UK politics live: No 10 rejects new accusations over Taylor Swift ticket and police escort row

Customers are being urged to “urgently” pressure MPs over a post-Brexit wine tax dubbed Rishi Sunak’s “sneaky Sauvignon surcharge”.

Major wine companies such as Majestic have asked customers to write to their member of parliament to highlight the issue before Rachel Reeves‘ Budget at the end of this month – to “get this ill-conceived policy stopped before it is too late”.

A post-mortem examination has confirmed Alex Salmond’s cause of death as a heart attack, the Alba Party has said.

Mr Salmond, who was Scotland’s first minister from 2007 until 2014, died suddenly in North Macedonia on Saturday aged 69.

The former first minister had made a speech at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy Forum in the city of Ohrid before collapsing at lunch in a crowded room.

The Scottish and UK governments are working together to repatriate the ex-SNP leader’s body.

Conservative MP David Davis, who was a friend of Mr Salmond, called for the RAF to bring Mr Salmond’s body back to the UK.

The Alba Party, which Mr Salmond founded in 2021 after leaving the SNP, said it expected an update on his return on Monday evening.

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves had pinned their success on achieving economic growth in the UK. But critics have said that outside planning reforms there has been little on offer for businesses and more to be worried about especially with increased workers rights.

With the the chief executives of many of the world’s biggest businesses in London Ms Reeves had to give a concrete promise about what “stability” means for them and how it makes Britain a good place to invest.

By capping corporation tax she takes away some of the concerns about the Budget on 30 October where the language so far has suggested Labour are going after the rich. But she also provides some long term assurance for businesses wanting to invest in the UK.

This is also true of her agreeing to keep Rishi Sunak reforms like full expensing and research and development tax breaks.

The government said a total of £63 billion of investment was committed to at a major summit in London.

The deals announced at the International Investment Summit would help create nearly 38,000 jobs, the Department for Business and Trade said.

The Labour government said the figure more than doubles the £29.5 billion committed at last year’s Global Investment Summit under Rishi Sunak’s leadership.

The Tories have claimed some of the announcements already made by the Government were in the pipeline before Sir Keir Starmer took office.

The Government will “turbocharge” the UK Infrastructure Bank by converting it into the new National Wealth Fund, the Chancellor has announced.

Rachel Reeves told the International Investment Summit: “Today, we are creating the National Wealth Fund and making it the UK’s new impact investor.

The National Wealth Fund will catalyse tens of billions of pounds of private investment into clean energy and our growth industries, like green hydrogen, carbon capture and storage and gigafactories.

“From today, we are turbocharging the UK Infrastructure Bank, which will operate as our National Wealth Fund. It will be headquartered in Leeds with a bigger team, more freedom and an expanded suite of financial instruments and more economic risk capital to ensure that the National Wealth Fund’s investments can be even more catalytic.”

The Government will cap corporation tax at 25 per cent for the rest of the Parliament and set out a roadmap on business taxation to provide “certainty” for investors, Rachel Reeves has announced.

The Chancellor told guests at the International Investment Summit that the Government would “create a tax system that supports wealth creation and increases business investment”.

She said: “I know that providing certainty is right at the heart of that. The constant changes that we have seen in corporation tax in recent years have caused instability.

“So at the Budget, this Government will be outlining a corporate tax roadmap. We will cap the rate of corporation tax at 25%, the lowest in the G7, for the duration of this Parliament.

“We will maintain a world-leading capital allowances offer, with full expensing and the £1 million annual investment allowance, and we will maintain the current rates for the research and development reliefs which provide generous support for innovation.

“This is a vital step to deliver certainty and support businesses to grow.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced a new British Growth Partnership within the British Business Bank (BBB).

The partnership is expected to help bring institutional investors such as pension funds together with the BBB to make long-term, fully commercial investments by the end of 2025.

Encouraging British pension funds to invest more in the UK was a key goal of the previous government, and one the new Cabinet is also pursuing.

BBB chief executive Louis Taylor said: “By establishing the British Growth Partnership, the bank will encourage more UK pension fund investment into the UK’s fastest growing, most innovative companies.

“In addition, reforms to the bank’s financial framework, putting our £7.9 billion commercial programmes on a permanent footing, means we can flexibly reinvest our investment returns over the long term to increase growth and prosperity across the UK.”

British economic instability has ended and the new Government is bringing investment and jobs back to Britain, the Chancellor has said.

In a speech closing Monday’s International Investment Summit, Rachel Reeves told the world’s biggest businesses they can look forward to “a true partnership” with the new Government as it works to boost growth.

She said: “When we said we would end instability, make growth our national mission and enter a true partnership with business, we meant it.

“The decisions which lie ahead of us will not always be easy. But by taking the right choices to grow our economy and drive investment we will create good jobs and new opportunities across every part of the country.

“That is the Britain we are building.”

Delivering on a manifesto promise, Ms Reeves announced that the existing Leeds-based UK Infrastructure Bank will be transformed into the National Wealth Fund (NWF) with £27.8 billion to invest in clean energy and growth industries.