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Publicans and campaigners accused John Healey of being ‘tone deaf’ after he was filmed downing a pint in one following his Budget |
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Szu Ping Chan Economics Editor |
Fiddling while Rome burns? John Healey is no modern-day Nero, but his “do-nothing” Budget is coming under fire from all sides.
The respected Institute for Fiscal Studies warns that families face the worst decade for income growth on record, dismissing the Chancellor’s near-100 policy changes as “unhelpful tinkering”.
Business leaders are equally unimpressed, accusing him of neglecting key growth engines and undermining the City of London with a bank tax.
“We won’t get growth by holding back success,” said Rain Newton-Smith, chief executive of the Confederation of British Industry.
As criticism mounted, Healey repeatedly found himself on the defensive about the Government’s surging welfare bill, with little sign of a plan to bring it under control.
Business leaders are now lining up to warn that Britain needs a chancellor who tackles its economic fires, not one who risks fanning the flames.
This report is available only to subscribers.
Continue reading ➤
Yesterday morning, I was among a panel of experts answering your questions on Healey’s “breathing space” Budget. If you’re still wondering how your finances will be affected, this is what you need to know.
Reader Darren Sullivan asks: “Why are we afraid to reform the welfare and benefits system?”
This is a question that has become quite a row in Westminster, and John Healey’s suggestion on the Today programme that the welfare bill would fall before the next election has been shot down by Andy Burnham’s official spokesman. The furious Labour response when Sir Keir Starmer tried to cut disability benefits to the tune of £5bn a year – a relatively tiny amount in the grand scheme of things – has no doubt scared the horses in No 10 and the Treasury!
Healey forced to admit Labour won’t cut benefits before election ➤
Leisa Salmons asks: “Would deregulation on business make a great contribution in fixing economic growth?”
Yes. Definitely. I was speaking to a banker yesterday morning who said that many banks would be willing to accept higher taxes on their profits if only the regulators would ease up a bit. In their words, we’re in danger of having the most robust and independent financial regulation on a sector that is in decline.
Bosses hit out at Healey’s ‘nothing’ Budget ➤
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Mike Warburton Tax Expert |
Andy Cartwright asks: “How will the proposed tax increase on savings affect normal savers?”
From April, the income tax rate on savings and rental income will increase by 4 per cent: 2 per cent previously announced plus another 2 per cent announced yesterday. The basic rate will therefore be 24 per cent, higher rate 44 per cent and additional rate 49 per cent.
It is rather like the old investment income surcharge abolished by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
How savers became Labour’s cash cow ➤
A reader who is hoping to sell their business by the end of the year asks: “Does the business asset disposal relief (BADR) change happen immediately or in April 2027? I still can’t believe it’s gone from £10m to £1m to just £500,000 now. Where are the incentives for entrepreneurs?”
The cut in BADR applies from next April, from £1m to £500,000. It amounts to retrospective legislation in my view. I entirely agree with your comments. People like you spend years developing a business only to see the goalposts move just before you come to realise all that hard work.
One in four entrepreneurs worse off after Budget despite Chancellor’s claims ➤
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David Frost Columnist and Political Commentator |
James Jones asks: “How can it be fair to double tax interest on money that has already been taxed when those of us who have worked and been responsible enough to save cannot even keep up with inflation at the rates offered?
“Is this because they like the pretence of sticking to their pledge not to raise tax (despite the threshold fiasco), or because they just hate anyone who has done anything other than sit on their backside and scrounge all their life? Or both of the above?
“I don’t want to have to sort out my self assessment tax more than once a year from 2029 just because I have some savings interest – it’s enough of a bureaucratic pain as it is!”
I entirely share your frustration. They have done this because by and large people with sufficient savings will not be voting Labour anyway, and because much of their vote is motivated by envy at the “rich” with “unearned income”.
The self assessment tax rules are a disaster waiting to happen for the self-employed. I’m entirely against the idea HMRC can just dip into your bank account, too, and all the justifications I have heard for this seem to me entirely spurious.
Self-employed workers face £17bn cash squeeze under Healey’s tax shake-up ➤ |
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Sir Patrick Stewart, who has died aged 86, made his reputation as an actor in the two decades he spent with the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1966, but he did not gain wider popular recognition until he was cast as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, which in the early 1990s became the most watched programme on American television.
Initially even the series’ creator, Gene Roddenberry, was unconvinced about “the bald English guy”. Yet with his patrician authority and sonorous voice, honed over decades spent playing Shakespearean kings, Sir Patrick won over all detractors.
Sir Patrick in Star Trek: Generations (1994) |
By way of Shakespeare and Star Trek, I, Claudius and X-Men, this shy child from West Yorkshire became one of the most imposing and beloved performers of his generation.
Read his obituary in full here ➤
Ben Lawrence: Sir Patrick Stewart turned Star Trek and X-Men into pure Shakespeare ➤
Plus, sign up to Characters, our obituaries newsletter, for a daily celebration of the ingenious, the outrageous and the brave ➤ |
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Dominic Lawson Wasn’t that one of the points of leaving the EU? Regaining control of our tariffs and trade policy Continue reading ➤
Matthew Lynn Martin Lewis is the real Chancellor Continue reading ➤
Robert Tombs If anyone should pay slavery reparations it is Ghana, not Britain Continue reading ➤ |
To make sure you don’t miss our newsletters when they land in your inbox, click here. |
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• People with ADHD can get a third off their train tickets with disabled railcards. The eligibility rules for the scheme were changed at the end of September to include people with neurodivergence or a long-term impairment.
• The Metropolitan Police ignored an offer from Thomas Markle’s ex-wife to provide further information about his alleged child sex offences, The Telegraph can reveal. The force has referred itself to the complaints watchdog over its failure to act on the accusations against Markle, 82.
• Russell Brand’s wife has told a court that it was hard “for him to be monogamous” when they started dating. She said she had found his promiscuity “difficult”.
• Manchester United’s latest loan agreements suggest Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos could seek majority control of the club from the Glazers from June 2029, potentially paving the way for a new stadium.
• The boss of Nvidia was targeted by an alleged Chinese spy as Beijing seeks to secure control of powerful chips for the AI race, US intelligence officials believe.
Jensen Huang, the boss of Nvidia, at a Taipei trade show after-party with Megaspeed executive Alice Huang in 2024 |
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Labour has promised to drive a housebuilding revolution, but many of the homes being churned out are blighted by defects, some of which pose serious safety risks. The Telegraph follows a specialist inspection team as they root out a litany of issues in a home which the owner only moved into a week ago. For subscribers only ➤ |
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The 2027 Oscars may be months away, but there’s already a strong contender for Best Actor: John Malkovich, who gives a killer performance as a CIA hitman in Wild Horse Nine. He’ll only win if he keeps his mouth shut, he tells Robbie Collin. Continue reading ➤ |
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For parents at Burnham Grammar School in Buckinghamshire, skipping a weekly coffee has been pitched as a clever way to raise hundreds of thousands for the school’s “enhancement fund”. These gentle nudges for cash have escalated into something far more coercive. From website “scan to pay” buttons to primaries expecting thousands a year just to keep the doors open, families are suddenly discovering what “free” education actually costs. Continue reading ➤ |
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Like many daughters, my relationship with my father was my earliest experience of masculinity, writes Terri Cole. I naturally wanted to feel seen, valued, protected and loved by him. When those needs went unfulfilled, I kept trying to get them met, often in all the wrong places. Continue reading ➤ |
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From receding gums to cracked fillings and shifting smiles, ageing can take a surprising toll on your mouth. Worse still, some of the damage can happen without you even noticing. Dr Martin Wanendeya, a leading dentist, reveals the warning signs to watch for and how to prevent problems before they become serious.
Continue reading ➤
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Michael Sheen has come to the fore as one of The Celebrity Traitors’ most crucial players | Credit: BBC / Euan Cherry |
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Ben Lawrence Culture Editor |
In August, several weeks before The Celebrity Traitors, I interviewed the actor Michael Sheen. I found him warm and voluble (although ridiculously tight-lipped about the hit reality show).
Yet I was disappointed by his appearance on the series. Where was the chutzpah, where was the charisma that has made the Welsh wonder one of our most celebrated thespians? I have met many actors over the years, and they are almost always tedious narcissists. Sheen, I thought, was different.
Well, clearly he has been playing the long game. As, by stealth, he has come to the fore as one of the series’ most crucial players. Indeed, he has now taken charge of the round table and is commanding the others with the same baritone-voiced erudition that made him such a hit as Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger at the National Theatre. “Vengeful Daddy is in the house,” he proclaimed in last night’s episode. How will he fare in the final?
Read our Celebrity Traitors recap here ➤
For two things to read and watch, and one thing to avoid, read on...
Book
Super-Beast: The Mysterious Life of Saki
★★★★★
This magnificent biography of Hector Munro, aka Saki, unpeels the many layers of the great writer who exposed the hypocrisies of the eternal Edwardian summer and died on the battlefields of France.
Read the full review ➤
Film
Primetime
★★★★★
Robert Pattinson atones for the sins of his terrible performance in The Odyssey with this superb thriller about Chris Hansen, a reporter on NBC whose career changed drastically when he launched a series in which paedophiles were hunted down on national television. It’s a grim, deliciously slick satire.
Read the full review ➤
Film
Wicker
★☆☆☆☆
A lonely fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) acquires a magical wickerwork husband (Alexander Skarsgård), and the result is one of the most bizarre films of recent times. Would you like to see Colman re-enact the Kama Sutra with a sentient basket? Thought not.
Read the full review ➤ |
Grammar gripesEvery weekday, Orlando Bird, our loyal Reader Correspondent, shares an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories. Orlando writes...
In Wednesday morning’s edition, I asked you to nominate the most annoying words and phrases currently in circulation. I won’t lie: I thought there might be a response or two. I hadn’t expected, however, the veritable tsunami of clichés, buzzwords, barbarisms and pleonasms that thundered into my inbox.
It came, of course, on the same day that John “Down It” Healey chose to sprinkle his Budget with some faintly grating phrases of his own, heralding “breathing space” for the “working people of Britain”. Politicians’ special way with language was a recurring target.
“The phrase I hate most,” wrote one reader, “is ‘at this moment in time’. I cringe whenever I hear it said during interviews on the radio and TV. What’s wrong with the simple word ‘now’?”
Chris Hood, meanwhile, was quite rightly riled by the widespread use of “myself” instead of “me”. He added: “Another phrase that has taken hold, mostly in sports commentary, is ‘you can’t underestimate’, when it is obvious that you can, easily.”
Another reader decried “not one word but two: ‘lived experience’”.
“The use of ‘lived’ is totally unnecessary. You have to be alive to experience something.”
Bill Scott added: “The use of ‘pre’ is out of control. You don’t ‘pre-book’. You book. You don’t ‘pre-order’. You order. You don’t ‘pre-heat’ or ‘pre-cook’ or even ‘pre-prepare’.”
The redeeming feature of these verbal habits is that, slowly but surely, people realise how irritating they are, and they begin to recede.
Susan Harrower noted: “At least every sentence preceded by ‘So’ seems to be dying out.”
Another, however, was proving stubbornly persistent: “‘Unprecedented’ really grates.” Mercifully, perhaps, that’s all from me for today, folks. I’ll be back tomorrow to bring you the best Telegraph talking points. In the meantime, you can contact me here.
Please confirm in your reply that you are happy to be featured and that we have your permission to use your name. |
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1811 | Jane Austen’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, is published
1974 | Muhammad Ali knocks out George Foreman in the eighth round in The Rumble in the Jungle
2017 | Actor Kevin Spacey issues apology after Anthony Rapp, another actor, accuses him of inappropriate sexual behaviour when he was 14
2025 | Buckingham Palace announces Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor will be stripped of all titles and evicted from the Royal Lodge owing to his association with Jeffrey Epstein (see our front page from the following day)
Birthdays: Ivanka Trump (45), Jessica Hynes (54), Juliet Stevenson (70), Rusty Goffe (78)
Plus, in the news this week, a British chocolate maker is being sued over allegations its vegan bars copy that of a mainstream competitor. Which company has filed the claim?
1. Marks & Spencer
2. Ritter Sport
3. Tony’s Chocolonely
4. Toblerone
Click one of the options to reveal the answer...
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Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including The 1% Club, Cogs, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.
Yesterday’s Panagram was HAIRPIECE. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle. |
Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow. Chris Evans, Editor
Please let me know what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback at fromtheeditor@telegraph.co.uk. |
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