Reform UK will publish a 50-page welfare paper on Monday proposing to cut more than £50bn a year from the benefits bill and scrap Personal Independence Payment for working-age adults, its Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said on Sunday, in what the party calls the biggest overhaul of the system in a generation. Labour dismissed the plans as "fantasy economics, built on stripping support from disabled people", while attention on Reform's other flank turned to Arron Banks, who appeared to confirm he had commissioned private investigators to dig into the Conservative party chairman. This is UKFCP's Sunday 24 hours in politics round-up.
Parliament is in summer recess and Andy Burnham's government is not yet four weeks old, having taken office on 20 July. Wednesday's inflation figures will be the first hard test of a premiership built on the cost of living.
Reform puts a price on scrapping PIP
The paper, titled Making Welfare Work, would remove or modify disability payments for 2.89 million people, according to the BBC, abolishing PIP and the health element of Universal Credit and replacing them with a "Health Security Allowance" for the most severe cases. Employers would fund sick pay for two years, with firms of more than five staff required to carry insurance.
Jenrick, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, called the present system "suicidal empathy".
"This is not an epidemic of broken backs and lost limbs."
He said savings would be more than double the £23bn promised by Kemi Badenoch's Conservatives. Labour argued the plan simply shifts costs onto employers.
Banks and the party chairman
Arron Banks commissioned a private intelligence firm to investigate the Conservative party chair, Kevin Hollinrake, in addition to paying for an investigation into a journalist, the Guardian reported. The Mail on Sunday first reported the surveillance, naming Precision Risk and Intelligence, a firm Banks previously owned.
Hollinrake has led Conservative questioning of the £5m gift Nigel Farage received from the crypto businessman Christopher Harborne. "When you can't answer the questions, investigate the people asking them," Hollinrake posted. Banks replied on X: "I row my own boat." The New Statesman reported last week that Banks directed the same firm to look into the Sunday Times journalist Gabriel Pogrund; the paper called that "shameful".
Rayner moves to protect every pub
Angela Rayner will present planning changes this week giving all pubs in England protection from conversion to housing or offices, going further than a consultation that had proposed shielding only the last pub in an area. Developers will have to prove there is no reasonable prospect of a pub continuing as a going concern.
"Pubs are part of who we are as a nation," the housing secretary said, calling it "an outrage" that weak protections had let too many "slip away without a fight". Camra says 794 pubs have closed this year. The rules come into force on Monday.
Energy bills point to an inflation jump
Households face a renewed squeeze, with economists expecting official figures on Wednesday to show July inflation rose to about 2.9%, up from 2.6% in June, according to the Guardian. The main driver is the 13% rise in Ofgem's price cap, which added £221 to the average annual bill.
"The cost of living squeeze is set to return to the headlines," said Thomas Pugh of RSM UK. Investec put the cap's contribution at 0.5 percentage points. July's RPI figure will also set next year's rail fares, with no confirmation of whether the fares freeze introduced last November will be extended.
Also on Sunday
- Women's Aid warned that Friday night's national wildfire emergency alert, sent to millions of phones, may have endangered domestic abuse survivors who use concealed second phones; a government spokesperson said it followed "a direct request from fire and rescue services".
- British-made drones have been used in deep strikes inside Russia over the past six months, including on refineries at Volgograd and Yaroslavl, the Sunday Times reported; the Ministry of Defence said it was committed to providing "the equipment Ukraine needs".
- More than 31,000 people, including several MPs, signed a Good Law Project petition urging Burnham to hold a public inquiry into alleged media harassment of the academic Jason Arday; Lord Woolley said Arday "felt hounded to death".
- A former Afghan police officer named in the 2022 Ministry of Defence data leak has received Taliban threats after Britain rejected his resettlement application, the Guardian reported; the MoD said each application is considered case by case.
- The Fabian Society and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation urged Burnham to have the Fair Work Agency prosecute firms using "bogus" self-employment, saying 4 million gig economy workers miss out on sick pay and unfair dismissal protection.
- A Somali man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a stabbing at a hotel used to house asylum seekers, according to Sky News.
Reform publishes its welfare paper on Monday, the same day Rayner's planning changes take effect.
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