Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

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...

The Brexit party may be prepared to work with the Conservatives through a “non-aggression pact” if the only way of achieving a “clean-break” Brexit was a general election, Nigel Farage has said. Seeking to put clear blue water between his party and the new Brexiter-dominated government, Farage reminded a rally near Westminster that Boris Johnson had voted for Theresa May’s deal with Brussels on the the third occasion it came before MPs. “That raises a very big question. Can you trust Boris Johnson on this question?” he asked more than 500 of the Brexit party’s prospective parliamentary candidates. He also railed against the “globalists” in the Labour party and evoked loud boos at the mention of Jeremy Corbyn and the Scottish National party. Farage said the backstop – the device intended to ensure there would be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland – was “the worst deal in history”. “Mr Johnson, if you insisted on leaving with the withdrawal...