Reeves urged to reassure MPs over public finances amid £6bn-a-year Send costs

Rachel Reeves is under pressure to reassure MPs over the state of the UK’s public finances, amid concerns that the rising cost of special educational needs and disabilities (Send) could leave a significant hole in the government’s financial buffer.Meg Hillier, the chair of the all-party House of Commons Treasury committee, said the chancellor should make clear her long-term plans for the £6bn-a-year Send bill as uncertainty grows over how it will be accounted for at the end of the decade.Reeves, who is due to appear before the committee next month, said in a letterto MPs that she plans to delay a decision until next year.City analysts said financial market investors would be concerned if some or all of the £6bn Send annual cost was deducted from the budget surplus, which the chancellor more than doubled in last November’s budget to £22bn to cushion the UK against volatile government bond markets.The spat between MPs and the Treasury comes after the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said the £6bn Send bill was unaccounted for at the budget and expected increases to the bill over the next decade posed a risk to the public finances

Starmer ousts cabinet secretary in clear-out of top team after Mandelson scandal

Keir Starmer’s attempt to shake up his top team after the disastrous Peter Mandelson scandal began on Thursday, when he forced out his most senior civil servant with a view to replacing him with Antonia Romeo.The prime minister announced that Chris Wormald was stepping down “by mutual consent” after just over a year as cabinet secretary, with Romeo almost certain to succeed him as the first woman in the job.Starmer’s decision to oust Wormald drew ire from senior civil servants over the brutality of the move. One person described the mood as “sulphurous” over the prime minister’s apparent willingness to let senior officials go.The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, said the cabinet secretary had become the “latest person Keir Starmer has thrown under the bus to save his own skin”

Who is Antonia Romeo and why is she tipped to be the next cabinet secretary?

Antonia Romeo is not a typical civil servant, according to almost everyone who has worked with or met her in a professional context.Charming, ambitious and not afraid to publicise her own achievements, Romeo was on the shortlist to be cabinet secretary a year ago when Keir Starmer opted instead for a classic “Sir Humphrey” choice in Chris Wormald.But with Wormald now forced out, the permanent secretary of the Home Office finds herself back at the top of the list of appointable candidates and the frontrunner to succeed him.Whitehall sources said earlier this week that Romeo’s appointment was the most likely option but “not nailed on” because No 10 “still don’t know what they want”. It is understood, however, that Downing Street very much intends to appoint her, subject to the civil service commissioner’s approval of the process

Union chief calls for Angela Rayner to replace Keir Starmer or risk Labour defeat to Reform UK

The head of a Labour-affiliated union has called for Angela Rayner to replace Keir Starmer, warning that Starmer risks leading the party into a heavy election defeat to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.Maryam Eslamdoust, the general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA), told the Guardian she wanted the former deputy prime minister to take charge after this month’s Gorton and Denton byelection.Eslamdoust is the first union leader to call openly for Rayner to oust Starmer, adding to pressure on the prime minister at the end of his most difficult week in office.She said: “I think it’s time that the Labour party had a woman leader. The Tories have had three women prime ministers and four leaders and we’ve had none

Chris Wormald forced out of post as cabinet secretary, No 10 confirms – as it happened

Downing Street has confirmed that Chris Wormald has been forced out of his post as cabinet secretary. It has issued a statement saying that Keir Starmer and Wormald have decided that Wormald “will stand down as the cabinet secretary and head of the civil service by mutual agreement from today”.No 10 has not announced his replacement, but it says that Antonia Romeo, the Home Office permanent secretary – who is reportedly the favourite to replace Wormald – will share responsibility for the job in the meantime with Catherine Little, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, and James Bowler, permanent secretary at His Majesty’s Treasury.A new cabinet secretary will be appointed “shortly”, No 10 says.In a statement, Starmer said:I am very grateful to Sir Chris for his long and distinguished career of public service, spanning more than 35 years, and for the support that he has given me over the past year

Jeane Freeman obituary

Jeane Freeman, who has died aged 72, held two critical roles in the SNP government at Holyrood, leading the Scottish government’s response to the Covid pandemic alongside Nicola Sturgeon and establishing Scotland’s first devolved social security system.By no means a career politician but an instinctive campaigner from the outset, she entered elected politics a decade ago, and relatively late in life, after a varied career in nursing, criminal justice and the civil service. This followed a political journey from her family’s working-class, trade-unionist roots to the progressive nationalism of the 2014 independence referendum campaign, during which she championed women’s voices and famously took on the broadcaster Andrew Neil in a viral interview about whether the union benefited Scotland’s NHS.Freeman co-founded the cross-party group Women for Independence in 2012, determined to push women’s experience to the heart of the debate that was gripping the country. Her rubric was “there’s no such thing as a stupid question”