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Rachel Reeves has defended raising taxes by the highest amount since 1993 as she said “everything has to be paid for”.

The chancellor announced £40bn worth of tax rises in Wednesday’s budget, with the lion’s share coming from a £25bn increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions.

She told Sky News’ Breakfast With Kay Burley that unlike the previous Conservative government, she has included everything ministers will spend in their forecast, including £11.8bn compensation for victims of the infected blood scandal and £1.8bn for victims of the Post Office accounting scandal.

Ms Reeves insisted the tax rises would “fix the foundations and wipe the slate clean” and this will be a one-off budget.

She added: “As a result of what we’ve done, we’re not going to have to come back and ever do a budget like this again, because we’ve brought everything out into the open.”

The chancellor also admitted growth “is largely unchanged” in the next five years, as revealed by the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) report on the budget.

But she said that is because she is looking at the economy in the long-term.

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She said: “For the first time, the OBR are now looking at economic growth over a longer time frame.

“And that’s really important because often politicians make short-term decisions rather than things that are in the long term interests of the country.”

Ms Reeves said she had to make the tax rises she did, despite promising not to raise taxes beyond Labour’s manifesto, because of “the circumstances that I inherited” from the Conservatives as she repeated they left a £22bn black hole.

“I could have swept that under the carpet and pretended it didn’t exist, or try and raise a bit of money this year and a bit more next year,” she said.

“I didn’t want to do that.

“I wanted to be open and honest, to wipe the slate clean, to put our public finances on a stable trajectory, to make sure that our NHS is properly funded so we can bring down those huge waiting lists.”

Ms Reeves’ predecessor, Conservative Jeremy Hunt, said Wednesday was a “bad day for trust in British politics”.

He told Sky News: “Because 30 times this year before the election, the chancellor said she had no plans to increase tax outside of what was explicitly written in the Labour manifesto.

“And we had the biggest tax raising budget in British history.

“And however much Labour tries to say that their tax rises won’t hurt ordinary families. What the watchdog, the OBR, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, they say this is going to mean lower pay, lower living standards, higher inflation, higher mortgages. And so it is a very, very sad day for for ordinary families.”

He added he does not think “anyone actually believes this £22bn number…but she didn’t increase taxes by £22bn, she increased them by £40bn”.

“This was not about her legacy. This was a choice,” he said.

“This was the budget that she wanted to do all along. And it’s a legitimate choice. It’s one I disagree with. But if she’d wanted to do that, she should have told us before the election we could have had the debate.”

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North Yorkshire: Man’s body recovered from area of flooding in Beal

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5 hours ago

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January 6, 2025

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North Yorkshire: Man's body recovered from area of flooding in Beal

A man’s body has been recovered from an area of flooding in North Yorkshire, police have said, as major incidents have been declared in two counties.

The body was found near Intake Lane in Beal, close to Eggborough and Knottingley.

Police believe the man may have entered the water in the last 24 to 48 hours.

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North Yorkshire Police said: “Despite extensive enquiries, including with our colleagues in Humberside and West Yorkshire Police, we have been unable to identify him.

“He was found without any identification or personal belongings.”

The man was also described as white, in his early 50s to 60s, with light brown short hair and stubble.

He was wearing brown walking boots, blue denim jeans, a multicoloured knitted jumper and possibly a dark green waterproof coat, police added.

It comes after Leicestershire and Lincolnshire both declared a major incident in response to the extreme weather hitting the UK and Ireland.

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Leicestershire Fire and Rescue was the first emergency service in England to declare an incident and said it had received more than 200 calls since Monday morning over widespread flooding.

Crews had found cars stuck in floodwater and evacuated residents from flooded homes and rising waters, with some 17 people rescued as of 1.45pm.

The Lincolnshire Resilience Forum declared a major incident shortly after, and noted that emergency services had rescued children who were stranded at a school in Edenham.

Meanwhile, the Met Office has three yellow weather warnings – each for snow and ice – in effect throughout Monday evening and Tuesday morning.

Met Office yellow weather warnings for snow and ice on Monday 6 and Tuesday 7 of January. Pic: Met Office
Image:
Pic: Met Office

A warning covering the west and north coast of Scotland – reaching into Inverness and Aberdeen – will last until midday, while an alert in effect for all of Northern Ireland will last until 11am.

The Met Office has also issued a warning covering Wales and parts of northwest England on Monday evening, moving into southwest England, the Midlands and parts of southern England in the early hours of Tuesday.

On Wednesday, a yellow weather warning for snow is in effect across the south of England – stretching from just above Truro in Cornwall to Canterbury in Kent – from 9am to midnight.

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Man charged following reports of threats towards Jess Phillips, Sky News understands

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9 hours ago

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January 6, 2025

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Man charged following reports of threats towards Jess Phillips, Sky News understands

A man has been charged following reports of threats towards Labour safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, Sky News understands.

Jack Bennett, 39, has been charged with three counts of malicious communications, Devon and Cornwall Police said.

The messages were sent between April 2024 and January 2025 involving three victims, including the Birmingham Yardley MP.

It is understood the accused, from Seaton, east Devon, was charged over the weekend.

He has been bailed to appear before Exeter Magistrates’ Court on 18 February 2025.

Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer spoke about a “line being crossed” regarding comments towards Ms Phillips and said that she had been receiving threats.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

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HMP Wandsworth prison officer filmed having sex with inmate sentenced to 15 months

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10 hours ago

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January 6, 2025

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HMP Wandsworth prison officer filmed having sex with inmate sentenced to 15 months

A prison officer who was filmed having sex with an inmate has been sentenced to 15 months in jail.

Linda De Sousa Abreu, 31, was on duty at HMP Wandsworth in London when she entered the prisoner’s cell and had sex with him on 27 June.

The encounter was filmed by another inmate and lasted for almost five minutes.

She was identified by HMP Wandsworth staff and arrested by the Metropolitan Police at Heathrow Airport after the footage went viral on social media.

The prison officer was planning to fly to Madrid and telephoned the prison as she fled to the airport to say that she was not returning to work.

De Sousa Abreu then pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office on 29 July last year.

The charge said the 31-year-old “wilfully and without reasonable excuse or justification misconducted yourself in a way which amounted to an abuse of the public’s trust in the office holder by engaging in a sexual act with a prisoner in a prison cell”.

Tetteh Turkson, of the Crown Prosecution Service, added last year that the incident was “a shocking breach of the public’s trust,” and that De Sousa Abreu “was clearly an enthusiastic participant who wrongly thought she would avoid responsibility”.

“The CPS recognises there is no excuse for any prison officer who conducts themselves in such a manner, and we will never hesitate to prosecute those who abuse their position of power,” she added.

“After working closely with the Metropolitan Police to build the strongest possible case, De Sousa had no option but accept she was guilty. She will now rightly face the consequences of her actions.”

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