‘If voters aren’t better off by the next election, we’re screwed’: Labour insiders voice fears over budget

Some say party risks ‘looking twee’ by focusing on small fixes amid growing nervousness that budget lacks ambition

In the days since Labour’s annual conference, party insiders have been sharing a word cloud produced by the pollsters More in Common, which shows the phrases voters most associate with Andy Burnham.

Such polling is rarely flattering for politicians, and the prime minister’s version had its fair share of negatives. But one of the most prominent words in the cloud – and the one that has caught the imagination of Labour strategists – was “trying”.

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Tory tax break for banks has cost UK public purse £6bn, says TUC

Exclusive: Chancellor urged to reverse Rishi Sunak’s tax surcharge cuts to claw back billions in lost revenue

Tax cuts for big banks have deprived the UK government of £6bn in revenues, according to campaigners, who are calling on the chancellor, John Healey, to increase taxes and force lenders to pay their “fair share” in the budget.

Calculations by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which represents unions with more than 5.3 million members across England and Wales, shows that the public purse is billions of pounds worse off as a result of tax cuts introduced under the Tory chancellor Rishi Sunak in 2023.

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John Healey says Labour will stick to fiscal rules in first speech as chancellor – UK politics live

The chancellor announced a new local apprenticeship service to boost opportunities for young people

Lisa O’Carroll is a senior Guardian correspondent.

The head of the SDLP, Claire Hanna, has called for an international mediator to resolve the continuing crisis over a unionist parade in a nationalist area close to Drumcree, the site of some of the worst violence of the troubles almost 30 years ago.

The truth is everybody has got to want to seek mediation and seek compromise and that’s what I’m trying to find, whether there’s that little chink on both sides that we can use to get to a decent compromise that means everybody can walk away with their head held high and their sense of honour.

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Healey appoints Labour manifesto writer, fuelling election speculation

Exclusive: Economist Ravinder Athwal who worked in Keir Starmer’s team is poached from Flint Global

Ravinder Athwal, the economist who wrote Labour’s 2024 manifesto, is taking on a senior role as an adviser to John Healey, in a move likely to fuel speculation about an early general election.

The chancellor is keen to beef up his team before the critical budget on 28 October, as the economy is buffeted by high oil prices and rising government borrowing costs.

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UK borrows £18bn in August, putting pressure on Healey before budget

Some economists say it is now ‘inevitable’ that chancellor will need to raise taxes in the budget next month

The UK government borrowed a higher-than-expected £18.3bn last month, increasing the pressure on John Healey as he attempts to calm jittery bond markets before next month’s budget.

Some economists said it was “inevitable” that the chancellor would need to raise taxes on 28 October if he is to meet demands for extra spending on defence without further borrowing investors on international money markets.

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Burnham hosts Ireland’s taoiseach as he bids for UK exemptions from EU’s ‘Made in Europe’ plan – UK politics live

It is the first time the PM has used No 10 North to host an overseas visit

Kemi Badenoch says the Conservative party has “instructed lawyers” to challenge government cuts to a Tory-run London council, which they say amounts to 40%.

These cuts are forcing Wandsworth to increase its council tax by 94%, the Tory leader says.

I think it is outrageous that Wandsworth council is having to put up council tax. But they’re not doing it because they want to.

It is because the government has taken away 40% of their funding. So we have actually instructed lawyers, as the Conservative party, to see if we can challenge the government on this decision.

I’m terrifically excited to be joining the young Palantir team who make the tools that public service workers need to transform how they serve the British people.

Whether that means reducing the time it takes to be diagnosed, treated and discharged from hospital, helping our military personnel keep us safe and secure, or enabling our police to crack crimes and root out corruption, Palantir software can transform the country’s public services.

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Bank of England urged to slow or halt bond-selling to slash UK borrowing costs

Economists urge John Healey to press Bank to change policy that is costing the exchequer billions of pounds

Economists have urged the chancellor, John Healey, to press the Bank of England to slow down its bond-selling programme that has already cost the exchequer billions of pounds.

The Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) meets this week to not only decide the level of interest rates but also whether they should freeze or slow the sale of government bonds, known as gilts, bought as part of the rescue operation after the 2008 banking crash.

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UK chancellor urged to remove £100k childcare ‘cliff edge’ prompting parents to cut work hours

Critics say threshold pushes higher-paid staff to cut back on work and often mothers to stop working to avoid losing entitlement

John Healey has been urged to fix the £100,000 childcare “cliff edge”, that means some higher-paid employees cut back on work to avoid losing their entitlement.

Since the latest expansion of taxpayer-funded childcare in 2024, families with young children in which both parents earn less than £100,000 a year can be entitled to 30 hours a week of care - or none at all, if one of them cross that threshold.

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Camden Green councillor says he will fight Polanski to run in Starmer’s seat – UK politics live

Hamza Chowdhury says he will challenge party leader and has received nominations from other Green councillors

Healey says Andy Burnham set out in his statement to MPs last week what he thought had gone wrong

The fundamentals of our economy [were] hollowed out through a series of past policy decisions, political power was centralised, weakening the relationships between the people, the businesses and the institutions who can make things happen beyond Whitehall. The economic enablers were privatised and outsourced, leaving accountability to a thicket of arm’s length bodies and regulators, too often without the predictability or the pace that underpins a thriving market economy. And our country was deindustrialised as the cost to make anything, to build anything here soared, and our dependence on unreliable sources grew, including in areas critical to our national security and sovereignty.

Let me be clear, I recognise that the costs of business, its energy bills, regulation, burdens, planning constraints, labour costs, have grown since Covid and I want to draw the line.

And whether it is the cost of business or the cost of living, the only way we deal with these in the long term is growth.

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Fund defence spending from tax rise on middle earners, thinktank tells Healey

Resolution Foundation argues that UK’s internationally low ‘tax wedge’ must rise to pay for defence ambitions

The chancellor, John Healey, must be prepared to raise taxes for middle earners if he wants to fund significantly higher defence spending, the Resolution Foundation thinktank has said.

Healey resigned from Keir Starmer’s government in June, protesting against what he argued was the then prime minister’s failure to adequately fund defence.

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UK productivity growing faster than official figures suggest, thinktank finds

Resolution Foundation suggests economy may finally be emerging from shadow of 2008 financial crisis

Productivity in the UK – a vital measure of economic health – is growing more strongly than official figures suggest, according to analysis from the Resolution Foundation.

The thinktank suggests the chancellor, John Healey, may have inherited an economy finally starting to emerge from the long shadow of the 2008 global financial crisis.

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UK reports unexpected deficit of £1.8bn as John Healey prepares for first budget

July data shows total public debt was £2.98tn, or 94% of GDP – up £96bn on a year earlier

The UK government ran a larger than expected £1.8bn deficit in July, underlining the challenges facing the chancellor, John Healey, as he draws up his first budget.

City economists had expected a shortfall of zero for July, a month when Treasury receipts tend to be swollen by self-assessment income tax payments.

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Rising inflation underlines scale of Andy Burnham’s cost of living challenge

PM’s plan to shield households from more pressure risks being overwhelmed by wider price rises

July’s increase in inflation, to 2.9%, is likely to be the first of several, underlining the challenge facing Andy Burnham in shielding consumers from a fresh cost of living squeeze this autumn.

Rising energy bills, as an increase in Ofgem’s quarterly price cap came into force, were the main driver of the jump in inflation, from 2.6% in June. That was partly offset by cheaper fuel prices – the knock-on effect of hostilities easing in the Middle East, after Donald Trump hailed his “memorandum of understanding” with Iran in June.

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Healey urged to be bold on borrowing in first test of Burnham’s growth pledge

Some want the chancellor to exploit newly flexible fiscal rules – others want a more creative approach, such as borrowing from markets

With just 12 weeks to go until his first budget, new chancellor John Healey is seeking ways to ramp up public investment, without busting the Treasury’s fiscal rules – and some economists are urging him to be bold.

As he settles into No 11 Downing Street, the former defence secretary’s most immediate challenges concern day-to-day government spending.

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Healey urged to be bold on borrowing in first test of Burnham’s growth pledge

Some want the chancellor to exploit newly flexible fiscal rules – others want a more creative approach, such as borrowing from markets

With just 12 weeks to go until his first budget, new chancellor John Healey is seeking ways to ramp up public investment, without busting the Treasury’s fiscal rules – and some economists are urging him to be bold.

As he settles into No 11 Downing Street, the former defence secretary’s most immediate challenges concern day-to-day government spending.

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Healey’s profiteering warning on food and fuel risks row with retailers

Chancellor says the government wants to prevent shoppers being ‘taken for a ride’ at the pump or till

The chancellor, John Healey, has said the government is standing by to prevent the public from “being taken for a ride at the pump or the till” as the Iran war continues to hit prices.

While he said there had been “no significant evidence of so-called price gouging” during the crisis, he used a weekend column to tell the big retailers that ministers were “watching closely” for any signs of profiteering.

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UK inflation falls by more than expected to 2.6% in lift for Andy Burnham

Annual June figure comes after new PM pledges to reduce cost of living and improve economy

UK inflation dropped by more than expected in June to 2.6%, in a boost for Andy Burnham’s plans to reduce the cost of living.

The new prime minister has pledged to bring down the cost of living to give households more disposable income and improve the outlook for the economy, announcing a winter VAT cut on electricity bills and lowering the cap on bus fares in England.

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Andy Burnham vows to ‘bring back hope’ as he unveils his cabinet

New prime minister says government must ‘do better’ to deliver change but promises prudent approach to economy

Andy Burnham has said his arrival in power will “bring back hope” to Britain as he launched his premiership with the surprise appointment of John Healey as chancellor and a promise to repair the damage caused to communities during the Thatcher era.

The new UK prime minister acknowledged people were “fed up” with politics as he addressed the country after taking over from Keir Starmer in Downing Street, saying the government needed to “do better” to deliver real change.

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‘We need to be careful’: Andy Burnham’s team keenly aware of fiscal tightrope

Chancellor pick and early policies avoid market meltdown but next week remains ‘moment of real peril’

Andy Burnham has not quite gone for Keir Starmer’s extreme caution in the run-up to entering No 10 – but he is certainly aware that any early wrong moves would cost him.

Back in 2024, Starmer was criticised for his “Ming vase” strategy of treading very carefully so as not to drop a valuable metaphorical piece of china being carried across the room.

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UK defence spending plan ‘well short of what’s required’ and harder choices needed, says John Healey – as it happened

Ex-defence secretary John Healey and ex-defence minister Al Carns have given resignation statements to MPs

Speaking to reporters at the G7, Keir Starmer also defended the defence investment plan (DIP) draft that led to John Healey’s resignation as defence secretary last week. Starmer confirmed that Dan Jarvis, the new defence secretary, is getting some input before the publication of the DIP in its final version.

Starmer said:

The position on investment in defence is firstly that we increased last year defence spending from 2.3% to 2.6%, that’s the biggest increase since the 1980s, and that means £270bn will be spent this parliament on defence.

On top of that [the] defence investment plan which obviously gives us capability for the future. We will put even more money in relation to that. I’ve been really clear that’s required difficult decisions, I have taken the decision to reallocate money from other departments.

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