🏳️‍🌈michael he/him🏳️‍⚧️

Cis, Autistic man looking for giggles and to support causes close to me. I also have a mental health condition. I’m a Green Party member. 💚 Views are my own.

[The Green Party @TheGreenParty]

This budget was a betrayal of our future; the Labour government chose protecting corporate profits over people and planet.

[Dr Julia Grace Patterson💙 @JujuliaGrace]

This might sound pathetic but I don’t mind being honest! I’ve just started making YouTube videos to explain what politicians are doing to the NHS 🚨-and 70 people have watched this one already!

I know that’s small fry to most people, but it’s a start! Ju
https://t.co/7iZGWNAinG

[www.TransLucent.Org.UK @TransLucent_Org]

We are grateful to @GoodLawProject for their assistance in this case and for their good wishes as we work to help secure trans inclusion at Hampstead Heath Ponds.

TransLucent will attend the High Court with our legal team next week.

[Full Fact @FullFact]

1/ It’s Budget day, and we’re fact checking the claims live as they’re made.

👉➕ Follow along here, on our website, and in the Independent’s live coverage, which we’re contributing to: https://t.co/EkpL18Zbox

[The Green Party @TheGreenParty]

"When the Chancellor talks about difficult choices, why are they always difficult choices for migrants, for disabled people, and for young people? It's time to tax the rich." - Zack Polanski speaks at the March Against Austerity ahead of the Budget.

[Joe Belcher @_joebelcher]

Labour’s budget is just tinkering.

We need bold action: slash income tax and VAT to put cash back in your pocket and spark growth. Pay for it by taxing wealth and capital gains.

#Budget2026 #CostOfLiving

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 NEW: HMRC has created a list of more than 200 UK billionaires and assigned each of them a personal "Customer Compliance Manager" to ensure they pay their taxes

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

In a corporate report published today, HMRC said: "For our wealthiest customers, in summer 2026, HMRC identified over 200 billionaires with a UK tax footprint using HMRC data, public information, data shared by third parties and other countries. We classify billionaires as individuals whose wealth HMRC estimates exceeds £1 billion and who have a UK tax footprint (which we define as being required to submit a UK Self-Assessment return, whether or not they are UK resident)"

Read more: https://t.co/Q978P3ksob

[www.TransLucent.Org.UK @TransLucent_Org]

Help fund this and other trans legal cases here:

https://t.co/QDbjRY9adC

[Full Fact @FullFact]

.@JohnHealey_MP said his “choices” in #Budget2026 mean he’s “kept the Labour manifesto promise not to raise tax on working people”.

But ahead of the Budget our Government Tracker was rating this promise as ‘not kept’. Here’s why 👇
https://t.co/1np6GGPP8c

[Trussell @TrussellUK]

🚨 BREAKING: Despite rising rents, the government has chosen not to end the freeze on housing support in today’s #Budget2026.

For years, rents have continued to rise but support hasn’t. As a result, too many people are being forced to decide between paying the rent and putting food on the table.

While the government's decision to provide more support with energy bills is positive, keeping housing support frozen means many will still struggle to afford the essentials.

The government wants to end the need for emergency food. It won't achieve that while housing support remains frozen.

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

SHOW NEWS! So much to explain in tomorrow's @itvMLshow (as well as putting your Qs to the Chancellor). ITV has just extended my budget special so we're now on from 7PM TO 8PM. Do watch or at least set the Betamax

[🏳️‍🌈michael he/him🏳️‍⚧️ @csimichael]

I've just signed this petition. Will you add your name and share too?
https://t.co/ysqsEUR2Kg via @38degrees

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

My instant Budget reaction – everything you need to know at speed (feel free to share). Tax, ISAs, first-time buyers, Energy bills, fuel duty, State Pension, Investments, Savings, Student Finance and more.

(Subtitled version coming soon, wanted to get it out quick) #Budget2026

[Trades Union Congress @The_TUC]

WIN 🚨 | Trade unions campaigned to tax banks to bring down energy bills - and today the government have done it.

More still needs to be done to tax wealth fairly, but today's announcement is a good start.

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 NEW: John Healey is set to announce the following in his Budget later

- The gas standing charge will be scrapped to save £27 a year on a typical bill

- Green levies on energy bills will be scraped "for good"

- NHS prescription charges will be frozen at £9.90 for another year

- Poorer households on benefits will receive extra help with energy bills before January's sharp rises

- The VAT cut on electricity bills, which was due to expire in April, will be extended (though it's not clear if this will be announced in the Budget or separately)

- The Government will remove the link between gas and electricity prices, which currently inflates household bills, "in the long term"

- Banks will face higher taxes, with the surcharge on their profits potentially rising from 3% to 8%, making it the Budget’s biggest revenue raiser

- HMRC will be given powers to seize money from the bank accounts of people who fail to pay their tax

- The freeze on rail fares will reportedly not be extended beyond April

- Online retailers like Amazon, eBay and Temu will be made responsible for collecting unpaid VAT from sellers to fund a cut in business rates for high street shops

- The thresholds for income tax will be frozen again so another half a million people may be dragged into the higher rate

- January's planned increase in fuel duty will be cancelled

- Pensioners relying solely on the state pension will see their tax-free allowance rise to £13,036, in line with the pension increase, so they don't pay income tax

- Billions in long-term borrowing to invest in defence firms and raise the share of GDP spent on defence (without breaking fiscal rules, as the investments are expected to generate returns)

- The upcoming "Your First Home" scheme will be made more generous to provide greater support for middle-income earners

- The Budget will also assume the Rosebank oil field is approved, which will generate "significant tax revenues"

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

CONFIRMED. Gas Standing Charges to be scrapped. I've just come out of a meeting with the Chancellor. The gas standing charge will be scrapped in 2027 (my guess, either for 1 Oct price cap or the 1 Jan 28 price cap). Having campaigned against the moral hazard of standing charges for years, I'm pleased.

It's currently £108 a year. That cost will be shifted onto unit rates. We don't know how much yet, but I suspect just under 1p per kwH.

The Chancellor also said he will be talking to Ofgem about how they get rid of the charge on electricity as well, but that is 'trickier' apparently and will take longer.

This is primarily about the price cap standing charges. There will still be an open market, so other firms can offer other forms of prices with or without the standing charge. My suspicion is that once it goes on the price cap, it will tend to be reduced on other tariffs as well.

As for those on fixes: if you get a fix now, the rate of your fix is fixed, so this should not affect it. You will pay what you pay and if it has standing charges they will continue (some asking if they should delay fixing because of this, no if a fix is right for you and will save you money, don't let this change that - this is about the structure of bills, as opposed to the actual costs on bills).

About 60% of people will pay less due to this, 40% more. My guesstimate is the dividing line will be somewhere around 12,500 kilowatt hours of gas (can't know until there is actual pricing). According to a study by Nesta, this switch would leave the majority of people in all income groups under £100,000 better off.

Of course, when this does come in, if we're still in the nightmare that we are right now, there will need to be support put in for vulnerable higher users, who will have to pay more. Though hopefully by then the mid-east will have calmed and energy prices lower.
---------------

That's all long term. The biggest issue in energy right now is that we're expecting a 27% rise in the price cap in January. I asked the Chancellor whether he will be intervening on that. He told me I'd have to wait for the budget, but reading between the lines, yes, there will be an announcement today.

Whether it's an increase in the Warm Home Discount, or whether it's council tax banned, or whether it's done via a payout for people in say council tax bands A-D as a proxy for household income as Rishi Sunak did who knows.

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

In the reception room at number 11 Downing Street about to in to meet the Chancellor on energy bills to hear what's going on, expecting they're putting out an announcement at 7am and going to tell me about that.

[Avanti West Coast @AvantiWestCoast]

Afternoon Amanda 🙂 You can indeed bring your dog onboard. A couple of things to note.

- Dogs must be kept on a lead at all times in stations and on trains (unless they’re in a carrier).
- All our seats and tables onboard are shared spaces. As such, for hygiene and allergy reasons, please don’t put pet carriers on seats or tables.

We have more info on our page here https://t.co/y7wj8SCtDd - Miles

[Cllr Nick Hartley - Green Party @NickHartley]

Labour spinning that tomorrow’s budget will be “low key”. It should be a “big test”

Burnham promised the end of forty years of neoliberalism. Surely that means, at least, a plan for reducing inequality & strengthening public services.

Some thoughts on protecting hospitality 👇