Closing summary
In his first major speech as prime minister, Keir Starmer gave his strongest hint yet of tax rises to come in October’s budget, warning he will have to make “painful” decisions after finding what Labour says is a £22bn black hole in the public finances left by the Tories.
Starmer warned that the government’s forthcoming Budget will be “painful” as he asked the country to “accept short-term pain for long-term good”.
Starmer said those with the “broadest shoulders” will carry the heaviest burden. He stressed that taxes on “working people” – namely national insurance, VAT and income tax – will not be increased in the 30 October budget, but stressed that “things will get worse before they get better”.
Starmer said removing winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners in England and Wales was difficult. There will be more “difficult” decisions to come, he said.
Starmer refused to comment on why he had chosen to overturn the appointment of Gwyn Jenkins, formerly the number two in the armed forces, as the new national security adviser, a decision that has caused unrest in Whitehall.
Former prime minister and current leader of the opposition, Rishi Sunak, said Starmer’s speech was “the clearest indication of what Labour has been planning to do all along - raise your taxes”. The shadow home secretary, James Cleverly, accused Starmer of having “waged war on pensioners”.
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of the Unite union, criticised the “bleak vision” Keir Starmer delivered in his first major speech as prime minister, saying it’s “time to see the change that Labour promised”. If we taxed 1% on the wealthiest 1%, the so-called black hole would be gone,” she wrote on X.
The Green party said “enduring more economic pain and hardship isn’t what people voted for”, with its co-leader, Carla Denyer, criticising Labour’s “refusal to tax the super-rich”.
The Scottish government is largely responsible for its current financial crisis, the country’s independence fiscal watchdog said, because it is spending so much on wages without a clear strategy on pay. SNP ministers are considering cutting or limiting universal benefits on which its electoral successes were built, including free prescriptions, free bus travel and free school meals, in a concerted drive to cut public spending.
Former British prime minister Liz Truss considered scrapping all cancer treatment on the NHS in an attempt to repair the damage caused by her economic policies, according to claims contained within Sir Anthony Seldon’s book, Truss at 10: How Not to Be a Prime Minister.
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Updated
The deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, who is also the housing secretary, has visited the scene of the aftermath of the tower block fire in Dagenham, east London, which broke out in the early hours of Monday morning.
Emergency services were called to the fire on Freshwater Road in east London at 2.44am on Monday, and a major incident was declared.
More than 100 people were evacuated from the eight-storey building and two were taken to hospital.
By about 12.30pm the London Fire Brigade said the fire was under control and the major incident had been stood down.
Speaking outside the burned building, Rayner told the PA news agency:
It’s horrific to see the level of damage that’s happened to the building, but it was also heroic to see the way the community and the first responders, the council, and all of the emergency services came together to prioritise, first of all, making sure that everyone got out of the building safely, but then also about bringing the fire under control.
You can see the level of damage that’s happened to the building, and I’m incredibly grateful for those that responded and managed to make sure that everybody was out of that building safely.
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