mr Yusuf will also oversee some aspects of policymaking, fundraising and media appearances for the party. A new party chair is expected to be appointed next week and a deputy chair will be hired too.Zia Yusuf says many party members want him to stay More

Labour’s biggest financial backers are piling pressure on Rachel Reeves to avoid making cuts at next week’s spending review and instead pursue wealth taxes to fund Britain’s public services.Polling commissioned by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) reveals a majority the public (54 per cent) back taxes on big corporations and the most wealthy individuals as an alternative means of raising revenue. Just 28 per cent oppose the move. TUC general secretary Paul Nowak urged the government to “stay on track” and build on the “positive start it made at last year’s budget by providing sustained funding for our public services and infrastructure” – warning that people are “fed up with a system where those with the broadest shoulders don’t pull their weight”.It comes after deputy prime minister Angela Rayner pressed Ms Reeves to consider eight wealth taxes rather than try to impose cuts on departments.Sir Keir Starmer is under growing pressure to change course More

Nigel Farage has claimed ex-Reform UK chairman Zia Yusuf quit the party having snapped after receiving a “tirade of personal racist abuse” on social media.The Reform leader suggested Mr Yusuf was “burnt out”, saying the “very hard extreme right” was to blame for the abuse he received on social media. Mr Yusuf, a Muslim businessman, left the party on Thursday saying he no longer believes “working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time”. Zia Yusuf has resigned as Reform UK’s chairman (Ben Whitley/PA) More

England is facing a social housing crisis if the government pushes ahead with cuts in the spending review, Rachel Reeves has been warned.It comes as the struggle between the Treasury and Angela Rayner’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government over its budget continues, just days before Ms Reeves is set to outline the spending plans until the next election on Wednesday.With no agreement having been reached on housing, the chief executive of one of Britain’s largest housing associations has raised fears of a “cliff edge” over building more homes – which means money is set to run out by 2026.The warning from Fiona Fletcher-Smith, chief executive of L&Q and until last week chair of the G15 group of London housing associations, comes as the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned that 51 per cent of councils are now running deficits on their housing budgets.Homeless charities are also warning of an impending crisis, with new supply unable to keep up with increasing demand for social housing.Crisis has pointed out that over the past 10 years, there has been a net loss of more than 180,000 social homes in England. Currently, 1.33 million households in England are currently stuck on council waiting lists for a social home.Ms Fletcher-Smith explained that the problem began with George Osborne’s austerity budgets in 2010, when he slashed 63 per cent of the capital budget to build new homes.She said he then “welched” on a deal to allow them to make up for the loss by charging CPI inflation plus 1 per cent in rent, which housing associations and councils now want restored for a decade. This will allow them to borrow money to build, as it comes through as guaranteed income.The cumulative effect now means that housing associations no longer have the funds to build projects.Building new social housing homes is facing a cliff edge because of a lack of funds More

Robert Jenrick’s attention-grabbing videos have angered other senior Tories as the party desperately tries to raise the profile of their beleaguered leader, Kemi Badenoch. The shadow justice secretary hit the headlines last week thanks to a stunt that saw him chase down and challenge fare dodgers on London trains. The clip, which follows others on a range of issues including bin collections in Birmingham and the government’s deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, was watched more than 10 million times. But the move overshadowed Ms Badenoch’s own video meeting grooming gang victims, and is far from the first time Jenrick has garnered publicity apparently at the expense of his party leader. A recent mishap, where hundreds of Westminster insiders were added to a WhatsApp group publicising his London marathon run, led to Badenoch being asked if Jenrick, who ran against her for the leadership of the party, posed a fresh threat to her. She laughed it off. But party insiders have told The Independent his interventions are leading to tensions with other members of the shadow cabinet. Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick More

Rachel Reeves could be forced to raise up to £30bn through tax rises or funding cuts as the chancellor seeks to meet Labour’s pledge to boost defence spending, an economist has claimed.The government has promised to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027, and has an “ambition” – but no firm commitment – to raise it to 3 per cent in the next parliament, after 2029.But the UK’s Nato allies are expected also to push for a fresh target of 3.5 per cent, with the alliance’s chief Mark Rutte pushing for a “dramatic increase”, with discussions over a possible 5 per cent target – as called for by Donald Trump – also taking place.And Sir Keir Starmer this week vowed to make Britain “a battle-ready, armour-clad nation” as a long-awaited defence review called for major upgrades to the UK’s military.While the major proposals were based around Labour’s current spending pledges for 2027 and the next parliament, the report warned that “as we live in such turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster” on increasing the UK’s defence capabilities.Michael Saunders, a senior economic adviser at the Oxford Economics consultancy, suggested that the government could take steps towards this in the chancellor’s next Budget.“To establish a more credible path to defence spending ‘considerably north of 3 per cent’ next decade, the government may decide in the autumn Budget that it needs to add some extra spending within the five-year OBR forecast horizon,” said Mr Saunders. “It’s not hard to see pressures for extra fiscal tightening of £15bn to £30bn,” he told The Telegraph. Fiscal tightening involves either raising taxes or cutting government spending.The prime minister promises to make Britain ‘a battle-ready, armour-clad nation’ More

Zia Yusuf’s departure had more to do with his failure to persuade donors to part with cash than a row over Reform’s attitude to the burqa, insiders have told The Independent.But more than that, it was the now-former chairman’s inability to work with people and get on with them that was at the heart of his sudden announcement on Thursday, it has been claimed.It came after he described Reform’s new MP Sarah Pochin as “dumb” after she asked a question about banning the burqa during Prime Minister’s Questions. But in reality, there were many more problems building.The Independent has contacted Mr Yusuf for his version of events and has not received a response. But his critics have not waited long to get their joy over his departure out and give their account of why he was ousted.Zia Yusuf announced he was standing down on Thursday More