Banned China tech firms lobbied for London embassy November 2, 2025 Chinese tech firms banned on national security grounds in both the UK and the United States lobbied for Beijing’s new embassy in London, growing fears it could be used as an overseas “spy centre”. State-controlled company ZTE Mobile, which was deemed by GCHQ to pose a risk to British telecommunications infrastructure that “cannot be mitigated”, [...]
Badenoch ‘rebuilding’ Tories as she marks a year as leader, she says November 2, 2025 Kemi Badenoch has said she is “rebuilding” the Conservative Party, as she marks her first year as Tory leader. Badenoch’s first anniversary since taking over as Tory leader is on Sunday, November 2. She came to the helm of the Conservative Party after a leadership contest triggered by Rishi Sunak’s resignation in the wake of [...]
Defence Secretary announces £9bn investment to modernise military housing November 2, 2025 More than 40,000 homes for military families are to be modernised as part of a £9 billion overhaul of armed forces accommodation. Defence Secretary John Healey said the Government would undertake “the biggest renewal of armed forces housing in more than 50 years” in a drive to “back Britain’s military families”. The plan will see [...]
Labour ploughs ahead with higher welfare spending October 31, 2025 The Labour government is backing higher welfare spending projections for the next five years, with plans to partially lift the two-child benefit cap set to add to the strain on public finances. An official statement from the government confirmed that the government would ditch planned savings to disability payments, which are formally known as personal [...]
Will the Autumn Budget push up inflation? October 30, 2025 For a few weeks, there was one thing Rachel Reeves appeared to speak about more than anything else: inflation. Earlier this month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed inflation hit 3.8 per cent in the year to September, nearly double the Bank of England’s target rate. The IMF and the OECD said the UK [...]
Starmer reprimands Reeves for ‘inadvertent failure’ over rental licence mishap October 30, 2025 Sir Keir Starmer has sent a sharply worded email to Rachel Reeves criticising the Chancellor for misleading suggestions that she did not know she needed a licence to rent out her family home. Reeves has had to backtrack from earlier suggestions that she and her husband had not been aware of the Southwark Council rental [...]
Tories call for Starmer to sack Rachel Reeves October 30, 2025 The Tories are calling for Keir Starmer to sack Rachel Reeves as Chancellor for breaking the law. In a ratcheting up of the political pressure on Reeves, the opposition party has said the Chancellor should be fired for failing to register her family home when she rented it out before moving to Downing Street. In [...]
Rachel Reeves considers income tax hike and national insurance cut October 30, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves is eyeing up a simultaneous 2p hike to income tax and 2p cut to national insurance, it has been reported, in an effort to raise some £6bn. Reeves is considering the controversial tax hike, according to The Telegraph, which would breach the Labour Party manifesto and risk infuriating voters. It would also [...]
Business owners still plan staff cuts due to last year’s NICs raid October 30, 2025 Nearly half of business owners are still planning to reduce headcounts in response to Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ £25bn tax hike on employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs), a new survey has indicated, pointing to the long-lasting economic effects of a brutal tax raid in her first Budget. Reeves made sweeping tax hikes last year to fund [...]
Mel Stride rules out electoral pact with Reform October 30, 2025 Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride has insisted the Conservatives will not strike an electoral deal with Reform UK due to their “completely ruinous” economic agenda. In an interview with a new online magazine led by the centre-right think tank Bright Blue, Stride said his party should avoid “indulging in populist politics” and focus on calling out [...]