Labour to unveil plan to slash billions from benefit bill amid backbench backlash: Benefits cuts – live – UK Times

The Cabinet is united behind Government plans to take on the growing benefits bill, Pat McFadden has insisted.

Asked whether the whole Cabinet supported the move, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster told Times Radio: “Yes, I believe the Cabinet is united behind taking on the issue of the growing benefits bill.”

He said the current system “leaves too many people in a permanent state of dependence on benefits without the opportunity of work.”

Thousands of Government credit cards will be axed in an attempt to slash “wasteful” spending, according to reports.

The taxpayer-funded procurement cards were created to make low-value, one-off purchases but spending on them has rocketed in the past four years.

The Cabinet Office has told ministries to freeze almost all of the 20,000 cards right away and aims to slash half of the cards in circulation by enforcing a strict new application process.

Holders will have to outline why they need them or see them cancelled by the end of the month, the BBC reported.

More details on the rumoured billions in welfare cuts Labour plans to announce this week have been revealed as reports indicate ministers are looking to shave £6 billion from disability benefits claimed by millions of people.

Nigel Farage’s unveiling of 29 new Reform UK councillors fell apart within less than an hour as it emerged just nine are new, with only three of those standing for election.

The Reform leader used a press conference at a swanky London hotel on Monday to unveil the slew of new councillors, claiming their defections proved “this party is very much on the up”.

But the lack of high-profile names among new defectors fed speculation that a steady stream of turncoats has largely dried up as a result of a bitter spat between Mr Farage and Rupert Lowe, the ousted ex-Reform MP.

The Conservatives said Mr Farage was seeking to distract from the open warfare engulfing Reform and hoodwink journalists. Tory officials pointed out that while Mr Farage claimed all the councillors had defected in the past two weeks, four had joined Reform a month or more before the press conference.

Archie Mitchell and David Maddox have the full report:

The Conservatives are going to “confront the real problems” starting with energy and net zero, Kemi Badenoch will insist as she launches a self-described “policy renewal” process.

The Tory leader will say she is not making a “moral judgment” on net zero or debating whether climate change exists, but that the target to reach net zero emissions by 2050 cannot be achieved without a drop in living standards.

The policy renewal pledge will see shadow cabinet members set core priority questions as a move towards formulating new policy for the party. The party may commission external reports on certain questions.

In a speech on Tuesday, Mrs Badenoch is expected to say that cutting energy costs and reducing the impact on the environment are “noble aims” but that the current policies are “largely failing” to improve nature and “driving up the cost of energy”.

“We’re falling between two stools – too high costs and too little progress,” she will say, adding: “Net zero by 2050 is impossible. I don’t say that with pleasure. Or because I have some ideological desire to dismantle it – in fact, we must do what we can to improve our natural world.

“I say it because anyone who has done any serious analysis knows it can’t be achieved without a serious drop in our living standards or by bankrupting us. And responsible leaders don’t indulge in fictions which are going to make families poorer.”

David Lammy met US vice president JD Vance in Washington over the weekend, he has told MPs.

The foreign secretary said that he discussed the US’s now-ended pause on military intelligence sharing and the prospect of a ceasefire with Mr Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio in recent days.

Following last week’s meeting of G7 foreign ministers, Tory shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel had asked Mr Lammy in the Commons to set out his discussions with US counterparts on the suspension and “his assessments of the consequences caused”.

Mr Lammy said in his response: “I’m pleased to say that our assessment is that that pause, as she will know, was for a short period, not an extended period, and therefore it has not had a material effect.

“But we were pleased to see that resume, and we were pleased to see what flowed from Jeddah which was the United States, European allies and President Zelensky of Ukraine absolutely square with the need for that ceasefire, and it is for Putin to unconditionally now accept that ceasefire – the ball is in his court.

“And I was pleased to be able to discuss these matters with Secretary Rubio over the course of the three days at the G7 but also with Vice President Vance yesterday morning at his residence in Washington.”

Nigel Farage has said he used a dinner with Dominic Cummings to ask the chief aide-turned-nemesis of Boris Johnson about “not being able to do what you want to do” when entering government.

Challenged “why on Earth” he met Mr Cummings, Mr Farage told the broadcaster: “Well, I met him to talk about the blob. And what were the practical problems of coming into government and not being able to do what you want to do.”

The Reform UK chief added: “He and I have never got on. So it’s never a bad thing to sit and talk to someone you’ve not got on with and try and find some sort of peace. But I was interested in what he had to say.”

He added: “He’s not joining the team, or anything like that … We had a dinner, and we agreed on one thing, which is the Conservative Party’s dead – it’s done, it’s over, and it needs to be replaced.”

The business secretary is expected to raise the interests of Britain’s steel industry in talks on a potential UK-US economic deal as he visits Washington after Donald Trump said there would be no exemptions to his metal tariffs.

Jonathan Reynolds will seek to advance “pragmatic and positive” discussions on transatlantic trade as he meets his White House counterpart on Tuesday, the government said.

Mr Reynolds will hold the first in-person talks with US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and US trade representative Jamieson Greer to take place under the new Trump administration.

It comes after the US president told reporters aboard Air Force One there would be no exemptions from a 25 per cent tax on global steel and aluminium imports.

The Department for Business and Trade said Mr Reynolds would “represent the interests of key industries including the UK steel sector and will kick off talks on securing a wider economic deal” on the visit.

Civil Service credit cards will be frozen this week under plans to reduce their numbers by 50 per cent and slash government spending.

Days after Sir Keir Starmer vowed to reshape the “flabby” state and slash the cost of bureaucracy, the Cabinet Office will order almost all of the 20,000 procurement cards used by civil servants to be frozen.

The spend on the credit cards jumped from £155m in 2020-21 to £675m in 2024-25.

To regain access to the cards, civil servants will need to reapply and justify why they need them – or they will be cancelled at the end of the month.

Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden said the so-called government procurement cards should only be provided to officials when it is “absolutely essential”. Those used by diplomatic staff in unstable environments will be among a small number exempt from the freeze.