Reeves refuses to be drawn on wealth tax after ex-shadow chancellor’s call – UK politics live | Politics
Published: 2025-08-01 15:29:25 | Views: 13
Reeves refuses to be drawn on wealth tax
Rachel Reeves has said the government has “got to get the balance right on taxation”, following a call by the former shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds for the Treasury to consider introducing a wealth tax.
Asked about Dodds’ suggestion, the chancellor refused to be drawn on whether such a move would be introduced. She told the PA news agency:
Decisions around tax are decisions that are made at a budget and we’ll make those decisions in the appropriate way, but the number-one priority of this government is to grow the economy.
“And that means bringing more investment into Britain, creating more good jobs paying decent wages here in Britain.
“We’ve got to get the balance right on taxation because we want that investment, we want those jobs to come here.
“That’s why we’re reforming the planning system, secured three trade deals in the first year of this Labour government, cutting back on unnecessary regulation, and reforming our pension system to unlock money for businesses to be able to invest here in the UK.”
Key events
Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelenskyy “welcomed” Donald Trump’s new deadline on Russia during a call between the two leaders on Friday.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said: “The prime minister spoke to president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy this afternoon.
“The prime minister began by sharing his condolences for the deadly attack on Kyiv in recent days. It was a bitter reminder of the human cost of the awful conflict perpetrated by Russia, the prime minister added.
“The prime minister then updated on president Trump’s visit to the UK and both leaders welcomed the president’s new deadline on Russia to stop their stalling tactics and make meaningful progress on a peace deal. It was clear Russia was the only barrier to peace, the leaders agreed.
“Turning to the landmark agreement to share battlefield technology and scale up the production of drones that the prime minister and president agreed in June, the prime minister updated on the strong progress being made at rapid pace.
“The prime minister also welcomed the passing of Ukraine’s anti-corruption Bill earlier this week. The leaders looked forward to speaking again soon.”
Gwyn Topham
Heathrow’s third runway “is going to be empty” if high charges are levied on airlines and passengers to foot the bill, the airport’s biggest customer has warned.
British Airways’ owner, International Airlines Group (IAG), said the price paid per passenger could double under plans revealed on Thursday by Heathrow to invest almost £50bn in expansion and upgrades, including a £21bn third runway and new terminals.
The IAG chief executive, Luis Gallego, said: “The investment is going to be huge, and with the current regulatory model it is going to be very expensive for customers.
“If we build a new runway and don’t change the model, passengers are going to pay double. We risk a new runway that is going to be empty.”
Current airport charges are about £25 per passenger per flight, capped by the regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, which adjudicates in a five-yearly settlement between the airport and airlines.
Rachel Reeves has also been quizzed about energy following Donald Trump’s comments during his Scotland visit.
Renewable and non-renewable energy sources are not an “either/or”, the chancellor has said while she visits Scotland.
Asked whether the government would “unlock” the North Sea “treasure chest”, which Trump described on his visit this week, Reeves said: “Oil and gas are incredibly important for the UK and our energy security. And oil and gas is going to play an important role in our energy mix for decades to come.
“It’s why, alongside the private sector, we’re investing in carbon capture and storage, which is absolutely essential for supporting energy intensive industries. But it’s not either/or.
“At the same time, we’re investing in clean homegrown energy, including at Berwick Bank [offshore wind farm] in Scotland, which will create thousands of new jobs and power millions of homes.
The US president had said: “Wind is a disaster,” during a press conference at his Turnberry golf course in Scotland while sitting next to Keir Starmer. “You are paying massive subsidies to have these ugly monsters all over the place.”
Reeves refuses to be drawn on wealth tax
Rachel Reeves has said the government has “got to get the balance right on taxation”, following a call by the former shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds for the Treasury to consider introducing a wealth tax.
Asked about Dodds’ suggestion, the chancellor refused to be drawn on whether such a move would be introduced. She told the PA news agency:
Decisions around tax are decisions that are made at a budget and we’ll make those decisions in the appropriate way, but the number-one priority of this government is to grow the economy.
“And that means bringing more investment into Britain, creating more good jobs paying decent wages here in Britain.
“We’ve got to get the balance right on taxation because we want that investment, we want those jobs to come here.
“That’s why we’re reforming the planning system, secured three trade deals in the first year of this Labour government, cutting back on unnecessary regulation, and reforming our pension system to unlock money for businesses to be able to invest here in the UK.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said the government has “got to get the balance right on taxation”, following a call by Labour former minister Anneliese Dodds for Treasury to consider introducing a wealth tax.
Asked about Dodds’ suggestion, Reeves told the PA news agency:
Decisions around tax are decisions that are made at a budget and we’ll make those decisions in the appropriate way, but the number-one priority of this government is to grow the economy.
And that means bringing more investment into Britain, creating more good jobs paying decent wages here in Britain.
We’ve got to get the balance right on taxation because we want that investment, we want those jobs to come here.
That’s why we’re reforming the planning system, secured three trade deals in the first year of this Labour government, cutting back on unnecessary regulation, and reforming our pension system to unlock money for businesses to be able to invest here in the UK.
Rowena Mason
A new civil service internship scheme will be open only to working-class students as part of a drive to make Whitehall better reflect the country, the government has said.
The programme will give students from lower-income backgrounds the chance to apply for paid government placements. The definition of working class will be based on what jobs applicants’ parents held when they were 14 and replaces an existing programme open to all.
The Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden said the action was being taken because applicants from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were less likely to get a place on the so-called fast stream.
“We need to get more working-class young people into the civil service so it harnesses the broadest range of talent and truly reflects the country,” he said. “Government makes better decisions when it represents and understands the people we serve.
“I want to open up opportunities for students from all backgrounds, and in every corner of the UK, so they can take a leading role at the heart of government as we rewire the state and deliver the plan for change.”
The two-month summer programme will give 200 undergraduates the opportunity to work in a civil service department from next year, with applications starting this October.
Their placement work could include planning events, writing briefings for ministers, shadowing senior civil servants and carrying out research for policy development. They will also be allocated a “buddy” who is a current fast-streamer and get access to skills sessions.
Planned changes to the way funding allocations for children’s services are calculated would have a “devastating impact” on key services in London and beyond, councils have warned.
They say the new approach, which is part of adjustments to the process of setting authorities’ overall annual core funding, risks “dramatically underestimating levels of need” across the country.
The government is consulting on plans to alter the way the distribution of core council funding is set from 2026/27.
A key element of this is the use of a new formula which determines funding levels for individual councils’ children’s services using various measures, with the aim of distributing funding based on relative needs.
The children’s services formula alone would cover about a quarter of the overall £30 billion that would be distributed using the new overall approach.
The build up of “anger, prejudice and misinformation” that led to the disorder last year is still there and could escalate again under the right circumstances, an anti-fascist organisation has warned.
Hope Not Hate’s director of research Joe Mulhall said it is a “very, very febrile time”, as he described the 2024 summer disorder as the “most widespread period” of far-right violence in post-war Britain.
Last year disorder spread in some parts of the UK in the wake of the Southport murders on July 29, after false rumours were spread online that the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat.
Mosques, community centres and libraries were attacked, while hotels housing asylum seekers were also targeted.
Dr Mulhall told the PA news agency: “I think it’s without question the most widespread period of far-right violence, certainly the post-war period and possibly beyond.
“What makes it more shocking, the speed with which it’s kind of stopped getting talked about or it got written off as legitimate anger.
“This is a really seismic historical moment in history, post-war Britain, and very, very quickly it fell off the radar.”
The disorder what the modern far-right looks like, Dr Mulhall said, now made up of “vast” online and offline decentralised networks, which go “well beyond” individual organisations.
“You can have people that are engaging in forms of far-right activism without having been a member of anything.”
Lib Dems call for cap on SEND school profits
Private companies running special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) schools should face a cap on their profits to curb “shameless profiteering,” the Liberal Democrats have said.
The party commissioned research revealing that some firms are raking in tens of millions of pounds a year, with profit margins topping 20%, BBC News reported.
Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Munira Wilson said profits should be limited to 8% to prevent funds intended for SEND children from being diverted “into the pockets of shareholders.”
In response to the findings, the government said Labour was pushing schools to prioritise “improving children’s outcomes – not excessive profit-making.”
Analysis from the House of Commons Library, carried out for the Lib Dems, found that several major SEND education providers – including some backed by offshore private equity firms – have seen sharp increases in profits in recent years.
One provider reportedly earned more than £44 million in profit on a turnover of £208 million, with profits rising by 60% in just two years.
Another recorded £20.9 million in profit from £194.2 million in turnover – a margin of 10.8%.
The Green Party’s occasionally fractious leadership contest has entered its final stages as members begin voting on Friday.
The party’s more than 60,000 members face a choice between MPs Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns, and an insurgent campaign led by London Assembly member Zack Polanski.
Ramsay, a current co-leader of the party, and Chowns have said that the Greens should “double down” on the “proven techniques” that saw them quadruple their representation in Westminster last year.
But Polanski has urged the party to be “bold”, pushing an “eco-populist” stance and seeking to emulate Nigel Farage’s success in creating headlines and catapulting his Reform UK to the top of the opinion polls.
Ramsay and Chowns have accused Polanski of using “polarising” language that only appealed to a “narrow segment” of voters.
Civil service interns must be working class, government says
The government will tighten eligibility criteria for Whitehall internships as part of a broader push to make the civil service more representative of the working class.
According to the BBC, the main internship scheme will now be limited to students from “lower socio-economic backgrounds” and based on which occupations their parents held when they were 14.
Pat McFadden, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and the minister responsible for civil service reform, said that Whitehall needed to reflect the broader community, PA reported.
“We need to get more working-class young people into the Civil Service so it harnesses the broadest range of talent and truly reflects the country,” he told the BBC.
“Government makes better decisions when it represents and understands the people we serve.”
Changes are expected to take effect from summer 2026 and will give young people experience writing briefings, planning events, conducting policy research and shadowing civil servants, according to the broadcaster.
The existing work summer placement programme, which lasts up to eight weeks and is paid, is open to undergraduates in the final two years of their degree.
China-backed centres at UK universities under threat from new free speech laws
Richard Adams
Confucius Institutes at universities across England are under threat from new free speech rules, setting off urgent talks between ministers, vice-chancellors and regulators over the fate of the China-backed language and culture centres.
Universities fear that the new regulations imposed by the Office for Students (OfS) this month will cause legal headaches with their Chinese partners, including the government in Beijing, and could lead to some being closed.
University leaders claim they have been left in the dark by England’s regulator over whether or not they are breaking the new rules, which bar foreign governments from vetting staff employed at the institutes.
The 20 Confucius Institutes operating in England – including at the universities of Manchester, Coventry and Liverpool – are partnerships between each university, a Chinese university, and an arm of the Chinese state that provides funding. They offer Mandarin classes and promote cultural events but critics allege they also act as a Trojan horse within the education system.
The Department for Education (DfE) said it “welcomed a range of international partnerships with UK higher education” but that they had to comply with UK laws and regulations.
“It is for individual higher education providers to assess whether the criteria of existing arrangements would have the effect of restricting free speech and take steps to address that,” the DfE said.
Labour urged to revive Sure Start label to win back Reform voters
Rowena Mason
The government should greatly expand family centres under the Sure Start brand to help win back Reform voters in former Labour heartlands, a commission backed by Labour politicians has said.
Hilary Armstrong, the Labour peer and former cabinet minister, was among those pressing for a fuller reintroduction of family centres under the Sure Start label, saying it would help to rebuild trust in neighbourhoods damaged by austerity.
Armstrong is chair of the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods, which said its polling showed 62% of people recognised the Sure Start brand, and that 76% would like to see it revived.
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, announced last month that one-stop-shop family hubs similar to Sure Start would be introduced throughout England to give parents advice and support.
The £500m project will open up to 1,000 centres from April 2026, meaning every council in England will have a family hub by 2028. It will be called Best Start and will build on the existing family hubs and the start for life programme to provide a single point of access for services in health, education and wellbeing services.
The policy forms part of the government’s push to replace services lost since 2010, which include the closure of more than 1,400 Sure Start centres.
At their peak under Gordon Brown, there were more than 3,600 Sure Start centres, which were considered one of the previous Labour government’s biggest achievements.
Heathrow submits ‘shovel-ready’ plans for third runway
Gwyn Topham
Heathrow has submitted its “shovel-ready” plans for a third runway as part of a £50bn investment, as the government said expanding Europe’s largest airport could create 100,000 jobs and drive growth.
The 2-mile (3.2km) runway expansion would cross a diverted M25 and allow more than 750 additional flights a day over London, helping bring the total annual number of passengers to 150 million.
Environmental campaigners called it a “doomed scheme” that would release millions of tonnes of CO2 while benefiting only a small minority of rich flyers.
Heathrow said that with government support it could obtain planning permission by 2029 and have the runway in operation by 2035.
Its proposals remain essentially the same as those submitted in 2019 and approved in principle by the government and MPs. That scheme survived a brief block on climate grounds sparked by legal challenges from campaigners, overturned on appeal in 2020.
However, the plans were put on hold as passenger numbers dropped during the pandemic. The shareholders in the airport, which include the French private equity firm Ardian and Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s sovereign wealth funds, are seeking legislative change, as well as long-term political support, before filing a full planning application.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has strongly endorsed expansion, but Heathrow is seeking firm policy guarantees after previous runway plans were overturned.
Government urged to consider wealth tax as chancellor visits Scotland
Good morning and welcome to the UK politics blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news lines throughout the day.
We start with news that the Treasury should consider a wealth tax to close the growing gap in the public finances, according to a Labour former shadow chancellor.
Anneliese Dodds, who held the role under Keir Starmer in opposition, said ministers must have a “full and frank discussion” with the public about the “really big decisions” they had to take at this autumn’s budget.
With Rachel Reeves aiming to fill a financial hole that economists say could exceed £20bn, the senior Labour MP said there was “no silver bullet” to funding big-ticket items such as defence, but the chancellor should consider tax rises.
Dodds quit her post as international development minister in February over the government’s decision to slash the aid budget to pay for increased defence spending – a move she said was a mistake that would have a big impact on global security.
With Russia and China already stepping into the gap to boost their own global influence, she said now was not the time for the UK to be “walking back” from using soft power.
Read the full report here:
Reeves is visit Scotland later today. She will visit RAF Lossiemouth in Moray and the St Fergus gas plant in Aberdeenshire on Friday.
The chancellor is expected to meet with 200 Boeing employees at the Lossiemouth military base, where three E-7 Wedgetail aircraft are being worked on, the National reports.
The UK government has previously said that its plan to increase defence spending to 2.6% of GDP could boost the economy by around 0.3% and create 26,100 jobs in Scotland.
