The chancellor has insisted he is “not going anywhere” amid the economic turmoil – and when asked if he was about to do a U-turn on corporation tax he said: “Let’s see”.
Speaking earlier in the US where he is attending IMF meetings, Kwasi Kwarteng told reporters that he remains “totally focused” on delivering the government’s growth plan.
Later, in response to a question about how markets “have improved today because they think you’re about to do a U-turn on corporation tax”, Mr Kwarteng said: “Let’s see,” according to The Telegraph.
It is his strongest indication yet of a possible change of course.
During a visit to Washington, Mr Kwarteng was asked whether he and Liz Truss, the prime minister, will be in their jobs this time next month.
“Absolutely. 100%. I’m not going anywhere,” he said.
The chancellor admitted there has been some “domestic turbulence” since he unveiled his tax-cutting mini-budget at the end of September and the pound fell to record lows against the dollar, but said there is “a very dicey situation globally”.
“I speak to Number 10, the PM all the time, and we are totally focused on delivering the growth plan,” he said.
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Pushed on whether there will be any more reversals of policies in the mini-budget, Mr Kwarteng said: “I am totally focused on the growth agenda.”
Last week, after open revolt from Tory MPs and a surge in support for Labour in the polls, Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng abandoned the plan to abolish the highest 45% tax rate.
The proposed changes to corporation tax and dividend tax are those understood to be under discussion.
Downing Street insisted earlier on Thursday that there will be no more U-turns on policies in the government’s tax-cutting mini-budget despite pressure from Conservative MPs for changes to be made.
Asked to confirm there would be no further reversals, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “Yes, as I said to a number of questions on this yesterday – and the position has not changed from what I set out to you all then.”
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2:48
Discussions happening over whether to scrap parts of the mini-budget
Ms Truss faces open revolt in her party over the £45bn package of unfunded tax cutsin the mini-budget, which unleashed chaos in the markets when it was announced last month.
The chancellor will set out his debt-cutting plan in more detail on 31 October, having bowed to pressure to bring the date forward from 23 November given the economic turbulence.
Earlier on Thursday, James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, refused to say there would be no more reversals.
He told Sky News the Halloween statement would give “a more holistic assessment of the public finances and our response to the global headwinds that every democracy, every economy in the world is facing”.
Pressed on the plan to axe the increase in corporation tax from 19% to 25% in April, Mr Cleverly said it is “absolutely right” the government helps businesses to “stay competitive” and “stay afloat”.
The Treasury had vowed to reduce the rate of income tax on dividends by 1.25 percentage points.
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2:54
How long can Truss stay in power?
Mr Kwarteng is meetingwith International Monetary Fund (IMF) leaders in Washington DC today, after the institution’s chief economist said tax cuts threatened to cause “problems” for the UK economy.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington, the managing director of the IMF said it is sometimes right for a “recalibration” of policies as she was questioned over reports of further U-turns after the mini-budget market chaos.
Kristalina Georgieva said: “Our message to everybody, not just the UK, is that at this time, fiscal policy should not undermine monetary policy.”
Meanwhile, in a post on social media on Thursday, former Conservative chancellor George Osborne questioned why Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng would wait for the chancellor’s statement on 31 October to perform an “inevitable U-turn” on their mini-budget.
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1:32
Tories ‘must get back to being fiscally responsible’
On Wednesday, Mel Stride, the Tory chairman of the Commons Treasury Committee, said that given Ms Truss’s commitments to protect public spending, there was a question over whether any plan that did not include “at least some element of further row back” on the tax-slashing package can reassure investors.
While David Davis, the Tory former minister, called the mini-budget a “maxi-shambles” and suggested reversing some of the tax cuts would allow Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng to avert leadership challenges for a few months.
The family of a father-of-four who died on holiday in Benidorm say new evidence has further convinced them that foul play was involved in his death.
Nathan Osman, 30, from Pontypridd in South Wales, was on a long weekend break with friends in Benidorm in September 2024.
Less than 24 hours after he arrived, his body was found by an off-duty police officer at the bottom of a remote 650ft (200m) cliff on the outskirts of the resort.
He died from head and abdominal injuries after falling from height, a post-mortem found.
Local police said it was “a tragic accident” that occurred after Nathan left his friends in Benidorm to walk back to his hotel room alone.
But his family believe the investigation into his death has not been adequate, and that the local authorities have never considered the possibility of a homicide.
Their suspicions of foul play were first provoked by the fact that the remote location where Nathan was found was in the opposite direction to the hotel, and some distance away on foot.
They began doing their own investigating, building a timeline of events drawn from sources including CCTV, witness statements and Nathan’s bank records, which they say showed attempts were made to use his bank cards the day after he died.
Now, the family have told Sarah-Jane Mee on The UK Tonight that new phone data they have uncovered suggests he couldn’t have reached the spot he was found on foot.
Image: Nathan’s brother Lee, mother Elizabeth and father Jonathan speak to Sarah-Jane Mee
After getting the phone back a couple of months ago, they say they tracked Nathan’s last movements through a health app.
“There’s a breakdown inside the app of every 10 minutes – the distance, pace, measurement of pace… every detail you can think of,” Nathan’s brother, Lee Evans, tells Mee.
“His pace wasn’t consistent with a fast walk or even a sprint.”
He said it was a faster journey, despite being uphill for 40 minutes, which has convinced the family that he was in a vehicle.
Image: Pic: Family handout
The family also went to visit the area where Nathan was found.
“We were a bit upset, but we were very pleased we went up there”, his mother, Elizabeth, says. “We could see… there’s no way he would have looked at that area and thought, ‘I’m going up here.’
“You can see straight off, there’s no clubs, there’s no hotels up there, there’s just the odd house dotted around. It was just out in the wild, there was nothing up there.”
The family says the phone data has helped them determine that he died around half an hour after he was seen on CCTV walking towards his hotel in the early hours of the morning.
“It was really ridiculous to think that my son would’ve walked up there [the remote location where he died] at 4am in the pitch dark.”
After the family were interviewed by Mee in May, South Wales Police opened its own investigation into Nathan’s death.
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13:33
Nathan’s family speaking to Mee in May
Lee says the Welsh force has been “appalled” by the lack of evidence turned over from the local police’s investigation.
His and Nathan’s father, Jonathan, says: “No procedures were followed. Nothing was cordoned off, it wasn’t a crime scene. There’s loads of things that could’ve been taken. Tyre tracks, foot tracks, nothing. No DNA taken.”
Lee says: “All that we’ve done over the last year, this could’ve been squashed within the first week, two weeks [by local investigators].
“We’ve had to find out and keep delving into every possible outcome and overturn every stone possible. We started off with… a needle in a haystack, we had no direction or any support on which way to go.”
Image: Nathan Osman. Pic: Family handout
What does Nathan’s family hope for now?
Nathan’s family say they have located 27 CCTV cameras which could have picked Nathan up in the area, after local investigators didn’t find any.
Elizabeth says that after alerting Spanish police to the locations, they were told that the CCTV “wouldn’t be working” or that footage would’ve already been erased.
“They just surmised everything,” she adds.
But the family, who found the last known CCTV footage of Nathan earlier this year, are convinced there is still hope.
Lee says: “There’s a number of CCTV footage in that area. We know there’s a way of finding a vehicle of some sort.”
But the family admit they may never find whoever could be responsible for Nathan’s death because so much time has been lost.
Elizabeth concludes: “Nathan walks with us every day. We all believe that,” adding that “all we want” is to find the ones responsible for his death and for him to “have the respect of a decent investigation”.
Sky News contacted Spanish police, which declined to comment, adding the case is under judicial review and it doesn’t want to hinder the course of the investigation.
South Wales Police told Sky News: “South Wales Police is carrying out enquiries on behalf of HM Coroner and a family liaison officer has been appointed to provide support.”
Watch the full interview with Sarah-Jane Mee on The UK Tonight from 8pm this evening on Sky News.
A man accused of a mass stabbing on an LNER train in Huntingdon last month and separate attacks over the previous 48 hours, could face a trial next year.
Anthony Williams, 32, is charged with 10 counts of attempted murder and one count of possession of a knife over the alleged attack on a LNER train from Doncaster to London on 1 November.
Williams, refused to attend Monday’s hearing at Cambridge Crown Court, and has yet to enter pleas. But the judge has set a provisional trial date in June.
He is charged with one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm over an alleged attack on a male police officer in custody.
Williams also faces another count of attempted murder and one count of possession of a knife over a separate incident at Pontoon Dock Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station, in east London, earlier on 1 November.
Image: The aftermath of the mass stabbing. Pic: Reuters
At Monday’s hearing, held in Williams’ absence, the case was joined with seven further charges, bringing the total number of charges to 21.
Williams, who said at an earlier hearing that he is of no fixed abode, had also failed to attend a hearing at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on 19 November over the seven additional charges.
Image: A forensic officer taking pictures on the train. Pic: Reuters
The seven charges relate to the following incidents in the 24 hours leading up to the train stabbings:
• Attempted murders of a 14-year-old boy at Henry Penn Walk, Peterborough, on 31 October.
• Attempted murder of a 22-year-old man near Pleasure Fair Meadow Road, Peterborough, on 31 October.
• Attempted wounding of a 28-year-old man at Viersen Platz, Peterborough, on 31 October.
• Affray at a barbershop in Peterborough on 31 October.
• Possession of a knife in a public place at a footbridge near Henry Penn Walk, the Rail World car park and Queen’s Walk, all in Peterborough on 31 October.
• Theft of knives from Asda supermarket in Stevenage on 31 October.
• Assault of a 31-year-old man onboard a train travelling from King’s Cross to Peterborough on 1 November.
Agency workers hired to fill the void in the wake of the Birmingham bin strikes have voted for strike action and will be joining the picket.
The first day of the action kicks off today, with a rally organised by the Unite union at the Smithfield depot in Birmingham.
The union said the numbers joining the strike were “growing daily” – but Birmingham City Council said just “a small number” of agency staff were taking part.
The replacement workers recruited by the Job&Talent agency, said they had voted in favour of industrial action “over bullying and harassment and the threat of blacklisting at the council’s refuse department two weeks ago”.
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1:09
From September: Birmingham bin strikes six months on
Image: General secretary of Unite Sharon Graham. Pic: PA
Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary, said: “Birmingham council will only resolve this dispute when it stops the appalling treatment of its workforce.
“Agency workers have now joined with directly-employed staff to stand up against the massive injustices done to them.”
She added: “Instead of wasting millions more of council taxpayers’ money fighting a dispute it could settle justly for a fraction of the cost, the council needs to return to talks with Unite and put forward a fair deal for all bin workers.
“Strikes will not end until it does.”
Strikes from the bin workers in Birmingham have been ongoing since January, and are likely to continue beyond May next year.
Birmingham City Council said it was “disappointed the dispute has not been resolved as Unite has rejected all our offers”.
“We are continuing to make regular waste collections and our contingency plan is working,” it added.
It also said it found “no blacklisting has taken place” after an investigation and that it “strongly” refuted Unite’s claims of bullying, which it said were “unfounded”.