Revealed: Government quietly dropped plan to prepare England for wildfires

Badenoch says Tories want policies ‘for everybody’ as she defends plan to let millionaires to get free childcare – UK politics live. Conservative leader defends plan to extend free childcare to high earners, as Tory conference begins in Birmingham today In a further exchange, Badenoch said that spending on the pensions triple lock was just “ a ledger on the budget line”. Kuenssberg said Badenoch was wrong to dismiss it like that. State spending on pensions was £177bn, she said. The reason why is because what is going wrong in our economy is not lots of elderly people earning £10,000,.

Ninety years on, the lessons of the antifascist battle of Cable Street have never felt more relevant | Sarah Sackman. With sectarian forces increasingly seeking to divide us, we must come together to fight for security, fairness and tolerance Sarah Sackman is the Labour MP for Finchley and Golders Green “ No pasarán !” – they shall not pass. It’s the rallying cry that strikes at the core of my identity. The same anti-fascist slogan heard by my Spanish grandmother, who endured the horrors of that country’s civil war, echoed in London where my Jewish paternal grandparents lived. Ninety years.

Tories pledge to remove £100,000 childcare 'cliff edge'. Party leader Kemi Badenoch tells the BBC that she wants to see "people who work harder" not getting punished for doing so.

Ministers explore how to stop regional leaders misusing planned new spending powers. Labour wants to make sure mayors and council chiefs in England can be held to account for extra revenues devolved to them Ministers are mulling over how to ensure that England’s regional leaders do not misuse their newfound spending muscle, as Whitehall prepares to devolve more revenue to local levels. Ideas under consideration include a new select committee in Westminster, enhanced reporting rules and a new audit body focused on local and regional government. Continue reading...

UK car industry faces ‘difficult trade-off’ between Chinese and EU markets. Britain under pressure to put tariffs on cheap Chinese vehicle imports ahead of protectionist trade measures Britain’s car industry is grappling with a “difficult trade-off” between China and Europe, as manufacturers struggle to balance the benefits of both markets ahead of looming trade measures that could restrict UK exports to the EU. The UK is an outlier in choosing not to put import taxes on Chinese vehicles, even as the US has shut them out almost entirely , and the EU imposes duties of up to 45% . Continue.

Burnham scraps controversial plans to curb jury trials. The key policy idea announced by David Lammy when he was justice secretary will no longer go ahead.