Reform UK used GCSE results day to launch a plan for 600,000 more apprenticeships a year, funded by stripping foreign students of taxpayer-backed loans — a costing the higher education sector disputed within hours — as The Guardian revealed the party's new economic adviser has advocated privatising the NHS and scrapping the pensions triple lock. Elsewhere Ed Miliband and Israel's foreign minister traded public rebukes over settlement building, Andy Burnham brought the National Crime Agency into a waste-crime crackdown, and John Swinney defended £45,000 of business-class flights. This is UKFCP's Thursday 24 hours in politics round-up.
Burnham's government is a month old, having taken office on 20 July, and August has left the field to party launches rather than Commons business. John Healey's first Budget on 28 October is already framing the argument.
Reform stakes results day on apprenticeships, then loses control of the story
Richard Tice and Suella Braverman launched the policy in Enfield: a 30% wage rebate for small firms employing apprentices aged 16 to 18, a £2,000 retention bonus, and 600,000 extra starts a year by the end of a first term, costed at £1.5bn to £2bn over a parliament. Braverman said the party would fund it by ending student loans for foreign students and scrapping "Mickey Mouse" degrees, citing gender studies and golf course studies.
"Your success is our country's success," Braverman told students collecting results.
Times Higher Education reported the rebuttal that international students are not eligible for UK student finance. Separately, The Guardian reported that Robert Jenrick has hired Adam Smith Institute economist Mitchell Palmer, who called the triple lock unsustainable and, asked whether it was time to privatise the NHS, replied: "Well it's long past time, Steve." Reform also suspended Sunderland councillor Glenn Gibbins ahead of a court case.
Miliband and Sa'ar clash over E1 settlement tender
Miliband called Israel's tender for about 1,200 homes in the E1 area "an unacceptable and destructive act", summoned Israel's chargé d'affaires and said Britain would set out further measures within weeks, including sanctions on those participating in illegal settlement expansion.
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar replied on Thursday that he rejected "outright the statement of the UK Foreign Secretary and the patronising tone of his words", adding that no new decision had been taken because the tender process had been running for months.
Burnham brings in the NCA over illegal waste dumps
Visiting a dump in Bradford, the Prime Minister announced that sites in Kent, Surrey and West Yorkshire holding 22,000 tonnes of waste will be assessed for clearance, with fines for waste offences rising from £300 to £5,000 and the Environment Agency given greater powers to seize cash, cars and homes.
Burnham said the "toxic dumps have blighted communities for too long" and that the National Crime Agency would now work alongside the Environment Agency. A Green Party spokesperson said smaller-scale fly-tipping was the bigger problem and called for ring-fenced funding.
Powell confirms new qualification as 620,000 face resits
Seven in 10 16-year-olds passed maths and English, leaving 620,000 year 11 pupils facing a retake next year. Education Secretary Lucy Powell said the government would proceed with a "stepping stone" level 1 qualification from 2028 for those scoring grade 2 or below, describing the current system as "a hamster wheel".
Ofqual's Sir Ian Bauckham told PA that "structuring the teaching better using a qualification like that is basically a good idea". Catherine Sezen of the Association of Colleges said it should be available long before students fail their GCSEs.
Banks warn Healey off tax rises as Greens demand £19bn levy
Sky News obtained a letter sent on Thursday by UK Finance, whose members include Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and NatWest, warning the Chancellor that further banking tax rises would risk "damaging the UK's international competitiveness".
Hours later the Greens proposed a 38% windfall tax on domestic bank profits above £800m, raising at least £19bn to double the Employment Allowance for small firms. Zack Polanski said lenders were "profiteering from chaos".
Also on Thursday
- Equalities minister Bridget Phillipson said racism and sexism were "becoming normal" and accused senior Reform and Conservative MPs of racist statements; Nick Timothy rejected the charge, saying his remarks concerned religion, not race.
- Sue Gray told the Political Currency podcast that working in Keir Starmer's No 10 was "unbearable" and that she feared colleagues were recording her conversations.
- Burnham said security funding for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on their return to the UK was "a private matter", and wished them well.
- Swinney defended almost £100,000 of Scottish government spending on US visits, including £45,000 of business-class flights for himself and two aides.
- Scottish Labour leadership candidates Michael Marra and Joe Fagan set out rival pitches to succeed Anas Sarwar.
- Councils are turning to artificial intelligence as they make £3bn of cuts this financial year against a £4bn funding gap, the BBC reported.
- The Home Office published a nine-page booklet for asylum seekers covering consent, gender equality and respect in public.
- Reform's leader in Scotland, Malcolm Offord, disclosed a prostate cancer diagnosis, saying he was now "clear".
- Ed Davey said media coverage of academic Jason Arday had been "disproportionate, unfair, mean and nasty".
- Former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams accused Nigel Farage of misusing Christianity "to channel anti-Muslim feeling".
Scottish Labour members begin voting for their new leader on 28 August.
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