Home secretary rejects Zarah Sultana’s claim Labour failing to improve lives – UK politics live

<p>Sultana announced on Thursday she was quitting Labour to join Jeremy Corbyn’s Independent Alliance</p><p><em>My colleague <strong><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/lauren-almeida">Lauren Almeida</a></strong>, who is running the Guardian’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2025/jul/04/trump-tax-bill-uk-electric-car-economy-ftse-business-live-news">business live blog</a>, has shared the following:</em></p><p><strong>Rachel Reeves</strong> has not given herself enough fiscal headroom to manage public finances, <strong>Charlie Bean</strong>, the former deputy of the <strong>Bank of England</strong> has said, and has to “neurotically fine tune taxes”.</p><p>About £10bn – that’s a very small number in the context of overall public spending. Government spending is about one and a quarter trillion so £10bn is a small number … and it is a small number in the context of typical forecasting errors.</p><p>You can’t forecast the future perfectly both because you can’t forecast the economy and you can’t forecast all the elements of public finances …. The forecasts are imprecise and there is no way you can avoid that. That is a fact of life.</p><p>In light of reports of atrocities committed by the Israeli government in Gaza and reports of the UK’s collaboration with Israeli military operations, it is increasingly urgent to confirm whether the UK has contributed to any violations of international humanitarian law through economic or political cooperation with the Israeli government since October 2023, including the sale, supply or use of weapons, surveillance aircraft and Royal Air Force bases.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/jul/04/jeremy-corbyn-zarah-sultana-independent-alliance-labour-keir-starmer-rachel-reeves-uk-politics-latest-news">Continue reading...</a>