Labour also promised before the election not to increase taxes for “working people”, particularly when it comes to VAT, income tax and National Insurance contributions.
In a clash with health secretary Wes Streeting, presenter Phillips asked how the “working people” label applies to the self-employed.
“Of course self-employed people are working people,” the cabinet minister replied, adding that when he thinks about the term, he means those who are on “low to middle incomes”.
Streeting said that they have a “different working arrangement”.
The presenter asked: “So just in the same way you told us there would be no rise in National Insurance, but suddenly there’s rises in National Insurance for employers, it’s just possible there might be rises in taxes for the self-employed, because they’re not workers?”
The minister replied: “We will keep our manifesto promises, despite the pressures, we will not increase income tax, National Insurance or VAT on working people – that was the commitment we made before the general election.”
Phillips cut in: “Every expert says you’re breaking the pledge.”
The health secretary claimed Labour had been criticised for not being radical enough in their manifesto in the run up to the general election, and that’s because they knew it had to be feasible to deliver on it.
As they spoke over each other, the presenter hit out: “You know what I want to do now? I want to say, I take that answer but terms and conditions apply.”
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“What do you mean? Absolutely not,” Streeting said, saying Labour are going to deliver on every pledge they made in their manifesto.
It was, according to one Labour MP, a “barnstormer” of a speech.
Pat McFadden, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and the most powerful man in the country you’ve probably never heard of, was addressing the Parliamentary Labour Party in Committee Room 14 last Monday.
Not noted for his rousing oratory, the slightly-built, taciturn Glaswegian had decided that it was necessary to reassure those colleagues beginning to worry that being in government is not all that it was cracked up to be.
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“Stability is underpriced in politics,” McFadden told them. “Having a stable government with a big majority has sent a powerful signal around the world.
“Don’t believe for a moment any notion of equivalence between recent headlines and the billions lost in Covid fraud, VIP lanes, lockdown parties in No.10 and the degradation of standards under the Tories.”
He then went on to list the things the Labour government has done in its first three months in office, before telling them that the upcoming Budget will have investment at its heart.
“That’s how we modernise the country, make people better off and generate wealth for public services,” McFadden said.
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“Compare that to the Tory leadership election, where they are doubling down on arguments that had seen them lose, preaching to the choir not the public, with nothing to say about the economy, living standards, public services or the future.”
One newly-elected MP in attendance told HuffPost UK that McFadden had clearly wanted to “put some steel in our spines”.
However, he said there was no disguising the hidden message in the Cabinet Office minister’s address to his troops.
“He was telling us that things are going to get worse before they get better,” the MP said. “It felt a bit like we were being pushed off the top of a ski slope, which is fine until you take off and realise there’s nothing between you and the ground.”
Rachel Reeves will stand up at the Despatch Box on October 30 and explain how she plans to raise £40 billion by putting up taxes and slashing the welfare bill.
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That would be a tough enough sell at the best of times, but polling by Savanta, seen by HuffPost UK, shows that the popularity of Keir Starmer and his top team is now in “freefall”.
The prime minister himself has seen his personal approval ratings plummet from plus 10 immediately after Labour’s landslide election victory to minus 17 today.
Reeves, meanwhile, is now the most unpopular member of the cabinet, with an approval rating of minus 19 (compared to plus 4 on July 5).
The poll also makes grim reading for deputy PM Angela Rayner (approval rating minus 15), David Lammy (minus 13), Yvette Cooper (minus 11) and Wes Streeting (minus 10).
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Chris Hopkins, Savanta’s political research director, said: “The prime minister and his senior cabinet minister’s favourability ratings are in freefall, according to our research.
“Starmer’s popularity among the public hasn’t been this low in a Savanta poll since May 2021 – the nadir of his leadership, which he has since shared that he considered resigning at the time.
“This should be particularly concerning to Starmer and his colleagues, ahead of what already feels like a premiership-defining Budget from Rachel Reeves.
“She will do so with the lowest favourability ratings since Savanta began tracking this with the public. This is a real drop for the chancellor, who used to be one of the most popular members of the cabinet.”
All eyes will be on Rachel Reeves on October 30.
via Associated Press
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The findings will do little to improve the mood among an already-fractious cabinet.
Rayner, transport secretary Louise Haigh and justice secretary Shabana Mahmood have all written to the PM complaining about the huge cuts to their departmental budgets being sought by the chancellor.
It showed that around one-third of voters are not opposed to Reeves’ apparent plan to increase the employers’ rate of National Insurance.
Tory claims that this would break a Labour manifesto commitment also appear to have fallen on deaf ears, with only 34% of the public agreeing.
Luke Tryl, More in Common’s UK director, told HuffPost UK: “With only a third of voters saying they’d oppose a rise in employers’ National Insurance, for now at least it seems like raising the tax would be some low-hanging fruit for Labour as they seek to put together a Budget that balances the books without a return to austerity.”
But unless Reeves produces the mother of all rabbits out of her hat, there is unlikely to be much for the public to cheer on October 30.
The decision to remove the winter fuel allowance from millions of pensioners, taken shortly after the election, remains a running sore among voters.
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One MP said: “It’s not costing us support, but it is costing us the loyalty of voters, and that’s even more dangerous.”
Pat McFadden may have to produce a few more barnstormers in the coming years to soothe Labour’s increasingly worried MPs.
Keir Starmer has warned Israel that the world is running out of patience with it over the “dire humanitarian situation” in Gaza.
The prime minister said there cannot be “any more excuses” as he called on Tel Aviv to allow vital aid to get into the war-torn territory.
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He also said the killing on Thursday of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by Israel “provides an opportunity for a step towards that ceasefire that we have long called for”.
Starmer was speaking in Berlin following talks with American president Joe Biden, German chancellor Olaf Scholz and French president Emmanuel Macron.
The PM said “no-one should mourn” the death of Sinwar, who he said had “the blood” of both Israelis and Palestinians on his hands.
“Allies will keep working together to de-escalate across the region, because we know there is no military-only solution,” he said.
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“The answer is diplomacy and now we must make the most of this moment.
“What is needed now is a ceasefire, immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, immediate access to humanitarian aid and a return to the path towards the two-state solution. as the only way to deliver long-term peace and security.”
Starmer said the UK continues to “strongly support” Israel’s right to self-defence, but urged Tel Aviv to do more to help Gazans suffering due to the war.
He said: “The dire humanitarian situation cannot continue and I say once again to Israel, the world will not tolerate any more excuses on humanitarian assistance.
“Civilians in northern Gaza need food now. The UK strongly supports [the United Nations Relief and Works Agency] in the vital work it does in Gaza, across the [occupied Palestinian territories] and the region.
“UNRWA must be allowed to continue its life-saving support. The suffering must end, including in Lebanon, where we also need a ceasefire to implement a political plan.”
Rachel Reeves in 2021 – rises to employers’ national insurance will “make each new recruit more expensive and increase the costs to business”.
“The decision to saddle employers and workers with the jobs tax takes money out of people’s pockets when our economic recovery is not… pic.twitter.com/Zdt2QapL9J
But speaking in the Commons in 2021, Reeves, who was then shadow chancellor, said: “It is so worrying that at this crucial time, the prime minister and chancellor concocted a new jobs tax to arrive in the spring.
“Despite all of their election promises to cut National Insurance contributions, they’re actually raising them against the strong advice of business and trades unions.
“The Conservative government’s actions will make each new recruit more expensive and increase the costs to business.
“The decision to saddle employers and workers with a job tax takes money out of people’s pockets when our economic recovery is not yet established or secure, and only adds to the pressure on businesses after a testing year and a half.”
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Labour’s election manifesto said: ”[We] will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of income tax, or VAT.”
However, speaking on Monday, Reeves insisted that putting up the employers’ rate of NI would not break that pledge.
She said: “We are going to need to sort of close that gap between what government is spending and bringing in through tax receipts. But we are going to be a government that sticks to our manifesto commitments, including that one.”
Asked directly on Monday whether it would break the manifesto promise, the prime minister told the BBC: “It was very clear from the manifesto that what we were saying was we’re not going to raise tax for working people. And it wasn’t just the manifesto, we said it repeatedly in the campaign, and we intend to keep the promises that we made in our manifesto.”
Meanwhile, the chancellor today dropped another huge hint that taxes will rise in the Budget on October 30.
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She told a cabinet meeting that “there would have to be difficult decisions on spending, welfare, and tax”.
A Labour spokesperson said: “The chancellor told cabinet the Budget would focus on putting the public finances on a strong footing and being honest with the British people about the scale of the challenge.”
Vladimir Putin personally ordered the Salisbury Novichok poisonings, the UK government and one of the victims told an inquiry into the attack today.
Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, who offered up Moscow secrets to the UK and his daughter Yulia fell unconscious back in 2018 after touching the nerve agent which had been placed on the front door handle of their home.
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Both of them, along with a police officer who went to visit them, fell critically ill but recovered.
Four months later, a member of the public, Dawn Sturgess, died after being exposed to the poison after her partner found a counterfeit perfume bottle which authorities believe was used to smuggle the nerve agent in.
Her partner also fell ill but recovered.
Skripal, who has not spoken publicly since the incident, sent a statement to the inquiry into Sturgess’s death today which pinned the blame squarely on the Russian president.
He said: “I believe Putin makes all important decisions himself. I therefore think he must have at least given permission for the attack.”
He added: “I have read that Putin is personal[ly] very interested in poison and likes reading books about it.”
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However, Skripal admitted he had no concrete evidence to back up his claim.
“I do not know for certain how Putin personally viewed me. As far as I know I never spoke to him, although I was in the same room as him two times many years ago,” he said.
He added: “I never thought the Russian regime would try to murder me in Great Britain”.
A senior foreign office official, Jonathan Allen, also gave a statement to the inquiry suggesting the UK government had come to a similar conclusion based on “current assessments”.
“In light of the required seniority under Russian law to approve assassinations of suspected terrorists outside Russia, and that this incident concerned a politically sensitive target (Mr Skripal was a UK citizen, and was targeted on UK soil), it is HMG’s view that President Putin authorised the operation,” Allen’s statement read.
Three Russians – and alleged GRU military intelligence officers – have been charged in absentia by the UK over the attempted murder of the Skripals, although all three deny it, along with the Kremlin.
No formal case has been brought against them over Sturgess’s death.
Lawyers for her family called for Putin not to “cower behind the walls of the Kremlin” and to look her relatives “in the eyes and answer the evidence against him”.
The long race to replace Rishi Sunak as the Conservative Party leader is now in its final round and party members have until the end of the month to vote for one of the two remaining candidates.
But, according to Curtice, they are both “unknown quantities” for most of the public.
Indeed, an Ipsos UK poll from August found 62% of Brits surveyed were not interested in following who would replace Sunak.
He added that they do not appear to understand why the Tories performed so poorly in July, and so are unlikely to try and take the steps “needed for their party to regain voters’ trust”.
He said: “Both candidates appear to believe the fault lies in a failure of the last government to be true to Conservative values.”
But, Curtice noted, that it’s clear from the polls the “party’s precipitous fall from grace was not occasioned by a failure to be truly Conservative” but by Partygate and Liz Truss’s mini-Budget.
And, according to the pollster, neither of them are strong enough to even win back all of the votes the Tories lost to far-right group Reform in July.
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He added: “Still, as largely unknown quantities, perhaps either Ms Badenoch or Mr Jenrick will prove able to surprise us – though in order to do so, they are both certainly going to have to reveal a wider range of political talents than they have so far.”
The Tories currently have just 121 seats in parliament, the lowest total ever recorded in the party’s history.
The Democratic nominee, who is up against Donald Trump in November’s US presidential election, slammed the Russian president in a radio interview this week.
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She criticised him earlier this week while discussing reports Trump sent the Russian president Covid tests at the height of the pandemic – claims the Republican nominee has denied, but Moscow says are true.
The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded to Harris’ remarks with a fresh dig on Saturday, according to Reuters news agency and Russian outlets.
Peskov reportedly told a Russian TV interviewer: “The lofty political establishment of the United States of America, to all appearances, is infused with such a political culture.
“This is probably the quintessence of the very model of international relations that they are trying to foist on the entire world, a model that most in the world are beginning to like less and less.”
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Russian state news outlet TASS also suggested Harris was following “the example of her boss”, Joe Biden.
Tensions between the US and Russia have been in decline ever since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine back in 2022.
The US, along with the rest of the West, has regularly supported Kyiv via investment and sending weapons to Ukraine.
For the most part, the West has tried to avoid being directly involved in a conflict with Moscow – and by cutting most diplomatic relations, Europe and the US have left Russia pretty isolated on the world stage.
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Moscow has regularly attacked the West, and particularly the US, in retaliation.
Putin sarcastically endorsed Harris to be the next US president because of her “infectious laugh” last month, triggering the White House to tell Moscow to stop commenting on the US election.
The Democrats have also used Trump’s supposed friendship with Putin during the election campaign.
When slamming both Trump and Putin this week, Harris told Howard Stern on his SiriusXM show: “I believe Donald Trump has this desire to be a dictator.
“He admires strongmen and he gets played by them because he thinks that they’re his friends.
“And they are manipulating him full time and manipulating him by flattery.”
She added: “This guy who was president of the United States is sending them to Russia to a murderous dictator for his own personal use.
“This person who wants to be president again who secretly is helping out an adversary when the American people are dying by the hundreds every day and in need of relief.”
Political commentator Ian Hislop slammed a former Tory minister when she tried to accuse the BBC of bias this week.
On the comedy quiz show, Have I Got News For You which aired on Friday night, Andrea Jenkyns – who lost her seat to Labour in July – clashed with Hislop, even though they were on the same team.
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As host Amol Rajan asked the panel if they thought ex-PM Boris Johnson would come back to frontline politics, Jenkyns said: “I don’t think it’s over for him, no.”
She added: “I still think Boris was one of our better prime ministers.”
That triggered a wave of boos from the crowd, to which Jenkyns said: “I see you’ve selected the audience to people who don’t like Boris or Conservatives.”
As the crowd laughed, Hislop hit back: “You can’t just say, ‘you’ve selected the audience’. You’ve got no evidence for that!
“No proof, it’s just bollocks. This isn’t GB News!”
Hislop sat back, frowning, as the audience cheered.
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Jenkyns later clipped the moment and put it on her Instagram account, writing: “I clearly played well to the Conservative and Boris loving audience on #HIGNFY@haveigotnews 😉.”
The former MP, who served as a minister in Johnson and Liz Truss’s cabinets, was also reminded of the time she put her middle finger up at crowds outside No.10 in July 2022.
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance still doesn’t want to talk about Donald Trump’s baseless claims that he was the true winner of the 2020 presidential election.
In a video clip released Friday from an upcoming podcast episode with The New York Times’ Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Vance refused five times to say whether he backs Trump’s conspiracy theory about that year’s vote, even though the former Republican president continues to espouse the claim as he campaigns to retake the White House.
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The first time Garcia-Navarro asked Vance, he said he wanted to move forward from the issue ― a go-to line for him lately.
“Donald Trump and I have both raised a number of issues with the 2020 election, but we’re focused on the future. I think there’s an obsession here with focusing on 2020. I’m much more worried about what happened after 2020,” he said, proceeding to list off campaign talking points.
Garcia-Navarro asked Vance the same question a second, third and fourth time. Vance responded in a variety of ways but never answered the question directly. At one point, he tried to pivot the conversation to President Joe Biden’s son and his laptop. At another, he claimed that technology companies acted to “censor a story that independent studies have suggested would have cost Trump millions of votes.”
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The fifth time Garcia-Navarro prompted Vance to answer, she got visibly frustrated with him.
“I have asked this question repeatedly,” she reminded him. “It is something that is very important for the American people to know. There is no proof, legal or otherwise, that Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 election.”
Vance then accused her of “repeating a slogan rather than engaging with what I’m saying,” and suggested he doesn’t care that multiple courts ruled against Trump’s election claims.
“I’m worried about Americans who feel like there were problems in 2020,” he said. “I’m not worried about the slogan that people throw: ‘Well, every court case went this way.’”
Eventually, he said that he would have voted against certifying the results of the last presidential election.
The full episode of Garcia-Navarro’s podcast, “The Interview,” is scheduled for release Saturday.
Retired Army General, Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, now says Trump is a “total fascist” and “fascist to the core,” according to a forthcoming book by Bob Woodward, the famed Watergate journalist.
“He is the most dangerous person ever,” Milley told Woodward for his book “War,” according to The Guardian. “I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realise he’s a total fascist. He is now the most dangerous person to this country.”
“A fascist to the core,” Milley said.
Part of Milley’s warning about Trump revolves around the former president’s promise to get revenge on his perceived political enemies. Trump has frequently told his supporters on the campaign trail: “I am your retribution.” Milley, who clashed with Trump in the White House and who has since been publicly critical of the current Republican presidential nominee, told Woodward that he’s afraid of being recalled from retirement to be court-martialled if Trump wins the election next month.
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Former President Donald Trump speaks as Mark Milley, right, listens during a briefing with senior military leaders at the White House in Washington, Oct. 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
via Associated Press
According to the Guardian’s report on Woodward’s book, Milley warned his former colleagues in Washington that Trump was “a walking, talking advertisement of what he’s going to try to do,” adding: “He’s saying it and it’s not just him, it’s the people around him.”
Milley was pointing in particular to how Steve Bannon — who rose to White House strategist after chairing Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and who is now in jail for being found in contempt of Congress — has threatened him. “We’re gonna hold him accountable,” Bannon has said of Milley.
Woodward’s book also details a tense Oval Office discussion Milley had with Trump and his second secretary of defence, Mark Esper. Trump reportedly wanted to get revenge on, or potentially court-martial, William McRaven, the retired Navy admiral who led the 2011 mission in which al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed. Trump was enraged that the retired admiral publicly criticised him.
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Milley told Woodward he was able to mollify Trump by saying he would “take care” of it but then warned McRaven and other former military commanders to keep off the “public stage” for a while and ease up on their criticisms of Trump.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a HuffPost request for comment about Milley’s reported comments to Woodward.
Milley’s stories about Trump in the White House are similar to recollections from other military figures, including retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, who was Trump’s chief of staff. As noted by the Guardian, Kelly said Trump reportedly insisted that generals should be “like the German generals” serving under Adolf Hitler during World War II, who were “totally loyal.”
On the campaign trail this year Trump has said he’d be a “dictator” on his first day in office. He has also repeatedly used explicitly fascist rhetoric while talking about immigrants in the United States.
Milley is not alone in his assessment that Trump is a fascist.
Robert Paxton, considered one of the foremost scholars of fascism, initially declined to call Trump a fascist during his rise to the White House in 2016, but he changed his tune after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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“Trump’s incitement of the invasion of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 removes my objection to the fascist label,” Paxton wrote at the time. “His open encouragement of civic violence to overturn an election crosses a red line. The label now seems not just acceptable but necessary.”
