Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

Reeves’s ‘reckless’ failure to axe windfall tax will energise Tory and SNP Holyrood election campaigns Daily Telegraph 26/11/25 link A furious, but inevitable, row has erupted over the future of Scotland’s North Sea oil and gas industry after the so-called windfall tax on its profits was not abolished in the Budget, as had been demanded by both the Scottish Tories and SNP. The fact that the energy profits levy (EPL) has not been axed is set to play a major role in the campaign, which has already started, for the Scottish Parliament elections due next May. Thanks to what many will claim is an unholy alliance between the Tories and the SNP on this issue, only Labour now supports the continuation of the levy. That the tax would be ended in the Budget had been widely expected by political observers as North Sea oil profits have slumped alarmingly. Opponents of the levy have consistently claimed that it scares off oil companies from investing in the North Sea or in developing exis...

In Rachel Reeves’s brave new world, meritocracy is out – redistribution, welfarism and enforced equality are in Daily Telegraph 26/11/25 link This is it, the day we all dreaded, a milestone in Britain’s descent into collectivism of the most repugnant kind. We have just witnessed a monstrous Budget delivered by the worst Chancellor in living memory, an obscene mix of untruths and delusion, a farrago of bile, envy and nastiness that will vandalise our economy and ruin our society. Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer evidently lied their way to power, pledging to keep tax rises to £8.5bn and to govern as centrist technocrats; instead, they have unleashed full-blooded socialism on a country that never voted for it, raised tax by about £68bn a year over two budgets (according to the Resolution Foundation) and declared war on property rights and the productive class. Reeves’s socialism may well be reluctant, forced upon her by her own weakness, incompetence and inability to control h...

Telegraph Money reveals whether the Chancellor has left you better or worse off Daily Telegraph 16/11/25 Link Rachel Reeves has unleashed a series of tax increases and announced handouts for millions of benefits claimants. Middle-class families will bear the brunt of the Chancellor’s smorgasbord of tax raids as she attempts to plug the £20bn gap in public finances. A deep freeze on tax thresholds, a new levy for landlords and the introduction of a mansion tax are the headline-grabbing policies, but electric car drivers and savers will also be hit hard. Telegraph Money reveals who the Budget’s winners and losers are. Winners State pensioners The new state pension will rise by 4.8pc from April, thanks to the triple lock. Retirees receiving the full new state pension will be around £550 better off a year, while those who retired before April 2016 on the old state pension scheme will get an extra £440 a year. The increase means the benefit will reach £12,547 a year for the ful...

Currying favour with Labour MPs and backbenchers limits the Chancellor’s options Daily Telegraph 24/11/25 link Perhaps there is some merit in moving the main Budget event from its traditional slot in March to this week. Coming just before Christmas, there is the opportunity for the Chancellor to distribute some early seasonal gifts. Yet this year she is going to be dishing out next to nothing, apart from the already announced rescinding of some proposed cuts in welfare spending and possibly more cash for the NHS. But she appears to have been the recipient of an early Christmas gift herself. If the leaks are to be believed, when the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) reassessed the fiscal prospects, it came up with a rather less alarming number for the size of the required fiscal adjustment, aka the “black hole”. Last Friday’s poor borrowing figures will not affect this judgement. We don’t yet know what the figure is but it seems likely to be something like £20bn-30bn rathe...

Leaked polling shows ‘existential threat’ to party – and victory for Reform Daily Telegraph link The Tories would win just 14 seats if a general election were called now, according to polling circulating inside Conservative Party headquarters and leaked to The Telegraph. The research suggests the Tories would be obliterated in what one insider described as an “existential threat” to the most successful party in British electoral history. The findings – which predict that Reform UK would win a 46-seat majority – will inevitably raise serious questions over Kemi Badenoch’s leadership of the party. One Tory HQ insider said the results showed the party was in danger of “being consigned to the history books”. While Mrs Badenoch is widely recognised to have improved her performance in recent weeks, her critics complain she was too passive in her first months in charge, allowing Nigel Farage and Reform “to fill the political vacuum”. The polling, carried out by Stack Data Strategy,...

Labour may soon be no more than a metropolitan fringe movement that can only govern in a Left-wing coalition Daily Telegraph 20/11/25 link As the psychodrama over Sir Keir Starmer’s future plays out in Westminster, an equally captivating spectacle is unfolding across the last of the Labour strongholds. The second wave of the Red Wall revolt – this time in the reddest of red seats – is gearing up to be even more momentous than the first. The most “iron red” areas – the mining towns and steel seats that held strong even during Boris Johnson’s insurgency of 2019 – are poised to ditch the party of their ancestors. The tsunami that threatens to rip through the most Labour corners of the country makes the Red Wall hurricane of the Brexit wars feel like a mere breezy interlude. That seats from Doncaster to Wigan have stayed Labour since they voted for Brexit in 2016 is testament to the stickiness of the Red vote. For all the talk of realignment, Labour’s credentials as the party of ...

Europe denounces 28-point plan that would require Zelensky to give up Donbas and halve size of Ukraine’s army Daily Telegraph 20/11/25 link France has accused the US of trying to force Ukraine to “capitulate” to Russia with its latest plan to end the conflict. A 28-point proposal has been drawn up by Washington and Moscow, which would involve Ukraine ceding land to Russia and halving the size of its army. Jean-Noel Barrot, France’s foreign minister, said: “Peace cannot mean capitulation. We do not want the capitulation of Ukraine.” Several European leaders hit out at the plans, which were negotiated in secret over the last few weeks. Arriving at a European Union meeting in Brussels, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top foreign diplomat, said the proposal would now be the focus of the talks, instead of how to hit Russia’s economy and oil exports. The Telegraph on Wednesday reported that Mr Trump’s latest strategy would force Ukraine to cede de facto control of its eastern Donbas region,...

UK regulator has been sued by online message board 4chan over its enforcement of the Online Safety Act Link Daily Telegraph 19/11/25 Ofcom has claimed it has “sovereign immunity” as it seeks to fend off a US free speech lawsuit from the website 4chan. Lawyers for the regulator told a US court that there were “substantial grounds” for throwing out the lawsuit. 4chan, a notorious online message board, has sued Ofcom in the US, claiming that the regulator’s enforcement of the Online Safety Act contravenes American laws, including the First Amendment, which protects free speech. It comes after Ofcom investigated the company under the Act and fined the company £20,000, which it has refused to pay. In a notice filed to a federal court in Washington, its first response to the lawsuit, the regulator said: Ofcom is a UK public regulatory authority and has substantial grounds for seeking dismissal of this lawsuit based on sovereign immunity.” The US Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act sh...

Mahmood’s party colleagues describe her planned overhaul of migrant system as ‘cruel’ and ‘divisive’ Daily Telegraph 16/11/25 link Shabana Mahmood is facing a growing Labour backlash over her plan for the biggest overhaul of the asylum system since the Second World War. The Home Secretary is proposing fundamental reforms to increase deportations and reduce the pull factors making Britain Europe’s destination for “asylum shoppers”. However, Labour MPs accused the government of promoting rhetoric that risked “divisiveness” and fueled racism and abuse, with one claiming the plans were “performatively cruel” and “economically misjudged”. Refugee status for those granted asylum will be made temporary and reviewed every 30 months. They will be returned home if their country becomes safe, mirroring an approach that Denmark has adopted. Refugees who arrive illegally will have to wait up to 20 years before they qualify for permanent residence, four times the current timeframe. Even ...

We are stuck in a compassion trap where the productive are forced to provide for the rest of society Daily Telegraph 17/11/25 link There are two ways to raise a family in Britain. The first is the traditional route: you take a job, work until you are financially secure enough to be able to afford a stable home where your children can go to the same school for at least some period of their lives, take on a mortgage, pay for childcare, keep working, and end each day torn up about the amount of time you spend with your family. The second route is simpler. You just have children, whether or not you can afford them, and rest secure in the knowledge that the parents of the first family will also pay for yours. The so-called two-child benefit cap – now apparently for the chop – did little to alter this reality. Despite the harsh language, it never prevented families receiving larger housing elements in their Universal Credit payments, and it didn’t cap their eligibility for child bene...

Former deputy prime minister ‘offering Cabinet roles to MPs in exchange for support’ Daily Telegraph 15/11/25 link Angela Rayner is laying the ground for a leadership challenge against Sir Keir Starmer. The former deputy prime minister and housing secretary is already offering Cabinet roles to MPs in exchange for their support, The Telegraph has been told. A source familiar with Ms Rayner’s moves said she was “on manoeuvres” and was “getting her ducks in a row” for a leadership bid, adding: “The unions will back her and help her.” Ms Rayner has also joined Tribune, a pressure group of MPs on the soft Left of the Labour Party, led by the architects of the welfare rebellion. Senior figures in the group say it currently has 70 members but is on course to reach 100, making it the biggest caucus of Labour backbenchers. It could be used as a leadership vehicle for a candidate in the future. Ms Rayner was forced to resign from her Cabinet roles in September after The Telegraph rev...

Once again, hard-working Britons will be squeezed for the handouts Labour needs to buy support from the benefits class Daily Telegraph 14/11/25 link If you were trying to cause a fiscal crisis, your plan of action might look something like this. First, stage two embarrassing climbdowns on welfare that make it clear you can’t push spending cuts past your MPs. Second, brief out wildly contradictory stories on taxation for weeks prior to a Budget, appear to settle on a large tax rise to fill a looming black hole, then suddenly walk it back, making it clear that there’s no mandate for tax rises either. Finally, engage in a public bout of infighting between the leader and the rivals jockeying for his job, adding an element of political risk to the whole process. To give them their due, Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer probably aren’t deliberately trying to sabotage Britain (although whether we could tell the difference if they were is an open question). The problem is simpler: they’r...

Chancellor reportedly rules out move after backlash Daily Telegraph 13/11/25 link Rachel Reeves has reportedly dropped plans to increase income tax at the Budget. Sir Keir Starmer and the Chancellor are said to have about-turned on the manifesto-breaking proposals to increase the tax after weeks of mounting speculation. The apparent reversal comes after Ms Reeves gave a rare pre-Budget speech earlier this month in which she warned everyone “will have to contribute” to improving Britain’s finances. But suggestions that the Chancellor would increase income tax, breaching a clear manifesto promise, had prompted concerns from backbench MPs about trust in the Government. The Financial Times reported on Thursday night that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had been informed of the change of course. A separate report from Bloomberg suggested Ms Reeves had conducted the about-turn after the OBR said the gap in the nation’s finances was only around £20bn rather than above £30b...

This is a highly risky strategy, but it remains one of the few avenues for the Prime Minister to take if he wishes to survive daily Telegraph 12/11/25 link It is reported today that Keir Starmer will stand firm against any colleague who hopes to challenge him for the leadership of his party and the Government. That’s fighting talk, and only gives credence to rumours that a challenge is indeed imminent. Every potential challenger is, naturally enough, spending a lot of time and effort denying that they are about to wield the knife: if Number 10 thought that defying demands for the Prime Minister’s resignation was going to calm things down, they know better now. Yet there are those who suspect that Starmer has initiated the John Major strategy of leadership. In 1995, Major’s Conservative government languished in the polls behind a Labour Party revitalised by Tony Blair’s leadership. Rumours swirled of plots to remove him, just as his predecessor, Margaret Thatcher, had been usur...

Chairman Samir Shah’s tone in letter to MPs appears to downplay seriousness of doctored Trump speech at heart of crisis Daily Telegraph 10/11/25 Link Samir Shah, the BBC chairman, is facing questions of his own about the broadcaster’s bias scandal in the light of a letter he sent to a committee of MPs. The letter is regarded by some in the corporation as overly defensive in tone, even apparently seeking to downplay the seriousness of the doctored Donald Trump speech at the heart of the crisis. Mr Trump is threatening to sue the BBC for $1bn (£760m) after a Panorama documentary was edited to make it appear as if he incited the Capitol Hill riot in 2021. Rather than issuing an apology to the US president, Mr Shah has told BBC News only that he is considering it. Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary who is in charge of hiring and firing BBC chairmen, has been closely following developments and must now decide whether Mr Shah’s response has been adequate. Mr Shah’s letter was sent...