Reform UK slashes fuel prices at Lowdham petrol station
Robert Jenrick said people “should take to the streets” to show their anger with Rachel Reeves over fuel prices.
Reform UK‘s Treasury spokesman made the comments amid threats by farmers unless the Chancellor cuts tax on red diesel used for tractors.
Speaking at Reform’s latest petrol station stunt, Mr Jenrick said: “I think people should take to the streets. Show how angry they are and demand that Rachel Reeves does something about it.”
Reform is calling on the Government to halve VAT on fuel amid the Iran war, which has sent prices soaring.
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UK economic growth forecasts slashed by IMF
The influential financial body said Britain would be hit particularly hard by fallout from the Iran war, which threatens to trigger a global recession.
It comes as a devastating blow for the beleaguered Chancellor, after a tumultuous two years in the job which has seen the economy struggle.
In a further humiliation, Britain’s downgrade is the biggest of all G7 nations.
Tories take aim at UC stats
The Conservatives have taken aim at the amount of people on Universal Credit under Labour, saying it has increased by 1.5 million. Helen Whately MP, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said: “1.5 million more people on Universal Credit since Keir Starmer walked into Downing Street. This is a full-blown crisis with a claim form attached.”
She added: “Higher taxes, more regulation, fewer jobs. Labour’s bad economic choices are driving people onto welfare and passing the bill onto taxpayers. Labour are killing jobs and piling taxes onto businesses and working people. Only the Conservatives have a plan to get Britain working again.”
Reeves ‘raking it in’ – Jenrick
Reform’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said Rachel Reeves is “raking it in” and “betraying working people”.
He said: “Rachel Reeves is profiteering. She’s raking it in at the moment.
“She’s making tens of millions of pounds extra in tax revenues every day as a result of the increased VAT when you are paying your domestic energy bill, or the fuel duty and the VAT when you’re filling up at the forecourt.
“She should use a bit of that to lighten the load for people at the moment. That is the only thing that we’re calling for. It’s very reasonable.
“Loads of governments around the world are doing exactly the same, from Spain and Portugal to Australia to the Republic of Ireland. Rachel Reeves is acting like some kind of bystander.
“She’s betraying working people by not using a bit of that to lighten the load.”
(Image: PA)
Petrol station slashes prices for Reform stunt
The Gulf/Spar garage in Lowdham has cut its prices by 13p a litre for petrol and 16p for diesel today.
The price reduction is the same as the saving from halving VAT on fuel to 10%, which Reform has called on the Chancellor to implement for three months as an emergency response to the Iran war.
Reform’s Lee Anderson and Robert Jenrick (Image: )
Green Party protesters descend on Reform presser
Several people holding “vote Green” placards have arrived at the petrol station for the Reform stunt and are standing at the edge of the forecourt.
(Image: )
Reform’s latest petrol stunt
Reform’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick and MP Lee Anderson are at petrol station in Nottinghamshire where they will be reducing the price of fuel for motorists.
This is to heap pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to ease costs for drivers.
(Image: )
Starmer chairs new committee to respond to Iran crisis
Sir Keir Starmer will lead a new Cabinet committee to deal with the fallout from the Iran conflict.The group – the Middle East Response Committee – has its first meeting today focused on efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the key global oil and gas shipping route.The Prime Minister established the committee to deal with the domestic and international impacts of the war, which has driven up energy prices, caused stock market turmoil and exposed deep divisions between the US and its traditional European allies.
Badenoch says Trump image ‘preposterous’
The image of Donald Trump as a Christ-like figure was “preposterous”, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said.
She told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I thought it was a preposterous picture.
“It should have been, at best, a funny joke that somebody else had done.
“It was very bizarre seeing the president tweet it himself. I’m not surprised that it’s been deleted.”
Labour in fourth place in new poll
The Green Party has overtaken Labour in a new poll in the latest blow to Sir Keir Starmer.
The YouGov survey puts Zack Polanski’s party in third place on 18%, up two points from the previous week.
Labour is pushed into fourth place on 17%, up one point from the week before.
Nigel Farage‘s Reform UK leads the poll on 24%, while the Tories are second on 19%.
Badenoch backs Lord Robertson’s warning
Kemi Badenoch backed Lord Robertson’s warning that the UK is underprepared for war due to the “ever-expanding welfare budget” and “corrosive complacency”.
The Tory leader told BBC Radio 5 Live: “We used to spend one in every seven pounds on welfare. Now it’s one in every three pounds and a lot of that money has basically been swapped for defence.“The world is not as peaceful as it used to be. The peace dividend that existed after the fall of the Berlin Wall is gone, we need to spend more money on defence.”
Starmer’s ‘corrosive complacency’ on defence has left UK ‘in peril’
Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of “corrosive complacency” over Britain’s defence by the former head of Nato.
Lord Robertson, a key government adviser, will warn in a speech later: “We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget.”
He will say: “We are underprepared. We are underinsured. We are under attack. We are not safe… Britain’s national security and safety is in peril.”
He will add: “There is a corrosive complacency today in Britain’s political leadership. Lip service is paid to the risks, the threats, the bright red signals of danger – but even a promised national conversation about defence can’t be started.”
More than 300 council staff earn more than PM
More than 300 council employees earned more than the Prime Minister last year, new analysis reveals.
Some 320 town hall workers across the UK raked in more than Sir Keir Starmer’s £172,153 salary over the course of the 2024-25 financial year, according to the Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA) annual Town Hall Rich List report.
A record 4,733 council staff received over £100,000, and of these 1,255 were on more than £150,000.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TPA, said: ““Our latest Town Hall Rich List exposes a surging class of council bosses enjoying six-figure packages, even as they plead poverty, slash frontline services, and hike council tax bills far beyond inflation.”
Tories warn Reeves has ‘no clue’
Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: “If the IMF downgrade our forecast, it will be solely at the feet of Rachel Reeves.
“The Chancellor hiked national insurance in her first budget, doubling inflation and sending unemployment soaring. She is driving the hospitality industry out of business with business rates increases, and planning the first hike in fuel duty in 15 years. Her ‘plan’ to keep costs down has left us with the highest inflation in the G7, with businesses closing and the cost of living skyrocketing.
“The Conservatives urge international partners to instead see Rachel Reeves as a cautionary tale of what happens when a politician has no clue what they’re doing and chooses to hammer business relentlessly.”
Reeves urges global leaders to take coordinated action
Rachel Reeves is set to call for coordinated action to tackle the global economic shock caused by the Iran war as she heads to the International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington DC.
The Chancellor said: “Families and businesses across Britain are bearing the cost of instability they did not cause. These are not costs I wanted, but they are costs we will have to respond to.
“The Iran conflict must be a line in the sand on how we deal with global crisis and instability.
“I will go to America with a clear message: global leaders must take coordinated economic action and supercharge the path to energy security to protect ourselves in the future.”
The IMF is due to publish its world economic outlook later, with updated growth and inflation forecasts around the globe.
