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Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, repeatedly mentioning an inherited ‘£22 billion black hole’, raised taxes by £40 billion in the Budget, while saying she was abiding by Labour’s manifesto promise not to increase taxes on ‘working people’. A big hit came from increasing employers’ contributions to national insurance; the threshold at which it begins to be paid was reduced from £9,100 to £5,000. But income tax and NI thresholds for employees would be unfrozen from 2028. Capital gains tax went up; stamp duty for second homes rose. Fuel duty would again be frozen. The non-dom regime was abolished. Tobacco went up; a pint of draught went down a penny. The minimum wage would rise. Defence spending would rise by £2.9 billion. The bus fare cap in England was raised to £3. Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, rebuked the Chancellor for announcing in America new fiscal rules (confirmed in the Budget). ‘The premature disclosure of the contents of the Budget has always been regarded as a supreme discourtesy to the House,’ he said.
Mike Amesbury, MP for Runcorn, was suspended from the Labour party after footage showed him punching a man in the street in Frodsham, Cheshire; a witness said that they had been discussing a swing bridge over the river Weaver. Manchester United sacked Erik ten Hag as manager. A boy had fallen ill after being handed bread by Sergei Skripal to feed ducks in Salisbury on the day in 2018 that Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with novichok, an inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess was told. A dustcart burst into flames near Oxford Street in London.
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