Reeves orders 5% cuts across all government departments in ‘efficiency drive’
CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves has ordered 5 per cent cuts across government departments in an “efficiency drive” that resembles austerity.
Announcing the spending review, Ms Reeves said: “I have no doubt that we can find efficiency savings within government spending of 5 per cent and I’m determined to do so.”
She said the cuts would be secured by cracking down on waste and focusing on the five “milestone” policies Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer outlined in his government relaunch last week.
Those were boosting living standards, building more homes, cutting NHS waiting lists, ensuring children are ready for school and raising military spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product.
…
The 5 per cent reductions are to be achieved over three years, the Treasury said, adding that the Chancellor will “work with departments to prioritise spending that supports the milestones to deliver the plan,” indicating that areas not a “milestone,” such as welfare, will be squeezed.
Ms Reeves denied that her move replicated a similar announcement by her predecessor George Osborne at the height of Tory austerity.
Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said: “Labour call their 5 per cent cuts across government departments ‘efficiency savings.’ We call it what it is: cuts to services.
“This amounts to the continuation of the same damaging, unpopular and unnecessary policy that has so devastated our country over many years.”
…
Read the complete, original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/reeves-orders-5-cuts-across-all-government-departments-in-efficiency-drive
Doctors tell Starmer to end Britain’s complicity in Israel’s war crimes
MORE than 800 child health professionals have demanded Sir Keir Starmer put an end to Britain’s complicity in Israel’s war crimes.
In an open letter, paediatricians, doctors and academics called on the Prime Minister to end all arms export licences to Israel and impose immediate sanctions until it complies with international law.
“We continue to hear first-hand accounts, from British healthcare professionals, of the war crimes being committed by the Israeli Defence Forces, and the catastrophic health crisis affecting both the physical and mental health of children and their families,” the letter reads.
“As British citizens, how can we live to tell the tale to our children and grandchildren that we just watched innocent lives being lost?”
…
According to Oxfam, more women and children have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military over the past year than in any other conflict over the past two decades.
Israel’s bombing has targeted schools, hospitals and so-called “safe zones.”
…
Support for separation at four-year high as SNP rebound in polls
SNP is on course to retain power in Holyrood as support for independence hit a four-year high of 54 per cent, according to a new poll.
Despite a year which has seen their former chief executive facing charges related to embezzlement, the loss of a leader, a coalition with the Greens and 38 seats at the general election, research since Wednesday’s draft budget suggests the SNP are on course to win 37 per cent of constituency votes and 32 per cent on the regional lists at the next Holyrood elections in 2026.
Writing in the Sunday Times — which commissioned the Norstat poll — expert Sir John Curtice suggests this would give SNP 59 seats in Holyrood, as Labour plunge to a new low of 20, and Reform win 13.
…
Labour’s big majority is fragile and it has weak mandate for change, says report
Guardian Exclusive: Election strategy of ‘not being the Tories’ is a timebomb, says Labour-linked thinktank Compass
Keir Starmer’s focus on winning over voters from the centre-right has delivered Labour a large but fundamentally shallow electoral win and a weak mandate to deliver real change, a report from a Labour-linked thinktank has warned.
The report by Compass, titled Thin Ice, argues that Labour should be less worried about losing 2024 voters to Reform UK and the Conservatives than to the Liberal Democrats and Greens, arguing this is the greater electoral risk.
…
The Compass report sets out what it says are the fragile foundations of this victory, noting that Labour won 131 seats with majorities below 5,000, and that its total of votes won in the 31 “red wall” seats taken back from the Conservatives was actually slightly lower than in 2019.
“They won [in those seats] because they were not the Tories, because Tory voters stayed at home and because Reform split the regressive vote,” it concludes.
…
Read the original article https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/dec/08/labour-big-majority-is-fragile-and-it-has-weak-mandate-for-change-says-report
