Bank of England interest rate cut joy for mortgage holders as Reeves blames mini-Budget for inflation - live
The Bank of England has decided to cut interest rates for the first time in more than four years
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The Bank of England has cut interest rates for the first time since 2020 as inflation continues to remain steady, holding at their two percent target for two consecutive months.
Bank Rate is currently 5.25per cent, a 16-year high where it has been pegged for the last year to fight inflation, but it has now been set at five percent, a drop of 0.25 percentage points.
Governor Andrew Bailey said the move comes after inflation pressures “eased enough that we’ve been able to cut interest rates today”.
The decision will come as joy for homeowners who have been struggling with rising mortgage payments as major banks have confirmed rates could go down as low as three per cent.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has welcomed the move but warned “millions of families are still facing higher mortgage rates after the mini-budget”.
Rachel Reeves admits she will raise taxes at the Budget
If she ends the housing crisis, Rayner’s political legacy will be set in stone
Inside the Bibby Stockholm as work begins to rehome asylum seekers after Labour closure announcement
How Winter Fuel Payments are changing – and what other support is available to pensioners?
In this ‘clash of the chancellors’, who’s being economical with the truth?
Foreign Office undertaking ‘concerted effort’ to reduce Israel-Hezbollah tensions
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook said cabinet colleagues at the Foreign Office are undertaking a “concerted effort” to reduce tensions after Israel targeted a Hezbollah commander in a strike on a Beirut suburb.
Mr Pennycook told Sky News: “I know our Foreign Office ministers are engaged in a concerted effort to do what the UK can do to reduce tensions in the region. You’re right that they are at a very high level.
“We’ve advised British nationals in Lebanon to leave now on commercial flights and for British nationals not to travel to the region. It’s extremely tense.
“All the effort has to be on de-escalating the situation and getting both parties, the Israelis and the Lebanese, to engage with that US-led process on the diplomatic front and reduce tensions.”
Liz Truss minister urged to apologise for ‘next-level' £22bn overspend black hole
Labour MP Joe Powell has called a Treasury minister of Liz Truss’ cabinet to apologise for leaving a £22billion public spending shortfall behind.
The MP for Kensington and Bayswater has written a letter to his predecessor Felicity Buchan to “finally apologise” for the “disastrous mini-budget”.
In a tweet, he said: “We knew the public finances under the Tories were a mess, but the £22bn overspend black hole is another level. I’ve written to the former Kensington MP - a Liz Truss Treasury minister - to ask for an apology.
“And I’ve supported measures in parliament so it never happens again.”
UK delays ban on some arms sales to Israel amid conflict escalation in Lebanon
As Israel launches airstrikes on Lebanon to target Hezbollah, the UK has delayed its decision to ban some arms sales to Israel after it faces legal challenges to define arms exports used for offensive purposes, the Guardian reports.
A final decision will now be postponed for several weeks after 12 children were killed in a rocket attack in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights. In response, foreign secretary David Lammy called for an immediate deescalation and advised against all travel to Lebanon.
Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, he added: “We support Israel’s right to defend itself in line with international humanitarian law. They are in a tough neighbourhood threatened by those that want to annihilate it.”
It comes as Israel’s war on Palestine took a major turn after Hamas’ political chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed by Israel in Teheran, Iran.
Home Secretary outlines ‘new approach’ to legal migration and skills shortages
A “new approach” to legal migration aimed at boosting the UK workforce’s skills before recruiting abroad will be taken by the incoming government, Yvette Cooper has said.
In a swipe at the previous Conservative government, the Home Secretary said rising levels of legal migration in recent years reflected a “failure over many years to tackle skills shortages and other problems in the UK labour market”.
In a ministerial statement published as MPs left Westminster for the summer, she pointed to a rise in non-EU long-term migration from 277,000 in the year to December 2022 to 423,000 in the year to December 2023.
The number of work visas in the 12 months to March 2024 was, meanwhile, 605,264, or “over three times that of 2019”, she said.
“That reflects a failure over many years to tackle skills shortages and other problems in the UK labour market, meaning too many sectors have remained reliant on international recruitment, instead of being able to source the skills they need here at home,” Ms Cooper said.
Yvette Cooper added: “This is why we are setting out a different approach – one that links migration policy and visa controls to skills and labour market policies – so immigration is not used as an alternative to training or tackling workforce problems here at home.
“This approach will be important to enabling delivery of the government’s broader agenda.”
Under Labour, the Migration Advisory Council – which provides advice to the government on where skills shortages can be filled by migration – will work alongside Skills England and other bodies as part of a new “coherent approach to skills, migration and labour market policy”.
The agencies will also work alongside the devolved governments in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales towards the same end.
Government ‘working closely’ with Universal to build UK theme park
A NBCUniversal’s proposed theme park could be built in Bedfordshire after culture secretary confirmed the project was still going ahead.
Mohammad Yasin, the MP for the area, wrote to new Lisa Nandy to confirm whether Europe’s largest theme park was still going ahead.
In response, Ms Nandy said: “The proposed investment by NBCUniversal would be a significant boost to both tourism and creative industries and the company’s choice of the UK for its first European park is both a testament to the strength of these sectors and a demonstration that the UK is open for business.”
She added: “My officials are working closely with NBCUniversal to assess the local and national impacts and facilitate the deliverability of this project.
“Both I and the minister responsible for tourism and the creative Industries, Sir Chris Bryant, look forward to meeting representatives from NBCUniversal shortly.”
Universal Destinations & Experiences bought the piece of land in Bedford to build a 500-room hotel that could see millions of people coming every year.
Reeves faces Labour backbench rebellion over winter deaths with fuel payment cuts
The chancellor has been tackled by their own side over how many more elderly people will die of cold as a result of stripping 10 million pensioners of their winter fuel payments.
In response to the red-on-red criticism in Parliament, the government frontbench said it understood the “disappointment”, but insisted it was the right, if tough choice, given the state of the public finances inherited from the Tories.
The new administration was also accused of “picking” on pensioners with the move, which it was claimed would wipe out the benefits of the triple lock, which guarantees state payouts rise each year in line with inflation, earnings or by 2.5% – whichever is higher.
Challenging the government, Labour peer Lord Sikka argued the move was “taking away” £300 from pensioners by “a measure that was not in our manifesto”.
He told the upper chamber: “I have received already many messages where pensioners are very, very concerned about this.
“The government could have introduced a taper to lessen the pain to help many pensioners. Would the minister give a commitment that he would have another look at that?”
He also pointed out a document produced by the Treasury “has lots of financial numbers but there is no mention of any human whatsoever”.
Lord Sikka said: “Last year, 5,000 pensioners died because of cold and were unable to afford heating. Has the minister made any estimates of how many more will die because £300 will be taken away from them?”
Three unions confirm council waste staff in Scotland to strike in August
Co-ordinated strike action by council workers will prove “disruptive”, union leaders in Scotland have warned, ahead of waste and recycling staff taking part in an eight-day long protest in August.
The three unions representing local government employees, Unison, Unite and the GMB, have all now confirmed their members are to walk out for more than a week – with Edinburgh City Council staff set to strike during the Scottish capital’s busy summer festival period.
Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow, will also be affected by the action, which is due to start at 5am on Wednesday August 14 and last until 4.59am on Thursday August 22.
Unison, the largest local government union, confirmed staff in 13 council areas will join the protest, while the GMB and Unite trade unions plan strikes in 18 areas.
As a result of the action the GMB warned bins will not be emptied across Scotland “from the smallest villages to the biggest cities”.
While union leaders insist strike action is not yet inevitable, they warned council leaders and ministers a “significant shift” in the pay offer is needed.
It comes amid a dispute over council workers’ pay, with all three unions having previously rejected the 3.2% pay rise offered by local government body Cosla – which insists it has “very limited options available”.
Rayner: Tories’ housing target for London ‘nonsense’
Angela Rayner has said the London housing target set up by the previous government wa “nonsense”.
Under the Conservatives, the capital had an annual target of 100,000 but the housing minister has now set a target of 80,000.
She told the BBC: “First of all, the target that was set for London wasn’t based on any particular formula. It was a nonsense formula that they used.
“The target that I have insisted on under the new method is 80,000. London didn’t get near that last year so I will be pushing the Mayor of London and I have already met with him. We will expect more.”
Sketch: Reeves didn’t just point the finger at the Tories – she crucified them
The chancellor was relentless: a £22bn black hole of unfunded promises. The national reserves not just blown, but double-spent. She did not quite bellow ‘J’accuse’, but that was the gist, writes Joe Murphy:
Reeves didn’t just point the finger at the Tories – she crucified them
The chancellor was relentless: a £22bn black hole of unfunded promises. The national reserves not just blown, but double-spent. She did not quite bellow ‘J’accuse’, but that was the gist, writes Joe Murphy
Rayner: Labour won’t build ‘a load of ugly houses’
Angela Rayner has insisted Labour will not build “a load of ugly houses” after ditching a Tory requirement for new housing to be beautiful.
The housing secretary scrapped the commitment after the government found it to be “too subjective”.
Asked about removing the word beautiful from the rules, Ms Rayner told the BBC: “I think this is ridiculous. Beautiful is so subjective but actually within the planning framework there is a lot of specifications about [being] in keeping with the local area. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder anyway.”
Ms Rayner said the housing requirement “means nothing really, it means one thing to one person and another thing to another”.
She added: “All that wording was doing was preventing and blocking development and that is why we think it is too subjective and actually the guidelines and the rules that are in place means that there has to be consultation, they have to follow the rules on what the buildings look like, the safety of the buildings, are they in keeping with the area.
“There are rules and protections in place so I don’t buy this idea that I am just going to build a load of ugly houses. That is just not true.”
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