UK

Rachel Reeves is facing a cabinet revolt over her spending review amid fears departmental cuts will lead to key manifesto spending promises being ditched.In what is being described as a “proxy war”, the chancellor is facing a push to consider taxes on the wealthy instead of cuts before she outlines her government spending plans next week.Room for manoeuvre is further restricted by an expectation that the government will U-turn on cancelling winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners, as well as ending the two-child benefit cap, which could cost Ms Reeves as much as £5bn.The row follows reports that major departments, including Yvette Cooper’s Home Office and Angela Rayner’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, have still not settled on an agreement for the spending review due to be unveiled on Wednesday 11 June.There was some good news with reports that education secretary Bridget Phillipson had agreed her department’s spending envelope with a week to go. But the holdouts come despite the Treasury setting an unofficial deadline of last weekend to agree.Reeves and Rayner have been struggling to agree over the spending review More

Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to personally intervene in the “unspeakable tragedy” developing in Myanmar and to meet the British son of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been imprisoned by the country’s military junta.The call comes in a new report which highlights the plight of Ms Suu Kyi and 22,000 other political prisoners, after a coup which overthrew her democratically elected government four years ago.It also shines a spotlight on the army’s airstrikes and ground attacks against civilians and details atrocities including massacres, beheadings, executions, rapes and tortures.Aung San Suu Kyi is one of 22,000 political prisoners in Myanmar More

Sir Keir Starmer has reportedly been warned by UK police chiefs that forces could face “stark choices” on which crimes to prioritise investigating amid fears over spending cuts.Head of the Metropolitan Police Sir Mark Rowley was among the senior police officers who issued the direct warning in a letter to the prime minister ahead of the unveiling of next Wednesday’s spending review, according to reports. Sir Keir and chancellor Rachel Reeves are already facing a cabinet revolt over the government spending plans, with Yvette Cooper’s Home Office believed to be among the ministers who have not settled on an agreement.In their letter, the police chiefs predicted “far-reaching consequences” if the Treasury pushes ahead with slashing costs, including cuts to frontline policing last seen under austerity.They added that the Home Office and Treasury negotiations have been going “poorly”.The Times reported Britain’s most senior police chiefs wrote to Sir Keir: “We understand that the Treasury [is] seeking to finalise departmental budget allocations this week and that the negotiations between the Home Office and the Treasury are going poorly.Head of the Metropolitan Police Sir Mark Rowley was among the senior police officers who issued the direct warning in a letter to the prime minister ahead of the spending review, according to reports More

The UK’s steel and aluminium industry has been spared the immediate hit of Donald Trump’s 50 per cent from Wednesday – but looks to have just five weeks to finalise an exemption deal.At the 11th hour, the US president decided to “provide different treatment” to the UK after last week announcing he would raise the tariffs from 25 per cent to “further secure” the industry in his country. However, a much-lauded UK-US trade deal unveiled last month that should have exempted Britain from steel tariffs completely is still yet to be implemented – and it appears Mr Trump has set a deadline of next month for the deal to be finalised.Levies will remain at 25 per cent for imports from the UK, according to a version of the US executive order that confirmed the worldwide tariff increase on Tuesday, which also added that Britain could still be subject to the higher 50 per cent rate from 9 July.The UK government said it was “pleased” the UK will not be subject to the additional tariffs, as it vowed to secure the removal of the 25 per cent levies.On Tuesday, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds met White House trade representative Jamieson Greer in Paris to discuss the UK-US trade deal. According to the Department for Business and Trade, the pair discussed a desire to implement the deal struck as soon as possible, and committed to working closely to make it happen.In the text of the executive order released on Tuesday, Mr Trump has “further determined that it is necessary and appropriate to allow for the implementation of the US-UK Economic Prosperity Deal of 8 May, 2025 (EPD), and to accordingly provide different treatment, as described below, for imports of steel and aluminium articles, and their derivatives, from the United Kingdom”.The order later says that rates will for now stay at 25 per cent and adds: “On or after 9 July, 2025, the Secretary may adjust the applicable rates of duty and construct import quotas for steel and aluminium consistent with the terms of the EPD, or he may increase the applicable rates of duty to 50 percent if he determines that the United Kingdom has not complied with relevant aspects of the EPD”.The global 50 per cent tariff rate is due to come into force from 12.01am Washington DC time on Wednesday, just after 5am in the UK.There had been fears that the UK was to be hit with the 50 per cent tariff. UK Steel director general Gareth Stace said: “The president’s decision not to impose a 50 per cent tariff on UK steelmakers, but to keep the rate at 25 per cent while the UK-US deal is completed, is a welcome pause.“Continued 25 per cent tariffs will benefit shipments already on the water that we were concerned would fall under a tax hike. However, uncertainty remains over timings and final tariff rates, and now US customers will be dubious over whether they should even risk making UK orders.“The US and UK must urgently turn the May deal into reality to remove the tariffs completely.”A UK government spokesperson said: “The UK was the first country to secure a trade deal with the US earlier this month and we remain committed to protecting British business and jobs across key sectors, including steel as part of our plan for change.“We’re pleased that as a result of our agreement with the US, UK steel will not be subject to these additional tariffs.“We will continue to work with the US to implement our agreement, which will see the 25 per cent US tariffs on steel removed.”The Conservatives have said that Labour’s “botched negotiations have left businesses in limbo”.Shadow business and trade secretary Andrew Griffith said: “Keir Starmer stood in front of the nation and insisted to the British public that his Labour Government had achieved a trade deal with the US, and now one month later our industries face a fresh tariffs blow.“So once again, it seems that Keir Starmer’s promise was just like the rest: hollow and broken. Labour’s botched negotiations have left businesses in limbo and this country simply cannot afford their continuing failure.” More

Keir Starmer is being urged to keep to a pledge to support a new international coalition to “scale up” the peace process in the Middle East as the crisis in Gaza deepens.At a major conference on the conflict last December, the prime minister said he would bring together countries to back the project that is based on an initiative that brought peace in Northern Ireland.Then, in February, Downing Street and the Foreign Office held meetings with figures behind the coalition – The International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (IFIPP) – which would bring together people on both sides of the conflict for a two-state solution.Now a paper by Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), seen by The Independent, has made the case for the plan again.Starmer made his commitment to the peace fund after meeting Mandy Damari, the mother of a British hostage held by Hamas last December More

The number of overcrowded small boats arriving in the UK carrying more than 80 people has quadrupled in three years, casting doubt over Labour’s pledge to stop migrants from making the dangerous journey. Fresh analysis from the Home Office showed that 33 boats made the perilous journey while carrying more than 80 people in the year to April 2025 – up from eight in the year to April 2022.While the overall number of dinghies, typically made to carry up to 20 people safely, arriving declined from 1,116 in 2022 to 738 in 2025, more people have been crammed onto each vessel for the crossing.People thought to be migrants wade through the sea to board a small boat leaving the beach at Gravelines, France, in an attempt to reach the UK by crossing the English Channel More

Nationalisation of struggling Thames Water is “not the answer”, environment secretary Steve Reed has warned after a private equity giant pulled out of a £4bn rescue deal, throwing the company’s future into doubt.A bailout of the debt-laden utility would take money away from the NHS and other public services, he said. Thames Water is about £19bn in debt, and MPs were told last month that at one point this year it had about five weeks’ worth of cash left before going bust.Britain’s biggest water supplier, which has 16 million customers, chose KKR at the end of March to be its preferred bidder under plans to invest around £4bn of new equity. But the firm said on Tuesday that KKR was no longer “in a position to proceed” and that its status as preferred bidder had lapsed.At the despatch box, Conservative shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins accused ministers of having “talked themselves out of” a rescue plan.Mr Reed told MPs: “The government stands ready for any eventuality and will take action as required. We are not looking at nationalisation because it would cost over £100bn of public money that would have had to be taken away from other public services like the National Health Service to be given to the owners of the water companies.“It will take years to unpick the current model of ownership, during which time pollution would get worse and we know that nationalisation is not the answer – you only have to look at the situation in Scotland to see that.”Mr Reed said he would “make no apology” for tackling the behaviour of water companies under the previous government. “I mean, we even had stories that have been confirmed by water companies of previous Conservative secretaries of state shouting and screaming at water company bosses, but not actually changing the law to do anything about the bonuses that they were able to pay themselves.”Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson Tim Farron said Thames Water should go into special administration and emerge “as a public interest company”.Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice proposed a plan to “buy it for a pound – it’s a good deal for the taxpayer – then it won’t have to pay huge, egregious rates of interest, and the taxpayer and the customers will be the beneficiaries”.The move by KKR comes as an interim report by the Independent Water Commission found the water sector in England and Wales needs a “fundamental reset” and called for a “strengthening and rebalancing” of Ofwat’s regulatory role.It is understood that Thames Water is now working on alternative plans with senior creditors. These creditors are the bondholders who effectively own Thames Water after the High Court earlier this year approved a financial restructuring through a loan of up to £3bn to ensure it can keep running until the summer of 2026.Sir Adrian Montague, chair of Thames Water, said: “We continue to believe that a sustainable recapitalisation of the company is in the best interests of all stakeholders and continue to work with our creditors and stakeholders to achieve that goal.”Britain’s biggest water supplier has 16 million customers More