“I’m just sick of this. Where were these people when Labour won 11 per cent of the vote in Caerphilly? Get real guys! Get a grip!” @PatrickkMaguire has had enough. 📻 thetimes.com/radio | @HugoRifkind

Labour would prefer to increase taxes than get a grip of government spending - including the spiralling welfare bill. This comes down to choices. Will Rachel Reeves stick to her word and be a faithful or will she break her promise and be a traitor.

I'm always delighted to see my beautiful constituency used as a filming location. From 'The Crown' to 'The Traitors', there's nowhere like it. A little history of Ardross Castle, ahead of tonight's final. Claudia Winkleman if you need any help next season, you know where I am.

The growth in AI-generated music is crazy - Now 34% of all daily uploads on Deezer (at least) - Up from 10% in January - Mostly (70%) made for fraudulent reasons You upload a track then build a bot to listen to over and over again to generate royalties. All too easy

The people smuggling operation in Dunkirk is a network of middlemen across the UK and Europe – Jason Farrell & I travelled to witness how small boat crossings across the Channel are managed. First, you've got to buy lifejackets from the local Decathlon...

BREAKING: Clive Lewis offers to give up his Norwich South seat so Andy Burnham can stand, oust Keir Starmer and become PM.

Two tier policing: - When a Palestine protest gathered to chant outside a synagogue on Sunday, the Met Police said: "there is no legal mechanism to ban the protest" - But somehow they DO have the power to ban tomorrow's long-planned farmers protest at the last minute.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has left Number 11 to deliver her Budget to the UK House of Commons.

NEW: Grim economic forecast by OBR Growth is down, inflation is up, taxes hiked. Taxes up by £26 billion by 2030. Taxes will hit 38% of GDP in 2030 - the highest in history

Confirmed by the OBR: Reeves will freeze personal tax thresholds - raising £8 billion in 2029/30. That means around 780,000 more people will pay the basic rate, and 920,000 more will pay the higher rate.

BREAKING: 🔴 The OBR forecasts UK real GDP growth of 1.5% in 2025, easing to 1.4% in 2026, and then running at about 1.5% a year through to 2030. 🔴It has cut its medium‑term productivity assumption, so potential output growth is now put at roughly 1.5% by 2030

🔴Real GDP per head is expected to grow by about 1.1% a year on average, with unemployment staying near 5% in the mid‑2020s before edging down towards 4% by the end of the decade

BBC Breaking News BBC News (UK) Here are some of the spending measures: removing the two-child limit on benefits - costs the Exchequer £2.3bn next year, rising to £3.5bn from in 29/30 - but as a result ADDS £4.5bn to the budgets of millions of the poorest families in the country.

The reversal in July of the Spring Statement 2025 policy to tighten the qualifying criteria for the daily living component of personal independence payment, which was due to affect claimants from November 2026, is forecast to cost £3.9 billion in 2029-30.

Reeves' further big increases in tax mean taxes in 2028/29 are now £83.2 billion a year higher than what Reeves inherited - That's £1,214 per person, or £4,857 for a family of four.

Dividend tax up 2 points. Cost to entrepreneurs: £1.2bn a year. Labour’s message to small businesses? “Thanks for the jobs - now hand over more cash.”

As Dominic Cummings says: 'The system is working as intended'. North Wales' top cop will retire for a single day before being reappointed to her role so as to protect her pension, because continued service beyond 30 years reduces the pension pot value. northwaleschronicle.co.uk/news/25688727.…?

All the signs point in the same direction: Brussels is about to delay five years to 2040 its full ban on gasoline and diesel cars. New loopholes are being negotiated to keep plug-in hybrids and other cars with internal combustion engine-based extenders on the road beyond 2035.

Ukraine on the front line - completely covered in fiber optic cable - like a spider web. Tell me you understand drone warfare - you really don’t.

I accompanied the National Farmers' Union President to his meeting with the PM and the Defra SOS. Today's change on IHT for farmers and family businesses more generally is in large part down to this man's steadfast leadership and staunch advocacy on behalf of his fellow farmers. Well done Tom