Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

 When Keir Starmer gave a field to his parents, he used a “life interest trust”. This meant that, as its value grew from £20k to £300k, it was outside his parents’ inheritance tax estate. Tax Policy Associates 28 September 2025 Link UPDATE: 10am Sunday 28 September. Mr Starmer just told Laura Kuenssberg that he didn’t create a trust. That is hard to understand when The Sunday Times has been asking Mr Starmer about a trust for a month, and he at no point denied there was a trust. It also makes it hard to explain the form of words Mr Starmer used in his letter to the Parliamentary Commissioner: “I immediately gifted the land to my parents for so long as they should live”. To a lawyer, that means a trust. In 1996, Keir Starmer bought a seven-acre field behind his parents’ house so they could keep rescue donkeys. But the arrangement wasn’t quite as simple as a gift. The wording he later used suggests he created a life-interest trust: his parents could use the field for the rest of thei...

Pressure on PM to loosen purse strings threatens to squeeze public finances 26 May 2025  Daily Telegraph  Link Sir Keir Starmer risks blowing a £5bn black hole in the public finances after U-turning on benefit cuts in the face of a backbench rebellion. The Prime Minister will cost the Treasury as much as £1.5 billion by bringing back winter fuel payments for most pensioners, while up to £3.5 billion more will be lost if he axes the two-child benefit cap. A planned reduction in net migration could cost the Treasury £7 billion more, according to Britain’s fiscal watchdog. It comes as Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, braces for another bleak set of forecasts amid speculation that she will be forced to raise taxes in her autumn Budget. Left-wing Labour MPs are clamouring for the Government to loosen the purse strings, with whips seeking to head off a potentially major rebellion. Meanwhile Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, will this week attempt to outflank Labour on welfare by cal...

 Labour’s vote share fell 32.2 per cent in worrying sign before May elections GB News Published: 11/04/2025 - Link Reform UK delivered a crushing electoral blow to Labour last night with a thumping by-election win, despite a Cabinet Minister campaigning on behalf of Labour. The disruptor party scooped almost 50 per cent of the vote in the ward of Longdendale (Tameside) just east of Manchester which falls within Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds’ Stalybridge and Hyde constituency. The Cabinet Minister, who recently came under fire for his claims about his career as a solicitor, leant his weight to Labour’s campaign yesterday, but it was not enough to hold off the Reform surge. Reform’s Allan Hopwood scooped 46.6 per cent of the vote, beating Labour’s Francesca Coates into second (25 per cent) and Kieron Wild of the Conservatives (12.4 per cent). It means Hopwood has become Reform’s first councillor in Greater Manchester, a traditionally safe Labour area that elected 25 Labour mem...

I hope everyone will #BeKind and affirm her new identity. Especially those on the Left Daily Telegraph  Michael Deacon Link   A 36-year-old glamour model from Germany has announced that she’s planning to emigrate to Africa – because she’s black. Admittedly she wasn’t born black. She was born with white skin, and blonde hair, to white parents. None the less, black is how she now identifies. To this end, she has had injections of a synthetic hormone called Melanotan, which has significantly darkened her pale skin. In addition, she has changed her name from Martina Adam to Malaika Kubwa, which is Swahili for “Big Angel”. What an inspiring story. All I can say is, I hope that everyone will affirm her identity. In particular, progressives. After all, it would be terrible if progressives were to say that she isn’t black. That you can’t just “identify” as something you’re not. That this woman must be delusional. That it’s obvious just from glancing at her that she isn’t what she clai...

Boris Johnson is threatening to sack rebel Tory MPs who vote to block a No Deal exit from the European Union, it has been claimed.  The Prime Minister is set to prevent Remainer MPs within his party from standing at the next general election should they try to prevent a No Deal next week. It comes as a group of cross-party group MPs has agreed to work together to delay Brexit, which could come in the form of a no-confidence vote.  Among the rebel Tory MPs thought to be involved include Philip Hammond, 63, and former justice secretary David Gauke, 47, who has said next week may be the only chance for MPs to stop a no-deal Brexit.   Mr Johnson, 55, will treat Commons votes next week as indications of confidence in his government - disqualifying rebel Tory MPs from contesting their seats, according to Sun columnist James Forsyth.  A number of options are being touted by MPs hoping to quell the possibility of a No Deal, including a legal bid in Scotland to ...