1. Labour continues to bet that moving to the far right will boost its popularity.
Mahmood's proposal to return asylum seekers once their country is "safe" is nonsense because (thread follows)
Any Labour minister with a conscience or a backbone should resign over this. Imagine being part of a government still sending bullets to a regime whose snipers are shooting kids in the head and whose leaders are wanted by the International Criminal Court.
This is nonsense. The impact assessment starts from an imaginary baseline incorporating reforms planned but never implemented by the previous government
In the real world, the cuts remaining in the Bill will push around 50,000 disabled people into poverty https://t.co/c159rug06K
New DWP research gives a clearer picture of why PIP claims have been rising than government & media rhetoric about the need for cuts
People with complex poor health, driven in part by financial hardship to seek additional support to meet their basic costs https://t.co/6yU5YbLCDq
A national scandal is quietly unfolding in the NHS.
1000s of doctors are being blocked from becoming Consultants & GPs because the Government is restricting training spots.
The public aren’t being told.
Unemployed doctors while waiting lists soar is nothing short of madness.
The tax is bringing in revenue, hence why they haven’t got rid of it. ‘Of 236,000 millionaires and billionaires in Norway, the relocation of 30 – while substantially higher than in previous years – still amounts to a mere 0.01% of Norway’s millionaire and billionaire population. The lost revenue from the leaving millionaires comprises a small percentage of the revenue gained from the increase.’ https://t.co/O08ffJwFR6
I see a lot of people celebrating the passing of the Employment Rights Act yesterday. I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble, but there are some things that need to be known - and you won’t get it from the media … /1
As I said to @BBCBreakfast government *isn’t* proposing reform. It’s cuts.
The @DWPgovuk has a genuine plan for reform to help more people get support, healthcare & work when they can.
@hmtreasury driving the opposite. Cruel & counterproductive cuts for short term savings.
We @scope alongside @TrussellUK@sensecharity@jrf_uk@CitizensAdvice and many others have written to the Chancellor today to set out our opposition to rumoured cuts
Disabled people’s lives are not to blame for the country’s economic woes
https://t.co/kUOv6eBf2a
As the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution and the UK’s historic manufacturing heartland there are countless sites like this in the West Midlands; well connected but difficult to build on due to contamination or mining.
We need massive funding to ensure sites aren’t wasted.
The UK is among the worst nations in Europe for child poverty.
In the UK, 11% of 15-year-olds reported they had skipped a meal in 2022 because there wasn't enough money to buy food.
In the Netherlands and Finland, this number was 3%.
These proposed cuts expose everything wrong with UK economic policy.
Made-up fiscal rules and the undervaluing of public services and investment leave us in a doom-loop of never-ending austerity and worsening living standards. 1/4
My experience of reporting on welfare cuts over the last 12 years is that they result in very high levels of human misery and don't save anything like as much as they were intended to - especially when other costs are factored in. I don't expect Reeves' to be much different
Earlier today the justice secretary pointed to a “huge rise in the welfare budget” as justification for benefit cuts to reduce public spending. So, how big has the rise in welfare spending been? 🧵
🚨 New research published today 🚨
For the poorest half of working households, income from work has increased & benefits decreased.
But lower income families are spending a disproportionate amount of their income on Council Tax, which has become increasingly regressive.
https://t.co/C41Nlhntx4
As I've said before on here, if Scotland's economy had performed as badly as the West Midlands' over the past 25 years, Westminster could have cancelled devolution in disgrace. But since it was Westminster's government that failed in the West Midlands, it takes no responsibility.
This is the West Coast Main Line, the UK's primary route from London to Scotland and the north of England.
Without HS2, there are no plans for climate resilient sustainable infrastructure linking the UK north-south into the middle of the century.
Chris Kaba’s family has issued a statement:
‘The not guilty verdict leaves us with the deep pain of injustice… this decision shows his life - and many others like him - does not matter to the system.’
Full statement attached.
My new @NEF paper argues the benefits of reducing child poverty by scrapping the two-child limit and benefit cap are being significantly undervalued
Both gov and OBR need to better consider the short, medium, and long-term benefits from reducing child poverty now
🧵1/x