UK politics live: Labour warned National Insurance hike could torpedo plan to get millions back to work

Sir Keir Starmer has been criticised for failing to hit back at Elon Musk’s persistent attacks on the UK government.

The owner of X, previously Twitter, has described Sir Keir’s administration of going “full Stalin” over inheritance tax proposals for farmers.

He was also outspoken during the summer riots and shared the right-wing “two-tier” policing conspiracy theory.

Carla Denyer MP, co-leader of the Green Party, told HuffPost UK it was a “no brainer” and in the UK’s interests for the prime minister to respond to Mr Musk.

She said: “Elon Musk’s ramblings are getting more outlandish and alarming by the day.

“And he will no doubt be demanding his reward for helping Trump back into the White House.

“The lack of criticism from the UK government over both Trump’s and Musk’s recent comments suggest Starmer may be hedging his bets on which way to turn - across the pond to the White House, or over the channel to Brussels.

“This should be a no-brainer.

“Our economic interests, our core values and ethics, not to mention our joint commitment to tackle the climate and nature crises, mean we must distance ourself from the Trump-Musk axis and strengthen our relationship with our European partners.”

The Conservatives have criticised the government’s plan to cut the welfare bill and said they are dodging difficult decisions on sickness benefits.

Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “This latest announcement shows that Labour are not prepared to take the tough but necessary choices to bring down the benefits bill.

There is no attempt to match the £12bn in welfare savings we promised in our manifesto. They have even dodged the difficult decisions on sickness benefits, which are needed to make the welfare system sustainable in the long term.

To get people off benefits you also need jobs for them to go to. But Labour’s disastrous anti-growth budget is already making businesses think twice about taking people on.”

Employment minister Alison McGovern has been on the media round this morning talking about the government’s plans to slash the welfare bill and get Britain back to work.

Sky’s Kay Burley pressed the minister on if people who cheat the benefits system are criminals. Ms McGovern responded that there was some “dreadful criminal activity” while the Tories were in power, including theft by groups of organised criminals.

Asked about the public more generally, she said that nobody should be signing themselves off sick from work if they are not unwell.

She told the broadcaster: “Unfortunately, people have stolen from the state, and we’re bringing forward proposals to deal with that.”

An employment minister squirmed live on television as she was confronted with Sir Keir Starmer‘s comments on benefits fraudsters.

In an article for the Mail on Sunday, the prime minister wrote that the public would see the government “get to grips with the bulging benefits bill blighting our society” and pledged to “crack down hard on anyone who tries to game the system, to tackle fraud so we can take cash straight from the banks of fraudsters.”

When questioned if she considers people who sign themselves off work to be criminals, Alison McGovern asked if the question was quoted from Sir Keir and did not say whether she considers this to be criminal activity.

Sir Keir Starmer could hike taxes on American staples including Harley Davidsons, Jack Daniel’s whiskey and Levi’s jeans if Donald Trump targets the UK with tariffs.

The prime minister has been urged to “Trump-proof” Britain after the president-elect overnight threatened to unilaterally impose massive levies on imports to the US on his first day in office.

“On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25 per cent Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders,” Mr Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

Archie Mitchell reports

The debate on assisted dying pits advocates of compassionate choice for the terminally ill against concerns over ethical risks and potential misuse of the proposed law. Where do you stand?

The foreign secretary has said the UK is not sending troops into Ukraine, after a news report suggested that Britain and France are discussing the option.

Tensions between Russia and the West have significantly escalated in recent days after US President Joe Biden authorised Ukraine to use American-supplied long-range missiles to attack targets inside Russia.

Le Monde reported on Monday that France and the UK are “not ruling out” sending troops and private defence companies to Ukraine, citing unnamed sources.

But when he was asked about the report in an interview, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the UK’s longstanding position not to send troops on the ground in Ukraine had not changed.

“We are very clear that we stand ready and continue to support the Ukrainians with training particularly, but there has been a longstanding position that we are not committing UK troops to the theatre of action,” he told newspapers La Repubblica, Le Monde and Die Welt at the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Italy.

“That is certainly the UK position, and remains the UK position at this time.”

Asked if that included contractors, he said: “We are not committing UK troops on the ground to Ukraine, but we continue to support Ukraine with training and military assistance, and we have been absolutely clear that we will continue to do that for as long as is required and is needed.”

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said there are “no plans” to send troops to Ukraine.

Rachel Reeves has been accused by business chiefs of making it hard to invest in Britain, prompting her to insist there was no alternative.

Directly facing her critics at the CBI conference after weeks of negativity about her autumn Budget, a defensive chancellor pledged that businesses in the UK will not have to suffer another one like it before the next election.

Squaring up to her detractors, she told them: “I have heard a lot of feedback about my Budget but not any alternative suggestions.”

Our political editor David Maddox reports

Employment minister Alison McGovern has said that the pandemic generation of young people were “failed”.

Asked what would happen if people did not take up offers of employment or other help, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “When good help is offered, it is taken up, that is normally what happens. Of course, people will always think of that small minority [...] people who are not interested, they don’t want to do it.”

She added: “There are rules in the system. Those rules have got to be made to work to make sure that if you take out in the form of social security, you have to do your part of the bargain.”

Pushed further on what would happen if young people did not take up offers, she added: “My worry about this conversation is that we know that young people have a responsibility to take up support. The government under the Tories completely failed in its responsibility to actually help young people, the pandemic generation were failed.”

Ms McGovern also said it must be ensured that job centres “actually serve employers”, telling the programme that “only one in six of our employers really thinks about using a job centre, that is not OK because it means that the public employment service that’s supposed to be there to support our businesses is failing”.

Sir Keir Starmer has declared Britain “simply isn’t working” as he unveiled plans to bring more people into work and slash the country’s spiralling benefits bill.

The prime minister is planning to replace the network of Jobcentres with a new National Jobs and Careers Service, while more NHS staff will be sent to areas with higher rates of joblessness.

Young people will be offered additional employment and training opportunities, including with the Premier League, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Channel Four, while extra powers will be handed to mayors to develop their own employment plans.

Albet Toth and Archie Mitchell report