UK politics live: Wes Streeting hints budget cuts will go further than axing winter fuel payment
The Tory leadership contender has drawn criticism for her comments
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Your support makes all the difference.Health secretary Wes Streeting has suggested pensioners will not be the only group negatively affected by cuts in the October budget.
Mr Streeting said he can understand why pensioners may feel they are being targeted by the government following cuts to winter fuel payments. However, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said there will be moves to reduce the size of the welfare bill, as well as public spending cuts and tax rises.
In an interview with The New Statesman, the health secretary said: “I can understand why there will be some pensioners sat there thinking, ‘Why us? And what about others?
“Well, there are other choices to come and these aren’t just Rachel’s [Reeves] choices to face up to, these are the choices of the whole government.”
He added: “It would be quite jarring if we were all skipping around Whitehall singing Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come or D:Ream’s Things Can Only Better at the same as we’re dealing with a £22 billion black hole and making some tough choices which are really sticking in the throats of people, particularly on the winter fuel allowance.”
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Wes Streeting has said he can understand why pensioners may feel they are being targeted by the government following cuts to winter fuel payments.
In an interview with the New Statesman, the health secretary said: “I can understand why there will be some pensioners sat there thinking, ‘Well, why us? And what about others?’ Well, there are other choices to come and these aren’t just Rachel’s choices to face up to, these are the choices of the whole government.”
Labour is facing growing pressure over its planned winter fuel payment cuts as figures emerged showing almost 800,000 pensioners who need the benefit are set to lose out.
Read more here.
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Rachel Reeves commits to improving women’s lives by closing gender pay gap
Rachel Reeves has said she intends to use her position as the first female Chancellor to “improve life for women”, as she set out plans to support women in business.
Ms Reeves said it is a “huge responsibility” to head the Treasury and she is aiming to close the gender pay gap, strengthen rights at work and invest in childcare.
Announcing the Government’s support for the Invest in Women Taskforce, which aims to increase investment funding pools for female founders, the Chancellor vowed to improve the economic opportunities available to women.
The taskforce is aiming to create a funding pool of more than £250 million for female-founded businesses through private capital, making it one of the world’s largest investment funding pools aimed solely at female founders.
The Rose Review, an independent review of female entrepreneurship led by Dame Alison Rose, found that if the UK were to have the same share of female entrepreneurs as similar countries, £200 billion of value would be added to the economy.
Ms Reeves is expected to take an active role in steering the taskforce’s priorities and objectives.
Teachers will be allowed to work from home in Labour plan to boost recruitment
Teachers will be allowed to work from home in Labour plan to boost recruitment
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson hopes increased flexibility will stop women leaving teaching profession, it has been reported
Nick Read to step down as chief executive of Post Office next year
The Post Office chief executive is set to resign from his role amid a year dominated by the fallout from the Horizon scandal.
Nick Read, who is preparing to give evidence to the inquiry next month, will step down in March next year, the Post Office said on Wednesday.
For context, Horizon IT system is accounting software, designed by Japanese company Fujitsu, which saw accounts automated after subpostmasters entered their sales figures via a touchscreen.
Due to faulty software, subpostmasters started experiencing unexplained shortfalls in their accounts and were liable for losses under their contract with the Post Office, with subpostmasters being ordered to pay back the money that was lost.
Read the full explainer on the Horizon scandal here.
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Government to hold talks on ending ‘exploitative’ zero-hours contracts
Angela Rayner is set to hold another round of talks with trade unions and business leaders as the Government continues its drive to end “exploitative” zero-hours contracts.
The Deputy Prime Minister and the Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, will meet general secretaries from Britain’s major trade unions along with figures from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) on Wednesday afternoon as part of the Government’s ongoing efforts to expand workers’ rights.
The meeting is the latest in a series of discussions with unions and businesses on employment rights, with further such meetings expected over the coming weeks.
However, it is not expected that today’s meeting will come with a major announcement from the government.
There are around one million people across the UK on zero-hour contracts, according to the Office of National Statistics.
You can read more on the government’s “new deal for workers” here.
Buffer zones will soon be introduced outside abortion clinics to stop women seeking abortions from being harassed by protesters.
The government announced on Wednesday that buffer zones will be enacted around abortion clinics from 31 October and it will be against the law to influence, harass or provoke those using or delivering pregnancy termination services.
Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips said: “The right to access abortion services is a fundamental right for women in this country, and no one should feel unsafe when they seek to access this.”
You can read the full report from The Independent’s Women’s Correspondent Maya Oppenheim here.
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