How can Rachel Reeves reduce inflation?

After more than three years of the cost of living crisis, Rachel Reeves is well aware of the harm inflation is inflicting on UK households – and on Labour’s share of the vote.While figures out last week suggested that the annual rate of price increases may now have peaked, the chancellor focused on its continuing human impact, saying: “For too long, our economy has felt stuck, with people feeling like they are putting in more and getting less out. That needs to change.”She has promised a range of policies in next month’s budget to “bear down on” rising costs, which could go some way to counteracting negative headlines about an expected swathe of tax rises to close an anticipated £20bn-£30bn spending gap.Reeves says the government must support the Bank of England in bringing down inflation and the speculation is that her target could be soaring “administered prices”, such as utility bills and transport fares, which the central bank cited in August as a crucial driver of consumer costs

A costly lesson for Labour in Caerphilly | Letters

The most worrying factor in the devastating result for Labour in Caerphilly is that its roots stretch further back than the election of Keir Starmer’s government in 2024. According to YouGov, in 2019, 52% of the electorate under the age of 40 voted for a Labour party led by Jeremy Corbyn. This is not because they were “looney lefties”, but because they were likely seeking something to deal with the “British crisis” that you identify in your editorial (The Guardian view on the Caerphilly byelection: Labour’s collapse in its Welsh heartland signals a wider loss, 24 October). The populism of Corbynism was not the answer to the country’s malaise, but rather a symptom of it. Nigel Farage realised this, and until those controlling the direction of Labour do likewise, its decline will continue

Reform UK expels two Kent councillors accused of ‘undermining’ its interests

Two suspended Reform UK councillors from Kent have been expelled from the party over a misconduct allegation and after the Guardian published a leaked video which revealed tensions among its county council ranks.Robert Ford and Bill Barrett were removed from the party via an email from Reform HQ on Monday, which said they had “undermined” the interests of the party and brought it into “disrepute”.Ford and Barrett sat on Kent county council alongside Oliver Bradshaw, Paul Thomas and Maxine Fothergill, who were also suspended last week. The Guardian understands Thomas, Bradshaw and Fothergill remain suspended pending investigation.Ford, a councillor for Maidstone Rural West, was suspended after allegations of misconduct in an “unofficial complaint” from several female members of Kent county council staff

Reeves to lead trade mission to Saudi Arabia amid human rights concerns

Rachel Reeves will lead a delegation of senior business leaders to Saudi Arabia on Monday as she hopes to deepen the UK’s relationship with a state that has been widely criticised for human rights abuses.She is the first UK chancellor to visit the Gulf in six years and is expected to meet senior Saudi royals, US administration representatives and global business figures.The visit comes as the UK continues its efforts to secure a trade agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which also includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The government hopes a deal with the GCC could add £1.6bn to the UK economy each year and contribute a further £600m to UK workers’ annual wages in the long term

Labour must counter ‘growing sense of despair’, Streeting warns after Welsh defeat

Senior Labour figures including Wes Streeting have said the government must show optimism and that it is bringing about change after losing a Welsh Senedd byelection amid rising concern about midterm fatigue and a loss of momentum.The health secretary warned that the party must counter a “growing sense of despair” and show voters tangible proof of change after its defeat last week in Caerphilly, a town that had been Labour for more than 100 years.Streeting’s intervention comes as Labour’s new deputy leader, Lucy Powell, begins her first week in the role. Powell has promised to give members a stronger voice inside government after a low-turnout contest that followed the departure of Angela Rayner.Powell said the government must listen to its members instead of being guided by a “narrow group of voices” as it battles to stave off electoral disaster in next May’s local elections

Lord Taverne obituary

Dick Taverne’s brief moment of political fame – or notoriety – came in 1973 when he beat Labour, the party for which he had been an MP, in a byelection in his own Lincoln constituency. It served as a precursor of the Labour party’s internecine 1980s strife and an early indication of the divisions that Europe has continued to cause in British political life.Taverne, who has died aged 97, fell out spectacularly with a leftwing faction of the local party in Lincoln, where he had been the Labour MP for a decade, over his support for Britain’s entry into the Common Market. He was deselected, but instead of quietly serving out his term he resigned, stood as a Democratic Labour candidate and won a spectacular byelection victory despite a heavyweight campaign by the national leadership to defeat him.The day after his victory, the Guardian wrote hyperbolically: “Nothing quite like it has been seen this century in British elections