
Rachel Reeves wipes tears from her cheeks at PMQs after Welfare bill U-turn
Kemi Badenoch described Rachel Reeves as looking 'absolutely miserable' at Prime Minister's Questions after a tough day for the Chancellor.
Reeves appeared to cry on the front bench as Keir Starmer responded to the Conservative leader's questions – and notably failed to confirm she would stay in her role until the next election.
Her sister, Labour Party chair Ellie Reeves, was seen holding her hand as they left the chamber together at the end of the session.
A Treasury spokesperson described the situation as 'a personal matter', adding it was something 'we are not going to get into'.
They added: 'The Chancellor will be working out of Downing Street this afternoon.'
At a briefing after PMQs, a Downing Street spokesperson said the Chancellor was 'going nowhere', arguing the PM had backed her several times before and did not need to explicitly repeat his support.
Craig Munro breaks down Westminster chaos into easy to follow insight, walking you through what the latest policies mean to you. Sent every Wednesday. Sign up here.
Reeves is facing a serious economic dilemma after a bill aiming to bring down the UK's welfare bill was gutted before being voted through yesterday evening.
As a result, billions of pounds in savings that might have eased the Chancellor's job balancing the books will no longer happen. More Trending
Changes to Universal Credit were included in the final bill that passed its second reading, but changes to the Personal Independence Payment – where most of the savings were set to come from – were scrapped.
Instead, alterations to the disability benefit will come from a review by Work and Pensions minister Stephen Timms which is set to be published next autumn.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Sir Keir Starmer will struggle to recover from this position of weakness
SIR – It is difficult to comprehend how, with a majority of 156, Sir Keir Starmer has become a lame-duck prime minister (' Starmer's benefits Bill turns to farce ', report, July 2). Weak leaders become weaker when their backbenchers taste blood. Christopher Hunt Swanley, Kent SIR – The Prime Minister's authority is broken. Backbench Labour MPs now know that they can stop attempts at reform, whether to the welfare system, the NHS, the public sector or any of the other sacred cows. The state will continue to expand, supported by ever-increasing taxes, as long as Labour is in power. John Hicks Manchester SIR – Just when we think it can't get any worse living under this Labour Government, another disaster appears over the horizon. Watching the chaos unfold, and knowing the huge cost implications of the watered-down welfare bill – for the country and for me as a working man – I have now realised that I am simply not rich enough to be a socialist. Simon Perks Poughill, Devon SIR – The UK is living beyond its means, with fewer taxpayers expected to support an ever-expanding welfare state. In recent days, we have heard repeatedly that Labour MPs were anxious to consult their many disabled constituents, with whom we all have proportionate sympathy. But none of those Labour MPs appear to have consulted their taxpaying constituents – able or disabled – who are heartily fed up with the unaffordability of our benefits system. William Crawshay Tasburgh, Norfolk SIR – Kemi Badenoch is probably right (' Welfare system needs strong leadership to work properly… and Starmer is too weak ', Commentary, July 2), but it's a bit rich coming from the party that introduced the calamity that is Universal Credit, and cultivated a claimant population. The welfare budget is a monster of the Tories' creation. They will have to be ready to tame it in four years' time. Michael Heaton Warminster, Wiltshire SIR – George Finch, Reform UK's young Warwickshire councillor, has more personality, commitment and common sense than Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves put together ('' I'm taking on the Blob': the 18-year-old running a £400m council for Reform ', Features, July 1). I will vote Reform at the next election because of people like him. I attended a party meeting in Towcester some time ago, and everyone I met was a decent, intelligent person who simply wanted to get the UK back on track. Barbara Marshall Helmdon, Northamptonshire Glastonbury chants SIR – One of the main arguments against suppression of free speech and thought is that it drives certain groups underground. At Glastonbury, they were fully and unashamedly on display (' Davie fights for job after Glastonbury hate chant ', report, July 2). Kelvin Trott Heckington, Lincolnshire SIR – I'm British and not Jewish, but I have had Jewish friends all my life. They and I have always supported the existence of Israel, but none of us support the killing of civilians. I deplore what the Israeli Defense Forces are doing to the people of Gaza, but I also want free speech here in Britain. Let bands sing and play their music. Most of us can decide what we think for ourselves anyway. Rosie Collingwood Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland SIR – As one of the boomer generation who protested against the Vietnam War, I have to take issue with the appalling behaviour of Bob Vylan and their execrable lyrics (Letters, July 2). Sixties protest songs were both eloquent and melodious, and the message was easily understood. Rap is none of these things. I am not against protest, just lousy music. Nick Kester Wattisfield, Suffolk Number plate cloning SIR – Recently, a friend had their number plate cloned (Letters, June 30). Despite being presented with a clear photograph of the person using the cloned plate at a petrol station, the police would not take action, telling our friend that it was not a crime. Perhaps we should just dispense with the police. John Archibald London N20 Timely tribute SIR – No doubt construction of the approved memorials to Queen Elizabeth II will take a long time. The glass balustrade for St James's Park looks particularly impressive. Along with putting a statue on The Mall (Letters, June 30), could we not rename it Queen Elizabeth II Avenue? Involving minimal cost to the nation, this would be popular with the public, and provide an immediate and powerful tribute to our much-loved late Queen. Mike Gilbert Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire SIR – One of the saddest moments of the Queen's funeral was the sight of her groom standing, head bowed, beside her favourite horse on the Long Walk up to Windsor Castle. This would make a wonderful statue, on the site where he was standing, and would reflect how completely bereft we all felt. Barbara Whitaker Halton, Buckinghamshire Music by torchlight SIR – Glyndebourne's Saul is not the only performance to have suffered from a power cut (report, July 2). I was conducting Benjamin Britten's Saint Nicolas on a snowy December night in 1976, when we had a similar problem. It was in a large Oxfordshire church, which was cold and gloomy. At the words 'Darkness was soon on top of them', the overworked electricity system gave up. Some of the audience were convinced that the effect was deliberate. We managed to continue with the help of torches. Handling the heat SIR – After reading that the NHS had warned people to stay indoors on Tuesday because of the warm weather (report, July 2), I checked the Met Office website. It forecast that the maximum temperature in Manchester would be 22C. In Qatar it was 46C, and a check on some websites there showed that life was proceeding as normal. The NHS should stick to its knitting – diagnosing and treating illness. Kevin Duffy Manchester The windscreen test SIR – I too would take issue with Bob Shute's assertion (Letters, June 30) that the absence of insects on car windscreens is down to the improved aerodynamics of modern vehicles. I regularly drive to the south-west of France. Within an hour of crossing the Channel, I find it necessary to stop and clear the insects off my windscreen. I never have to do that in Britain. Patricia Deacon Fairford, Gloucestershire SIR – Glider pilots are well-qualified to comment on windscreens and insects. The front part of a glider wing, when 'bugged up', has a draggy effect on the flow of air over the rest of the wing. I can usually reach up to 5,000 feet at Didcot and return to my club, south of Basingstoke, in a straight glide. This year, however, I am finding that I often need to top up at Newbury, such is the effect of all the bugs on the wing. The last time it was this bad was in 1976. David Watt Lasham, Hampshire Lessons in nutrition SIR – In the late 1960s, among eight other subjects, I took an O-level called Food and Nutrition (Letters, July 1), which taught all the basic cooking techniques, coupled with education on food groups, vitamins and so on. It has served me (and my family) well. In contrast, our daughters did Food Technology, and the nearest thing to cookery I remember them doing was designing a box for a takeaway pizza. Wendy Thompson Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire SIR – Content is key in cookery classes. I suffered them at my grammar school in the 1970s. Making soused herring and blancmange from first principles are not skills I have used since, and the results at the time tested my father's acting abilities to the limit. Susan Sinagola Antrobus, Cheshire When introducing predators leads to disaster SIR – I was astounded to read that Tony Juniper, the head of Natural England, is keen to introduce wild lynx to our country, with the objective of reducing rabbit and deer populations (report, July 1). Sadly, lynx cannot be trained to do as you wish, and may find slower-moving sheep, domestic animals and ground-nesting birds much easier targets. The introduction of stoats in New Zealand to control the rabbit population ended in near disaster, with a ground-nesting parrot pushed close to extinction. Now, every effort is being made to eradicate the stoat population. If there are too many deer in this country, then issue licences to shoot them. This would be a more humane end than being mauled to death by a pack of lynx. Terry Lloyd Derby SIR – In the UK, we already have stalkers, gamekeepers and huntsmen who could control rabbit and deer populations – if only they were allowed to. Instead of 're-wilding' an animal that has been absent for 1,000 years, why not try some 'de-wilding' of species such as the grey squirrel and the mink, both of which have been introduced here relatively recently? The grey squirrel has endangered our native red, and mink have decimated water vole populations. Grant Hawkins Oundle, Northamptonshire Why farmers are giving up on crop production SIR – There is a straightforward way to stop farmland being covered with solar panels (Letters, July 1): either pay a competitive price for food, or subsidise farmers to produce it. A solar farm is now being built on part of our farm, by a company that rents the land for a sum equivalent to four times the gross margin of crop production. This year, the benefit is even greater, with expected low yields following waterlogging and drought. What would other businesses choose in similar circumstances? Jeremy Chamberlayne Gloucester SIR – Rather than covering lakes and reservoirs with solar panels (report, July 1), it would be cheaper and easier if a law was passed stating that planning permission would be automatically refused for any building that didn't have solar panels on the roof. As things stand, councils often refuse developers' planning applications on the grounds that solar panels would detract from the local ambience. Buildings are then erected without them, and the new purchasers install their own panels, partly funded by a government department. Letters to the Editor We accept letters by email and post. Please include name, address, work and home telephone numbers. ADDRESS: 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0DT EMAIL: dtletters@ FOLLOW: Telegraph Letters @LettersDesk


Spectator
an hour ago
- Spectator
For the NHS, it's Wes or bust
Labour swept to power on a pledge to 'save the NHS'. As shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting said he would go 'further than New Labour ever did' to clear the health service's backlog and, to achieve this, he claimed old taboos would be torn up, including the use of the private sector to improve services. Failure to clear the backlog now will be hugely politically consequential for this government. Partly because of how important the NHS is to the voting public, but more so because of the emotional resonance the service and its 'free-at-the-point-of-use' model has for Labour, both its MPs and its supporters. If the party that founded the NHS cannot save it, who can? That is why the NHS has been mostly immune to Rachel Reeves's new austerity. At each fiscal event and budget, it has received consistent funding increases. Yet behind the headline figures lies the real question: will this money yield returns – or simply vanish into the system, absorbed by wage demands and patchwork firefighting? That is a question which the Ten Year Health Plan, published this week, seeks to answer. The prescription it offers is a familiar one. It bears the unmistakable imprint of the former health secretary Alan Milburn, architect of Labour's early-2000s health reforms who has now returned to advise Streeting. His tools are back: league tables and performance targets tied to executive bonuses. Foundation trusts will be empowered to meet centrally imposed benchmarks, such as the four-hour waiting time in A&E target. Structural reforms introduced while the Conservatives were in power – Integrated Care Systems and various independent watchdogs, including Healthwatch England – are being dismantled. Power is returning both to the centre and to hospital management. There is a reasonable case to be made for this – waiting times fell dramatically during the New Labour years. The last Conservative government's lack of willingness to challenge the NHS leadership after the failed 2012 reforms allowed for hundreds of useless quangos to spring up; the 'NHS Race and Health Observatory' being chief among them. There is plenty of fat to cut. But being more New Labour than New Labour is not a certain route to success. The fiscal context in 2001 – when Gordon Brown began to release funding for public services from the Treasury – is very different today, with Britain teetering on the verge of a sovereign debt crisis. In 2001 there had been a £15 billion surplus. Last year the deficit was almost £150 billion. The increases in day-to-day spending that Rachel Reeves is able to offer the NHS at the expense of other departments are substantial in cost but not impact. Thanks in part to demographic pressures, the NHS needs 3 per cent increases in spending to keep the service it provides running. Doctors and nurses are already being balloted for strikes in the next year, which will end with any extra money being swallowed by wage increases. New Labour was also able to reach record levels of capital investment through the Private Finance Initiative, the use of which was vociferously defended by Milburn, who dubbed it 'the only game in town'. But Reeves's Treasury has specifically stated there is no chance of a 'PFI 2.0' taking place. In short, there isn't any money. Can good management compensate for the absence of large-scale investment? And can targets and structural clarity deliver improvement without the 5 per cent real-terms annual increases of the early 2000s? On the former, this question has been threaded through debates on public-sector reform since Margaret Thatcher embraced an NHS internal market in the 1980s. It divides those who argue that output follows input – hire more staff, build more hospitals, spend your way out of crisis – and those who insist that quasi-market reforms can improve efficiencies without extra money. It was the key point of difference in Labour between the modernisers, who saw a mixture of devolution and incentives as the key for better public services, and the traditionalists, who believed that it was a question of staffing and money. Ask Tony Blair why the NHS got better in the 2000s and he would say it was the targets. Gordon Brown would say it was money. The next four years will provide an opportunity to settle the debate. Unless Wes Streeting, a capable person whatever his perceived flaws, manages to improve the NHS substantially in the next four years – showing that only taxing and spending more can improve public services – then we will be faced with an uncomfortable truth: the NHS has no future. If reform cannot deliver efficiencies, it is the model itself which is broken. We simply cannot sustain 3 per cent increases in real terms spending on the NHS year-on-year with an ageing population, just to keep it afloat. It is not a matter of political principles or willpower. The sums do not add up. If politicians will not be honest with the public about that, then they will have to hear it from the IMF. It really is Wes or bust.


South Wales Guardian
2 hours ago
- South Wales Guardian
Senedd is set to sign off on £1.30-a-night tourism tax
Senedd members voted on amendments to the tourism tax bill, which would see £1.30 a person, plus VAT, charged on stays in hotels, B&Bs and self-catering accommodation. A lower rate of 80p would apply to hostels and campsites, with the 22 councils in Wales given powers to decide whether to introduce a local levy from 2027 at the earliest. During a two-hour 'stage-three' debate, finance secretary Mark Drakeford told the Senedd it is likely the bill will operate in some parts of Wales but not others. If passed as expected at the fourth and final stage next week, the bill would also establish a register of visitor accommodation providers with separate plans for licensing set to follow. Sam Rowlands, the Conservatives' shadow finance secretary, reiterated his party's concerns about the proposals, with the tourism sector 'united in its opposition to the bill.' Mr Rowlands said tourism is responsible for one in eight jobs and the multi-billion-pound sector pumps significant funds into the public purse through other taxes. Conservative amendments aimed at removing powers in the bill for Welsh ministers to extend the tourism tax to berths and moorings were voted down. Mr Rowlands' amendment to give councils flexibility to introduce either of the levy rates, rather than being required to bring in both or none, was voted down as were his calls for a 'more proportional and fairer' percentage-based tax and an attempt to set the levy at 1p. Proposals for a tourism tax were part of the three-year cooperation agreement, between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government, which collapsed in May 2024. Luke Fletcher reiterated Plaid Cymru's support, describing the current tourism model as 'overly extractive in nature which then puts considerable pressure on communities.' Conservative calls for educational trips, young carers, veterans and people living in Wales to be added to exemptions to the tax were rejected by the Senedd. With Labour and Plaid holding two thirds of seats, and barring a Leighton Andrews-style mishap, the bill as amended on July 1 is highly likely to be passed on July 8.