Prime Minister Liz Truss facing fresh battle with senior Tories over benefits squeeze and public spending cuts
Liz Truss is facing a fresh battle with Conservative MPs over a potential benefits squeeze and cuts to public spending, after already being forced into making a policy U-turn.
The prime minister is under pressure to set out whether benefit payments will be uprated in line with inflation, or if they will face a real-term cut.
It is understood that Downing Street is considering increasing Universal Credit using a lower metric, such as the increase in average earnings, instead.
Politics live: Major U-turn after prominent Tories speak out
While an official decision on benefit payments has still not been made, Welfare Secretary Chloe Smith said one “will be taken in due course”.
Senior Tories have called on the PM to row back on cutting public spending in the middle of the cost of living crisis, with concerns that failing to keep pace with rising prices would leave some of the poorest households worse off.
It comes as the government dramatically dropped its plans to abolish the 45% tax rate on earnings over £150,000 following widespread criticism.
The policy was announced during the mini-budget near the end of September, which plunged UK markets into turmoil.
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Pound up after tax U-turn
What are MPs saying?
Speaking to Sky News, Conservative MP Damian Green said: “The government should uprate in line with inflation. The previous government said it was going to, so people are expecting this.”
Asked if cuts to benefits are the next battle, he replied: “Well, I hope not because I hope the government has clearly started listening.”
Former transport secretary Grant Shapps is also among the senior Tories calling for the government to be transparent about its plans.
Grant Shapps said the government must communicate clearly with the public
Asked if he would want to see benefits increased in line with inflation, he said: “Of course, every politician would want to see that.
“If there is a case whereby we are going to be going through difficult times, then the government must communicate that and be honest with people and explain how and what needs to happen next.”
Former home secretary Priti Patel is set to take aim over the government’s unfunded tax cuts, telling the Conservative Party it will “live or die” by its economic credibility.
According to The Times, she is expected to accuse the PM and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng of “spending today with no thought of tomorrow” and will call on Ms Truss to put a “ceiling” on public spending.
Read more:
First part of Truss’ reign is over – is there any way back from 45p tax rate U-turn?
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Is there any way back for Kwarteng?
‘Action was needed urgently’
Despite the discontent within the Conservative Party, Liz Truss has pushed forward with her economic policy, saying the UK must have “the courage of its convictions to put our nation on the path to success”.
Writing in the Telegraph, the prime minister said the struggling economy was a global problem caused by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and COVID and that there was “no time to waste”.
“Action was needed urgently. People forget the counterfactual of what would have happened had we not acted,” she wrote.
Read more:
Has the government lost credibility?
Truss sticks by plan but admits mistakes
‘What a day!’ – Chancellor admits ‘tough time’
While she dismissed the U-turn on the 45p tax rate cut as a “tiny part of the plan”, reports in The Sun said that the Chairman of the 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady went to see her at 7pm on Sunday evening.
The PM was then said to have met Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng for crisis talks, hours before she ditched the tax promise on Monday morning.
Monday was a tumultuous day for the party, with Mr Kwarteng’s keynote conference speech altered at the last minute to acknowledge the U-turn.
Hours after his speech, it was revealed Mr Kwarteng will bring forward his medium-term financial statement from 23 November to this month, despite saying he would not earlier in the day.
Markets bounced back on Monday morning, but financial commentators cautioned that it was likely some respite only.
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‘We have a plan and we need to deliver it’
What will be happening at the Tory Conference today?
The Conservatives will be hoping for a quiet day on Tuesday ahead of Liz Truss’ speech on Wednesday.
In his first speech as foreign secretary, James Cleverly is expected to focus on the UK helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia.
He will also talk about finding a “mutually beneficial solution” to Brexit issues in Northern Ireland.
New Home Secretary Suella Braverman will also speak on Tuesday, setting out her plans to “redouble efforts to crack down on illegal migration”.
Education Secretary Kit Malthouse, Health Secretary and Deputy PM Therese Coffey, Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Justice Secretary Brandon Lewis will also address the conference in Birmingham.
World
‘Widespread sexual violence’ took place during Hamas’s 7 October attacks, report by Israeli experts says
A newly released report led by Israeli legal and gender experts presents detailed evidence alleging “widespread and systematic” sexual violence during the Hamas-led terror attack on 7 October.
Warning: This story contains descriptions of rape and sexual violence
The findings, published by the Dinah Project, argue that these acts amount to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and assert that “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war”.
The report draws on 18 months of investigation and is based on survivor testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with first responders, morgue personnel and healthcare professionals.
According to the Dinah Project, the documented patterns – such as forced nudity, gang rapes, genital mutilation, and threats of forced marriage – indicate a deliberate and coordinated use of sexual violence by Hamas operatives during the attack.
Reported incidents span at least six locations, including the Nova music festival, and several kibbutzim in southern Israel.
A destroyed car near the police station in Sderot, following the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Pic: AP
One section of the report describes victims “found fully or partially naked from the waist down, with their hands tied behind their backs and/or to structures such as trees and poles, and shot”.
At the Nova music festival and surrounding areas, the investigators found “reasonable grounds to believe” that multiple women were raped or gang-raped before being killed.
The report’s findings are consistent with earlier investigations by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Read more:
What is the possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal?
Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza
The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict previously concluded that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” CRSV took place during the attack.
Destroyed vehicles near the grounds of the Supernova electronic music festival. Pic: AP
Significantly, the Dinah Project urges the international community to officially recognise the use of sexual violence by Hamas as a deliberate strategy of war and calls on the United Nations to add Hamas to its list of parties responsible for conflict-related sexual violence.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The nature and scale of sexual violence on 7 October have been a subject of intense controversy, with some accusing parties of weaponising the narrative for political ends.
This report seeks to confront what its authors call “denial, misinformation, and global silence,” and to provide justice for the victims.
Hamas has denied that its fighters have used sexual violence and mistreated female hostages.
World
Israeli soldiers ‘psychologically broken’ after ‘confronting the reality’ in Gaza, UN expert says
A UN expert has said some young soldiers in the Israeli Defence Forces are being left “psychologically broken” after “confront[ing] the reality among the rubble” when serving in Gaza.
Francesca Albanese, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, was responding to a Sky News interview with an Israeli solider who described arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza.
She told The World with Yalda Hakim that “many” of the young people fighting in Gaza are “haunted by what they have seen, what they have done”.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Ms Albanese said. “This is not a war, this is an assault against civilians and this is producing a fracture in many of them.
“As that soldier’s testimony reveals, especially the youngest among the soldiers have been convinced this is a form of patriotism, of defending Israel and Israeli society against this opaque but very hard felt enemy, which is Hamas.
“But the thing is that they’ve come to confront the reality among the rubble of Gaza.”
An Israeli soldier directs a tank near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel. Pic: AP
Being in Gaza is “probably this is the first time the Israeli soldiers are awakening to this,” she added. “And they don’t make sense of this because their attachment to being part of the IDF, which is embedded in their national ideology, is too strong.
“This is why they are psychologically broken.”
Jonathan Conricus, a former IDF spokesman who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said he believes the Sky News interview with the former IDF solider “reflects one part of how ugly, difficult and horrible fighting in a densely populated, urban terrain is”.
“I think [the ex-soldier] is reflecting on how difficult it is to fight in such an area and what the challenges are on the battlefield,” he said.
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Ex-IDF spokesperson: ‘No distinction between military and civilians’
‘An economy of genocide’
Ms Albanese, one of dozens of independent UN-mandated experts, also said her most recent report for the human rights council has identified “an economy of genocide” in Israel.
The system, she told Hakim, is made up of more than 60 private sector companies “that have become enmeshed in the economy of occupation […] that have Israel displace the Palestinians and replace them with settlers, settlements and infrastructure Israel runs.”
Israel has rejected allegations of genocide in Gaza, citing its right to defend itself after Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023.
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‘Israel has shifted towards economy of genocide’
The companies named in Ms Albanese’s report are in, but not limited to, the financial sector, big tech and the military industry.
“These companies can be held responsible for being directed linked to, or contributing, or causing human rights impacts,” she said. “We’re not talking of human rights violations, we are talking of crimes.”
“Some of the companies have engaged in good faith, others have not,” Ms Albanese said.
Read more:
Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza
British surgeons on life in Gaza
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The companies she has named include American technology giant Palantir, which has issued a statement to Sky News.
It said it is “not true” that Palantir “is the (or a) developer of the ‘Gospel’ – the AI-assisted targeting software allegedly used by the IDF in Gaza, and that we are involved with the ‘Lavender’ database used by the IDF for targeting cross-referencing”.
“Both capabilities are independent of and pre-ate Palantir’s announced partnership with the Israeli Defence Ministry,” the statement added.
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