Closing summary
This live blog will be closing shortly. Thank you for reading the updates and commenting below the line. You can keep up to date with the Guardian’s politics coverage here.
Here is a summary from today’s blog:
Justice secretary David Lammy said he had ordered “tough new release checks, launched an investigation, and started overhauling archaic prison systems”, in comments made after the arrest of Brahim Kaddour-Cherif. On Friday, the Metropolitan police arrested Kaddour-Cherif in Islington, a week after the convicted sex offender was mistakenly released from prison.
Earlier on Friday, Steve Reed dismissed criticism of Lammy as questions continued over the justice secretary’s handling of a mistaken prisoner release. He described criticism from fellow ministers as “anonymous tittle tattle”. (See 8.20am)
Prime minister Keir Starmer said that action is needed to tackle climate change but that it also presents a “huge opportunity” for the green economy, as he attended the UN Cop30 climate conference in Brazil. In a video posted to his X account, Starmer said the UK was “really stepping up” at the conference and referred to a number of green economy jobs in Great Yarmouth, Belfast and Manchester that he had recently announced. (See 11.10am)
Kemi Badenoch is relaunching the Conservative party’s “advisory board” for high-value donors in a different guise, the Guardian has learned. The Tory leader has drawn up plans to reinstate the exclusive group, which provided top donors with regular direct access to senior ministers, according to two people briefed on the plans.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick earlier tweeted a graph showing the increase in mistaken releases of violent and sexual offenders this year. In a reply to Lammy on X, Jenrick said: “That’s one down - where are the other 262 prisoners that have been accidentally released? And how many prisoners have been mistakenly released this year? Calamity Lammy is hiding an even bigger scandal.”
Attacks on mosques in the UK have soared in recent months, the government’s Islamophobia monitoring partner has said, with more than 40% of incidents featuring British or English flags and Christian nationalist symbols or slogans. Data compiled by the British Muslim Trust (BMT) shows that between July and October, 25 mosques across Britain were targeted in 27 attacks – more than a quarter of which were violent or destructive.
One of Starmer’s closest allies has been appointed as Rachel Reeves’s chief of staff in an effort to further strengthen ties between Downing Street and the Treasury, the Guardian understands. Ben Nunn, who worked with the prime minister in opposition and is one of his most trusted advisers, will begin his new role with immediate effect.
The chancellor should ignore “scaremongering” by gambling firms and raise taxes on the £11bn sector’s most harmful products, MPs on the influential Treasury select committee have said. In a scathing report, delivered as Reeves’s Treasury team is finalising her second budget as chancellor, MPs accused the sector of hiding its more “insidious” products behind traditional activities such as horse racing and seaside arcades.
The leader of Highland council has accused the UK government of “disrespect” over its handling of plans to house asylum seekers in an army barracks in Inverness city centre. The Home Office recently announced proposals to house asylum seekers at Cameron Barracks as well as similar army accommodation in Sussex as part of their drive to move people out of hotels which have been the target of much far-right protest activity in recent months. (See 11.38am)
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
If Keir Starmer’s election campaign was carrying a ming vase across an ice rink, then this budget – according to one minister – is like “wrestling a squirrel across a minefield”.
It is an allusion to the biggest risk for Rachel Reeves, not the markets or big business, but Labour MPs. It was those MPs who were the key audience for the chancellor’s highly unusual speech preparing the ground for possible income tax rises.
Downing Street insiders are talking openly about an imminent rise in income tax. “You don’t exactly have to be a genius to have worked out we’re doing it,” one said.
MPs are being buttered up with breakfasts in No 10 and professors and thinktank veterans are giving private lessons in Economics 101. Reeves has been seeing small groups by region, mostly as a listening exercise.
For a government with such a large majority, it would seem extraordinary to be so concerned about a parliamentary backlash. But the parliamentary Labour party has tasted power at the welfare vote.
“It’s colleagues who are having the most impact on the way the markets move,” one minister closely involved with the budget preparations said. “Whether it’s the two-child benefit cap or the mayor of Greater Manchester saying never mind the bond markets, it literally adds to our borrowing costs.”
“The welfare reform votes in the summer are still a massive issue for bond markets – if you read any analyst note it will still get mentioned,” another senior adviser said. “Before there was a headline assumption that the government has a massive majority and can do what it wants.”
But unlike on previous occastions, this time Downing Street is determined not to be caught off-guard by a backlash – especially if it intends to break its manifesto pledge and raise income tax.
