Rachel Reeves ‘to announce biggest spending cuts since austerity’ in spring statement: UK politics live – UK Times

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said that the unchanged unemployment rate demonstrated “the scale of the challenge we’re still facing to get Britain working again.

The rate of UK unemployment remained unchanged at 4.4% in the three months to January, the Office for National Statistics said.

“The reforms I have announced will ensure everyone who can work gets the active support they need, including through an extra £1 billion for personalised health, skills and employment support for sick and disabled people.”

She added: “We’ve already put in place measures to make work pay and improve job security – including through the national minimum wage increase and our Employment Rights Bill.

“Since the election, we’ve also seen year-on-year wages after inflation growing at their fastest rate in three years – worth an extra £1,000 a year on average in the pockets of working people.”

Defence minster Luke Pollard insisted that Labour is not the party of the centre-right, when questioned over spending cuts.

When asked on Sky, Mr Pollard said: “No, I don’t think so.”

He continued it was “wrong” for him to speculate on Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ spring statement, set to be delivered next Wednesday.

“We’ve been very clear that by taking the difficult decision to reduce international aid spending, we’re moving that money to defence.”

“The changes that we are seeking to make to welfare are not to fund defence spending. It’s to help people back into work.”

Sir Keir Starmer is set to visit Barrow-in-Furness today as the UK increases defence spending in a pledge to grow the economy. Barrow, at the heart of the country’s submarine-building industry,

Starmer said ahead of the visit, per Sky News: “When I say that our Plan for Change is delivering security for working people and renewal for our country, there is no better blueprint than Barrow.

“Defence spending here is supporting highly skilled jobs, driving opportunities for young people and delivering world class capabilities to keep us all safe, but it’s also crucially putting money in the pockets of hardworking people.”

The government announced in February they would increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of the UK’s economic output by 2027.

The rate of UK unemployment has remained unchanged at 4.4 per cent in the the three months to January, the Office for National Statistics has said.

They also reported that UK average regular earnings growth remained at 5.9 per cent in the three months to January and was 3.2 per cent higher after taking Consumer Prices Index inflation into account.

Foreign secretary David Lammy is set to announce a packet of measures intending to open up diplomatic expertise to businesses, as he said that Ambassadors will be judged on their ability to drum up trade for Britain under plans to forge deeper ties between industry and diplomacy.

Mr Lammy will announce the measures at a British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) conference in London.

He will say: “I will always put the economic interests of workers and businesses at the heart of our foreign policy.

“To realise our growth mission, we need to deepen the links between the people sat in this room today, and the civil servants in Whitehall.”

The changes come as governments around the world grapple with the economic changes triggered by Donald Trump’s return to the White House and the risk of global tariff wars as a result of his policies.

Under the plans ambassadors will be held accountable to a new delivery board for trade and investment wins overseas.

Disadvantaged children could be being “priced out” of accessing the same early years education as their peers in working families due to the Government’s expansion of funded childcare, a report has warned.

Families who are not in work, or do not earn enough to be eligible for new funded childcare entitlements in England, will pay around £105 a week more than eligible working families for a part-time nursery place for a child under two, a survey by the Coram Family and Childcare charity has suggested.

A report by the charity said the gap between entitlements for disadvantaged children and those with working parents is “now wider than at any other time” and is set to get “even wider” later this year.

The expansion of funded childcare – which was introduced by the Conservative government – began being rolled out in England in April last year for working parents of two-year-olds.

Working parents of children older than nine months are also now able to access 15 hours of funded childcare a week, before the full roll-out of 30 hours a week to all eligible families in September.

A part-time nursery place (25 hours per week) for a child under two now costs an average of £70.51 per week in England after working-parent entitlements are accounted for – which is down by 56% on 2024.

But the survey suggested that for families ineligible for the 15 hours of funded childcare for working parents, a 25-hour part-time nursery place for a child under two-years-old costs £176.27 per week.

Barrow-in-Furness is a “blueprint” for how increasing defence spending can boost prosperity across the UK, the Prime Minister has said ahead of a visit to the town at the heart of Britain’s submarine-building industry.

Sir Keir Starmer will lay the keel for the next generation of Britain’s nuclear deterrent submarines when he visits the Cumbrian town on Thursday, as he argues his plans to boost defence spending will help fulfil his mission to grow the economy.

Just days ago, Sir Keir secretly joined a crew of submariners as they returned home to their families for the first time in months, making him the first Prime Minister to join a so-called “day zero” since 2013.

The King is meanwhile due to confer the Port of Barrow with the title “Royal”, to recognise the town’s contribution towards national security as a hub of submarine building.

The Prime Minister said: “When I say that our Plan for Change is delivering security for working people and renewal for our country, there is no better blueprint than Barrow.

“Defence spending here is supporting highly skilled jobs, driving opportunities for young people and delivering world class capabilities to keep us all safe, but it’s also crucially putting money in the pockets of hardworking people.”

Brexit had “much less impact on British exports to the EU” than previously thought, Conservative former chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said.

The senior Tory MP also warned ministers against choosing between closer ties with the US or Europe, as he gave his name to research that contests analysis of Brexit’s damaging impact on outward trade.

Centre-right think tank Policy Exchange claimed the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) modelling for how the vote to leave the EU had impacted British exports had been overstated.

In a foreword for the report, Mr Hunt – who voted remain in the Brexit referendum – said he believed “many claims about the impact of Brexit upon the UK’s economy were overly exaggerated”, but also said the same was true of the “more hyperbolic claims of some Brexiteers about its benefits”.

He added: “This excellent paper by Policy Exchange clearly demonstrates that Brexit has had much less impact on British exports to the EU than has been previously thought.

“Policy Exchange’s work in this area should be carefully scrutinised by the OBR when they next update their models.”

The think tank’s report said official analysis of Brexit’s impact had only taken into account the fall in the volume of exports, and not its value.

While the number of vehicle exports are down 28% compared with 2019, the value of exports has only decreased by 2% in the same period, the think tank claimed.