Jeremy Hunt ‘could adopt Labour tax-raising plans’ – as it happened

Jeremy Hunt (right) pictured with Rishi Sunak during a visit to a factory in Yorkshire earlier this week. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

5.33pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• Jeremy Hunt is considering scrapping Britain’s non-domiciled tax rules in next week’s budget, it has been reported, in a move that would see him poach one of Labour’s key fiscal policies. It has been reported that the chancellor is also considering lifting a second Labour tax plan, and extending the scope of the windfall tax on energy companies. (See 2.46pm.)

• The number of visas issued to allow social care workers into the UK reached record levels in 2023, according to newly released figures.

• Michael Gove, the housing secretary, has been placed under investigation by parliament’s standards watchdog after notifying them that he failed to declare hospitality at a football match with a Tory donor.

• Sarah Everard’s family have said she was kidnapped and murdered by Wayne Couzens because he was armed with police powers he should never have had, after an official report revealed new and damning failures by police who missed his prolific sexual offending dating back almost 20 years.

• The Labour MP Jess Phillips has said she is “tired that women’s safety matters so much less” than small boats in parliament, as she read a list of women killed by men over the past 12 months to a near-empty chamber.

• Sir John Major, the Conservative former prime minister, has said the UK should rejoin the single market. He has also said the government should not cut taxes in next week’s budget, but increase defence spending instead. This is from the broadcaster Andrew Neil, who interviewed him today.

Interviewed John Major at the Global Soft Power Summit in Westminster today. Three interesting news lines:

1. He is against the UAE or any other foreign governments from taking over the Telegraph and/or Spectator.

2. He thinks we should rejoin the single market and that Britain could negotiate a deal which would not leave us merely as a rule-taker.

3. He thinks that the government should increase defence spending rather than cut taxes. Interesting intervention one week before the Budget which I don’t think any media has yet picked up.

Interviewed John Major at the Global Soft Power Summit in Westminster today. Three interesting news lines:
1. He is against the UAE or any other foreign governments from taking over the Telegraph and/or Spectator.
2. He thinks we should rejoin the single market and that Britain…

— Andrew Neil (@afneil) February 29, 2024

Updated at 5.34pm GMT

5.23pm GMT

Diana Johnson, chairwoman of the Commons home affairs committee, has criticised the manner in which the Home Office published the 13 reports from David Neal, the former independent chief inspector of borders and immigration. She said:

Not only have all these reports been published in one go, but there is no ICIBI (independent chief inspector of borders and immigration) in post to provide a press release or a commentary on the contents of these reports.

This is wholly inadequate and raises serious questions about what the Home Office has been doing all this time.