Connect with us

Published

on

The chancellor has insisted that “we do need to get a grip” on the welfare budget, saying the “current system is not working for anyone”.

Rachel Reeves said the “bill for welfare is going up by billions of pounds in the next few years”, and argued the system should “get people into work so that more people can fulfil their potential”.

Her comments come ahead of an expected announcement next week of “radical” reforms to the welfare system, with many fearing drastic cuts to support for the most vulnerable.

Politics latest: UK needs to go ‘further and faster’ to grow the economy

Asked by broadcasters on Friday about those fears, the chancellor said: “Well, we’ll set out our plans for welfare reform. But it is absolutely clear that the current system is not working for anyone.

“It is not working for people who need support, it’s not working to get people into work so that more people can fulfil their potential, and it’s not working for the taxpayer when the bill for welfare is going up by billions of pounds in the next few years.

“So we do need to get a grip. We need to spend more on national defence, we need to reform our public services, and we need to reform our broken welfare system.”

More on Benefits

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Welfare system ‘letting people down’

Ms Reeves’s comments come after the work and pensions secretary said the current system has locked “millions” out of work and called it “dysfunctional” as the system places a person in binary categories of either “fit for work” or “not fit for work”.

The government has promised to either reform or replace the Work Capability Assessment – which determines if a person is fit for work or not – as they say it currently drives people who want to work “to a life on benefits”.

Ministers have been priming MPs and the public for cuts to a ballooning welfare bill since the start of the year, with details expected next week ahead of an announcement in the chancellor’s spring statement on 26 March.

 Rachel Reeves during a visit Babcock in Rosyth. Pic: PA
Image:
Rachel Reeves during a visit Babcock in Rosyth. Pic: PA

The expected welfare cuts

Ms Reeves is expected to announce several billion pounds of spending cuts after losing her £9.9bn headroom since the October budget, with the welfare budget a key target for cuts.

Fiscal headroom is the amount by which government can increase spending or cut taxes without breaking its own fiscal rules.

The welfare cuts are expected to include £5bn in savings by making it harder to qualify for Personal Independent Payments (PIP), which help people with the additional costs of their disability.

PIP payments next year are also expected to be frozen and the basic rate for Universal Credit paid to those searching for work, or in work, is expected to be increased while the rate for those judged as unfit for work will be cut.

The department for work and pensions said new figures show 1.8 million people are now considered too sick to look for work due to a “broken work capability assessment” so are on Universal Credit but getting no support to find work.

It said the number has almost quadrupled since the start of the pandemic when 360,000 were considered too sick to look for work.

Read more:
What welfare cuts could be announced?

Labour MPs criticise benefit cuts

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

‘Government’s plan to cut welfare is terrifying’

Labour MPs concerned about cuts

A growing number of Labour MPs are publicly raising concerns and, in an unusual move, all 404 Labour MPs were asked to attend “welfare roundtables” in Downing Street with the Number 10 policy unit on Wednesday and Thursday.

On Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer faced down Labour MPs unhappy over the rumoured welfare cuts – especially for disabled people.

Richard Burgon pleaded with him to make the “moral” choice, telling the Commons disabled people are “frightened” as he urged the PM to introduce a wealth tax instead of “making the poor and vulnerable pay”.

Sir Keir pledged to “protect those who need protecting”, but later added there is no “bottomless pit”.

He said the Tories “left a broken welfare system, which locks millions out of work, that is indefensible in my view, economically and morally”.

Sir Keir Starmer at PMQ's
Image:
Sir Keir Starmer was asked about the welfare cuts at PMQs

Another Labour MP, John Slinger, urged the PM to reassure the Commons he will “provide compassion to those who can’t work”.

Labour MP Nadia Whittome told the BBC the government should impose a wealth tax instead of “placing that burden on disabled people who have already borne the brunt of 14 years of austerity”.

She added that she “can’t look her mum in the eye and support this”.

Continue Reading

Politics

China’s crypto liquidation plans reveal its grand strategy

Published

on

By

China’s crypto liquidation plans reveal its grand strategy

China’s crypto liquidation plans reveal its grand strategy

China’s plan to liquidate confiscated crypto through Hong Kong exchanges isn’t simply a policy — it’s to control global digital asset markets and outmaneuver the US.

Continue Reading

Politics

Make ‘significant adjustments’ to Online Safety Act, X urges govt

Published

on

By

X criticises Online Safety Act - and warns it's putting free speech in the UK at risk

The Online Safety Act is putting free speech at risk and needs significant adjustments, Elon Musk’s social network X has warned.

New rules that came into force last week require platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and X – as well as sites hosting pornography – to bring in measures to prove that someone using them is over the age of 18.

The Online Safety Act requires sites to protect children and to remove illegal content, but critics have said that the rules have been implemented too broadly, resulting in the censorship of legal content.

X has warned the act’s laudable intentions were “at risk of being overshadowed by the breadth of its regulatory reach”.

It said: “When lawmakers approved these measures, they made a conscientious decision to increase censorship in the name of ‘online safety’.

“It is fair to ask if UK citizens were equally aware of the trade-off being made.”

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

What are the new online rules?

X claims the timetable for platforms to meet mandatory measures had been unnecessarily tight – and despite complying, sites still faced threats of enforcement and fines, “encouraging over-censorship”.

More on Online Safety Bill

“A balanced approach is the only way to protect individual liberties, encourage innovation and safeguard children. It’s safe to say that significant changes must take place to achieve these objectives in the UK,” it said.

A UK government spokesperson said it is “demonstrably false” that the Online Safety Act compromises free speech.

“As well as legal duties to keep children safe, the very same law places clear and unequivocal duties on platforms to protect freedom of expression,” they added.

Users have complained about age checks that require personal data to be uploaded to access sites that show pornography, and 468,000 people have already signed a petition asking for the new law to be repealed.

In response to the petition, the government said it had “no plans” to reverse the Online Safety Act.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Why do people want to repeal the Online Safety Act?

Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage likened the new rules to “state suppression of genuine free speech” and said his party would ditch the regulations.

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said on Tuesday that those who wanted to overturn the act were “on the side of predators” – to which Mr Farage demanded an apology, calling Mr Kyle’s comments “absolutely disgusting”.

Regulator Ofcom said on Thursday it had launched an investigation into how four companies – that collectively run 34 pornography sites – are complying with new age-check requirements.

Read more from Sky News:
British children who drowned off Spain named
Man charged after children fell ill at summer camp

These companies – 8579 LLC, AVS Group Ltd, Kick Online Entertainment S.A. and Trendio Ltd – run dozens of sites, and collectively have more than nine million unique monthly UK visitors, the internet watchdog said.

The regulator said it prioritised the companies based on the risk of harm posed by the services they operated and their user numbers.

It adds to the 11 investigations already in progress into 4chan, as well as an unnamed online suicide forum, seven file-sharing services, and two adult websites.

Ofcom said it expects to make further enforcement announcements in the coming months.

Continue Reading

Politics

Inside Jeremy Corbyn’s new party and the battle for leadership

Published

on

By

Inside Jeremy Corbyn's new party and the battle for leadership

Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn may be the figureheads of a new left-wing party, but already there is a battle over leadership.

The confusion behind the initial launch speaks to a wider debate happening behind closed doors as to who should steer the party – now and in the future.

Already, in the true spirit of Mr Corbyn’s politics, there is talk of an open leadership contest and grassroots participation.

Some supporters of the new party – which is being temporarily called “Your Party” while a formal name is decided by members – believe that allowing a leadership contest to take place honours Mr Corbyn’s commitment to open democracy.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Jeremy Corbyn open to ideas on new party name

They point out that under Mr Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party, members famously backed plans to make it easier for local constituency parties to deselect sitting MPs – a concept he strongly believed in.

His allies now say the former Labour leader, who is 76, is open to there being a leadership contest for the new party, possibly at its inaugural conference in the autumn, where names lesser known than himself can throw their hat into the ring.

“Jeremy would rather die than not have an open leadership contest,” one source familiar with the internal politics told Sky News.

More on Jeremy Corbyn

However, there have been suggestions that Ms Sultana appears to be less keen on the idea of a leadership contest, and that she is more committed to the co-leadership model than her political partner.

Those who have been opposed to the co-leadership model believe it could give Ms Sultana an unfair advantage and exclude other potential candidates from standing in the future.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Corbyn’s new political party isn’t ‘real deal’

One source told Sky News they believed Mr Corbyn should lead the party for two years, to get it established, before others are allowed to stand as leader.

They said Ms Sultana, who became an independent MP after she was suspended from Labour for opposing the two-child benefit cap, was “highly ambitious but completely untested as leader” and “had a lot of growing into the role to do”.

“It’s not about her – it’s about taking a democratic approach, which is what we’re supposed to be doing,” they said.

“There are so many people who have done amazing things locally and they need to have a chance to emerge as leaders.

“We are not only fishing from a pool of two people.

“It needs to be an open contest. Nobody needs to be crowned.”

Read more:
Where insiders think Corbyn’s new party could win
PM would be foolish not to recognise threat party poses

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Corbyn’s new party shakes the left

While Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana undoubtedly have the biggest profiles out of would-be leaders, advocates for a grassroots approach to the leadership point to the success some independent candidates have enjoyed at a local level – for example, 24-year-old British Palestinian Leah Mohammed, who came within 528 votes of unseating Health Secretary Wes Streeting in Ilford North.

Fiona Lali of the Revolutionary Communist Party, who stood in last year’s general election for the Stratford and Bow constituency, has also been mentioned in some circles as someone with potential leadership credentials.

However, sources close to Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana downplayed suggestions of any divide over the leadership model, pointing out that their joint statement acknowledged that members would “decide the party’s direction” at the inaugural conference in the autumn, including the model of leadership and the policies that are needed to transform society.

A spokesperson for Mr Corbyn told Sky News: “Jeremy will be working with Zarah, his independent colleagues, and people from trade unions and social movements up and down the country to make an autumn conference a reality.

“This will be the moment where people come together to launch a new democratic party that belongs to the members.”

Sky News has approached Ms Sultana for comment.

Continue Reading

Trending