Starmer has made tax rises inevitable
His latest reversal is different. Sir Keir's attempt to cut winter fuel payments has ended in the face of a threatened rebellion from the Left, leaving a hole in his budget, and his authority in tatters. The substance of the U-turn – with details still to be announced – matters less than the symbolism. Having forced their leader to back down once, backbench MPs will smell blood in the water.
What was already shaping up to be a formidable row over benefits reform now has the potential to become unmanageable. The Government is currently planning to impose £4.8 billion in welfare cuts by tightening the rules on disability benefits, and freezing the rates of payment.
That this move is necessary is indisputable. Spending on the Personal Independence Payment has reached £29 billion. On current trends, the bill for working-age people on this benefit will surpass this figure by the end of the decade.
But a move being necessary does not mean that the Government will make it. The cut to the winter fuel payment was a small measure expected to save around £1.5 billion each year. Faced with anger from the backbenches, however, Sir Keir found that, despite his majority, he lacked either the stomach for the fight or the means to win it.
If the Government cannot make even this small change to the welfare system, what chance is there of it making the sweeping changes we so desperately need? Implementing the reforms of the welfare state required to bring people back into work and cut spending on benefits is one of the most important challenges facing Britain.
The Conservatives made gestures in this direction but in the end proved too scared to follow through. Now it appears that Sir Keir, too, is on the run from the welfare lobby, finding it easier to let spending rise than make hard cuts.
The long-run implications are grim. If Britain cannot cut spending, it will need to raise revenue. The idea that Labour's first Budget would be a 'one and done' cash grab was always for the birds, and, indeed, Sir Keir yesterday failed to rule out further tax rises later this year. Angela Rayner's dream list of tax rises now stands a strong possibility of becoming Britain's waking nightmare.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
5 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Labour condemns Robert Jenrick's visit to rally attended by far-right activist
Robert Jenrick has been severely criticised by Labour after the shadow justice secretary was pictured at an anti-asylum rally in Essex attended by a veteran far-right activist. Jenrick posted photos on X showing himself visiting the protest outside the Bell hotel in Epping, where police have been attacked and police vehicles vandalised by groups of men taking part in the demonstration. The MP met protesters including a woman with a T-shirt bearing the message: 'Send them home.' Eddy Butler, a wellknown figure in far-right circles who was a key strategist in the rise of the British National party (BNP), can be seen wearing sunglasses in the background of one of the photos Jenrick shared after the visit. It is not clear whether Jenrick met Butler, but the photo was seized on by far-right figures eager to exploit the protest, which they have heavily promoted. Butler boasted to friends about Jenrick's appearance in a post on his Facebook account: 'At the Bell Hotel, riding shotgun for Robert Jenrick, pretender to the Tory leadership.' A Labour party spokesperson described Jenrick as 'a disgrace' for attending a protest 'organised by a far-right party', which was also attended by someone with 'a long history of involvement with neo-Nazi groups'. 'Jenrick once proudly boasted about ramping up the procurement of asylum hotels when he was immigration minister. It shows, at best, a staggering lack of judgment,' they said. 'Kemi Badenoch must show some leadership, explain what action she's going to take against her shadow justice secretary, and demonstrate that she is strong enough to stand up against this challenge to her authority and to basic decency.' Jenrick said in his post on X: 'Great to be with peaceful, patriotic protesters in Epping today. 'People are right to be fed up of illegal migration. And the crime and billions being wasted because of it.' Lewis Nielsen, a spokesperson for Stand Up to Racism, which has been organising counter-protests in Epping, said Jenrick was willing to go on protests attended by far-right activists. 'These aren't 'concerned parents or local residents'. Jenrick is fanning the flames of the far right by chasing Reform UK votes – and he's giving confidence to known fascists.' Butler, a former member of the National Front, has been a prominent figure in the British far right for decades, helping to guide the BNP during the 1990s and 2000s. In 1992 he helped establish a BNP 'stewards' group, made up of skinheads and hooligans, to act as 'security' against antifascists. This group became the neo-Nazi terrorist group Combat 18, according to Hope Not Hate.
Daily Mail
7 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
'Generous' refugee policy backfires as Glasgow City Council now faces £110m budget crisis
Officials at a cash-strapped council have warned that unless there is a pause in asylum seekers being sent to the city, it will push homelessness spending almost £110million over-budget in two years. The SNP-led Glasgow City Council report said that the overspend would be £43million this year and £66million next year because of large numbers of people attracted by Scotland's most generous rules. But a pause could slash costs by £60million. Almost half the homelessness applications by refugees in the city are now made by people granted leave to remain in other parts of the UK who travelled north. Council leader Susan Aitken said she was proud of Glasgow's key role in supporting asylum seekers and refugees but called for support from Whitehall to be 'transformed'. The Scottish Conservatives said the budget crisis was of the SNP 's own making. Glasgow Tory MSP Annie Wells said: 'Savage SNP cuts have resulted in Glasgow facing a housing emergency, yet the Nationalists running the city council have remained wedded to this generous policy. 'At a time when the city's roads are pothole-ridden and bins cannot be collected on time, hard-pressed Glaswegians will be wondering how this will be paid for even if isn't paused. 'It is time for the SNP-led council to ensure their housing policies are always delivering fairness and value for taxpayers, rather than costs spiralling out of control.' Glasgow is the largest dispersal area in Scotland for asylum seekers, with around 4,500 in privately run accommodation while their claims are processed. Once a claim is granted and a person allowed to stay in the UK, they have 56 days to find their own roof or present as homeless to the local council. Besides dealing with those sent by the Home Office to Glasgow, the city has become a magnet for people granted refugee status south of the Border. Councils in England only need to house those in 'priority need', such as families with children, but Scottish rules cover all the unintentionally homeless, including single men and women. It has led to homeless refugees travelling to Glasgow from Belfast, Birmingham, London, Manchester and Liverpool. Since 2022, when the last UK Government introduced a looser 'streamlined asylum process' to help clear the asylum claims backlog, the figures have shot up. In 2023-24, Glasgow received 694 homelessness applications from newly approved refugees granted leave to remain outwith the city. It increased more than 50 per cent the following year to 1,050 applications. Since streamlining began, Glasgow has provided temporary digs to 2,127 households granted leave to remain elsewhere at a cost of £40.2million. Last year the use of B&B accommodation doubled in the city, which declared a housing emergency in November 2023. A report by finance chiefs being discussed by councillors on Thursday says homelessness is now the biggest strain on the city's £2.1billion budget after inflation. It says the overspend on homelessness caused by 'those granted leave to remain' was £27million last year. It added: 'Unless there is a change in policy, projections are that this will rise to £43 million in 2025/26 and £66 million in 2026/27. 'A pause in both dispersal to Glasgow and the requirement to house applicants from outwith Scotland would, if implemented from October 2025, reduce estimated costs to £36million in 2025/26 and then to £13million in 2026/27.' Ms Aitken told the Herald newspaper: 'There has been a huge rise in the number of households that have gone through the asylum process elsewhere in the UK, only to find themselves homeless. 'Increasingly these new citizens are then drawn to Scotland and Glasgow by dint of the fact our homeless legislation is more robust than what is in place across the rest of the UK. 'I am proud of Glasgow's record in supporting refugees and I believe that migration has enhanced its 850-year story. 'However, the support the city gets from Whitehall must be transformed.' With growing protests around the country over asylum seeker accommodation, including a former hotel in Falkirk on Saturday, she said the Home Office would be on a 'dangerous path' if it failed to 'step in and support councils on the frontline of this emergency'. A UK Government spokeswoman said: 'Despite inheriting huge pressures on the asylum system, we are working to make sure individuals have the support they need following an asylum decision to help local authorities better plan their assistance with homelessness. 'Although homelessness is a devolved matter, we are working right across the UK to give councils as much notice as possible of newly recognised refugees, have doubled the move on period to 56 days and have mobilised liaison officers to support asylum seekers in Glasgow City Council area.'
Times
8 minutes ago
- Times
The culture's all been countered — so how can teens rebel?
G iven that 58 per cent of teachers are said to vote Labour, and only 5 per cent Tory, I imagine Sir Keir Starmer has high hopes of the 16-year-olds allowed to vote for the first time in 2029, so long as they have been attentive in class. But is it a foregone conclusion how they will vote? I've been enjoying Stewart Lee's Radio 4 series on the counterculture of the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies and it's got me thinking. What constitutes countering the culture these days? The term counterculture is most associated with the late Sixties — civil rights protests, sticking it to the man, tuning in, turning on, dropping out — but above all it was about a clash of cultures between the younger generation and the older; the one rejecting the norms and dominant values of the other. Nowhere is this better symbolised than in the footage of the Beatles' rooftop concert. On the streets below, looking up in bemusement, are middle-aged men who work in offices. They have short back and sides, regimental ties and trilbies. Above them are the still-in-their-twenties Beatles with their Afghan coats and long hair. Ringo is wearing a bright red coat made of plastic.
