“Government borrowing over the past eight months surged to its second-highest level despite tax receipts accelerating after Rachel Reeves’s first two budgets, official figures showed. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Friday that the government borrowed £132.3 billion between April and November, up by £10 billion over the same period last year. It was the second-highest total recorded for that period, beaten only in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, which necessitated a surge in government spending to support the economy… The body said that tax revenues climbed by £25 billion over the past eight months to £516 billion, led by a rise of £21 billion in national insurance payments and £14 billion in income tax receipts. Spending rose by £55 billion to £736 billion over the same period, pushed up by a £15 billion increase in benefit payments. Reeves, the chancellor, announced a £25 billion payroll raid on businesses in her first budget in October last year, which took effect in April. In her second budget, delivered last month, she extended a freeze on income tax thresholds, which is projected to raise nearly £10 billion in additional revenues.” – The Times
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> Yesterday:
“Keir Starmer was last night accused of ‘running scared of the voters’ as he paved the way to cancel elections across the country. In an extraordinary move, Labour invited 63 councils to postpone next year’s local elections, which are widely seen as a litmus test for Sir Keir’s faltering leadership. The move would rob more than 10million people of a vote in May. And with half the councils involved run by Labour, it could limit the party’s losses and boost Sir Keir’s chances of survival. In some areas, the elections are being postponed for a second consecutive year, meaning councillors could go seven years before finally facing the voters. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage likened the move to the actions of a ‘dictator’, adding: ‘Only a banana republic bans elections, that’s what we have under Starmer.’ Fellow Reform MP Lee Anderson said the Prime Minister was ‘frit’. Tory elections spokesman Sir James Cleverly said Labour was ‘running scared of the voters’, adding: ‘They thought they could completely overhaul local government and stack the deck in their favour. They were wrong. Earlier this month, Labour cancelled mayoral elections and now they are at it again with council elections, fiddling the democratic process to serve their own political interests.’ Conservative justice spokesman Robert Jenrick said: ‘Even during the pandemic elections were not cancelled for a second year running. Slashing jury trials. Cancelling elections. These are the hallmarks of a Government that doesn’t trust the people.’” – Daily Mail
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> Today:
> Yesterday:
“Bridget Phillipson is blocking the publication of trans guidance that would force business and public bodies to protect women-only spaces. The Women and Equalities Secretary has given a statement to the High Court describing the proposed rules as “trans-exclusive” and has failed to sign them off more than three months after receiving them. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance was drawn up following a landmark Supreme Court ruling that only biological women are women under equality law. In her High Court submission, Ms Phillipson says that banning transgender women – biological males – from women’s lavatories would also mean women could not take their “infant sons” into changing rooms at swimming pools. She argues that the EHRC guidelines are discriminatory; that the Supreme Court ruling on biological sex mainly concerned maternity rights, and that there are already “many entirely plausible exceptions” to a single-sex rule. In April, the Supreme Court ruled that sex under the Equality Act means biological sex – which has been interpreted as meaning that trans women (people born as men) must be excluded from single-sex spaces such as women’s changing rooms, lavatories and hospital wards. Businesses and public bodies are awaiting new guidance from the EHRC that explains their legal requirement to protect single-sex spaces as a result.” – Daily Telegraph
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