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Since taking office nine months ago Sir Keir Starmer has weathered party rows about winter fuel payments, the two child benefit cap, WASPI women, airport expansion and cuts to international aid.

All of these decisions have been justified in the name of balancing the books – filling that notorious £22bn black hole, sticking to the fiscal rules, and in the pursuit of growth as the government’s number one priority.

But welfare reform feels like a far more existential row.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting argued on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that the current system is “unsustainable”.

Ministers have been making the point for weeks that the health benefits bill for working-age people has ballooned by £20bn since the pandemic and is set to grow by another £18bn over the next five years, to £70bn.

But the detail of where those cuts could fall is proving highly divisive.

One proposal reportedly under consideration has been to freeze personal independence payments (PIPs) next year, rather than uprating them in line with inflation.

Charities have warned this would be a catastrophic real-terms cut to 3.6 million people.

Concerned left-wing backbenchers are calling on the government to tax the rich, not take from the most vulnerable.

The Sunday Times and Observer have now reported that Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has dropped the idea in response to the backlash.

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Streeting defends PM’s comments on ‘flabby’ public sector

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Streeting denies Labour ‘changing into Tories’
Planned PIP freeze set to be scrapped – reports
What cuts could be announced?

Wes Streeting denied reports of a cabinet row over the plan, insisting the final package of measures hasn’t yet been published and he and his cabinet colleagues haven’t seen it.

Not the final version perhaps – but given all backbench Labour MPs who were summoned to meetings with the Number 10 policy teams for briefings this week, that response is perhaps more than a little disingenuous.

In his interview with Sir Trevor Phillips, he went on to make the broader case for PIP reform – highlighting the thousand people who sign up to the benefit every day and arguing that the system needs to be “sustainable”, to “deliver for those that need it most” and “provide the right kind of support for the different types of need that exist”.

To me this signals the government are preparing to unveil a tighter set of PIP eligibility criteria, with a refocus on supporting those with the greatest needs.

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Liz Bates: Will there be a backlash over benefits?

Changes to incapacity benefit to better incentivise working – for those who can – are also clearly on the cards.

The health secretary has been hitting out at the “overdiagnosis” of mental health conditions, arguing that “going out to work is better for your mental and physical health, than being spent and being stuck at home”, and promising benefit reforms that will help support people back to work rather than “trapped in the benefits system”.

Turning Tory?

Starmer said this week the current welfare system couldn’t be defended on economic or moral grounds.

The Conservatives don’t disagree.

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Conservatives: Scrapping NHS England is ‘right thing’

Before the election, they proposed £12bn in cuts to the welfare bill, with a focus on getting people on long-term sickness back to work.

This morning, shadow education secretary Laura Trott claimed Labour denied that welfare cuts were needed during the election campaign and had wasted time in failing to include benefits reform in the King’s Speech.

“They’re coming to this chaotically, too late and without a plan,” she said.

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Notwithstanding the obvious critique that the Tories had 14 years to get a grip on the situation – what’s most striking here is that, yet again, the Labour government seems to be borrowing Conservative clothes.

When challenged by Sir Trevor this morning, Streeting denied they were turning Tory – claiming the case for welfare reform and supporting people into work is a Labour argument.

But, from increasing defence spending and cutting the aid budget to scrapping NHS England, there’s a definite pattern emerging.

If you didn’t know a Labour administration was in charge, you might have assumed these were the policies of a Conservative government.

It’s a strategy which makes many of his own backbenchers deeply uncomfortable.

But it’s doing a good job of neutering the Tory opposition.

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Coin Center files brief in Ethereum MEV trial, disputes ‘honest validation’ theory

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Coin Center files brief in Ethereum MEV trial, disputes ‘honest validation’ theory

Coin Center files brief in Ethereum MEV trial, disputes ‘honest validation’ theory

The advocacy organization filed a brief opposing prosecutors’ arguments that two brothers presented themselves as “honest validators” to allegedly pull off a $25-million exploit.

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Jeremy Corbyn reveals the number of people who have joined Your Party

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Jeremy Corbyn reveals the number of people who have joined Your Party

Your Party membership stands at 50,000, Sky News can reveal.

The figure is well short of the 800,000 people who expressed interest when it launched, and it is significantly below the 100,000 to 200,000 insiders hoped would join officially as members following its launch in July.

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It puts the Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn-led party close behind the Liberal Democrats, whose membership has fallen to 60,000.

While still deemed to be respectable to those involved in the party, the membership update has been taken as a warning that the factional infighting between Ms Sultana and Mr Corbyn has damaged its hopes of immediately building a mass movement.

However, Your Party said it expects membership to increase as more members move over from the “unauthorised” membership portal launched by Ms Sultana on 18 September.

Tensions between the two leaders reached a boiling point when Ms Sultana sent out unauthorised emails encouraging paid membership without Mr Corbyn’s consent – while also claiming her actions were the result of being sidelined by a “sexist boys club”.

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Mr Corbyn is expected to announce the 50,000 figure at a rally in Islington on Monday evening.

He said: “I am excited to announce that 50,000 people have now become members of Your Party.

“This major milestone reflects what Your Party is all about: a mass, democratic movement for change. From local rallies to mass regional assemblies, people up and down the country are coming together to build this party from the ground up.

“This is just the beginning. At the end of this month, we will host our founding conference. This will be the moment that members come together to launch our mass, democratic movement for real change.”

Ms Sultana’s decision to launch her own membership portal in September culminated in a standoff over the control of £800,000 worth of donations, which has only just been resolved.

The pot of money had been held by an entity called MOU operations – controlled by former Labour MP Beth Winter, former Labour mayor Jamie Driscoll and former South African politician Andrew Feinstein – who have now all quit.

Sky News revealed last week that Ms Sultana now had sole control of the £800,000 and that she has assured Mr Corbyn that the money will be transferred to the party as a whole.

It is understood the money has not yet been transferred in full.

The money collected by MOU in membership fees is not expected to be transferred to Your Party as those who paid are entitled to a refund.

Some 20,000 people signed up to Ms Sultana’s portal but Your Party still does not have access to their emails, meaning there is no way of contacting them.

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Sky’s Serena Barker-Singh investigates Corbyn’s new party.

There are concerns within Your Party that the direct beneficiary of the row has been the Greens, led by Zack Polanski, whose membership has more than doubled to 150,000 people.

Following the publication of the figures, Mr Polanski described the Greens as the “only real opposition left in British politics”.

Pointing to the threat he also poses to the Labour Party, which has slumped to 17 points in the polls, Mr Polanski said his desire was not to be “disappointed” with Labour but to “replace them”.

According to Labour’s annual accounts published in August, party membership now stands at 333,235 – down from a peak of 532,046 at the end of 2019, when Mr Corbyn was still Labour leader.

However, Sir Keir Starmer still leads the largest party in the UK.

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

The battle for Your Party’s soul continues

As of August this year, the Conservatives were reported to have 123,000 members, while their rivals Reform have 266,172.

In recent weeks, Ms Sultana – who has spoken favourably about some form of electoral pact with the Greens – has sought to draw clearer dividing lines with Mr Polanski.

In a recent interview with Politics Joe, the Coventry South MP described Your Party as “anti-Zionist” and also suggested the UK should leave the military alliance NATO immediately.

Mr Polanski, who is Jewish, has said he is proud of his identity but that he does not describe himself as a Zionist.

He has also taken a more cautious stance on NATO than Ms Sultana, saying that while he supported the UK’s eventual withdrawal he was not advocating for it to leave the alliance.

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Nigel Farage says Reform UK could cut minimum wage for young people – and defends U-turn on tax pledges

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Nigel Farage says Reform UK could cut minimum wage for young people - and defends U-turn on tax pledges

Nigel Farage has said Reform UK could cut the minimum wage for young people, saying there is “an argument” that it is currently “too high”.

Speaking at a news conference, he also said his manifesto promises at the last general election to bring in sweeping tax cuts were “only ever aspirations”, and “substantial tax cuts” are “not realistic”.

In a broader defence of his insurgent party, Mr Farage insisted Reform UK is “not a one-man band”, and he is building a team with expertise across a wide range of policy areas.

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The Reform UK leader made the comments in a speech and news conference with journalists in the City of London in which he pledged the party would be “the most pro-business, the most pro-entrepreneurship government that has been seen in this country in modern times”.

Asked in the news conference afterwards if he believes the minimum wage is too high, Mr Farage replied: “There’s an argument that minimum wage is too high for younger workers, particularly given that we’ve lowered the level at which NIC [employers’ national insurance] is paid to £5,000 a year.”

This is a reference to Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s decision at the last budget to reduce the threshold at which employers start paying national insurance contributions from £9,100 per year in salary to £5,000.

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Sky’s Deputy Political Editor Sam Coates asks Nigel Farage why we should trust Reform UK’s economic plans.

Making the argument that the change puts too much of a tax burden on businesses, stifling growth, Mr Farage told the chancellor to “do one or the other, do one or the other – either lift the cap at which NI is due, or lower the minimum wage for younger workers”.

The current hourly national minimum wage for apprentices and people under 18 is £7.55, for 18-20 year olds is £10, and for aged 21 and over is £12.21.

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Manifesto tax cuts ‘only ever aspirations’

But Mr Farage is also being accused of U-turning on the tax cuts he pledged in Reform UK’s 2024 general election manifesto, which was called “Our Contract With You”.

Key measures in the document included raising the minimum threshold of income tax to £20,000, raising the higher rate threshold from £50,271 to £70,000, abolishing stamp duty for properties below £750,000, and abolishing taxes on inheritances below £2m.

But speaking on Monday, the Reform UK leader said: “We want to cut taxes. Of course, we do. But we understand – substantial tax cuts, given the dire state of debt and our finances, are not realistic at this current moment in time.”

He said he would make “some relatively modest changes” immediately, which included scrapping the inheritance tax imposed on family farms, as well as family-run business, and “raise the thresholds at which people start to pay tax” – although he was not specific about the level at which he would put the thresholds.

Challenged by a journalist on whether he is breaking his promises in order to join the mainstream of economic thinking, the Reform UK leader insisted the promises included in the party’s 2024 manifesto “were only ever aspirations”, and the changes made today are about the party “being realistic about the state of the economy”.

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Watch in full: Nigel Farage outlines Reform UK’s economic policies.

‘It’s not a one-man band’

Mr Farage also insisted that the Reform UK project is not his alone, saying they will be announcing new people to cover various different policy areas in the coming weeks.

He said: “What I’ve tried to do really hard this year is to get away from this idea, this criticism, that somehow it’s a one-man band. It’s not a one-man band.

“There’s a broadening team. They’re sitting there in front of you on the front row – from David Bull, to Lee Anderson, to Richard Tice, to Danny Kruger, and indeed Zia Yusuf as well. And there are others, and there’ll be more.”

He also explained he is not yet ready to say who his chancellor might be, or who would fill the top cabinet roles in a potential future Reform government.

Nigel Farage says Reform UK is expanding its bench of talent. Pic: PA
Image:
Nigel Farage says Reform UK is expanding its bench of talent. Pic: PA

Reform UK is ‘in chaos’

In response to the speech, a Labour Party spokesperson said: “Nigel Farage has promised a return to damaging austerity, taking an axe to public services, with no cuts off the table. He complained the minimum wage is too high for young workers, while doubling down on his golden giveaway to foreign billionaires.

“Reform would slash the NHS, schools, and pensions – and cancel Labour’s investment in local roads, rail, and clean energy, putting millions of jobs at risk and wreaking havoc on family finances.

“Only this Labour government is fixing the long-term damage to our economy to renew Britain.

And the Conservative shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said Mr Farage “left the public with far more questions than answers” by not specifying which parts of his manifesto his party stands by.

He added Reform could not be taken seriously on the economy “when their promises disintegrate after five minutes, and they remain committed to extra welfare spending and a huge expansion of the state”.

“After this rambling, incoherent speech, it is clear Reform’s economy policy is in chaos,” Sir Mel said.

“Farage might claim he’s not a ‘one-man band’, but he can’t even tell us who his chancellor would be. This is not serious, it is just more announcements without a plan.”

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