Author: Blake Anderson

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The Liberal Democrats are tacking to the right of Labour on a number of policy areas — including taxing employers, inheritance tax and VAT on private schools — in an apparent bid to hold on to formerly Conservative voters. In the run-up to July’s general election, the party pitched itself to the left of Labour on a wide spectrum of economic policies, calling for higher taxes on banks, energy and water companies, a 4 per cent tax on share buybacks and for…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Dozens of MPs have sponsored parliamentary security passes for lobbyists, with several failing to disclose the passholders’ jobs in official records. Culture secretary Lisa Nandy, Conservative MP Patrick Spencer and Labour MP Chris Curtis did not publicly declare they were sponsoring passes for lobbyists, according to a Financial Times analysis of the register of staff interests. Darren Jones, Labour’s chief secretary to the Treasury, is one of 24 MPs who have declared they have sponsored a lobbyist to receive a parliamentary security pass, according…

Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ vow to protect “working people” in the Budget has been called into question by business chiefs and analysts, who warn bosses will struggle to absorb a £20bn tax increase on top of an expected 6 per cent minimum wage rise and new labour laws. Economists said a hike in employers’ national insurance contributions, set to be the biggest tax-raising measure in Wednesday’s fiscal event, would weigh on wages and employment, or increase prices for consumers, while fuelling bogus self-employment. Raising £20bn via higher employer NICs would in effect reverse cuts to employee contributions by the previous Conservative government. Such…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The NHS in England will receive £1.5bn next year to deliver 2mn extra appointments in the Budget, although health secretary Wes Streeting warned the funding would only “arrest the decline” of the struggling health service.The extra money will go towards capital investment, including new surgical hubs and scanners, boosting access to care and diagnostics and new radiotherapy machines to improve cancer treatments, the Treasury said on Monday. It will be part of a multibillion pound annual package designed to strengthen the health…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Reforms to the UK’s fiscal rules should be used to invest in nurses, the head of the Royal College of Nursing has said, warning the sector could be forced to take further strike action.In an interview with the Financial Times, Professor Nicola Ranger called on the government to see nursing as an investment in critical infrastructure, adding that the RCN’s rejection of a pay offer last month signalled that nurses were “no longer going to be passive”. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Sir Keir Starmer has said he cannot rule out further tax-raising Budgets after his administration’s maiden fiscal event on Wednesday, in which he said Labour would “run towards the tough decisions”. The UK prime minister said that “nobody wants tax rises, least of all me, so we will do the hard work in this Budget” in order to rebuild the country, as he raised the prospect of significant increases.However, he told an audience in Birmingham that “I can’t give you a cast…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The cap on bus fares in most of England will rise by 50 per cent to £3 in the Budget on Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer has said.The UK prime minister on Monday said the current, nationally subsidised £2 cap, would end this year because the previous Conservative government had “only funded that until the end of 2024”. Ministers will fund the new £3 cap until the end of 2025.Starmer’s announcement in a speech in Birmingham came after regional mayors, industry and passenger groups…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The birth rate in England and Wales fell to the lowest level since records began nearly 90 years ago, according to official data that highlights Britain’s demographic challenges.The total fertility rate dropped to 1.44 children per woman, its lowest value since records began in 1938, the Office for National Statistics said on Monday.The current rate is well below the 2.1 children per woman that is considered necessary to maintain a stable population in developed countries without migration. In England and Wales, it…

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This article is an on-site version of our Inside Politics newsletter. Subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every weekday. If you’re not a subscriber, you can still receive the newsletter free for 30 daysGood morning. Just two days until the first Labour Budget since 2010 — and, equally importantly, the first Labour Budget to be delivered under the scrutiny of the Office for Budget Responsibility, which was established by former chancellor George Osborne in May 2010. Indeed, one reason why there is a long gap between the election and the new government’s first Budget is this…