Minister refuses to comment on reports of tax increase for landlords
A Government minister refused to be drawn on reports the Treasury is considering a tax increase on landlords for Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget.
Stephen Morgan, education minister, told Times Radio and Sky News he was unable to comment on speculation which was reported in the Times on Wednesday that national insurance will be imposed on rental income.
According to the PA news agency, Morgan instead said he wanted the budget to be rooted in “Labour values”.
He told Times Radio:
Obviously taxation policies are a matter for the chancellor of the exchequer, and she will set out more detail in the budget later this year. I want to make sure that our budget is based on our Labour values, and that is what Rachel Reeves will deliver.
It’s not for me to comment on speculation. Our focus is on driving growth in the economy and delivering for working people up and down the country.
Speaking later to Sky News, Morgan said:
We’re focused on growing the economy. Fixing the foundations of the country, restoring public service and that decade of national renewal.
I’m afraid you will have to wait until the budget later this year.
It was reported on Tuesday that the cost of UK government borrowing had jumped to near a 27-year high, piling pressure on Reeves to reveal how she will tackle the deficit in the public finances before the autumn budget.
In other developments, the high court will hear applications for permission to appeal against the Epping Bell hotel ruling from the hotelier and the Home Office from 10am.
Here is a short summary of other key events:
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Keir Starmer has appointed the outspoken founder of Octopus Energy as an adviser, with a remit to challenge government thinking. Greg Jackson has joined the Cabinet Office board, an influential core of government advisers, as a non-executive member.
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The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, will boycott King Charles’s state banquet held in honour of Donald Trump to protest against the US president’s failure to intervene decisively to end the war in Gaza. Davey, who is invited to the dinner for Trump’s state visit to the UK, said to turn down an invitation from the king went against all his instincts and that it was a deeply serious move to refuse to attend.
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Children and young people are being overdiagnosed with mental health conditions in a society that has lost sight of the reality that child development is “messy and uneven”, the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said. He is the latest senior figure to add his voice to calls for a radical overhaul of the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system in England.
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A Reform council leader’s decision to ban his councillors from engaging with a prominent local newspaper is a “massive attack on local democracy” and a sign of things to come should the party form the next government, the outlet’s editor has warned. In an unprecedented move, Nottinghamshire county council’s four-month-old Reform administration has said it will no longer deal with the Nottingham Post, its online edition and a team of BBC-funded local democracy journalists that it manages.
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Key events
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Ed Davey said “no disrespect is meant to the king” in his decision to boycott Donald’s Trump’s state banquet next month in a protest against the US president’s position on Gaza (see 8.59am BST).
The Liberal Democrat leader told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
I think anyone who knows my approach to the monarchy, and to the king in particular, knows how much I respect him. I’ve written to him personally and the fact, as I say, that I’ve had to wrestle with it shows that no disrespect is meant to the king at all.
Announcing the boycott, the politician said he and his wife, Emily, had “prayed about it”.
Ed Davey said ‘no disrespect is meant to the king’ in his decision to boycott Donald’s Trump’s state banquet next month in a protest against the US president’s position on Gaza. Photograph: House of Commons/AFP/Getty Images
He told the Today programme:
I am a Christian. My wife and I go to our local church, St Andrew’s and St Mark’s, very regularly. My faith is very important to me and to my wife and although you’re right, other people say religion doesn’t impact your politics, it does impact mine.
I don’t talk about it very much but in this moment I had to be very honest, I’ve thought and prayed about this, I really have.
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Lib Dem leader to boycott king’s Trump banquet in protest over Gaza
Jessica Elgot
The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, will boycott King Charles’s state banquet held in honour of Donald Trump to protest against the US president’s failure to intervene decisively to end the war in Gaza.
Davey, who is invited to the dinner for Trump’s state visit to the UK, said to turn down an invitation from the king went against all his instincts and that it was a deeply serious move to refuse to attend.
But he said he feared unless he took a stand over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the lack of pressure on Israel from the US government, no one would raise the issue during the president’s visit in late September.
Davey said:
Boycotting the state banquet is not something I ever wanted to do, but I believe it is the only way I can send a message to both Donald Trump and Keir Starmer that they cannot close their eyes and wish this away.
Trump’s state visit is an honour that has never previously been extended for a second time to a US president. Davey said he believed Keir Starmer was right to engage with Trump, but said it was vital that someone raised the issue of Gaza in a way that could not be ignored.
In a Guardian piece explaining his decision, Davey wrote:
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza must stop. The famine must end. The hostages must be returned home. There is one man, more than anyone else, who has the power to make it happen.
Donald Trump could do those things today if he chose to. He has more power than anyone else finally to force a ceasefire and put Israel and Palestine on the path to a lasting peace, with a two-state solution. But so far, he’s decided not to. Instead, he’s given Netanyahu his full support.
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Minister refuses to comment on reports of tax increase for landlords
A Government minister refused to be drawn on reports the Treasury is considering a tax increase on landlords for Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget.
Stephen Morgan, education minister, told Times Radio and Sky News he was unable to comment on speculation which was reported in the Times on Wednesday that national insurance will be imposed on rental income.
According to the PA news agency, Morgan instead said he wanted the budget to be rooted in “Labour values”.
He told Times Radio:
Obviously taxation policies are a matter for the chancellor of the exchequer, and she will set out more detail in the budget later this year. I want to make sure that our budget is based on our Labour values, and that is what Rachel Reeves will deliver.
It’s not for me to comment on speculation. Our focus is on driving growth in the economy and delivering for working people up and down the country.
Speaking later to Sky News, Morgan said:
We’re focused on growing the economy. Fixing the foundations of the country, restoring public service and that decade of national renewal.
I’m afraid you will have to wait until the budget later this year.
It was reported on Tuesday that the cost of UK government borrowing had jumped to near a 27-year high, piling pressure on Reeves to reveal how she will tackle the deficit in the public finances before the autumn budget.
In other developments, the high court will hear applications for permission to appeal against the Epping Bell hotel ruling from the hotelier and the Home Office from 10am.
Here is a short summary of other key events:
-
Keir Starmer has appointed the outspoken founder of Octopus Energy as an adviser, with a remit to challenge government thinking. Greg Jackson has joined the Cabinet Office board, an influential core of government advisers, as a non-executive member.
-
The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, will boycott King Charles’s state banquet held in honour of Donald Trump to protest against the US president’s failure to intervene decisively to end the war in Gaza. Davey, who is invited to the dinner for Trump’s state visit to the UK, said to turn down an invitation from the king went against all his instincts and that it was a deeply serious move to refuse to attend.
-
Children and young people are being overdiagnosed with mental health conditions in a society that has lost sight of the reality that child development is “messy and uneven”, the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said. He is the latest senior figure to add his voice to calls for a radical overhaul of the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system in England.
-
A Reform council leader’s decision to ban his councillors from engaging with a prominent local newspaper is a “massive attack on local democracy” and a sign of things to come should the party form the next government, the outlet’s editor has warned. In an unprecedented move, Nottinghamshire county council’s four-month-old Reform administration has said it will no longer deal with the Nottingham Post, its online edition and a team of BBC-funded local democracy journalists that it manages.
Share