Politics LIVE: Musk's X pays Farage £5,400 for viral posts as Reform UK takes swipe at Labour and Tories - 'We are being transparent!'

Rachel Reeves 'flees to China' as UK growth forecast slashed and Cabinet colleague admits: 'She's LOST THE PLOT!'

Rachel Reeves has been dealt a major blow after a group of economists warned that surging borrowing costs could stifle Labour's plan for growth.

Goldman Sachs' James Moberly said the UK economy will now only grow by a meagre 0.9 per cent in 2025, down from the two per cent predicted by the Office for Budget Responsibility at the time of the Budget in October.

Higher interests rates, made worse by surging borrowing costs, seemingly worsened the fiscal situation facing Britain.

Speaking while the Chancellor travels to China, Moberly said: "We expect higher yields to act as an additional headwind to growth via household remortgaging and weaker investment, with the increase of the last few days worth around 0.1 percentage point of additional growth drag this year."

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Lib Dems warn Badenoch 'bottling' local elections after hammer blow in Blue Wall

Kemi Badenoch is "bottling" the 2025 Local Elections, a Liberal Democrat source has claimed.

The insider, who was speaking after the Liberal Democrats defeated the Tories in yesterday's North Devon by-election, said: “It’s no wonder the Conservatives are trying to delay these elections when we’re beating them in former Tory safe seats like North Devon.

“Kemi Badenoch is bottling it and trying to cancel these local elections because she's terrified of more Lib Dem gains and a Conservative collapse that would threaten her leadership.

“She could step in and ask Conservative councils not to delay, instead she’s sat on her hands. It’s sad to see this so-called defender of free speech now refusing to give voters a voice.”

The Liberal Democrats received 38.1 per cent of the vote, six-points ahead of the Tories.

Reform UK also cemented its position in third, with 17 per cent of Instow voters backing the populist party.

Rachel Reeves spent thousands on media training while hiking taxes and removing Winter Fuel Payment

Rachel Reeves spent thousands of pounds on media training for ministers at the same time as hiking taxes for millions and removing Winter Fuel Payments from pensioners.

Four departments - the Treasury, the Department for Health, the Foreign Office and the Scotland Office - spent more than £18,000 in the six months since the election on media or voice training.

A further 13 departments did not make any spending. The figures were uncovered by a series of questions in Parliament submitted by Conservative MP John Cooper.

The spending on media training came as the Government took decisions to remove the Winter Fuel Allowance from millions of pensioners and hiked taxes in the Budget last October.

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'She's fled to China!' Tories pile pressure on Reeves over decision to jet off to Beijing

'She needed to come to the Commons yesterday to explain how she is going to get growth and not get on a plane and flee to China'

Harriet Baldwin slams Rachel Reeves amid market chaos, saying her Budget 'is what has caused all these problems in the first place'. pic.twitter.com/QgWwC5ZNbK

— GB News (@GBNEWS) January 10, 2025

Tory grandee Dame Harriet Baldwin has slammed Chancellor Rachel Reeves over her decision to jet off to Beijing.

Reeves faced fury in the House of Commons yesterday after going ahead with her China visit.

MPs were particularly frustrated as the visit comes after the UK's market was rocked by a series of negative news, including a surge in UK borrowing and sterling's slump against the dollar.

Speaking to GB News this morning, Baldwin said: "She needed to come to the Commons yesterday to explain how she is going to get growth and not get on a plane and flee to China."

'She's right to go!' Nandy defends Reeves's Beijing visit as sterling slumps

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has defended Rachel Reeves after the Chancellor was urged against visiting China to address the UK's precarious economic position.

Speaking to Sky News this morning, Nandy said it was “absolutely” the right decision for the Chancellor to go to Beijing.

Nandy also stressed that Reeves is “relentless in her pursuit of growth”.

Starmer considers Siddiq replacement as corruption scandal deepens

Senior allies of Sir Keir Starmer have been mulling over who could replace Tulip Siddiq if she is forced to quit over her links to her aunt's ousted Bangladeshi regime.

The development, as reported in The Times, comes after Siddiq referred herself to the independent adviser on ministers’ interests amid concerns about her use of several properties linked to her aunt's party.

Financial-crime officials at Bangladesh’s central bank have demanded bank-account details for Siddiq and seven of her family members

Alistair Strathern, Imogen Walker, Callum Anderson, Kanishka Narayan, Rachel Blake and Josh Simons have reportedly been earmarked for the role.

However, a No10 spokesman said it was “completely untrue” to suggest the party had drawn up a shortlist.

'Back under union control!' Badenoch blasts 'Corbynite' Starmer over plans to undo Tory reforms

Kemi Badenoch has warned the UK is "back under union control" after Labour voted to undo academy freedoms introduced by the Tories in the 2010s.

Speaking to The Telegraph, the Leader of the Opposition said: “This is not good for schools, and what it is showing is that Labour are just doing what the unions want them to do.

"The country is back under union control, and that’s what we are fighting against.”

Badenoch also described the Government as "Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party fronted by Keir Starmer".

Reeves 'flees to Beijing' while UK faces 1970s-style debt 'nightmare'

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has jetted off to Beijing despite being warned the UK faces a 1970s-style debt "nightmare".

Reeves, who was urged to cancel her trip by MPs yesterday, left the UK as the pound sunk to a 15-month low against the dollar and borrowing rates rose to a 27-year high.

Martin Weale, a respected former member of the Bank of England’s rate-setting monetary policy committee, told Bloomberg News: "We haven’t really seen the toxic combination of a sharp fall in sterling and long-term interest rates going up since 1976. That led to the IMF bailout."

He added: "So far we are not in that position but it must be one of the Chancellor’s nightmares."

Nigel Green, chief executive of financial advisory firm deVere, also said: "The Chancellor’s inability to reassure markets is fanning fears of an economic implosion, with austerity looming as the only option to restore credibility – a brutal throwback to 1976."