"It's over" for Starmer

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SIX THINGS TO TALK ABOUT
Tax u-turn sparks city alarm, and political dismay | Booker Prize winner: worth a read? | Obama’s layered coffee table book | I’m a Celebrity line-up | No robot overlords just yet | Home of the Year finalist for sale

🍸 The nation’s finances may dominate political chat this weekend: the UK’s borrowing costs shot up yesterday after it became clear chancellor Rachel Reeves was planning to u-turn on a rise in income tax.

That was driven partly by improved economic forecasts, but also - perhaps mostly - by the cold, hard political reality that might be delivered on her, and Keir Starmer, if they rip up pre-election promises not to raise income tax rates.

What comes next? Higher taxes, for sure, even if the rates of income tax themselves don’t go up. Watch out for tax thresholds to be frozen - that innocuous-sounding move will raise billions all by itself, as it pulls many more taxpayers into higher bands - as well as a “smorgasbord” of taxes on everything from electric vehicles to mansions, via landlord and gambling taxes. (FT £) (Guardian) (BBC)

Politically, the u-turn has left Labour aides and MPs openly questioning the Prime Minister’s future, and the analysis this morning will not make good reading for Downing Street.

Alex Wickham quotes even one of Starmer’s oldest allies despairing: “It’s over,” the anonymous figure is quoted as saying. (🎁 Bloomberg - gift link)

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