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Sir Keir Starmer has indicated he does not want to cut spending if Labour forms the next government – although he did not explicitly rule it out.

The Labour leader said that while he was “not in the business of cutting funding”, his party would inherit a “very difficult situation” if it wins the next election.

Sir Keir was asked by Sky News’ political editor whether he could reassure his party’s supporters that although he would not turn on the “spending taps”, he would not oversee spending cuts to government departments.

Sir Keir said he was a “massive believer in public services”, adding: “I’m certainly not in the business of cutting the funding, which is why the focus is so much on growth.”

But he went on to stress that public services “need reform”, and that injecting more cash into them did not necessarily equate to a better service.

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“There’s the question of how much money you put in, but there’s equally the question of whether you’ve got the wherewithal to carry out the reform that is desperately needed,” he said.

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Asked whether he could reassure voters that he would not oversee a new age of austerity, Sir Keir replied: “If you look at the record of Labour in government, what you see is a record of investing in our public services.

“The austerity is something of this government. This is the road down which they want [to go].”

However, he warned that his government would “inherit a very difficult situation”.

The Labour leader warned that his government would not be able to “turn on the spending taps” and would instead focus on growth and be “ruthless” when it came to fiscal responsibility.

‘The sums don’t add up’

However, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt called Labour’s £28bn-a-year spending pledge on the green transition “economically illiterate” – which Sir Keir has said is dependent on growth and subject to fiscal rules.

“It is economically illiterate to say you can meet a fiscal rule to get debt falling whilst at the same time increasing borrowing by £28bn a year,” Mr Hunt said. “The sums simply don’t add up.

“The result of that kind of borrowing splurge would be higher taxes, higher debt interest and lower growth – on the very day Sir Keir Starmer said growth would be his ‘obsession’.”

In a major speech hosted by the Resolution Foundation thinktank, Sir Keir said the current state of the public finances would place “huge constraints” on what Labour can spend on public services.

It follows a report by the thinktank which found that the UK has experienced 15 years of relative decline, with productivity growth at half the rate seen across other advanced economies, while wages have flatlined, costing the average worker £10,700 a year in lost pay growth.

The Resolution Foundation report also found that living standards of the lowest-income households in the UK are £4,300 lower than their French counterparts.

Starmer defends Thatcher praise after criticism

Sir Keir made his speech today after an article he wrote in The Telegraph generated controversy for its praise of former Tory prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

The Labour leader defended his article, in which he credited the late former Tory prime minister for bringing about “meaningful change” in the UK and “setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism” during her 11 years in Downing Street.

The remarks have angered some MPs on the left of his party, with one telling Sky News they believed it meant Sir Keir “intends to govern without any real political project of his own”.

The Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher speaking at the 1980 Conservative Party Conference in Brighton.
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The then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, in 1980


Taking questions from reporters, Sir Keir said: “What I was doing at the weekend in the article I wrote for The Sunday Telegraph was distinguishing between particularly post-war leaders – those leaders, those prime ministers – who had a driving sense of purpose, ambition, a plan to deliver and those that drifted.

“So I was giving Margaret Thatcher as an example of the sort of leader who had that mission and plan. That’s obviously different to saying I agree with everything that she did.”

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Starmer’s praise of Thatcher sparks backlash
BBC licence fee: Minister ‘concerned’ planned rise is ‘very high’

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McFadden defends Starmer comments

‘I would say to Keir Starmer, think again’

Speaking to Sky News, Christina McAnea, the general secretary of the Starmer-supporting union Unison, said it was a “mistake” not to invest in public services.

“I think investing in public services helps to grow the economy,” she said.

“I think we’ve seen what’s happened of 13 years of austerity – it hasn’t done anything for growth in the country.”

Ms McAnea said she believed Mr Hunt’s autumn statement “looks like a booby trap” for the Labour Party regarding whether they would reverse the announced tax cuts.

“We have our own views about how they can raise money and make taxation fairer, and that would help fund lots of services in this country,” she continued.

“So I would be certainly saying to Keir Starmer, think again about some of this.”

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Chancellor Rachel Reeves says she is ‘totally’ up for the job of chancellor in first comments since tearful PMQs

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Chancellor Rachel Reeves says she is 'totally' up for the job of chancellor in first comments since tearful PMQs

The chancellor has said she was having a “tough day” yesterday in her first public comments since appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions – but insisted she is “totally” up for the job.

Rachel Reeves told broadcasters: “Clearly I was upset yesterday and everyone could see that. It was a personal issue and I’m not going to go into the details of that.

“My job as chancellor at 12 o’clock on a Wednesday is to be at PMQs next to the prime minister, supporting the government, and that’s what I tried to do.

“I guess the thing that maybe is a bit different between my job and many of your viewers’ is that when I’m having a tough day it’s on the telly and most people don’t have to deal with that.”

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She declined to give a reason behind the tears, saying “it was a personal issue” and “it wouldn’t be right” to divulge it.

“People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday. Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job,” she added.

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Ms Reeves also said she is “totally” up for the job of chancellor, saying: “This is the job that I’ve always wanted to do. I’m proud of what I’ve delivered as chancellor.”

Pic: PA
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Reeves was seen wiping away tears during PMQs. Pic: PA

Asked if she was surprised that Sir Keir Starmer did not back her more strongly during PMQs, she reiterated that she and the prime minister are a “team”, saying: “We fought the election together, we changed the Labour Party together so that we could be in the position to return to power, and over the past year, we’ve worked in lockstep together.”

PM: ‘I was last to appreciate’ that Reeves was crying

The chancellor’s comments come after the prime minister told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby that he “didn’t appreciate” that she was crying behind him at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday because the weekly sessions are “pretty wild”, which is why he did not offer her any support while in the chamber.

He added: “It wasn’t just yesterday – no prime minister ever has had side conversations during PMQs. It does happen in other debates when there’s a bit more time, but in PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang. That’s what it was yesterday.

“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”

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Starmer explains to Beth Rigby his reaction to Reeves crying in PMQs

During PMQs, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch branded the chancellor the “human shield” for the prime minister’s “incompetence” just hours after he was forced to perform a humiliating U-turn over his controversial welfare bill, leaving a “black hole” in the public finances.

The prime minister’s watered-down Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill was backed by a majority of 75 in a tense vote on Tuesday evening – but a total of 49 Labour MPs voted against the bill, which was the largest rebellion in a prime minister’s first year in office since 47 MPs voted against Tony Blair’s lone parent benefit in 1997, according to Professor Phil Cowley from Queen Mary University.

Reeves looks transformed – but this has been a disastrous week for the PM

It is a Rachel Reeves transformed that appears in front of the cameras today, nearly 24 hours since one of the most extraordinary PMQs.

Was there a hint of nervousness as she started, aware of the world watching for any signs of human emotion? Was there a touch of feeling in her face as the crowds applauded her?

People will speculate. But Ms Reeves has got through her first public appearance, and can now, she hopes, move on.

The prime minister embraced her as he walked on stage, the health secretary talked her up: “Thanks to her leadership, we have seen wages rising faster than the cost of living.”

A show of solidarity at the top of government, a prime minister and chancellor trying to get on with business.

But be in no doubt today’s speech on a 10-year-plan for the NHS has been overshadowed. Not just by a chancellor in tears, but what that image represents.

A PM who, however assured he appeared today, has marked his first year this week, as Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby put to him, with a “self-inflicted shambles”.

She asked: “How have you got this so wrong? How can you rebuild trust? Are you just in denial?”

They are questions Starmer will be grappling with as he tries to move past a disastrous week.

Ms Reeves has borne a lot of the criticism over the handling of the vote, with some MPs believing that her strict approach to fiscal rules has meant she has approached the ballooning welfare bill from the standpoint of trying to make savings, rather than getting people into work.

Ms Badenoch also said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.

Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she will, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”

Downing Street scrambled to make clear to journalists that Ms Reeves was “going nowhere”, and the prime minister has since stated publicly that she will remain as chancellor “for many years to come”.

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Bitcoin Suisse legal chief flags gaps in EU, Swiss stablecoin rules

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Bitcoin Suisse legal chief flags gaps in EU, Swiss stablecoin rules

Bitcoin Suisse legal chief flags gaps in EU, Swiss stablecoin rules

Peter Märkl, general counsel at Bitcoin Suisse, criticized both EU and Swiss stablecoin regulations as inadequate and burdensome.

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Tether narrows USDC’s lead on BitPay payment transactions in 2025

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Tether narrows USDC’s lead on BitPay payment transactions in 2025

Tether narrows USDC’s lead on BitPay payment transactions in 2025

BitPay’s USDC stablecoin transactions accounted for almost double that of USDT in 2024, but the trend has shifted in favor of Tether this year.

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