UK

Watch as UK economists appear before parliament’s Treasury Committee on Tuesday, 1 April, to answer questions about Rachel Reeves’s spring statement.Last week, the chancellor outlined a fresh set of cuts to government spending without raising taxes, blaming a dramatic slowdown in growth.Ms Reeves faced a major setback in the hours before delivering her statement when the government’s official spending watchdog rejected its forecasts for how much its welfare cuts would save. That prompted the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to slash its economic growth forecast for this year from 2 per cent to 1 per cent.She was forced to go further than expected to fall back within her self-imposed borrowing rules, so set out fresh measures to cut the government welfare bills.Changes set out by the chancellor to previously announced welfare reforms will see the health element of universal credit cut in half for new claimants and then frozen. Elsewhere, the universal credit standard allowance will increase from £92 per week in 2025-26, to £106 per week by 2029-30. It had previously been expected to rise to £107 per week by that year.This week, millions of households across the UK are bracing for yet another wave of price hikes, as bills for energy, water, council tax, and more increase from 1 April.Dubbed “awful April,” these rising costs are putting even more pressure on household budgets, prompting fresh calls for government intervention.Energy bills for millions on standard variable tariffs will rise by an average of £111 a year, while water bills in some areas will jump by nearly 47 per cent.Council tax increases will also hit households across England, Scotland, and Wales, with some local authorities imposing hikes of almost 10 per cent. On top of this, the cost of road tax, broadband, and TV licences is also climbing. More

Donald Trump has formally signed off Sir Keir Starmer’s deal to hand the Chagos islands over to Mauritius, No 10 has said. The agreement is now being “finalised” between the UK and Mauritius.A Downing Street spokesperson said: “We are now working with the Mauritian government to finalise the deal and sign the treaty.” A source added: “It’s now between us and the Mauritian government to finalise the deal following the discussions with us. We have had the discussions with the US and we are now finalising with the Mauritians.”Trump signed off on Chagos when he met Starmer in the White House More

Kemi Badenoch has said Adolescence is based on a true story that has been “fundamentally changed” and that the real-life perpetrator was not white, a theory already rejected by one of the drama’s makers.Co-creator Jack Thorne recently dismissed an online theory that the series changed the race of the lead character and stressed it was not based on a real case.The drama about a teenage boy who is accused of killing a girl from his school examines so-called incel (involuntary celibate) culture and has prompted a national conversation about online safety.Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hosted a roundtable at Downing Street with Thorne and children’s charities on Monday to talk about young boys being influenced by misogyny they encounter online.Tory leader Mrs Badenoch said she had not watched the series.“I don’t have time to watch anything to be honest, but I have read about it … what I understand is that this is a fictional representation of a story that is actually quite different,” she told LBC.She said it “certainly touches on some of the things that are happening in the world today” but is not the biggest thing happening when it comes to people being radicalised on social media.“There are bigger problems, such as Islamic terrorism and that kind of radicalisation, and the story which it is based on has been fundamentally changed, and so creating policy on a work of fiction rather than on reality is the real issue.”She was later asked on GB News if she thinks white boys are being wrongly singled out.“Adolescence is a fictional story. It’s based on a real story, but my understanding is that the boy who committed that crime was not white,” she said.She said Sir Keir having meetings sparked by the reaction to the programme was a “gimmick”, after Labour had said the same about the Tories’ proposed mobile phone ban in schools.“It’s a gimmick. He thinks that he’s going to touch the people of this country. ‘They’re all watching Netflix, so I’ll just talk about the thing they’re watching on TV’.”Some have said the call for a ban on pupils using phones is unnecessary as many schools already do not allow children to use mobiles.A post on social media amplified by Elon Musk has suggested the story, which features a white actor, is based on the Southport attacker.Co-creator Thorne recently rejected the accusations of “race-swapping” in the series.It is not based on a true story and is “making a point about masculinity”, and not race, Thorne told the News Agents podcast.“It’s absurd to say that (knife crime) is only committed by black boys. It’s absurd. It’s not true. And history shows a lot of cases of kids from all races committing these crimes,” he said. More

Watch live as UK economists appear before parliament’s Treasury Committee on Tuesday, 1 April, to answer questions about Rachel Reeves’s spring statement.Last week, the chancellor outlined a fresh set of cuts to government spending without raising taxes, blaming a dramatic slowdown in growth.Ms Reeves faced a major setback in the hours before delivering her statement when the government’s official spending watchdog rejected its forecasts for how much its welfare cuts would save. That prompted the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to slash its economic growth forecast for this year from 2 per cent to 1 per cent.She was forced to go further than expected to fall back within her self-imposed borrowing rules, so set out fresh measures to cut the government welfare bills.Changes set out by the chancellor to previously announced welfare reforms will see the health element of universal credit cut in half for new claimants and then frozen. Elsewhere, the universal credit standard allowance will increase from £92 per week in 2025-26, to £106 per week by 2029-30. It had previously been expected to rise to £107 per week by that year.This week, millions of households across the UK are bracing for yet another wave of price hikes, as bills for energy, water, council tax, and more increase from 1 April.Dubbed “awful April,” these rising costs are putting even more pressure on household budgets, prompting fresh calls for government intervention.Energy bills for millions on standard variable tariffs will rise by an average of £111 a year, while water bills in some areas will jump by nearly 47 per cent.Council tax increases will also hit households across England, Scotland, and Wales, with some local authorities imposing hikes of almost 10 per cent. On top of this, the cost of road tax, broadband, and TV licences is also climbing. More

Kemi Badenoch has said Adolescence is based on a true story that has been “fundamentally changed”, and that while it touches on an issue in society, Islamic terrorism is a bigger problem.Co-creator Jack Thorne recently dismissed an online theory that the series changed the race of the lead character from a real-life case it was supposedly based on.The drama about a teenage boy who is accused of killing a girl from his school examines so-called incel (involuntary celibate) culture and has prompted a national conversation about online safety.Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hosted a roundtable at Downing Street with Thorne and children’s charities on Monday to talk about young boys being influenced by misogyny they encounter online.Tory leader Mrs Badenoch said she had not watched the series.“I don’t have time to watch anything to be honest, but I have read about it … what I understand is that this is a fictional representation of a story that is actually quite different,” she told LBC.“And I think it’s an interesting story. It certainly touches on some of the things that are happening in the world today, but it is not the biggest thing that is happening in the world today in terms of what is happening to people being radicalised on social media.”She said she was aware of what the series is about.The prime minister met with some of the show’s creators on Monday to discussed the issues raised in the series More

Regulation and technology can help online platforms combat extreme views and misogynistic attitudes but sites have taken a “hands-off approach” to content for “too long”, an online safety expert has said.Lina Ghazal said TV shows like Netflix drama Adolescence “shine a light on the devastating impact” the spread of such content can have on young people.On Monday, the Prime Minister hosted Adolescence writer Jack Thorne and producer Jo Johnson at Downing Street, alongside representatives from the NSPCC and Children’s Society, where he said he wanted to talk about “what can we do as a society to stop and prevent young boys being dragged into this whirlpool of hatred and misogyny”.Netflix said it would make the series free to stream for all secondary schools across the UK.The TV drama, which examines so-called incel (involuntary celibate) culture, has prompted a national conversation about online safety.Sir Keir Starmer said he had watched the show with his family and had not found it easy viewing.He said the online world and social media means “ideology” can be “pumped directly into the minds of our children”, and there may not be a single response to adequately address the issue of misogyny, which he said is “much bigger” than just an online problem, and “almost a cultural issue”.Ms Ghazal, the head of regulatory and public affairs at online safety provider Verifymy, who has previously worked at both Meta and Ofcom, said she agreed with Sir Keir’s assessment, but said new online safety laws and the growing use of technology in content moderation could play a key role in combating the issue, and it was also time for social media sites to step up.“For too long, many online platforms have taken a hands-off approach to user content and behaviour, allowing extremist views and misogynistic attitudes to proliferate. Shows like Adolescence shine a light on the devastating impact this can have on young people,” she told the PA news agency.“As the Prime Minister says, there is no single solution to the issue but regulation and technology can ensure sites become weaker breeding grounds for harmful content – and that children are less likely to see it.“The Online Safety Act is a step in the right direction, and Ofcom has now a key role to play in enforcing it, cracking down on deepfake abuse, non-consensual image sharing, and extreme adult content that normalises violence.“The recommendations of the recent independent porn review should further strengthen these efforts.“AI-driven content moderation combined with human oversight can also prevent harmful content from being published in the first place, while innovative age assurance technology, such as email-based or facial age estimation, plays a key role in triggering safeguarding measures for young online users.“Now, platforms must use this technology to uphold their duty of care.”The Online Safety Act, which is gradually coming into force throughout this year, requires online platforms to follow codes of practice set out by Ofcom.The codes dictate how platforms must stop users, and in particular children, from encountering harmful content online – including by having clear safety policies, using content moderation and reporting tools, and designing safety features to protect users.Regulator Ofcom can impose large fines for sites found to be in breach, and in extreme cases ask a court to block access to a platform. More

The US State Department has made a rare intervention in British politics, warning of its “concerns about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom”. The department, responsible for US foreign policy, put a statement on X, formerly Twitter, highlighting fears about the prosecution of anti-abortion campaigner Livia Tossici-Bolt. It said she faces criminal charges for offering conversation with patients seeking abortions within a legally prohibited “buffer zone” outside a clinic. “We are monitoring her case. It is important that the UK respect and protect freedom of expression,” the State Department’s dedicated democracy, human rights and labour (DRL) account posted. It added: “US-UK relations share a mutual respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. “However, as Vice President Vance has said, we are concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom.” US Vice-President JD Vance recently criticised abortion buffer zones in Scotland (Matthias Schrader/AP) More

There is “no country better placed than the UK” to strike a deal with Donald Trump to lift tariffs and dodge a damaging tit-for-tat trade war with the US, the business secretary has said.With the US president’s so-called Liberation Day looming, Jonathan Reynolds confirmed he expects Britain to be hit with tariffs alongside every other country in the world. But, hinting that the UK could negotiate a carve-out from the import taxes within weeks, he said “if the US can reach an agreement with anyone, I believe it can with the UK”. Mr Reynolds told Times Radio: “I believe from where we are at the minute, the President wants this liberation day tomorrow to apply to every country in the world and there’ll be no exemptions on that first day towards that. “If any country is able to reach an agreement with the US, I don’t believe there’s a country better placed than the UK because of the work that we have been doing.” Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said if anyone can strike a deal with Donald Trump it’s the UK More