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Sir Keir Starmer started the day facing the prospect of a very sizeable rebellion and possibly even a shadow cabinet resignation or two as dozens of MPs warned that they wouldn’t be able to vote against the SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

And yet he ended it becoming the first political leader to pass a motion through the Commons calling for a ceasefire after the Speaker broke with decades of precedent to allow a vote on a Labour amendment to the SNP motion.

Talk about a lucky general, a victory snatched from the jaws of defeat. One former Tory cabinet minister messaged me from the green benches saying that “Labour whips had walked out of the chamber grinning” as the Commons descended into chaos.

But the truth of it was that no-one won last night. MPs squandered a chance to come together to find some consensus around ceasefire terms for in the Middle East.

Instead, against the very real backdrop of divided communities across the UK and growing threats to MPs over this difficult issue, we saw the spectacle of political point scoring and rows over parliamentary procedures as MPs took positions to stoke dividing lines with an eye on the election ahead.

There was very little thought given to the tensions already at play in our communities over this long and bloody war as MPs, given the option to dial it all down, just stoked it all up.

Now the Speaker is in crisis with over 30 MPs already having signed a motion of no confidence in Sir Lindsay Hoyle after the MPs exploded in fury over his decision to break decades of precedent and allow Labour and the government to table amendments to the SNP ceasefire motion.

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Speaker Lindsay Hoyle clings to job

Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, told me after the vote it was a “stitch up” in which Sir Keir had done a backroom deal with Sir Lindsay – something both sides deny. It’s unclear tonight whether he can survive with one of his friends telling me the speaker’s “in big trouble”.

But it is also a dreary reflection on the state of our politics. The SNP tabled this motion to expose Labour splits, knowing all too well that dozens of Labour MPs would have to support calls for an immediate ceasefire, even if that meant defying the whip.

Labour then changed its position to back an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” and tabled its own amendment. Clearly, there wasn’t a huge amount of different between the SNP’s motion and Labour’s, but a shadow cabinet figure told me Starmer was clear to his top team he couldn’t support the language in the SNP motion referring to the “slaughter” of people or the “collective punishment” of Palestinians given he might have to negotiate with Israel as the PM in a some months’ time.

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Beth Rigby: There will be more political game-playing in the coming months

Then the government got involved tabling their own amendment for a “humanitarian pause” which made it unlikely Labour’s amendment would be called – until the Speaker intervened because of his concerns over the security of MPs and their families.

“I am still concerned,” he told MPs as he was dragged to the chamber to explain himself to fuming MPs. “I have tried to do what is right for all sides of the House.”

Amid the rowing, there are MPs from all sides in despair at this politicking on such a serious, and difficult issue. One Conservative MP told me they had been “riddled with anxiety over how to vote, angry at being cast as either a “child murderer or an anti-Semite when I’m neither”.

Labour MP Jess Phillips, who quit the frontbench last year to support a ceasefire, told me the whole thing had been “a disgrace”: “How can we ask people to lay down arms, when we can’t even manage to lay down words?”

When you boil it down, there weren’t huge divisions between politicians over Gaza. But instead of trying to find common ground we are in the phase of politicians trying to draw dividing lines.

It comes at a high price – be it around MPs’ safety or the tensions this stokes in our communities.

What MPs decide in Westminster will make little difference to the fate of those in Gaza. But it has serious implications here at home. That they didn’t come to meet that moment, is a new low.

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Thiel-backed Erebor wins US approval as Silicon Valley Bank rival emerges

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Thiel-backed Erebor wins US approval as Silicon Valley Bank rival emerges

Thiel-backed Erebor wins US approval as Silicon Valley Bank rival emerges

Erebor’s green light from US regulators is among the most significant bank charter approvals tied to digital assets since the 2023 regional banking crisis.

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China Merchants Bank tokenizes $3.8B fund on BNB Chain in Hong Kong

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China Merchants Bank tokenizes .8B fund on BNB Chain in Hong Kong

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CMBI’s tokenization initiative with BNB Chain builds on its previous work with Singapore-based DigiFT, which tokenized its fund on Solana in August.

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Chancellor admits tax rises and spending cuts considered for budget

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Chancellor admits tax rises and spending cuts considered for budget

Rachel Reeves has told Sky News she is looking at both tax rises and spending cuts in the budget, in her first interview since being briefed on the scale of the fiscal black hole she faces.

“Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well,” the chancellor said when asked how she would deal with the country’s economic challenges in her 26 November statement.

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Ms Reeves was shown the first draft of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) report, revealing the size of the black hole she must fill next month, on Friday 3 October.

She has never previously publicly confirmed tax rises are on the cards in the budget, going out of her way to avoid mentioning tax in interviews two weeks ago.

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Chancellor pledges not to raise VAT

Cabinet ministers had previously indicated they did not expect future spending cuts would be used to ensure the chancellor met her fiscal rules.

Ms Reeves also responded to questions about whether the economy was in a “doom loop” of annual tax rises to fill annual black holes. She appeared to concede she is trapped in such a loop.

Asked if she could promise she won’t allow the economy to get stuck in a doom loop cycle, Ms Reeves replied: “Nobody wants that cycle to end more than I do.”

She said that is why she is trying to grow the economy, and only when pushed a third time did she suggest she “would not use those (doom loop) words” because the UK had the strongest growing economy in the G7 in the first half of this year.

What’s facing Reeves?

Ms Reeves is expected to have to find up to £30bn at the budget to balance the books, after a U-turn on winter fuel and welfare reforms and a big productivity downgrade by the OBR, which means Britain is expected to earn less in future than previously predicted.

Yesterday, the IMF upgraded UK growth projections by 0.1 percentage points to 1.3% of GDP this year – but also trimmed its forecast by 0.1% next year, also putting it at 1.3%.

The UK growth prospects are 0.4 percentage points worse off than the IMF’s projects last autumn. The 1.3% GDP growth would be the second-fastest in the G7, behind the US.

Last night, the chancellor arrived in Washington for the annual IMF and World Bank conference.

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The big issues facing the UK economy

‘I won’t duck challenges’

In her Sky News interview, Ms Reeves said multiple challenges meant there was a fresh need to balance the books.

“I was really clear during the general election campaign – and we discussed this many times – that I would always make sure the numbers add up,” she said.

“Challenges are being thrown our way – whether that is the geopolitical uncertainties, the conflicts around the world, the increased tariffs and barriers to trade. And now this (OBR) review is looking at how productive our economy has been in the past and then projecting that forward.”

She was clear that relaxing the fiscal rules (the main one being that from 2029-30, the government’s day-to-day spending needs to rely on taxation alone, not borrowing) was not an option, making tax rises all but inevitable.

“I won’t duck those challenges,” she said.

“Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well, but the numbers will always add up with me as chancellor because we saw just three years ago what happens when a government, where the Conservatives, lost control of the public finances: inflation and interest rates went through the roof.”

Pic: PA
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Pic: PA

Blame it on the B word?

Ms Reeves also lay responsibility for the scale of the black hole she’s facing at Brexit, along with austerity and the mini-budget.

This could risk a confrontation with the party’s own voters – one in five (19%) Leave voters backed Labour at the last election, playing a big role in assuring the party’s landslide victory.

The chancellor said: “Austerity, Brexit, and the ongoing impact of Liz Truss’s mini-budget, all of those things have weighed heavily on the UK economy.

“Already, people thought that the UK economy would be 4% smaller because of Brexit.

“Now, of course, we are undoing some of that damage by the deal that we did with the EU earlier this year on food and farming, goods moving between us and the continent, on energy and electricity trading, on an ambitious youth mobility scheme, but there is no doubting that the impact of Brexit is severe and long-lasting.”

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