Devolved nations demand urgent meeting with chancellor as Tory top team doubles down on plan to cut spending
The devolved governments of the UK want an urgent meeting with Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng to discuss immediate action to reverse the damaging effects of the mini-budget.
In a joint letter, the finance ministers of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are warning that the government’s spending plans are a “huge gamble” that will mean another decade of austerity.
It comes as one of Liz Truss‘s closest political allies doubled down on the government’s economic policy, with warnings that major cuts in public spending are to come.
Levelling Up Secretary Simon Clarke, who is among the prime minister’s inner circle, told The Times that the British people need to expect significant cuts in public spending, because for too long the West has been living in a “fool’s paradise”.
Following on from Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng‘s tax-cutting mini-budget, he said the government needs to make sure the “extremely large” state is in “full alignment with a lower tax economy”.
It has led to fears another period of austerity is just around the corner, with the hardest hit likely to be those reliant on welfare.
In their letter to Mr Kwarteng, Welsh Finance Minister Rebecca Evans joined finance ministers from Scotland and Northern Ireland in highlighting the profound impact of “the largest set of unfunded tax cuts for the rich in over 50 years” stating it was “a huge gamble on public finances and the health of our economy”
They warned against being condemned to another decade of austerity and expressed deep concern over reports that UK government departments would be asked to make spending cuts to balance the budget, which may have profound consequences for devolved budget settlements already eroded by inflation.
But Mr Clarke told The Times: “Western Europe is just living in a fool’s paradise whereby we can be ever less productive relative to our peers, and yet still enjoy a very large welfare state and persist in thinking that the two are somehow compatible over the medium to long term.
“They’re not. We need to address that… if we want those strong public services then we are going to have to pay for them.
“It is important that we look at a state which is extremely large, and look at how we can make sure that it is in full alignment with a lower tax economy.”
It comes on the eve of the Conservative Party conference and the chancellor defending his mini-budget by saying the government “had no other choice” than to do “something different” to spark the economy.
The mini-budget resulted in a tumultuous week which saw the pound fall to an all-time low against the dollar and the Bank of England being forced to spend billions to prevent a collapse of the pensions industry.
‘What the Thatcher government was doing in the 1980s’
Mr Clarke admitted it had been an “uncomfortable week” and defended Ms Truss, but said she would not be deflected from policies they predicted would be unpopular, and suggested her task was analogous to that faced by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
“If I was to describe one word for Liz… it is purposeful,” he said. “She knew – and this was certainly something we discussed during the summer – that this would not be a comfortable process.
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“[She knew] particularly early on, there would be real potential unpopularity to be courted in seeking to say things and do things which weren’t going to be easy or quick wins. Frankly, she is doing what she believes is right.
“In some ways, there is an analogy with the 1980s and what the Thatcher government was seeking to do in terms of a reset moment where you fundamentally revisit how not just the previous government but multiple governments.”
‘We intend to be extremely rigorous’
Wales Secretary Sir Robert Buckland told Sky News that, while the government would work within its existing three-year spending review package, families could expect to find out what ministers are planning in the next few weeks.
Mr Buckland said he hopes the government’s upcoming announcements will be seen by the market as displaying “fiscal discipline”.
He appeared to confirm what Mr Clarke was suggesting when he said: “We intend to be extremely rigorous when it comes to bearing down on public expenditure.
“That will be developed in the weeks ahead. We’ve got a whole range of announcements coming out on not just spending, but supply-side reforms.
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Chair of OBR Richard Hughes says chancellor will be updated on Friday
“Whether it’s childcare… or… broadband connectivity, all these things add up to an overall package that is designed to, first of all, facilitate growth in the economy, but secondly to emphasise that the government is responsible.”
‘We had to do something different’
Overnight, Mr Kwarteng said the public expected public spending to be tightly controlled.
He wrote in The Daily Telegraph: “The British taxpayer expects their government to work as efficiently and effectively as possible, and we will deliver on that expectation.
“Not all the measures we announced last week will be universally popular. But we had to do something different. We had no other choice.”
The chancellor insisted he would produce a “credible plan” to get public finances on track with a “commitment to spending discipline”.
On Friday night, Ms Truss acknowledged for the first time that “there has been disruption” to the UK economy following last week’s mini-budget.
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‘Liz Truss is a danger to the economy’ says Starmer
Asked on Friday whether she accepted this was a crisis of the government’s own making, the prime minister said: “It was very, very important that we took urgent steps to deal with the costs that families are facing this winter, putting in place the energy price guarantee for which we’ve had to borrow to cover the cost… but also making sure that we are not raising taxes at a time where there are global economic forces caused by the war in Ukraine that we need to deal with.
“I recognise there has been disruption. But it was really, really important that we were able to get help to families as soon as possible.”
Nick Thomas-Symonds, shadow international trade secretary, told Sky News on Saturday: “This is a Tory crisis, made in Downing Street… They’ve crashed the economy by handing out enormous unfunded tax cuts to the very wealthiest people, and it’s going to be working people across the country that pay the price for this.
“They’ve also trashed our international reputation… and… what the government has done is going to lead to economic pain for people that they have chosen… What the government needs to do is recall Parliament and withdraw this budget.”
Truss and Kwarteng met top officials from Britain’s Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) on Friday.
Mr Kwarteng intends to publish an updated set of economic forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and a medium-term fiscal plan setting out how he plans to bring down government debt on 23 November.
Changes to how death certificates are issued in England and Wales have made the grieving process more “stressful”, according to bereaved families.
Anne Short died on New Year’s Eve, only a few months after she was diagnosed with cancer.
Her son Elliot, 30, from Newport, South Wales, says the grieving process was made harder after having to wait eight weeks to hold her funeral.
“Quite frankly, it’s ridiculous, when you’re already going through all this pain and suffering as a family,” he told Sky News.
“You can’t move on, you can’t do anything, you can’t arrange anything, you can’t feel that they’re at peace, you can’t put yourself at peace, because of a process that’s been put in that nobody seems to know anything about at the moment.”
That process has been introduced by the government to address “concerns” about how causes of death were previously scrutinised, following high-profile criminal cases such as those of Harold Shipman and Lucy Letby.
Up until last September, causes of death could be signed off by a GP, but now they have to be independently scrutinised by a medical examiner, before a death certificate can be issued.
Anne Short
‘I felt helpless’
Mr Short said he was ringing “twice a day” for a progress update, but that it was “going through too many sets of hands”.
Until the death certificate was issued, Ms Short’s body could not be released into the care of the funeral director.
“The main stress for me was knowing that she was up there [at the hospital] and I couldn’t move her, so I felt helpless, powerless,” he said.
“I felt like I’d let her down in a lot of ways. I know now, looking back, that there’s nothing that we could have done, but at the time it was adding a lot of stress. I just wanted her out of there.”
Elliot Short had to wait eight weeks to hold his mother’s funeral
‘Something has to be done’
Mr Short fears there’s a risk the new process might defeat its purpose.
“There’s other people that I know that have lost since, where it’s been in a care home or something like that, where they haven’t been happy with the care they’ve had, but they haven’t raised that because you’re in this bubble of grief and you just want to get it done,” he said.
“Something has to be done about that because I think it just drags on the grief and there’s obviously a danger then of it being against the reasons why they’re trying to do it.”
Arrangements after the death of his father less than two years ago was a “much easier process”, according to Mr Short.
“I lost my father as well 15 months before, so we went through the process prior to this coming in and we had the death certificate, he died at home, but we had it within three days,” he added.
Elliot Short
‘State of limbo’
James Tovey is the sixth generation of his family running Tovey Bros, a funeral director in Newport.
He told Sky News that the delays were having a “huge impact” on the business and that the families they serve were being “left in a state of limbo” for weeks after their bereavement.
“I would say that most funerals will take place perhaps two to four weeks after the person’s passed away, whereas now it’s much more like four to six weeks, so it is quite a significant difference,” he said.
“It’s one thing on top of an already distressing time for them and we’re frustrated and upset for [the families] as much as anybody else and it’s just annoying that we can’t do anything about it.”
James Tovey
Mr Tovey said that the reform was “very useful” and he remained supportive of it.
“It’s just the delays. I’m sure they can do something about that over time, but it’s just waiting for that to happen, and I wish that could be addressed sooner rather than later,” he added.
“It does put pressure on other people, it’s not just ourselves, it’s pressure on the hospitals, on crematoria, on the registrar service and everyone else involved in our profession.
“But of course all of us we’re there to serve the families, and we’re just upset for them and wish we could do more to help.”
The organisation representing funeral directors has called for “urgent action”
The National Association of Funeral Directors said some areas of England and Wales are experiencing much shorter delays than others, but has called for “urgent action”.
Rachel Bradburne, its director of external affairs, said the system was “introduced for all the right reasons” but that it was “not working as well as we need it to”.
“Funeral directors are relaying stories of delays, frustration, and bottlenecks on a daily basis, and urgent action is required to review and recalibrate the new system,” she added.
‘Unintended consequences’
Dr Roger Greene is the deputy chief executive of bereavement charity AtALoss.
He told Sky News that the delays were “one of the unintended consequences of what’s a well-intended reform of a system”.
“What has actually happened is that the number of deaths now requiring independent scrutiny has trebled,” he said.
“So in England and Wales in 2023, the last full year of data, there were nearly 200,000 deaths reported to a coroner, whereas there were 600,000 deaths.
“Now, what is the change in the process is that all deaths now need to be reported for independent scrutiny.”
Dr Roger Greene
Dr Greene said there may be ways the system could be “tweaked a little bit”, such as giving medical examiners the ability to issue an interim death certificate.
“We believe that people can process grief well if they’re given the opportunity and they’ve got a proper understanding,” he added.
“But the systems that we have in the country need to be able to work as well with that diversity of faith and culture.”
‘Vital improvements’
Jason Shannon, lead medical examiner for Wales, told Sky News he recognised “the importance of a seamless, accurate and timely death certification process”.
“Medical examiners are one part of the wider death certification process and were introduced to give additional independent safeguards as well as to give bereaved people a voice, which they hadn’t had before,” he added.
“Medical examiners have no role in determining where the body of a family’s relative is cared for and except in a minority of deaths where a coroner needs to be involved, that decision should be one that a family is fully empowered to make in a way that is best for them.”
A Welsh government spokesperson said they “would like to apologise to any families who have experienced delays in receiving death certificates”.
The government said it was working with the lead medical examiner and the NHS in Wales “to understand where the delays are” and how to provide bereaved families with “additional support”.
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A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said it recognised there were “some regional variations in how long it takes to register a death”.
They added that the changes to the death certification process “support vital improvements to patient safety and aim to provide comfort and clarity to the bereaved”.
Social media influencers are fuelling a rise in misogyny and sexism in the UK’s classrooms, according to teachers.
More than 5,800 teachers were polled as part of the survey by the NASUWT teaching union, and nearly three in five (59%) of teachers said they believe social media use has contributed to a deterioration in pupils’ behaviour.
The findings have been published during the union’s annual conference, which is taking place in Liverpool this weekend.
One motion that is set to be debated at the conference calls on the union’s executive to work with teachers “to assess the risk that far-right and populist movements pose to young people”.
Andrew Tate was referenced by a number of teachers who took part in the survey, who said he had negative influence on male pupils.
One teacher said she’d had 10-year-old boys “refuse to speak to [her]…because [she is] a woman”.
Another teacher said “the Andrew Tate phenomena had a huge impact on how [pupils at an all-boys school] interacted with females and males they did not see as ‘masculine'”.
While another respondent to the survey said their school had experienced some incidents of “derogatory language towards female staff…as a direct result of Andrew Tate videos”.
Last month, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hosted a discussion in Downing Street on how to prevent young boys from being dragged into a “whirlpool of hatred and misogyny”.
The talks were with the creators of Netflix drama Adolescence, which explored so-called incel culture.
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‘An urgent need for action’
Patrick Roach, the union’s general secretary, said “misogyny, racism and other forms of prejudice and hatred…are not a recent phenomenon”.
He said teachers “cannot be left alone to deal with these problems” and that a “multi-agency response” was needed.
“There is an urgent need for concerted action involving schools, colleges and other agencies to safeguard all children and young people from the dangerous influence of far-right populists and extremists,” Mr Roach added.
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A spokesperson for the Department for Education (DfE) said: “Education can be the antidote to hate, and the classroom should be a safe environment for sensitive topics to be discussed and where critical thinking is encouraged.
“That’s why we provide a range of resources to support teachers to navigate these challenging issues, and why our curriculum review will look at the skills children need to thrive in a fast-changing online world.”
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