Category Archives: Tax and spending

Rachel Reeves planning to raise taxes and cut spending in October budget

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Chancellor insists she still has large black hole to fill despite stronger-than-expected growth in first half of 2024

Rachel Reeves is planning to raise taxes, cut spending and get tough on benefits in October’s budget amid Treasury alarm that the pickup in the economy has failed to improve the poor state of the public finances.

With the latest official set of borrowing figures out on Wednesday, the chancellor is insisting she will still have a substantial black hole to fill despite stronger than expected growth in the first half of 2024.

Raising more money from inheritance tax and capital gains tax.

Sticking to plans for a 1% increase in public spending even though it would involve cuts for some Whitehall departments.

Rejecting pressure to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

Changing the way debt is measured to exclude the Bank of England.

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Greens say Labour should focus more on building council homes and that new housing plan is flawed – UK politics live

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Rayner says housing target system will raise number of homes planned to 370,000 and confirmed targets will be mandatory

Balls, who, of course, is a former Labour cabinet minister, and a former shadow chancellor, questions whether Reeves is right to suggest that Jeremy Hunt is wholly to blame for the black hole. He says that other cabinet ministers and departments drew up the spending plans that she says were unfunded.

Reeves repeats the point she has been making all morning about how the public were misled. (See 8.06am.)

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Winter fuel payments to be restricted as Reeves says there is £22bn spending shortfall – UK politics live

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Chancellor suggests budget, on 30 October, will involve tax rises and cuts to spending and benefits

Downing Street has refused to comment on a report saying junior doctors are being offered a pay rise worth about 20% over two years.

In a story for the Times, Steven Swinford reports:

The British Medical Association’s (BMA) junior doctors committee has recommended an offer that includes a backdated pay rise of 4.05 per cent for 2023-24, on top of an existing increase of between 8.8 per cent and 10.3 per cent.

Junior doctors will be given a further pay rise of 6 per cent for 2024-25, which will be topped up by a consolidated £1,000 payment. This is equivalent to a pay rise of between 7 per cent and 9 per cent.

As we’ve said before, we’re committed to working to find a solution, resolving this dispute, but I can’t get into detailed running commentary on negotiations.

We’ve been honest with the public and the sector about the economic circumstances we face. But the government is determined to do the hard work necessary to finally bring these strikes to an end.

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Rachel Reeves paves way for cuts and tax rises to fill shortfall left by Tories

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Chancellor will announce pause in work on a number of infrastructure projects, saying Conservatives ‘covered up’ true state of finances

Rachel Reeves will lay the ground for cuts to public spending, tax rises and delays to some major infrastructure projects on Monday as she sets out the toxic inheritance the Labour government inherited from the Tories.

She is expected to pause work on a string of infrastructure projects, including Boris Johnson’s flagship plan to build 40 new hospitals and the proposed two-mile road tunnel bypassing Stonehenge.

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Tories ‘deliberately covered up’ true state of public finances, says minister

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Steve Reed hits out at Conservatives’ handling of public services as chancellor prepares to detail ‘£20bn black hole’

The last Conservative government “deliberately covered up” the true state of public finances, a cabinet minister has said, as the chancellor prepares to detail a “£20bn black hole” in the public finances.

The environment secretary, Steve Reed, said his cabinet colleagues “always knew” the inheritance from the Tories was “going to be bad”, but that since coming to office they had found “additional pressures” that had not been disclosed by the Tories.

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Wealth taxes could raise £10bn to help plug Tory budget hole, say economists

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Reforms to inheritance and capital gains taxes could reduce £20bn shortfall and combat UK’s widening wealth gap

Rachel Reeves could quickly find around £10bn a year to plug half of the fiscal hole left by the Conservatives if she were to raise taxes on soaring levels of unearned wealth, according to leading economists.

New research by the independent Resolution Foundation published today finds that Britain is a country of “booming wealth” but “busted wealth taxes”, leaving ample potential for the chancellor of the exchequer to raise desperately needed funds by raising taxes on the richest.

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Rachel Reeves expected to reveal £20bn shortfall in public finances

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Chancellor may raise some taxes in the autumn due to what Labour describes as its ‘shocking inheritance’ from Tories

Rachel Reeves is expected to reveal a £20bn hole in government spending for essential public services on Monday, paving the way for potential tax rises in the autumn budget.

Labour sources said the blame lay with the Tory government, describing it as a “shocking inheritance” and accusing the former chancellor of “presiding over a black hole and still campaigning for tax cuts”.

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Labour facing moment of truth over tax pledges, economists warn

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Experts say 5.5% pay increase for public sector not ‘consistent’ with spending plans that rule out tax rises

Labour is fast approaching a moment of truth over its election pledges on tax and spending, experts have warned, after Rachel Reeves indicated the government could agree above-inflation pay rises for public sector staff.

The chancellor promised a full statement on pay board recommendations that teachers and NHS workers should receive 5.5% pay awards, ahead of an autumn budget that is set to be one of the most difficult economic balancing acts in years.

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EU plan to impose import duty on cheap goods could dent Shein and Temu

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Brussels move to end tax loophole exploited by China-linked marketplaces could also dent Shein’s planned London listing

The EU is moving forward with plans to impose customs duty on cheap goods in a shift that could hit imports from online retailers and harm a hoped-for London listing by the fast-fashion seller Shein.

The potential change comes amid growing disquiet among retailers based in the UK, elsewhere in Europe, and the US about rising competition from Chinese-linked marketplaces Shein and Temu, which exploit a loophole that excludes low-value items from import duty.

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Sunak and Starmer clash over tax, borders and Brexit deal in final head-to-head before polling day – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can read our full report on this debate here

YouGov will have a snap poll on who won the debate, with the results available minutes after it finishes.

This is what Labour is putting out ahead of the debate, in a stateement from Pat McFadden, the national campaign coordinator.

Tonight, the British people will witness the choice at this election: five more years of chaos with Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives or change with Keir Starmer and Labour.

On 4 July, the British people will have the chance to vote for change. To stop the chaos, turn the page and start to rebuild our country with Keir Starmer and a changed Labour party.

Tonight, Keir Starmer has the opportunity to announce loud and clear to the British public what his intentions are.

Throughout this campaign we have challenged the Labour party, time and time again, to come clean on their plans for taxes. Time and time again they have declined to do so.

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UK general election live: Labour suspends candidate Kevin Craig over Gambling Commission probe

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Party says it acted after being contacted by the regulator about the candidate for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich

All along the course of the Thames, turning north, meandering south, passing through locks, historic landmarks, Richmond and Kew, swelling beneath the House of Commons with the turning tide, and on to Docklands and beyond – concern for the health of the Thames has led many other ordinary people, who live, work or play on the water, to take up the fight for the health of the river.

The last 15 years of decline in rivers suggests they have much to do. In 2009, a year before the Conservatives first took power in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, a quarter of English rivers were judged as being of good ecological standard, a marker which examines the flow, habitat and biological quality; by 2022 not one river was in a healthy state.

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Sunak defends decision not to take immediate action against Tories in betting scandal – as it happened

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Prime minister faces claim Tories are ‘stealing the candlesticks’ on the way out of government

After a passage in his speech attack Labour on familiar grounds, Rishi Sunak also hit out at Reform UK.

[Reform UK] are not on the side of who you think they are.

Reform are standing candidates here in Scotland that are pro independence and anti monarchy.

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Green and social groups to benefit from €25m fortune of Austrian heiress

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Council of 50 random citizens decide how to use money given up by wealth-tax campaigner Marlene Engelhorn

An inherited fortune given away by an Austrian heiress who shunned her millions will go to dozens of non-profit organisations that work on issues including the environment, health and homelessness, a citizen group tasked to manage the fund has announced.

Marlene Engelhorn, a 32-year-old activist who has campaigned for a tax on extreme wealth, announced in January that she would give away the vast bulk – €25m(£21.1m) – of the money she inherited from her grandmother.

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Keir Starmer promises no capital gains tax on sales of homes

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Labour leader rejects ‘desperate’ claim from Tory party that he has secret property tax plans

Keir Starmer has ruled out imposing capital gains tax on the sale of people’s homes and said it was “desperate” tactics from the Tories to suggest that he would.

The Labour leader said he could “absolutely” guarantee that would not happen.

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General election live: Green party defends ‘ambitious’ spending plans at manifesto launch

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The Greens’ spending commitments include £50bn for the NHS and £29bn to insulate homes

In an interview with ITV due to be broadcast on Wednesday evening, Rishi Sunak says he went without “lots of things” as a child, including Sky TV.

Sunak was pressed in the interview by the ITV journalist Paul Brand to give examples of things he didn’t have a child to which he replied: “There’ll be all sorts of things that I would’ve wanted as a kid that I couldn’t have. Famously, Sky TV, so that was something that we never had growing up actually.”

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Green party launches election manifesto with ‘honest’ tax proposal

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Leaders outline ideas including wealth levy, rent controls, house-building, and water and energy firm nationalisation

The Greens have launched their election manifesto with an appeal to voters to help them into parliament as a challenge to what they termed the unambitious, “more of the same” policies of Labour.

Setting out their plans in Brighton and Hove, the location of one of the party’s key target seats, the co-leaders, Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, said their proposals for higher taxes – mainly on wealthier people – were the only realistic way to improve public services and undertake vital environmental policies.

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UK politics: Anas Sarwar says election is about ‘getting rid of Tories’, not Scottish independence – as it happened

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Leaders of Scotland’s five main political parties clash during live TV debate

Momentum, the leftwing Labour group set up when Jeremy Corbyn was leader, is not happy about Keir Starmer’s jibe about Corbyn’s manifesto.

Labour’s 2019 manifesto was fully costed.

Keir should know, he stood on it as a member of the shadow cabinet.

How about stopping attacking your own side during an election @Keir_Starmer?

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‘Cosplaying Liz Truss’: Rishi Sunak condemned for £17bn tax giveaway

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Critics say funding of Tory manifesto’s policies is ‘implausible’ and they would mainly benefit wealthier voters

Rishi Sunak has presented a £17bn tax giveaway as the centrepiece of the Conservative manifesto, an offer that was immediately condemned for being “implausible” and mainly benefiting wealthier voters.

The policy programme set out by the prime minister, seen by many Tory MPs as probably the party’s last big chance to win over voters, contained few big surprises and was centred on cuts to national insurance and stamp duty, higher thresholds for child benefit and help for pensioners.

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Harder to own your first home under the Tories, Rishi Sunak admits – UK politics as it happened

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PM acknowledges in BBC Panorama interview to air tonight that it is a challenge for people to buy their first home

Davey sums up the Lib Dems’ plans on health and social care

And he says he wants to mention one other policy he is particularly proud of – the proposal to give proper bereavement support to parents whose partners have died.

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UK watchdog warns Tories over PM’s ‘£2,000 tax rise’ claim

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Rishi Sunak failed during TV debate to make clear how he had calculated Labour’s spending policies, says OSR

The UK’s statistics watchdog has warned the Conservatives over Rishi Sunak’s claim that Labour would raise taxes by £2,000, saying it failed to make clear how the figures were calculated.

In a rap over the knuckles for the prime minster, who made the claim during a leadership debate on ITV on Tuesday evening, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) said the case demonstrated how all party campaigners needed to offer the public a transparent view of tax and spending policies.

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