Andy Burnham is considering watering down plans to implement the Home Secretary’s hardline immigration reforms, according to allies.
Under Shabana Mahmood’s plans, the time it takes for most migrant workers to qualify for permanent residence will be doubled from five years to 10 and will be applied retrospectively.
That means those who are already in the country might have to wait longer for permanent residency than they expected when they arrived in the UK.
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The benefits headache ahead for Burnham – and what he can learn from Germany
Andy Burnham after his swearing-in as an MP on Monday. Labour MPs hope his charisma can help sell any welfare reforms that are needed (Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty)
Andy Burnham faces hugely difficult decisions on the size of the military and the welfare state if he replaces Keir Starmer as prime minister.
What Britain could learn from its close ally
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a press conference in Berlin on 9 April (Photo: RALF HIRSCHBERGER / AFP via Getty Images)
Germany is embarking on major benefit cuts while ramping up defence expenditure to levels unseen since the Second World War.
As it navigates these twin spending headaches, Britain’s close ally could offer some valuable lessons to Team Burnham if they make it to Downing Street.
Germany’s ‘painful’ new austerity cuts as it faces €172bn (£148bn) black hole
A new “basic security benefit” with much harsher work requirements could reduce welfare spending by billions of euros annually.
In a bid to save €20bn a year, a plan to remove German citizens’ free health insurance coverage for non-contributing spouses was set out in April.
Payments for medicines and hospital stays will also rise.
Germany’s statutory pension insurance – the equivalent of the UK state pension – will be cut back to provide only “basic cover”.
How will Burnham cut welfare bill?
Burnham insisted he is “not squeamish” about the need to reduce the welfare bill during his Makerfield by-election campaign, but ruled out “crude” short-term cuts.
Burnham is also under pressure from some Labour MPs to end the UK’s “unsustainable” triple lock state pension promise. Alan Milburn’s youth unemployment review looks set to recommend changes to PIP so it is tied to job searches for the first time.
Big Read
4 min read
Explained
4 min read
Labour MPs hope Burnham’s charisma can help him sell reforms
[Burnham] would face the same challenge [as Chancellor Friedrich Merz]. Insurgent parties on both the left and the right are poised to capitalise on any unpopular measures he may be forced to implement
Professor John Ryan, expert in EU politics
Caption: ASHTON IN MAKERFIELD, ENGLAND – JUNE 10: Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage speaks at a press conference for the Reform candidate Robert Kenyon ahead of the Makerfield by-election on June 10, 2026 in Ashton in Makerfield, England. Local plumber and gas engineer Robert Kenyon is the official Reform UK candidate contesting the Makerfield by-election on 18 June 2026. He is the primary challenger to the Labour Party candidate, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. (Photo by Ryan Jenkinson/Getty Images)
Photographer: Ryan Jenkinson
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A closer look at the detail
In Germany, a special fund of more than €500bn (£431bn) should raise defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade. A special exemption to Germany’s normal “debt brake” rules was created for this extra borrowing and spending – the equivalent of Labour’s “fiscal rules”.
Caption: Military Working Dog (Patrol Combat Support Dog) on Exercise Spring Storm in Estonia. The British military have shown off their dogs of war in a major combat rehearsal within 25km of the Russian border. The 1st Military Working Dog Regiment, a specialist unit of the British Army under the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, joined wargames during Exercise Spring Storm. The event in May also saw some 1,500 British troops from 4 Brigade deploy to Estonia to conduct realistic battlefield training alongside other NATO member states and partners.
Photo released 02/06/2026
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Caption: Newly elected Makerfield MP and former Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham arrives at Derby Gate by the Houses of Parliament, following Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s announcement of the timeline for his resignation, in London, Britain, June 22, 2026. REUTERS/Jack Taylor TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
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Burnham appears to back greater spending on Britain’s military and he has previously suggested that fiscal rules could be changed to allow extra spending – just like in Germany.
Peter Murrell jailed for five years over £400k SNP embezzlement
The SNP’s former chief executive and Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband, Peter Murrell, has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for embezzling £400,000 from the party.
Caption: Peter Murrell arrives in a prison van at Edinburgh High Court for sentencing. The former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell admitted embezzling more than ?400,000 from his party over a 12-year period. Picture date: Tuesday June 23, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire
Photographer: Jane Barlow
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What you need to know
Sentencing, Lord Young told Murrell he had committed a “calculated crime of dishonesty”, with a “large number of fraudulent acts over a 12 year period while you were chief executive officer of the SNP”.
The revelations about Nicola Sturgeon’s recently estranged husband Peter Murrell are mind-boggling (Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Peter Murrell, former SNP chief executive and husband of ex-first minister Nicola Sturgeon, (Photo: Robert Perry/PA)
He added: “You found yourself unable to stop this offending, and it was only the detection of the crime that brought it to an end.”
What did Murrell use funds to buy?
A robotic lawnmower purchased for £3,070 was misdescribed as “legal fees” in the SNP’s accounting software.
A silver wine coaster worth £3,500 was described as “leadership expenses”.
In 2017, Murrell purchased two Bremond World Timer Alt 1 watches for a total of £9,350.55.
A £125,000 motorhome was purchased with SNP funds, and was then only driven for four miles.
A closer look at the detail
Sturgeon has said through her lawyer that she is “innocent of any crime”, while hitting out at “anonymous sources” which have tried to “insinuate guilt” on her part.
Sturgeon was arrested and questioned as part of the police investigation into the SNP’s finances, which was known as Operation Branchform, but Police Scotland confirmed she would face no action.
Explained
5 min read
SCOTLAND
4 min read
Murrell has the cash to repay the embezzled money, said his lawyer
Caption: Undated handout photo issued by Crown Office of the motorhome purchased by
Peter Murrell that was shown during a hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh, following his admission that he embezzled more than ?400,000 from the SNP. Issue date: Tuesday June 02, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Crown Office/PA Wire
NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
Photographer: Crown Office
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The court was told that Murrell wanted to repay the money as a way to make a start toward atoning for his crimes – and that the 61-year-old had sufficient funds to repay the money he embezzled.
There will be a proceeds of crime hearing on 14 September in Edinburgh aimed at working out exactly how much Murrell should pay back.
OPINION
3 min read
What motivated the crimes?
Often, there are psychological gains, such as feeling powerful or the excitement of getting away with it. Given that Murrell’s wife held a position of great power, his offending might have been a psychological attempt to address a potential power imbalance within the relationship.
Dr RUTH TULLY, CONSULTANT FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST
A police vehicle drives away from the home of Peter Murrell, former chief executive of the Scottish National Party (SNP), and his wife, Scotland’s former First Minister and former leader of the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon. (Photo: ANDY BUCHANAN / AFP)
A woman uses a shopping bag to provide shade during the hot weather near the Tower of London on 15 August (Photo: Yui Mok/PA Wire)
The temperature records set to be broken in UK this week
Significant records could be broken
35.6°C
The highest June temperature on record.
It was set on 29 June, 1957, at Camden Square in London, then equalled on 28 June, 1976, at Mayflower Park in Southampton.
40.3°C
The highest temperature ever recorded in the UK.
The figure was reached on 19 July, 2022, at Coningsby in Lincolnshire.
The UK’s highest temperature recorded in the whole of 2025 could also be exceeded
35.8°C was reached on 1 July, 2025, at Faversham in Kent.
Caption: TOPSHOT – An aerial picture shows people playing in the sea and relaxing in the sunshine on Bournemouth beach on the south coast of England on May 26, 2026, as heatwave conditions spread to parts of southeast England and London. Britain registered on Tuesday its hottest-ever May temperature on record, with the mercury rising to 35C near the capital. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP via Getty Images)
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Explained
4 min read
The impact of the extreme heat
Hundreds of schools, including in the South, East Midlands, and Wales have announced closures
South Western Railway, Avanti West Coast and Chiltern Railways are among the train companies running reduced services
Currys has seen sales of fans up 3,000 per cent and air conditioning sales up 330 per cent.
Heavy rain has caused flooding, disrupting Heathrow services on the Elizabeth Line.
Climate change intensifies ‘heat dome’
Temperatures are expected to smash the June record set in 1976 by several degrees as human-driven climate change intensifies the impact of a “heat dome” settling over Western Europe.
Caption: Tube passengers pass underneath hot weather health advice messages on LED screens outside the Canary Wharf Underground Station in London, Britain, May 26, 2026. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett
Photographer: Suzanne Plunkett
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Source: REUTERS
A man cools down with a bottle of water during the hot weather at Westminster Bridge, central London (Photo: James Manning/PA)
Overnight, the temperature did not dip below 20°C at nine locations across England, recording what the Met Office terms a tropical night.
‘London isn’t just calling. It’s cooking’
Crisis brings clarity and here in London – the city of Dickens – it is clear that our world is facing a ‘tale of two crises’. A climate crisis is pushing us deeper towards higher temperatures and closer to catastrophic tipping points, and an energy crisis exposing the folly of a world hooked on hydrocarbons.
AntÓnio GuterreS, UN SEcretary-GENERAL
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres holds a press conference about the escalating war between the US/Israel and Iran at the United Nations Headquarters on 14 (Photo: John Lamparski/Getty)
Caption: Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of U.S. journalist and television host Savannah Guthrie, who went missing from her home in Tucson, Arizona , U.S. February 1, 2026, poses with Savannah in an undated photograph. Courtesy NBC/Today/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. MANDATORY CREDIT
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WORLD NEWS
Note sent to media claims Nancy Guthrie died after ‘kidnap’
A note sent to the media following the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie claimed she had died, according to reports.
Here is everything we know so far.
How the disappearance unfolded
Nancy Guthrie, mother of NBC’s Today show host Savannah, was reported missing on 1 February.
Blood was found near her doorstep and police believe she was taken against her will.
Doorbell footage showed a masked man outside Guthrie’s house.
Media outlets received a note on 6 February which said Guthrie had been inadvertently killed after the abduction, reports claim.
But the note did not offer to release her body.
On 24 February, Savannah Guthrie said they would keep hoping, even though they “know that she may be lost, she may already be gone”.
The note was not reported at the time
The second note came after an initial ransom note, sent the day after Guthrie’s disappearance, demanded millions of dollars in Bitcoin but said she was “safe but scared”.
Caption: Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of U.S. journalist and television host Savannah Guthrie, who went missing from her home in Tucson, Arizona , U.S. February 1, 2026, poses with Savannah outside Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia May 4, 2015. Courtesy NBC/Today/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. MANDATORY CREDIT
Photographer: NBC/Today
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Source: Handout
Caption: This image released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on February 5, 2026 shows the Missing Person Poster for Nancy Guthrie, mother of NBC News “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie. On February 5, detectives searching for the kidnapped mother of a top US TV news anchor said blood discovered on her doorstep belonged to the missing 84-year-old woman, in the latest twist in a case that has gripped America. Nancy Guthrie, mother of NBC News “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, is believed to have been kidnapped from her home in Tucson, Arizona, some time on the night of January 31 or on the morning of February 1, sparking a massive hunt and a race against time to find her. (Photo by FBI / AFP via Getty Images) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO / HANDOUT / FBI” – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS
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Investigators believe both notes were legitimate, but the second wasn’t made public at the time. News outlets agreed to wait so law enforcement could continue investigating the disappearance.
What Savannah Guthrie said in video appeal
We received your message and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace…This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.
SAvvanah GuthRIE
Caption: FILE – Savannah Guthrie visits the Today show at Rockefeller Plaza in New York on Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
Photographer: Charles Sykes
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The search continues
Guthrie has a pacemaker, as well as high blood pressure and cardiac issues. She requires daily medication.
The Guthrie family has offered a $1m (£760,000) reward for information leading to her recovery.
Savannah Guthrie returned to the Today show in April after two months away from work. The Guthrie family have been publicly ruled out as suspects.
Analysis
6 min read
money
The property tax changes Burnham could make
Caption: Newly elected Makerfield MP and former Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham arrives at Derby Gate by the Houses of Parliament, following Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s announcement of the timeline for his resignation, in London, Britain, June 22, 2026. REUTERS/Jack Taylor TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
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Sir Keir Starmer is widely expected to be succeeded by Andy Burnham as PM.
Burnham has been vocal in the past on changing the dial on tax. He previously told LBC that “we overtax people’s work and we under-tax wealth”, raising the idea of a “land value tax”. So how could this thinking play out once Burnham has the keys to No 10?
What you need to know
Burnham has been pushing the idea of a land value tax for several years. While running for Labour leader in 2010, he penned an article arguing for “radical reform of the tax system” and calling for an annual tax on the market rental value of land.
Andy Burnham’s northern roots might not go down well with Donald Trump. (Picture: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
The ground on which I’d so firmly planted my views is shifting, and it changed – curiously enough – in Makerfield (Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty)
He also argued at the time that the levy would allow for the abolition of stamp duty – a tax paid when you buy a home. This is because the one-off charge would be replaced by ongoing payments.
How would this work?
Exactly how a land value would be calculated and what proportion of the value would be paid in tax annually is up for debate and Burnham has not yet been clear on which details he would implement.
As a general principal, it involves taxing the land a building is on, at a proportion of 0.5 per cent, 1 per cent, or another suitable figure, rather than the building itself.
Caption: In this video grab taken from footage broadcast by the UK Parliamentary Recording Unit (PRU) via the Parliament TV website on June 22, 2026, new Labour Party MP for Makerfield, Andy Burnham is sworn in after his win in the recent by-election. (Photo by PRU / AFP via Getty Images) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – NO USE FOR ENTERTAINMENT, SATIRICAL, ADVERTISING PURPOSES – MANDATORY CREDIT ” AFP PHOTO / PRU “
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OPINION
5 min read
Are there alternatives?
One campaign which has developed a full policy on how a new property tax could work is Fairer Share. It proposes a “proportional property tax” which has been supported by multiple Labour MPs.
The tax would replace both council tax and stamp duty. Instead, homeowners would pay a 0.48 per cent levy on the value of their property. If you rent out the property you’d be charged a double rate of 0.96 per cent.
POLITICS
5 min read
Backing from Labour MPs
Fairer Share says 77 per cent of households would pay less than they do under council tax, with an average saving of £556. Any annual tax increase under the system is capped at £1,200 a year, until the home is next sold.
Caption: Estate agents ‘for sale’ and ‘let’ signs outside residential properties in Guildford, UK, on Monday, July 28, 2025. The number of UK home loans given the green light rose to a three-month high in June, as the housing market continued to shake off the impact of April’s tax hike.??Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Photographer: Bloomberg
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Source: Bloomberg
Copyright: ? 2025 Bloomberg Finance LP
It has the backing of some Labour MPs. Jonathan Hinder, MP for Pendle and Clitheroe, said: “A proportional property tax would reaffirm to ordinary people that Labour’s on their side, putting pounds in their pockets without costing government a penny.”
Would Burnham cut income taxes as a trade-off?
Burnham has said the UK overtaxes work, and undertaxes wealth, but the Fairer Share proposal is designed to offset stamp duty and council tax, so it won’t necessarily raise additional revenue. Without doing so, it is unlikely Burnham would be able to cut income taxes.
Even a 1p per pound cut to the basic rate of income tax would cost £7bn, which would need to be covered by additional taxes or spending cuts if Labour were to meet its fiscal rules, which govern its budget making.
A festival-goer enjoys the music, regardless of the rain in 2015 (Photo: Tabatha Fireman/Redferns via Getty)
Why ticket reseller StubHub is refunding thousands
Ticket reseller StubHub admitted breaking the law after customers were hit with extra fees at checkout.
It has ended the practice, known as ‘drip pricing’, but tens of thousands of fans are in line for a refund.
Here’s what you need to know.
What you need to know
Some customers who bought tickets between 5 April and 7 December 2025 were required to pay mandatory costs such as delivery and service fees when they purchased a ticket on the platform.
These apocalyptic predictions might be so unremittingly grim that they may inadvertently drive punters away (Photo: Getty)
(Photo: Karl Tapales/Moment RF/Getty).
“Hitting customers with hidden fees is illegal. It’s not fair to draw people in with what looks like a good deal, only for them to find the real price is higher when they get to the checkout,” said Emma Cochrane, executive director of consumer protection at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
The story in numbers
51,350 customers will be contacted by StubHub about an automatic refund.
£10.33 is the average payout customers can expect.
StubHub admitted breaking the law so received a 40 per cent reduction to its financial penalty.
A total fine of £889,200 was imposed by the CMA.
Can consumers trust online prices?
This isn’t really a story about £10 refunds. It’s about whether consumers can trust online pricing at all. If one of the world’s biggest ticket marketplaces can present prices that don’t include unavoidable fees, it begs the question: how widespread is this practice across live events and other digital marketplaces?
Michael Gietzen, group chief executive officer at Identity
Pay off debts where you can as a priority (Photo Illustration by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
What happens now?
The CMA is also investigating rival secondary ticket website Viagogo over concerns about hidden fees and will share an update later in the summer.
The regulator has been probing eight companies in total since November last year over their online pricing practices.
BUSINESS
4 min read
BUSINESS
3 min read
The Midlife MOT is open to all and covers three key areas: work, wealth and well-being (Photo: Westend61/Getty)
Feeling insecure at work
in your 50s? You’re not alone
The final decades of work
There’s this assumption about being put out to pasture… but now that we’re living and working longer, we have to challenge myths around ageing and remember that over-50s are a crucial part of the workforce…
LYNDSEY SIMPSON, AUTHOR OF AGE REBELLION AND FOUNDER OF 55/REDEFINED
The current situation
By 2030, almost half of all employees in the UK workforce will be over 50.
36%
Now one in three workers are over 50.
Yet more than a third of those between 50 and 69 believe that their age puts them at a disadvantage when they apply for jobs.
37%
The Age Without Limits study from 2024 shows that 37 per cent of workers between 51 to 70 felt badly treated in work because of their age.
The things to do, says Simpson
More and more people are using AI for counselling (Photo: Oscar Wong/Getty/Moment RF)
Keep learning new skills
We need the same level of career planning in
our fifties as our twenties. It’s possible to reinvent yourself again.
Embrace technology
It’s nonsense that older people can’t pick up how to use new tech.
Caption: John?r Bildbyr? AB
+46 8 644 83 30
www.johner.se
info@johner.se
sales@johner.se
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Think about money
Do you need a pay rise? Could you trade some of that money you earn, to work a bit less, and do more things you enjoy?
The things not to do
Become full-time childcare
Grandparenting on the horizon? If you don’t want to do childcare, have the conversation early – even before a child becomes pregnant – that you plan to continue working and love your job.
Caption: Indoor image of thoughtful puzzled senior woman with gray hair in glasses looking at paycheck holding head in hand, upset with high rent charge, sitting at kitchen table in front of laptop
Photographer: shurkin_son
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Source: iStockphoto
Grandparents and granddaughter gardening together – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Accept redundancy too quickly
It’s going to be so much harder to get back into work if you don’t have a plan before you take that leap.
The things not to do
Rush into retirement
Senior bed woman problem pain headache home elderly mature pain bedroom upset unhappy female caucasian adult relationship retirement old difficulty ache head sick migraine hangover sleep – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Everybody thinks early retirement is the dream but the reality can be different. There can be loneliness, lack of purpose and a sense of invisibility.
LIFESTYLE
5 min read
By November, UK food prices will be 50 per cent higher than they were at the start of the cost-of-living crisis
With that in mind, food editor Sophie Morris shares how she saves money on her weekly shop
Easy ways to save on the weekly shop
Caption: NORTHWICH, ENGLAND – JULY 06: Whole chicken sit on display in a Tesco supermarket on July 06, 2022 in Northwich, England. The British Retail Consortium recently said food manufacturers and supermarkets are having to pass on some of the cost of soaring raw materials to consumers, leading to the price of basic goods throughout the UK rising at the fastest pace since September 2008. Fresh food prices increased by 6% in the year to June 2022 coupled with an increase in inflation, and fuel and energy prices to create a cost of living crisis. This is leading to millions of low-income households going without essentials items, falling behind on bills and taking on debt. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Photographer: Christopher Furlong
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Avoid chicken breast
Boneless chicken thighs are all meat and a much tastier product.
Don’t plan everything
If you plan every meal all week, there’s no leeway for necessary last-minute changes of plan (or leftovers).
Man Cooking By Woman Chopping Carrots In Kitchen – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Governments are not all powerful when it comes to huge international forces like those increasing global food prices (Photo: Oscar Wong/Getty Images/Moment RF)
Shop alone
There are so many products that children want to fill the trolley with – all kinds of exciting eye candy. It’s cheaper to go alone.
Easy ways to save on the weekly shop
Consider a vegetable box delivery
Having a Riverford box delivery helps Morris avoid impulse buys and go to the shops
less – even though the box is pricey. “It is expensive, but of great quality and organic”.
Milk and potatoes prices are expected to increases sharply later this year, say supply chain experts (Photo: Kate Wieser/Getty)
Low carb, FODMAP diet food background with vegetables, fruits, smoked salmon, chicken fillet, greens, nuts, olives. Menu for healthy eating . – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Track your spending
It doesn’t need to be an elaborate spreadsheet but without some kind of metric, it’s impossible to spot where you
can or must make cutbacks.
Easy ways to save on the weekly shop
The supermarket loyalty schemes vary in their generosity (Photo: Paul Childs/Reuters)
Look for yellow stickers
You can save plenty
over a year by never buying branded products at full price.
Take stock
Do a quick cupboard stocktake. You might find you already have three jars of one thing.
Mid-Adult Couple Calculating Their Finances On The Laptop In The Kitchen – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
“Soft restrictions” aren’t infallible; we can always make the effort to get a ladder and get the biscuit tin down from the highest shelf (Photo: Getty)
Avoid packaged snacks
Packing fruit, biscuits, and nuts etc into a Tupperware to take out is more cost effective than buying tiny packaged portions.
Easy ways to save on the weekly shop
Be wary of DIY treats
“Faking” a takeaway at home can sound like a cheaper option, but if it’s something you don’t usually cook – that needs new ingredients – it could work out pricier.
Whatever you buy, buy British if you can. That will help boost fishermen’s finances (Photo: Betty Laura Zapata/Getty)
Caption: A customer looks at packages of chilled chicken cuts in a part-empty refrigerated display unit at a Lidl supermarket store in Walthamstow, west London, on September 21, 2021. (Photo by Tolga Akmen / AFP) (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)
Photographer: TOLGA AKMEN
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Do you need it now?
Returning a few things to the shelves that you won’t need in the near future can save you a healthy amount.
Skip a shop
Every time you make do with what’s at home,
you save big.
Supermarkets will find ways of holding down the price of the basics, and try to make their money on the fancy lines (Photo: Roy James Shakespeare/Getty)
Easy ways to save on
the weekly shop
Try a week or a month of shopping local,
and you might be surprised at the results,
in terms of cost and other benefits like supporting local businesses, and
avoiding car journeys and traffic.
Defenders of the triple Lock point to the fact pensioners are often asset-rich and income-poor. (Photo: Getty)
Go shopping when you’re not in a huge rush so you can make relaxed and informed decisions. Don’t expect to stick to your plan or make great choices when you’re in a hurry.
Mahmood insists the changes to the law, which are expected to be introduced in the autumn, are necessary because of the “historically large numbers” that arrived since 2021, dubbed the “Boriswave” by Reform UK.
Rayner among Labour MPs to oppose policy
However, Mahmood’s proposals have led to a furious backlash from some Labour MPs. Among the opponents are Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister, who said in March that it would be “un-British” to apply the changes retrospectively.
Rayner said there were people who now “fear for their future” due to the prospect of the Government “moving the goalposts”.
She argued that changing the rules would “pull the rug” from under people who came to Britain on the understanding they could stay if they worked where they were needed, obeyed the law, and paid their taxes.
“That would be not just bad policy but a breach of trust. The people already in the system, who made a huge investment, now fear for their future; they do not have stability and do not know what will happen,” Rayner added.
Burnham’s allies say he shares her concerns and is looking again at the proposal to impose the changes retrospectively. “He sees it as a matter of fairness and will not want to impose the changes retrospectively,” said one source who is familiar with the discussions.
A source close to Burnham described the claim as “speculation” and said he was “yet to make a decision”.
Migration will be a key test for Burnham if he becomes prime minister. The failure to stem small boats – even though Mahmood’s reforms concern legal migration – is considered among the reasons Reform UK are polling so well.
Although Burnham’s by-election campaign in Makerfield – where immigration was one of the key issues – is understood to have shifted his views on the Home Secretary’s reforms, he has criticised them previously.
He said last year that doubling the time it takes for migrants to qualify for indefinite leave to remain would leave people “in a sense of limbo and unable to integrate”.
However, in the days after his by-election victory, he said he backed the “broad thrust” of her reforms – but he also appeared to suggest there could be some changes to ease the impact on foreign nationals who have been in the UK for several years.
With many Labour MPs critical of Mahmood’s reforms, Burnham will need to look tough on migration while not alienating the party he has just united.
Revolt against reforms
The current Government is consulting on the reforms and reviewing more than 200,000 responses.
Downing Street has previously refused to rule out the measures being watered down in response to the consultation, following a backbench revolt against the changes earlier in the year.
In February, more than 100 MPs, peers and union leaders demanded Mahmood pause her reforms amid fears they would hit key sectors such as social care, pushing it “closer to breaking point”.
Mahmood’s allies have not ruled out the measures being watered down.
A Home Office spokesman said: “We will always welcome those that come to this country and contribute to our national life. But the privilege of living here forever should be earned, not automatic.
“But between 2021 and 2024, this country experienced levels of migration it had historically seen over four decades. We must be honest about the scale and impact of hundreds of thousands of low-skilled migrants getting settlement.
“The Government will double the route to settlement from five to 10 years. As announced in November, we are consulting to apply this change to those in the UK today but have not received settled status. We are currently reviewing the 200,000 responses and will outline our response in due course.”