Minister refuses to touch upon experiences of tax improve for landlords
A Authorities minister refused to be drawn on experiences the Treasury is contemplating a tax improve on landlords for Rachel Reeves’s autumn finances.
Stephen Morgan, schooling minister, advised Occasions Radio and Sky Information he was unable to touch upon hypothesis which was reported within the Occasions on Wednesday that nationwide insurance coverage will probably be imposed on rental revenue.
In accordance with the PA information company, Morgan as a substitute mentioned he needed the finances to be rooted in “Labour values”.
He advised Occasions Radio:
Clearly taxation insurance policies are a matter for the chancellor of the exchequer, and she is going to set out extra element within the finances later this yr. I need to ensure that our finances relies on our Labour values, and that’s what Rachel Reeves will ship.
It’s not for me to touch upon hypothesis. Our focus is on driving progress within the economic system and delivering for working folks up and down the nation.
Talking later to Sky Information, Morgan mentioned:
We’re centered on rising the economic system. Fixing the foundations of the nation, restoring public service and that decade of nationwide renewal.
I’m afraid you’ll have to wait till the finances later this yr.
It was reported on Tuesday that the price of UK authorities borrowing had jumped to close a 27-year excessive, piling strain on Reeves to disclose how she is going to deal with the deficit within the public funds earlier than the autumn finances.
In different developments, the courtroom of enchantment will hear purposes for permission to enchantment in opposition to the Epping Bell lodge ruling from the hotelier and the Residence Workplace from 10am.
Here’s a quick abstract of different key occasions:
Keir Starmer has appointed the outspoken founding father of Octopus Vitality as an adviser, with a remit to problem authorities pondering. Greg Jackson has joined the Cupboard Workplace board, an influential core of presidency advisers, as a non-executive member.
The Liberal Democrat chief, Ed Davey, will boycott King Charles’s state banquet held in honour of Donald Trump to protest in opposition to the US president’s failure to intervene decisively to finish the battle in Gaza. Davey, who’s invited to the dinner for Trump’s state go to to the UK, mentioned to show down an invite from the king went in opposition to all his instincts and that it was a deeply severe transfer to refuse to attend.
Kids and younger individuals are being overdiagnosed with psychological well being situations in a society that has overlooked the truth that youngster improvement is “messy and uneven”, the previous well being secretary Jeremy Hunt has mentioned. He’s the most recent senior determine so as to add his voice to requires a radical overhaul of the particular instructional wants and disabilities (Ship) system in England.
A Reform council chief’s choice to ban his councillors from partaking with a outstanding native newspaper is a “huge assault on native democracy” and an indication of issues to return ought to the celebration type the subsequent authorities, the outlet’s editor has warned. In an unprecedented transfer, Nottinghamshire county council’s four-month-old Reform administration has mentioned it’s going to now not take care of the Nottingham Publish, its on-line version and a crew of BBC-funded native democracy journalists that it manages.
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Up to date at 04.54 EDT
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Becca Jones, director of asylum help within the Residence Workplace, mentioned it might be “vital” to lose 152 bedspaces from the Bell lodge in Epping, Essex.
The PA information company experiences that in a witness assertion referenced within the courtroom of enchantment listening to on Thursday, Jones mentioned there have been 103,684 accommodated asylum-seekers as of 31 March, increased than in 2024. She mentioned:
On this context, and presently, the lack of 152 bedspaces is critical when contemplating the Residence Workplace’s authorized obligation.
The provision of the lodge can also be necessary in enabling the secretary of state to satisfy her obligation to accommodate future asylum seekers going ahead, in circumstances the place the strain on accessible properties is critical and growing.
Jones continued in her witness assertion that the interim injunction would threat “encouraging different native authorities” to hunt related injunctions. She mentioned:
The Residence Workplace is conscious that there have been a collection of protests within the native space about the usage of the lodge, together with some dysfunction in earlier weeks. Nevertheless, following applicable police intervention, the state of affairs is now understood to be considered one of managed, peaceable protest.
Jones continued:
The Residence Workplace understands that native residents have considerations about the usage of the lodge, which have been heard. Nevertheless, these considerations have to be seen within the context of calls for on the lodging property.
She concluded:
Granting the interim injunction sought dangers setting a precedent which might have a severe affect on the secretary of state’s means to accommodate susceptible folks, each by encouraging different native authorities to hunt such interim injunctions pending the result of substantive planning regulation complaints and those that search to focus on asylum lodging in acts of public dysfunction.
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Commerce minister Douglas Alexander will promote the UK as an financial associate throughout a go to to Japan and South Korea, beginning on Thursday.
In accordance with the PA information company, in Japan, Alexander will give a speech on the Pacific Future discussion board, declaring that the UK is open for enterprise and may be an indispensable associate in upholding world order.
He can even be a part of defence secretary John Healey onboard plane provider HMS Prince of Wales to mark the deployment of the UK provider strike group – which consists of Royal Navy warships, submarines and plane.
In South Korea, Alexander will meet the Korean commerce minister, Yeo Han-Koo, to work on the UK-South Korea free commerce settlement, and can affirm the intention to conclude negotiations this yr. A free commerce settlement with South Korea might support sectors similar to monetary providers, authorized providers and well being, whereas serving to British corporations similar to Diageo increase in Korea.
The minister can even meet the CEOs of LG AI Lab to debate a lately signed partnership with the London Inventory Change Group.
Alexander mentioned:
Immediately’s world is one the place obstacles to commerce are going up and geopolitical divides are deepening, leading to increased prices for shoppers and sensible challenges for companies.
Our new commerce and industrial methods, primarily based on a way of pragmatic patriotism, supplies the compass by which we’ll navigate right this moment’s storms.
From the deck of HMS Prince of Wales to the negotiating desk in Seoul, the UK is forging sturdy financial partnerships which is able to assist put more cash in folks’s pockets as a part of the plan for change.
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International Workplace summons Russian ambassador after in a single day strikes on Kyiv
Additional to the earlier publish, the International Workplace has confirmed that it summoned the Russian ambassador after strikes on Kyiv in a single day killed civilians and broken the British Council constructing within the Ukrainian capital.
International secretary David Lammy posted on X:
Putin’s strikes final evening killed civilians, destroyed properties and broken buildings, together with the British Council and EU delegation in Kyiv.
We now have summoned the Russian Ambassador. The killing and destruction should cease.
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In accordance with experiences, Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin, is anticipated to be summoned by the British International Workplace after Russian strikes on Kyiv killed at the very least 14 folks and broken the British Council’s workplace within the Ukrainian capital.
You may learn extra on this and the most recent developments in Ukraine in our Europe dwell weblog.
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Up to date at 07.43 EDT
In case you missed it, Sky Information shared a YouGov ballot yesterday that confirmed that Labour has sunk to its lowest approval score since July 2019.
Within the ballot Labour is on simply 20% of the supposed voting intention, eight factors behind Reform and simply three factors forward of the Conservatives on 17% of the vote.
Nigel Farage, Reform UK’s chief, has been making political capital over the small boats challenge and has dominated headlines over the summer season whereas the federal government has been comparatively quiet and generally confused on its messaging.
Earlier this month, the quantity of people that have arrived within the UK on small boats throughout the Channel since Keir Starmer received the final election final July hit 50,000, a milestone the prime minister and his crew didn’t need to attain so quickly.
Labour report their lowest ballot score since July 2019 in YouGov’s newest voting intention (25-26 August 2025)
Ref: 28% (no change from 17-18 August)
Lab: 20% (-1)
Con: 17% (-1)
Lib Dem: 16% (+1)
Inexperienced: 11% (+1)
SNP: 3% (=) pic.twitter.com/fsqK1W82Vc
— YouGov (@YouGov) August 27, 2025
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Overdiagnosis of youngsters overlooks that rising up is ‘messy and uneven’, says Jeremy Hunt
Sally Weale
Kids and younger individuals are being overdiagnosed with psychological well being situations in a society that has overlooked the truth that youngster improvement is “messy and uneven”, the previous well being secretary Jeremy Hunt has mentioned.
He’s the most recent senior determine so as to add his voice to requires a radical overhaul of the particular instructional wants and disabilities (Ship) system in England.
Hunt mentioned in his half decade as well being secretary, he witnessed “an alarming escalation” within the prevalence and severity of psychological ill-health amongst younger folks, in addition to vital will increase in diagnoses of neurodevelopmental situations.
In a foreword to a brand new report by the centre-right thinktank Coverage Change, Hunt mentioned:
Psychological ill-health and neurodiversity now accounts for greater than half of the post-pandemic improve we’ve got seen in claimants of incapacity profit. Spending on Ship provision has sky-rocketed and dangers the monetary sustainability of native authorities.
Relatively than assuming that more cash or extra of the identical is the reply, we have to ask extra basic questions. Is a money switch – or a label meaning younger individuals are handled and are available to see themselves as totally different – the fitting method to assist them?
He added:
Throughout the political spectrum, and amongst a rising vary of practitioners, it’s now recognised that there’s a stage of ‘overdiagnosis’ [in] our system. We have to lower by way of the complexity to raised perceive the drivers of demand we’re seeing.
Hunt, who’s Conservative MP for Godalming and Ash, and has additionally served as chancellor and international secretary below the Conservatives, mentioned:
As a society, we appear to have overlooked the elemental actuality that youngster improvement is a messy and uneven course of.
Our laudable want to make sure younger individuals are pleased and well-supported is at instances manifesting in extreme impulses to medicalise and diagnose the routine in a fashion that may undercut grit and resilience.
The federal government is anticipated to publish a white paper later this yr detailing the way it plans to reform the Ship system. Dad and mom are involved that schooling, well being and care plans (EHCPs) – legally enforceable paperwork that element a baby or younger individual’s wants, and the help they require – will probably be focused.
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Keir Starmer replaces key No 10 aide with extra adjustments to return
Jessica Elgot
Keir Starmer has begun a shake-up of No 10, together with changing an aide whose appointment had been a key battleground amid the departure of Sue Grey final autumn.
Nin Pandit, the prime minister’s prime civil service aide, is to go away her function after lower than 10 months. Sources at No 10 denied she had stop and mentioned she would step into a brand new coverage supply function and the prime minister would now take extra direct management of supply.
The Guardian understands that Pandit, as soon as praised by Dominic Cummings as considered one of “the good girls across the desk” who would have executed the job of prime minister “10 instances higher” than Boris Johnson, will probably be changed by Dan York-Smith as Starmer’s principal non-public secretary.
York-Smith’s appointment will probably be taken as an indication of No 10’s must beef up financial experience. It has lengthy been rumoured that Starmer needed to nominate extra financial and infrastructure consultants to his coverage unit however no appointments have been introduced. York-Smith is an skilled Treasury official, who has led financial technique for six chancellors and oversees tax and welfare on the Treasury.
Downing Avenue sources mentioned there have been extra adjustments to return however mentioned they believed the cupboard secretary, Chris Wormald, was secure in his function, regardless of briefings that a number of colleagues imagine he has been ineffective.
A No 10 supply denied Pandit was being sacked or demoted and mentioned she had the complete confidence of the prime minister and would stay a key a part of the operation. Her new function has not but been named.
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Deputy first minister Kate Forbes has introduced funding to assist help the Scots language – which she mentioned is a “treasured half” of Scotland’s historical past and tradition, experiences the PA information company.
Scottish authorities funding of £650,000 will assist 11 organisations working to advertise the language throughout the nation. A kind of receiving money is Scots Hoose Yaldi, which is able to get virtually £89,000 to assist it present free assets to varsities and nurseries.
Throughout a go to to the Invoice and Bain printworks in Glasgow, Forbes unveiled the challenge’s new youngsters’s e-book, the Auchertermichty Aw-Stars, which is written in Scots and options performs a few youth soccer membership. The e-book is considered one of a collection of titles, together with comics, which will probably be printed and distributed to younger folks because of authorities money. Forbes mentioned:
These performs are a part of a collection of free Scots books, comics and poems which intention to supply younger folks with a greater understanding of the language in order that it might probably proceed to develop.
Scots is a treasured a part of our historical past, heritage and tradition. It enriches communities and analysis exhibits that studying the language advantages younger folks’s literacy abilities and confidence.
Different initiatives that may obtain help embrace new Open College programs to assist college academics introduce Scots into their classes, which is able to profit from virtually £85,000. The most important sum of money – £231,000 – will go to the Dictionaries of the Scots Language challenge, which goals to element the origins and that means of each Scots phrase.
Deputy first minister Kate Forbes has introduced funding to assist help the Scots language. {Photograph}: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
The funding comes after the most recent census statistics confirmed that in 2022, 2,444,659 folks throughout the nation had some abilities in Scots – up from 515,215 in 2011. The variety of children aged 15 or below with some means in Scots had elevated from 48,310 to 260,356 over the identical interval.
The funding is being awarded by way of the Scots language improvement fund in 2025-26, with Forbes saying the full quantity represents a £150,000 improve in comparison with final yr. She additionally famous that ministers had introduced ahead the Scottish Languages Act to “set up Scots and Gaelic as official languages and introduce educating requirements for Scots”, with this laws handed in June 2025.
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Former Labour councillor in Glasgow joins Reform UK
Severin Carrell
A former Labour councillor in Glasgow who stop the celebration after being accused of creating racist remarks has joined Reform UK, making her the seventeenth Scottish councillor to defect to them.
Reform UK introduced on Thursday morning that Audrey Dempsey, who now sits as an unbiased on Glasgow metropolis council, had change into its newest elected member.
Dempsey resigned as a Labour councillor in April final yr after she was suspended for allegedly making racist remarks, and claiming that racist assaults on white youngsters and academics have been rising within the metropolis’s faculties.
She claimed on the time she had been elevating considerations concerning the celebration’s instructions for a while. “As an alternative the response of some has been to assault my character and popularity with cowardly leaks which have intentionally been twisted to suit a story,” she mentioned in an announcement on X.
Dempsey, who runs a charity specializing in poverty amongst households in north Glasgow, is now the second Reform UK councillor in Glasgow and the second ex-Labour councillor to defect.
She mentioned Keir Starmer, the prime minister, and Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour chief, ran the celebration as a “self-serving clique”. Nigel Farage, the chief of Reform UK, was totally different, she mentioned.
Reform UK and Nigel Farage aren’t simply difficult the established order; they’re ripping it aside. They’re centered on tackling unlawful migration, standing up for ladies and women’ security and remodeling working folks lives for the higher. That’s what I’ve at all times executed in my skilled life and particularly designed my charity to place Glasgow’s folks first.
Not like Reform’s electoral successes in England and Wales, none of its 17 Scottish councillors has but received an election for Reform UK; most have defected from the Conservatives or as independents. These 17 representatives make up 1.4% of the 1,226 councillors sitting in Scotland.
On Tuesday, Nigel Farage, the celebration’s UK chief, unveiled a Scottish Conservative MSP, Graham Simpson, as its newest recruit.
Simpson is the celebration’s sole MSP at Holyrood, however latest polling suggests Reform UK might win numerous seats on the subsequent Holyrood election in Might 2026 after leap-frogging the Tories and edging near Labour’s stage of help.
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Authorities funding without spending a dime meals and actions throughout summer season holidays for low-income households scheme prolonged
Authorities funding for a programme which presents youngsters from low-income households free meals and actions throughout the college holidays will probably be prolonged, experiences the PA information company.
The Division for Schooling (DfE) has mentioned working households on free college meals might save greater than £800 a yr because of its funding into vacation golf equipment. In accordance with the PA information company, £600m is being invested to increase the vacation exercise and meals (HAF) programme – which funds councils to supply vacation childcare, actions and meals for youngsters eligible without spending a dime college meals – for one more three years.
It comes as working dad and mom in England will be capable of entry 30 hours per week of funded childcare for youngsters older than 9 months from Monday. With simply days to go till the complete rollout, schooling secretary Bridget Phillipson has referred to as on eligible dad and mom in England to “take up” the provide.
The enlargement of funded childcare – which was launched by the Conservative authorities – started being rolled out in England in April final yr for working dad and mom of two-year-olds. Working dad and mom of youngsters older than 9 months at the moment are additionally capable of entry 15 hours of funded childcare per week throughout time period time, earlier than the complete rollout of 30 hours per week to all eligible households from subsequent week.
The HAF programme – for school-age youngsters from reception to yr 11 – helps dad and mom to make financial savings of greater than £300 a yr, the DfE mentioned.
In July, the Coram Household and Childcare charity referred to as for the HAF programme to be maintained after March 2026 to make sure deprived youngsters have childcare throughout college holidays.
Andrew Forsey, nationwide director of Feeding Britain, mentioned:
Immediately’s information will probably be welcomed by tons of of hundreds of fogeys throughout England. The help supplied to youngsters from decrease incomes by way of the vacation actions fund eases the strain on household budgets throughout the college holidays, enhances their entry to enriching and bodily actions, and provides them a wholesome meal every day throughout the college holidays.
This delivers a raft of advantages for youngsters and their households, so it is good news that the federal government is extending this provision for an additional three years.
Phillipson mentioned:
Giving each youngster the very best begin in life is my primary precedence, which is why we’re delivering on our dedication to supply tons of of hundreds of youngsters with 30 hours government-funded early schooling.
Whether or not it’s to avoid wasting as much as £7,500 a yr, help dad and mom to get again to work or scale back the strain on grandparents who so typically need to step in, the advantages are widespread.
The provide is simply across the nook, and so I’m urging each eligible mother or father who desires it, to take it up.
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