Thousands being relocated to UK in £850m scheme after personal data leak of Afghans who supported British forces – UK politics live

<p>Dataset containing details of thousands of Afghans who applied for relocation to UK released ‘in error’ in 2022 by defence official</p><p><strong>Helen Miller</strong> is taking over as director of the Insitute for Fiscal Studies thinktank this week, taking over from Paul Johnson, who established himself as the nation’s leading budget commentator.</p><p>Budget commentary tends to focus on the Treasury’s fiscal rules, on how much “headroom” is available to Rachel Reeves (spare cash in the budget – based on spending plans and anticipated tax revenue, based on the OBR’s growth assumptions), and whether tax or spending plans need to change because the OBR’s forecasts have shifted.</p><p>Labour came to office with the promise of a ‘mission-driven’ government – a commitment to long-term thinking and systemic reform. The ambition that we should be ‘raising our sights as a nation’ and finding ways to tackle the big challenges we face is the right one.</p><p>Despite this, we continue to limp from fiscal event to fiscal event, obsessed with whether run of the mill revisions to the economic and fiscal outlook have reduced the fiscal headroom and whether tax or spend takeaways will follow. We need to break out of this cycle.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/jul/15/starmer-reeves-farage-trump-tax-welfare-uk-politics-live-news-updates">Continue reading...</a>