Newslinks for Wednesday 26th November 2025

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Budget 1) Dirty dozen taxes to squeeze middle classes

“Middle-class families face a “dirty dozen” tax rises in the Budget as Rachel Reeves expands the welfare state. After abandoning plans for the first increase in income tax rates since 1975, the Chancellor will instead impose a string of other tax rises that will mostly be borne by middle England. Freezing income tax thresholds for two more years will cover much of the revenue-raising as she seeks to plug a £30bn gap in the public finances and raise her buffer to balance the books. Higher taxes on properties worth £2m and above, a new pay-per-mile scheme for electric vehicles, an increased rate of dividend tax, raised gambling duties and a raid on pension contributions are also among measures expected to be unveiled. The combined impact of freezing income tax thresholds and raiding pension contributions would cost a typical middle-class family nearly £1,600 a year, according to calculations by the wealth manager Quilter. The money raised by Ms Reeves will be used to fund higher benefits for families with more than two children as well as increases in welfare payments that are likely to outstrip private sector wages next year… Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, branded the package of 12 or more tax rises a “dirty dozen”. He said: “Rachel Reeves is dressing up a dirty dozen tax hikes as fair and compassionate – but working people can see the truth. It looks as though this Budget will dodge all the tough choices, punish those who play by the rules, and proves Labour still can’t be trusted with the nation’s finances.”” – Daily Telegraph

  • Rachel Reeves takes aim at workers, savers and pensioners in budget – The Times
  • Taxes on work, pensions, houses, taxis, milkshakes, hotels & having fun will ALL go up in Reeves’ brutal Budget today – The Sun
  • Reeves’s pay-per-mile tax ‘risks becoming poll tax on wheels’ – Daily Telegraph
  • Tourist tax to be introduced across England – Sky News
  • Irn-Bru could be forced into ANOTHER recipe change amid plans for new sugar tax – The Sun
  • Uber and Bolt warn of 15% fare increase from ‘taxi tax’ plan – The Times
  • Rachel Reeves set to cut annual cash ISA limit to £12,000 in Budget – The Independent

Comment:

  • This is how Rachel Reeves could save tens of billions without raising taxes – Philip Johnston, Daily Telegraph
  • Do us all a favour, Rachel Reeves: don’t bleat about misogyny – Libby Purves, The Times
  • If Rachel Reeves thinks all her critics are misogynists, how come so many women like me think she’s useless? – Sarah Vine, Daily Mail
  • Youngsters are a bigger loss than non-doms – Alice Thomson, The Times
  • The last chance guide to beating the Budget – Jeff Prestidge, Daily Mail

> Today:

Budget 2) To pay for more spending and benefits

“Rachel Reeves will raise taxes today to fund handouts worth thousands of pounds to Britain’s biggest jobless families. Official figures show the Chancellor’s flagship Budget plan to scrap the two-child benefit cap will be worth more than £14,000 a year each to 18,000 low-income families with six or more children. The move comes as a study by the Adam Smith Institute finds the average earner will see almost £2,000 of their taxes go towards Britain’s spiralling benefits bill this year. Ms Reeves is expected to hike taxes by around £25billion today as she blames the Conservatives, Brexit and Donald Trump’s tariffs for knocking the economy off course. But she will also take a series of measures that will increase the bloated welfare bill, including scrapping the two-child cap at a cost of £3.5billion a year. The benefit cap limits means-tested benefits such as universal credit and child tax credit payments to the first two children, costing affected families a typical £3,455 in lost benefits for each additional child. Figures produced by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show that 470,000 families are now affected by the policy. About 59 per cent have at least one adult in work, leaving almost 200,000 in which no-one has a job. Almost two-thirds (297,000) have three children, while a quarter (117,000) have four. A further 37,000 affected families have five children, while 18,260 are listed as having ‘six or more’. This morning, the Chancellor acknowledged Brits were ‘angry at unfairness’ in the economy as she promised to create a Budget for the ‘British people’ to build ‘a fairer, stronger and more secure Britain’… It comes as Tory policy chief Neil O’Brien said those with six or more children were in line for a windfall worth more than £14,000 a year.” – Daily Mail

  • Benefits madness as 18,000 families with SIX children set to get extra £14k – Daily Express
  • Reeves betraying voters with benefits giveaway, say Labour MPs – Daily Telegraph
  • The five million Brits paid NOT to work and they could be about to get a pay rise – Daily Express
  • Benefits claimants banned from BMWs and Mercedes under Motability scheme – LBC News

Comment:

  • Is money tight or is there plenty? Reeves’s Treasury doesn’t seem to know – Mark Wallace, The i
  • Public sector wages frozen, worker rights bill scrapped and benefits bill cut… the Budget Rachel Reeves should deliver – Trevor Kavanagh, The Sun
  • We can take budget pain — but only if we are told why – Daniel Finkelstein, The Times
  • Rachel Reeves proves once again she’d rather squeeze working Brits than rein in Labour’s runaway spending – The Sun Says
  • 13 things Reeves could do in the Budget to fire growth – but won’t because Socialists don’t understand economics – Alex Brummer, Daily Mail

> Today:

> Yesterday:

Labour’s leaked plans to do away with jury trials

“Juries will decide only murder, rape or manslaughter cases under a shake-up of the legal system which could signal the beginning of the end for trial by jury. The majority of cases will be heard by a judge alone, except for the most serious or those deemed to be in the “public interest”. In a memo seen by The Times, David Lammy, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary, wrote to other ministers and senior civil servants in all government departments this month to say that there was “no right” to jury trials in the UK and that drastic action was needed to cut the backlog of cases in the crown courts in England and Wales. Lammy’s decision to create a new tier of court in which serious criminal offences will be tried by judges alone goes well beyond the recommendations of Sir Brian Leveson, who was commissioned to review the criminal courts and reported in July. The move will require primary legislation, which is planned for early next year… Lammy’s note to Whitehall indicated that the government was going to remove the lay element from trials involving many serious offences. The move will be highly controversial. Senior criminal justice figures have already described the plan as “the biggest assault on our system of liberty in 800 years” and suggested that it would lead to “star chamber” justice. The Star Chamber, which sat between the 15th and 17th centuries and comprised judges hearing cases alone, has become synonymous with arbitrary and even secretive rulings. Another criminal justice figure said that the move drove “a coach and horses through the idea that this government cares about ordinary people”.” – The Times

  • Lammy to scrap juries for most crimes, despite calling them ‘fundamental to democracy’ – Daily Telegraph
  • Leaked David Lammy memo reveals jury trials will be scrapped except for killers & rapists in plan to clear backlog – The Sun
  • Justice secretary wants jury trials scrapped except in most serious cases – BBC News

Comment:

  • Removing jury trials is a democratic outrage – Matthew Scott, The Spectator
  • The right to trial by jury is an ancient British freedom. It is a terrible loss – Telegraph View

North Sea oil and gas decline

“North Sea operators are set to spend more on demolishing disused oil and gas platforms than on finding new reserves, a report has warned. Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), the industry trade body, said the cost of dismantling old platforms and removing defunct pipelines would reach £3bn a year by 2028, having already surged to a record £2.1bn last year. At the same time, investment in new oil and gas is expected to plummet to £2.6bn – undershooting the spend on decommissioning by about £400m. The reversal is driven by Ed Miliband’s ban on new oil and gas fields, plus the Government’s 78pc tax on offshore profits. The measures mean many operators are accelerating decommissioning, slashing investment and quitting UK waters, says the research. OEUK said 2028 was a “critical inflexion point for operators and the supply chain” as demolition jobs overtake spending on hunting new energy reserves. The decline of the North Sea is accelerating rapidly with around 2,000 wells set to be decommissioned over the next decade, the trade body predicts.” – Daily Telegraph

  • North Sea exploration rules to be relaxed in new Labour plan – BBC News
  • Equinor plans 250 oil and gas exploration wells in Norway by 2035 – The Times

Comment:

> Today:

News in brief:

  • Starmerism was always doomed to fail – Ed West, The Spectator
  • This isn’t a plan for business, it’s a Budget to save Reeves’ job – Sacha Lord, CityAM
  • Assisted suicide is not more important than the law – Eliot Wilson, The Critic
  • Can Britain escape its housing trap? – Peter Apps, UnHerd
  • Keir Starmer may be in office, but he is not in power – Bruce Anderson, CapX

The post Newslinks for Wednesday 26th November 2025 appeared first on Conservative Home.



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