Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride asks Labour ‘how will you pay?’ for Winter Fuel U-turn
“Labour’s cost of living failures mean Sir Keir Starmer has no choice but to think again on winter fuel. This Government’s decisions are making life more expensive for all of us. The latest inflation figures are a stark reminder of the growing cost of living pressures facing millions of families as a result of the choices taken by Starmer and Rachel Reeves since coming into office. They were warned that their policies would push up prices for families, but they did not listen. Inflation was bang on the target rate of 2 per cent when Labour took over, but Wednesday’s figures show that it has surged to almost double that. Labour’s cut to this vital support wasn’t in their manifesto. It was not debated during the general election. And it was not – by any stretch – a necessity. Yet within weeks of taking office, Labour chose to rip up support worth up to £300 a year from pensioners receiving less than £11,500.” – Mel Stride, Daily Telegraph
- Why Starmer’s U-turn on winter fuel payments lacks clarity – The Times
- Starmer hints at more tax rises to fund U-Turn on winter fuel allowance – as jubilant Left order him to soak the ‘wealthy’ – Daily Mail
- Fuel Fury. Keir’s half-baked Winter Fuel U-turn leaves millions of pensioners in limbo and still without vital £300 payment – The Sun
- Labour could review other benefit cuts after winter fuel U-turn – The Guardian
- Winter fuel U-turn after No 10 overcomes opposition from Rachel Reeves – The i
- Reeves reeling from triple blow: On humiliating day for Chancellor, PM U-turns on winter fuel, inflation soars – and Rayner takes aim at her tax policies – Daily Mail
Editorial
- Labour’s U-turn on winter fuel payments is a belated admission of just how wrong-headed the original policy was – The Sun
Comment
- Desperate Starmer is in retreat, and scorching everything in his wake – Allister Heath, Daily Telegraph
- Why Keir Starmer made ‘disastrous’ call to slash winter fuel budget for OAPs and who argued against reversing it – Anushka Asthana, The Sun
- Starmer’s winter fuel U-turn is a big mistake – Ross Clark, Spectator
- Inflation is so high, even Rachel Reeves’s voice is going up: Chancellor suffers from technical gaffe as inflation surges to 3.5% – far higher than expected as Labour’s economy spins out of control – Noor Qurashi, Daily Mail
….meanwhile, Starmer backtracked on winter fuel cut ‘amid fears of electoral disaster’
“Sir Keir Starmer performed an about-turn on winter fuel payments after being warned by senior Labour figures that his decision to cut the benefit would spell disaster at the polls in Scotland. …In recent weeks, senior Scottish Labour figures have been lobbying the Prime Minister to reverse his decision to cut the annual payment to OAPs. They are said to have warned him the move had inflicted serious damage on the party’s hopes of making big gains in next year’s Holyrood election. In addition, Scottish Labour insiders were worried that the cut was undermining the party’s campaign in a by-election for Holyrood’s Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse seat, scheduled for June 5. Imogen Walker, the Labour MP who holds the equivalent Hamilton and Clyde Valley seat at Westminster, is married to Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir’s chief of staff and political svengali.” – Daily Telegraph
Government to announce it will go ahead with controversial £9bn Chagos giveaway
“The long-awaited agreement to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius will be given the go-ahead on Thursday after Downing Street lifted its objections to announcing the deal. Under the agreement, Britain will cede sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius but lease back Diego Garcia for 99 years. Diego Garcia is the largest island in the archipelago and home to a US naval base. Ministers have refused to reveal the final cost of the deal, but it is believed to be in the region of £90 million a year. Government sources confirmed that the agreement had been ready for “months” after President Trump gave the plan the green light when Sir Keir Starmer visited in White House in February. But the formal signing had been blocked by No 10 over concerns of a “toxic” backlash after Labour’s disastrous local election results this month.” – The Times
- Starmer to hand Mauritius billions in Chagos deal – Daily Telegraph
- UK set to sign Chagos Islands deal with Mauritius – FT
- Keir Starmer set to give ‘£9bn’ of your money to Mauritius in Chagos betrayal – Daily Express
>Today
Chagos, China, and a British betrayal
Prisons 1) Justice Secretary reported to be looking at chemical castration for paedophiles
“Paedophiles and rapists are to face chemical castration. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is looking at plans to make it mandatory. Studies have shown using drugs to dull sex urges can slash offending by up to 60 per cent. A Government source said: “For too long, we have turned a blind eye to the threat sex offenders pose, considering the solutions too difficult or unpalatable. Shabana isn’t squeamish about doing what it takes to protect the public. As always, she will grab this problem by the proverbials.”- The Sun
- Paedophiles and other sex criminals ‘will be castrated’ under new Government plans – Daily Mail
- Mahmood considers mandatory chemical castration for paedophiles – The Times
- Pakistani paedophile who abused teenage girls wins battle in fight to stay in UK because he says he faces a fatwa if returned to his home country – Daily Mail
Prisons 2) Former Tory Justice Secretary says following his recommendations could cut prison numbers by 10,000
“Radical reforms to reduce the prison population by 10,000 within three years will be “politically challenging”, the architect of the government’s sentencing review has said. David Gauke, the former Conservative justice secretary, said the government had no alternative but to accept his proposals for the biggest shake-up of sentencing laws in more than 30 years. In an interview with The Times before the review’s publication on Thursday he said that Britain had become too reliant on imprisonment to punish criminals and that had “unbalanced our system”. Gauke, who was appointed to lead an independent review of sentencing in England and Wales to solve the prisons crisis and cut reoffending rates, said his “bold and significant” recommendations would “reset” the system.” – The Times
- More community sentences in England and Wales could be ‘catastrophic’, warns watchdog – The Guardian
Rayner 1) Two migrants die as record number cross Channel in one day
“Two migrants died as more than 800 crossed the Channel in small boats on Wednesday in a record daily high for this year. Official figures published on Thursday are set to show that overall immigration levels in the UK have fallen but net migration is still expected to stand at more than half a million in the year to December 2024. Border Force sources said that about 820 migrants had crossed the Channel in small boats by 7am on Wednesday, although the final figure will not be confirmed until later. It is higher than the previous daily record of 705 on April 15. It takes the total number of migrants to have arrived in the UK on small boats so far this year to at least 13,500, the highest on record and 30 per cent more than had arrived at this point last year.” – The Times
- Migrant boat crossing English Channel forces Dunkirk flotilla of ‘Little Ships’ to divert as they commemorated legendary WWII evacuation – Daily Mail
- Rayner calls for curb on migrant benefits – Daily Telegraph
- Angela Rayner calls for huge migration crackdown in bombshell leaked memo – Daily Express
Rayner 2) Labour deputy leader is angling for the top job according to some Labour sources
“Angela Rayner is positioning herself as a “credible” left-of-centre alternative to Sir Keir Starmer, senior Labour MPs believe, as backbench concerns about the direction of government continue to grow. Allies of the housing secretary, who is also Starmer’s deputy, insisted that she had had nothing to do with the leak of an internal government memo in which she had Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, to raise taxes rather than reduce spending. The memo was sent to Reeves before her spring statement, despite the Treasury’s insistence at the time that she would not increase taxes to fill a £14 billion hole in her plans. The memo, titled “Alternative proposals for raising revenue”, laid out a series of measures to raise taxes by up to £4 billion a year. It said that the policies “would be popular, prudent and would not raise taxes on working people”. – The Times
- Labour’s tax hikes plot: Rayner ‘secretly pushes for’ fresh raids on pensions, inheritance, shares, banks and the wealthy – as dozens of MPs call for benefits cuts U-turn – Daily Mail
Comment
- Angela Rayner is angling to be our next Prime Minister. The Labour civil war is underway and this is the truth about her extraordinary power-play – and why she’s more than happy to throw Keir Starmer under the bus – Dan Hodges, Daily Mail
Whitehall braces for civil service strikes over pay and shorter working hours
“Civil servants are demanding an £18 per hour minimum wage, pay rises of at least 10 per cent, and a shorter working week. Members of the PCS union, which represents workers across Whitehall, are also calling for a minimum London weighting of £5,000 per year. The demands were included in a motion passed by delegates at the union’s annual conference in Brighton this week. It also calls on PCS bosses to ‘use all available methods to get the union ready for a fight’ with the Labour Government, raising the prospect of possible strike action. The motion states the union’s leadership should ‘proceed to a ballot by no later than mid-September if there is not satisfactory progress made’ over its key demands. PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote used her conference speech to lash out at Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s vow to slim down the ‘flabby’ civil service. As reported by Civil Service World, she said: ‘Although the PM has scrapped Tory plans to slash 66,000 civil service jobs, there are still too many threats to jobs in many areas of government.” – Daily Mail
- Big public sector pay rises loom — and make strikes more likely – The Times
News in Brief
- The problem isn’t Kemi, it’s the Tory Party – Tom Harris, Daily Telegraph
- It is honesty, not populism, that will save the Tories – William Wellesley, CapX
- Kemi Badenoch isn’t taking the Lib Dem threat seriously – Peter Franklin, Unherd
- Patrick O’Flynn helped make Brexit possible – Gawain Towler, Spectator
- Britain controls its waters – but not its bureaucrats – Harry Phibbs, CapX
