Joe Bedell-Brill

John Healey: ‘We will bring the benefits bill down’ Following his first Budget, Chancellor John Healey told the Today programme on Thursday that there would be a reduction in the benefits bill. The Treasury then said there was no timetable for cutting it, and Downing Street said the government was not setting an arbitrary target. The Office for Budget Responsibility has warned that sickness and disability benefits could cost £100bn a year before the end of the decade. On the BBC, Laura Kuenssberg asked Healey whether overall welfare spending would be lower by the next election. Healey said ‘100 per cent’, adding that legislation would follow next year, after reports this month from Alan Milburn on young people out of work and Stephen Timms on personal independence payments.

The autumn Budget will be delivered on Wednesday, but speculation over its contents has been overshadowed by Andy Burnham saying in the Sunday Times that the country needs an ‘honest discussion’ about a possible return to freedom of movement, in pursuit of a better deal with the EU. Nigel Farage has called the comments a ‘total betrayal’ of Brexit voters, including those in Burnham’s Makerfield constituency. On the BBC, Laura Kuenssberg showed Housing Secretary Angela Rayner a clip from a few months ago of the Prime Minister saying ‘the last thing we should do right now is rerun those [Brexit] arguments’, and asked why he was now doing exactly that.

Zack Polanski: ‘Zionism is racism in the practical application of it’ Earlier this month, Green party members at the party’s Brighton conference passed a motion defining Zionism as a form of racism, by 1,022 votes to 813. Zack Polanski did not take part in the vote, and four of the party’s five MPs opposed the motion. Israel's foreign ministry said the motion was ‘a stain on the history of the United Kingdom’. On the BBC, Laura Kuenssberg noted the controversy and asked Green party leader Zack Polanski whether he believed Zionism was inherently racist. Polanski said the real controversy was that 75,000 Palestinians had been killed, which he claimed was the result of a ‘very obviously’ racist ideology.

Justice Secretary Alex Norris has said the government's Courts Bill will return to parliament a week on Tuesday, without his predecessor David Lammy’s plans to drastically reduce the number of jury trials. Those proposals had faced a significant backlash, and many Labour MPs abstained when the Bill came before the Commons. On Sky News, Helen Lewis asked Norris whether the government had watered down the legislation. Norris said that while ‘the delay of justice is the denial of justice’, the public had been particularly concerned about the proposal to create a new form of judge-only trial. He said dropping it would help maintain public confidence and get the Bill through parliament and claimed the same backlog savings could be made by bringing forward other provisions.

Andy Burnham: ‘I am talking about a system that works on NHS principles’ Speaking to the BBC from Labour's conference this morning, the Prime Minister proposed a free national care service, and hinted that he would outline some sort of tax rise to pay for it at the next general election. Andy Burnham said he would be the one to ‘grasp the nettle’ on social care reform, even if it meant spending ‘political capital’. The PM argued that the care and health systems ‘just don’t connect’, leaving thousands of people arriving in A&E every day, the most expensive part of the system. He said he would propose a national care service that works on NHS principles and is ‘universal’.

Bridget Phillipson: Burnham's past comments on Trump are ‘no bar to having a strong relationship’ Andy Burnham is expected to meet President Trump for the first time in person next week at the UN general assembly in New York. This morning, Sky News host Kamal Ahmed interviewed equalities minister Bridget Phillipson, and pointed to remarks the prime minister had made about the US president before entering government, including a 2021 comment that any UK politician who gave Trump ‘the time of day should be ashamed’, and a suggestion in 2019 that Trump ‘would not be welcome in Manchester’. Ahmed asked whether the meeting would be awkward, and put it to Phillipson that Labour is generally uncomfortable with the president but cannot say so publicly.

Angela Rayner: ‘You cannot buy your way into democracy’ This week, Reform UK received an unprecedented £72m in donations from the crypto billionaires Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo. This amount is more than the total secured by all UK political parties last year, which stood at £69m. On Sky News this morning, Rachel Johnson asked Housing Secretary Angela Rayner if Labour were rattled. Rayner said the government's priority was having ‘secure elections… for the people’, pointing to the Rycroft Review and new legislation targeting overseas donations, which she said would be backdated to the 25th of March, when the review was published, to close any loopholes for recent returnees to the UK.

Two of Nigel Farage’s senior aides have been forced to step down after an undercover team from the investigative group Verbatim filmed them arranging for a US company to pay for opinion polls commissioned by Reform. Nigel Farage was also recorded in some of the footage, thanking the would-be donors. The team from Verbatim say they were in conversations with Reform for a year before eventually meeting with Farage. In an interview with Farage, Laura Kuenssberg asked whether he knew that it was illegal for foreign firms to donate to political parties. Farage said, ‘of course I know that’ and claimed that he was told the money was going through a ‘family office based in the UK’.

Nigel Farage did not declare financial benefits provided to him by his long-standing supporter George Cottrell in the year before he was elected, the Sunday Times reports today. Cottrell is a crypto entrepreneur who was convicted of wire fraud in 2017. Farage is already under investigation over the £5 million given to him by crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. He says that money was a personal gift, and his spokesperson has described the Sunday Times's story as ‘baseless and contrived’. On Sky News, Trevor Phillips asked Reform’s Robert Jenrick whether Cottrell had been paying for Farage’s security. Jenrick accused the Sunday Times of being a ‘Labour supporting newspaper’ that has ‘dredged up’ an old story.

Steve Reed: ‘The public do not want a general election’ At the start of this week, Keir Starmer announced that he would be standing down as prime minister. This morning, on Sky News, Trevor Phillips asked Housing Secretary Steve Reed if Andy Burnham will be the next in line. Reed said he and most of his Labour colleagues want Burnham to take over, and the transition should be conducted in as ‘orderly and smooth a way as it can be’. Phillips noted that Burnham would become the seventh prime minister since John Major to take office without being elected, and asked if there should be a general election. Reed claimed that polls suggest the ‘vast majority’ of the public do not want an election, and they want the government to ‘get on with the job’.

Will Keir Starmer resign on Monday? Andy Burnham’s big win in the Makerfield by-election has brought Keir Starmer to the brink, and there is now an expectation that the Prime Minister will announce his departure on Monday. On Sky News this morning, Business Secretary Peter Kyle said that the Prime Minister had been ‘calm’ and ‘thoughtful’ in a conversation on Friday, and had only asked about the country, rather than ‘self-interest’. Trevor Phillips asked if the prime minister thought it was in the interest of the country for him to stand down. Kyle said Starmer was ‘making time to reflect on the political realities… that he finds himself in’. Phillips noted that over 100 Labour MPs have called on Starmer to leave and asked Kyle for his personal opinion.

Lisa Nandy insists government will ‘meet that moment’ with defence budget Keir Starmer’s premiership is now under enormous strain, after John Healey, the former Defence Secretary, resigned weeks before the Nato summit in Ankara. In his resignation letter, Healey said he could not ‘accept a defence investment plan… that does not give our forces the resources they need’. On Sky News this morning, Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, told Wilfred Frost that new Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis would be taking his role ‘very seriously’, and that Starmer had asked the Cabinet to find cuts in their departments in order to find more money for defence.

David Lammy: ‘I said Mr Vice President, you’re wrong about this’ The news cycle this week has been dominated by the murder of 18 year-old student Henry Nowak by Vickrum Digwa. Digwa and his brother falsely told the police they had been racially abused, and bodycam footage shows police handcuffing Nowak despite him repeatedly saying he had been stabbed. The murder has caused widespread outrage, including violent protests in Southampton. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claimed the incident is an example of ‘two-tier policing’ and called for ‘pure, cold rage’. In the US, Vice President JD Vance blamed Novak’s murder on the ‘mass invasion of migrants’. On Sky News, Trevor Phillips asked Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy what he made of Vance’s comments.

Lisa Nandy: Labour leadership speculation is ‘froth and nonsense’ Wes Streeting has resigned as health secretary, and declared that he would stand in a leadership contest. Meanwhile, Josh Simons stepped down as Makerfield MP to allow Andy Burnham the chance to return to Westminster. On Sky News this morning, Trevor Phillips asked Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy if Keir Starmer would be gone by summer. Nandy said the prime minister would not be stepping down, and if people want to challenge him, ‘there is a process for doing that.’ Nandy said most of the speculation about a leadership challenge has turned out to be ‘nonsense’, and Labour had to ‘get on with the job’. Phillips asked whether Starmer might stand down if such a challenge materialises.

Bridget Phillipson: ‘She’s got this completely wrong’ Thursday’s local election results were dismal for the government, and have plunged Labour into deep crisis. The party is now intensely divided over whether Keir Starmer can continue to lead, although the prime minister himself has insisted he will not stand down, telling the Observer he wants to take the country through a ‘10-year project of renewal’. Catherine West, MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet, has announced that she intends to trigger a leadership contest if no one else comes forward to challenge Starmer. On Sky News this morning, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told Trevor Phillips that all her colleagues are ‘really hurting’, but West is ‘completely wrong’ to seek a leadership change.

The Prime Minister has said he is considering a ban on some pro-Palestine marches, and wants ‘tougher action’ on certain phrases used on those marches, such as the chant ‘globalise the intifada’. This comes after a series of attacks on the Jewish community, including the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green on Wednesday. On Sky News this morning, Trevor Phillips asked Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander whether the government planned to outlaw specific words. Alexander said the government have given the police more powers to ‘deal with protests’, and supported Keir Starmer’s suggestion that individuals on marches have a responsibility to challenge hateful language.

Shots fired at White House correspondents’ dinner On Saturday night, shots were fired as an armed suspect charged security at the White House correspondents’ dinner. President Trump and others were quickly evacuated, and a Secret Service agent was saved by his bulletproof vest after being shot at close range. The suspect has been identified as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31 year-old man from California. At a White House press conference held immediately after the incident, Donald Trump described the suspect as a ‘very sick person’, thanked the Secret Service, and praised the organisers of the dinner for ‘such a beautiful evening’.

Wes Streeting: ‘Trump has said some outrageous things’ J.D. Vance has left Pakistan after high level negotiations between the US and Iran ended without reaching an agreement. On Sky News this morning, Health Secretary Wes Streeting told Trevor Phillips that it was ‘disappointing’ there had been no breakthrough, but he said in diplomacy, ‘you’re failing until you succeed’. Phillips asked what the UK government is doing to prepare for an extended conflict. Streeting said the Foreign Secretary has been meeting allies in the region to ‘see what we can do’ to get trade moving through the Strait of Hormuz again and that the government is keeping the impact of the conflict ‘under close review’.

Bridget Phillipson: We don’t need to act yet on fuel duty The war in Iran has now gone on for one month and concerns continue to grow over the effect the conflict will have on economies all over the world. On Sky News this morning, Bridget Phillipson played down fears of impending fuel shortages, telling British consumers to ‘continue as you are’. Trevor Phillips noted that more than half of the price of fuel goes to the government and asked the Education Secretary why the government isn’t scrapping the proposed 5p rise to fuel duty in September. Phillipson said the Chancellor is ‘absolutely committed’ to protecting British people from the impacts of the conflict and that the government will ‘take a view closer to the time’ on fuel duty. https://www.youtube.

Ed Miliband: Government may send drones to get Strait of Hormuz open The backlog of oil tankers unable to pass through the Strait of Hormuz because of the war in Iran is threatening to send economic shockwaves around the world. This week, Donald Trump called on allies to ‘send ships to the area’ to help open the passage. On Sky News this morning, Trevor Phillips asked Energy Secretary Ed Miliband how the government would respond to the president’s request. Miliband acknowledged the importance of opening the strait, and said the UK is talking to its allies about the issue. Phillips asked if the UK will deploy drones to the area.