“Labour is gearing up for another humiliating U-turn – as ministers last night signalled a climbdown on tax hikes for pubs. Mutinous Labour MPs were told that Rachel Reeves will announce a package of emergency help within days in a bid to head off a brewing revolt. In an about-turn rapid even for this Government, Treasury sources confirmed the climbdown just six weeks after the Chancellor unveiled Budget plans which critics said would send tens of thousands of businesses in the retail and hospitality sector to the wall. Officials said the package would deliver ‘a lifeline for pubs’, but were unable to say exactly how it will work – or what it will be worth – leaving publicans still worried. And hotels, restaurants and independent retailers reacted with fury after ministers signalled that, for now at least, the business rates concessions will apply only to pubs. Keir Starmer has now presided over a dozen major U-turns in his chaotic first 18 months in power. Kemi Badenoch last night said the latest one was ‘too little, too late’ as she mocked the PM’s New Year claim to have ‘turned a corner’. ‘Keir Starmer told us Labour had ‘turned a corner’,’ she said. ‘Well, it looks like they’ve turned the corner straight into their first U-turn of 2026.’– Daily Mail
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> Today:
“Britain’s most senior military chief has warned Sir Keir Starmer that the Ministry of Defence is short of £28 billion over the next four years despite plans to boost spending, The Times can reveal. Defence chiefs are preparing to make huge cuts to the military while at the same time coming under pressure to ready the armed forces for possible war with Russia. Tensions between London and Moscow continue to escalate, as the UK on Wednesday joined a US mission to capture a Russian-flagged tanker. The Russian foreign ministry accused London of being involved in “maritime piracy”, while the MoD vowed to step up its crackdown on President Putin’s shadow fleet. On Thursday, it emerged that a Russian “zombie” tanker was sailing through the Channel in the first test of the defence secretary John Healey’s vow to “step up action” against such vessels. Britain and France also announced plans this week to deploy a multinational force to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire. Russia said that any troops sent to Ukraine by western governments would be “legitimate combat targets”.” – The Times
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> Yesterday:
“Thirty-four school contemporaries of Nigel Farage have now come forward to claim they saw him behave in a racist or antisemitic manner, raising fresh questions over the Reform leader’s evolving denials. One of those with new allegations is Jason Meredith, who was three years below Farage at Dulwich college, a private school in south-east London. He claims that Farage called him a “paki” and would use taunts such as “go back home”. Meredith, 58, who is of Anglo-Indian heritage and has lived in Switzerland where he works as a product manager since 1999, said it was support for anti-racism that motivated him to come forward. He told the Guardian: “What really irked me was the denial [by Farage] of being racist.” “The word ‘paki’ was bandied by him – by Farage – there was kind of an entourage, if I remember right, hangers on,” Meredith said. “‘Go back home.’ The taunts is something I remember, the word ‘paki’, ‘go back home’ being used, certainly more than once. Simple taunts like ‘Jason is a paki’. I was 15, 16, something like that.” Meredith is one of several contemporaries to have alleged to the Guardian they were victims of targeted abuse by Farage, who has come under sustained pressure from politicians belonging to various parties to “own up” and apologise. So far, Farage has refused to do so.” – The Guardian
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