The Budget is a process, not an event. That has rarely been clearer than now. There is still a fortnight to go until Rachel Reeves addresses the House of Commons, but we already know her two defining judgements.  First, she will revise her fiscal rules to allow more borrowing for investment (a decision heavily trailed to prepare the markets). Second, she will raise taxes in order to better fund public services.  The identity of those taxes is also becoming clearer. By refusing to rule out a rise in employers’ National Insurance, the government has effectively confirmed it (as Reeves first did in her interview with Andrew).  That has prompted a furious debate over whether Labour is set to break its manifesto pledge. Not only ...

Of all the policy solutions the public wished for under a Labour government, it’s a safe guess that “drug the unemployed with appetite suppressants until they’re thin enough to work” wasn’t top of the list. And yet here we are, apparently: writing in the Telegraph yesterday morning the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, announced that, in collaboration with Zepbound manufacturer, Eli Lilly, weight-loss drugs will be trialled as a cure for not just obesity but worklessness. Obesity, the Health Secretary wrote, costs the NHS £11bn a year – a significant rise on the £6.5bn a year estimated by the previous government this February – but in fact it costs still more, because it is “holding back our economy”. Obese people take an ...

After a torturous 17 months of uncertainty, the Daily Telegraph looks set to have a new owner. The frontrunner, who has now entered exclusive talks to buy the newspaper, is the 39-year-old media businessman Dovid Efune, who was born in England but has built most of his media career in the United States, including with the online newspaper the New York Sun. But, given Efune’s existing political ties, staff are already “very concerned” about what a change of proprietor could mean for the 169-year-old business. He is the last bidder standing after veteran newsman David Montgomery, former Tory Chairman Nadhim Zahawi’s consortium and new Spectator owner Paul Marshall were knocked out or left the process. The £550m deal could be completed ...

By historic standards, Keir Starmer’s cabinet has been striking for its unity. The defining struggle in the government’s first 100 days – Sue Gray vs Morgan McSweeney – came within No 10 itself. But over the weekend a new threshold was crossed.  For the first time, Downing Street publicly rebuked a cabinet minister. “Louise Haigh’s comments were her own personal views and did not represent the views of the government,” a No 10 spokesperson said of the Transport Secretary (who I interviewed earlier this year). The riposte was prompted by an ITV interview last Wednesday in which Haigh urged viewers to join her in boycotting P&O Ferries, the company excoriated for sacking 800 workers without notice in 2022. “That’s not the view ...

The latest controversy to befall this government appears to have already blown over. The row was sparked by the Transport Secretary Louise Haigh’s admission that she has boycotted P&O Ferries since its mass firing of staff in 2022 (and her encouragement of others to join her). This apparently offended the ferry company’s owner, Dubai’s DP World, enough to threaten its own boycott of the government’s international investment summit in London, beginning on 14 October. Keir Starmer reacted in characteristically managerial fashion (“I think we’ll resolve that”) by rebuking Haigh and distancing the government from her comments. And DP World have put its toys back in the pram and will be attending the event after all. But, while perhaps a small ...

What to make of the sudden passing and, inevitably, the complicated legacy of Alex Salmond? His death, at the age of 69 after making a speech in North Macedonia, is a genuine shock. The emotions are complex. I didn’t like the man, and he didn’t like me much either. But it was always impossible – and would have been imprudent – to ignore or deny his extraordinary talents. He was one of the great political schemers of his generation, sinuous in his strategising, sharp and clear-sighted in his analysis. He almost single-handedly reshaped the SNP into the potent modern electoral force it has been for the past two decades. He also bent Scotland to his will, taking the nation closer than ...

Let’s get one thing straight: the government has not, in fact, committed to bringing HS2 all the way to central London. Transport secretary Louise Haigh may have told Times Radio this week that, “It would never have made sense to leave it between Old Oak Common and Birmingham. Euston was always planned to be part of the picture”, before adding: “We are hoping to make an announcement on that very soon.” But in the world of British rail investment, there are few guarantees, and even projects that have been announced multiple times sometimes fail to materialise. (Just ask anyone who’s tried to take an electric train through Manchester Piccadilly’s platforms 15 or 16 recently.) Chancellor Rachel Reeves is said to have ...

It’s not just in Westminster that Labour people are smarting at the party’s sub-optimal opening months in government – there is concern and disappointment in Scotland, too. Having delivered 37 MPs in July (up from just one at the previous general election), Anas Sarwar and his team were and are expecting the favour to be returned by Keir Starmer. With the 2026 Scottish election now at the forefront of their minds, they were promised a popular UK government would help them cross the line in first place, finally removing the SNP from office. That was the quid pro quo for all the hard work of the past few years. There are no smiles on shadow cabinet faces at the moment. “It’s all ...