UK

Questions have been raised over Rachel Reeves’ winter fuel U-turn after it emerged the government plans to reinstate the payments for all pensioners before attempting to claw it back from millions through higher taxes. The chancellor is expected to set out Labour’s plans to reverse the controversial policy change at Wednesday’s spending review, but fresh questions have been raised over how the government will distribute the payments. Reports suggest Ms Reeves will from this autumn restore the grants, worth up to £300, to the 10 million pensioners who had lost out. But only those in the bottom half of average incomes will keep the payments, with the top half of earners forced to repay the grant through higher tax bills over the course of the year. One option for the threshold at which pensioners are eligible is average household disposable income, currently around £37,000, The Times reported. Such a plan would resemble George Osborne’s high income child benefit charge, which sees 1 per cent of total child benefit received taxed for every £100 earned over £60,000. It means that, over whatever threshold Ms Reeves sets for the payments, an amount will be clawed back from those on higher incomes. Rachel Reeves has said her fiscal rules are ‘non-negotiable’ More

The chairman of Reform UK has appeared to brand the party’s newest MP “dumb” for asking Sir Keir Starmer to introduce a burqa ban.Sarah Pochin, the new Runcorn and Helsby MP, used her first PMQs question to call on the prime minister to ban burqas “in the interest of public safety”. She said: “Given the prime minister’s desire to strengthen strategic alignment with our European neighbours, will he, in the interest of public safety, follow the lead of France, Belgium, Denmark and others and ban the burqa?” Sir Keir welcomed Ms Pochin to the Commons, but said “I am not going to follow her down that line”. Sarah Pochin called for a ban on burqas More

An extra half a million children will benefit from a free meal every school day after the government announced a major expansion of the policy, which they said would lift 100,000 pupils out of poverty and put an extra £500 in parents’ pockets. From the start of the 2026 school year, every child whose household is on universal credit will be entitled to free school meals, the government announced on Thursday. Since 2018, children have only been eligible for free school meals if their household income is less than £7,400 per year, meaning hundreds of thousands of children living in poverty have been unable to access them.Every child whose household is on universal credit will be entitled to free school meals More

Britain is facing cuts after Rachel Reeves doubled down on her manifesto pledge not to raise taxes to fund Labour’s spending plans.In a speech in Manchester on Wednesday morning, the chancellor insisted Labour’s spending plans – set to be outlined next week – were “fully costed and fully funded” and that she would not need to raise income tax, VAT or employee national insurance contributions. But a major think tank has joined critics from within government to warn that the chancellor would have no choice but to make cuts to other public services. The Resolution Foundation said the government has increased departmental spending by almost £400bn since it came to power but pressures to increase health and defence spending will make it “hard to avoid cuts” to other public services. Reacting to Reeves’s speech, a senior Labour source added: “I suspect that means a lot of cuts.”An audience member looks unimpressed by Reeves’s speech More

France has finally agreed to draw up a plan to stop small boats at sea by the summer, after police were criticised for standing by as people smugglers picked up migrants. The French government is understood to be enlarging its navy with new patrol boats that could intercept so-called “taxi boats” before they leave for the UK. The strategy is designed to be ready before French president Emmanuel Macron travels to London for a Franco-British summit on 8 July. It comes after a furious row erupted over the lack of action as more than 1,000 people crossed the English Channel on Saturday.Migrants scramble on board a small boat leaving the beach at Gravelines More

Winter fuel payments will not be reinstated for all pensioners, a minister has confirmed in a blow to millions of people across the country. It came as Rachel Reeves confirmed an expected U-turn on the controversial cuts would be in place for this winter — but said the government wouldn’t set out details of how they would pay for it until the Autumn budget. Sir Keir Starmer last month announced his intention to give more people access to winter fuel payments, just months after Labour made the previously universal payment means-tested. Rachel Reeves confirmed that the winter fuel payment would be restored for some pensioners in time for this winter More