Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces difficult choices in this week’s Spending Review, which sets the budgets for all government departments over the next few years. The review will confirm how much taxpayers’ money will be spent on the NHS and other public services used by millions. It will also set out how much money the government...
Laura Kuenssberg Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg•@bbclaurak BBC The next few days are vital – “one of the last moments to weave it all together – to look politically credible to the people Labour has lost”, one senior figure reckons. There have been huge fights inside government about the looming Spending Review. As I write,...
Kevin Peachey Cost of living correspondent, BBC News Getty Images The government’s partial U-turn on winter fuel payments will be in place so more people receive the allowance this winter, the chancellor has said. Rachel Reeves cleared some uncertainty by announcing that “more people will get winter fuel payment this winter”. However, details of how...
Billions of pounds of investment in transport infrastructure in England are set to be announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Wednesday. The money will be spent on tram, train and bus projects in mayoral authorities across the Midlands, the North and the West Country. The move comes before the government’s spending review next week, which...
The day Germany’s new leader entered office will now forever be remembered for a very public failure. Friedrich Merz’s initial, shock defeat – in his bid to become chancellor – sparked hours of chaotic uncertainty. A man who’d been working to project strength and purpose instead became mired in political intrigue and division. Merz may...
This had to be an unwelcome surprise for the Master of the Old Magoo. Friedrich Merz has spent his whole life massaging the various super-sized egos along the path of his political career, fawning at the feet of such Christian Democrat (CDU) luminaries as Angela Merkel, to reach the pinnacle of German political power –...
Paul Kirby Europe digital editor Reuters Germany’s conservative leader has unexpectedly fallen short of the numbers needed to form a majority in parliament to become chancellor. Friedrich Merz needed 316 votes in the 630-seat Bundestag but only secured 310, in a significant blow to the Christian Democrat leader, two and a half months after winning...
The status of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine leads in Tuesday’s Metro, under the headline “Putin’s brutal peace offering”, as air strikes directed by the Kremlinb continue. The paper cites Ukrainian reports that the Russian military injured 74 people – among them 14 children – in strikes on homes and a hospital, on the...
