![\"Kalyeena](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792665370_370_Kalyeena_Makortoff,_L.png\")
Kalyeena Makortoff<\/p>\nBarclays boss indicates that he accepts bank taxes will rise in budget, suggests that’s ‘bearable’, and backs HealeyKalyeena Makortoff<\/p>\n
Kalyeena Makortoff is the Guardian\u2019s banking correspondent.<\/p>\n
CS Venkatakrishnan, CEO at Barclays, seems to have admitted defeat over bank tax hikes, which are expected to be a headline measure in Healey\u2019s budget next week.<\/p>\n
When asked whether the bank might consider tilting assets or investment out of the UK and to the US – where it also has operations – as a result of higher taxes, Venkatakrishnan gave his full backing to the chancellor.<\/p>\n
He told reporters:<\/p>\n
double quotation markI recognise that the chancellor and the government has been entrusted with an important duty by the public and the people. And they have to balance a host of considerations. He [Healey] is the man in the arena, and I deeply respect the responsibility he bears on his shoulders and wish him well.<\/p>\n
His long term goal is the same as our long term goal, which is to get growth.<\/p>\n
Second, we are already a bank, which makes, effectively, half of our money elsewhere [outside] the UK. And so this is not a question of a financial hit to us. It\u2019s bearable. It is a question of proportion and it\u2019s a question of market signaling. But as I said, I deeply respect the responsibility that the chancellor has and he has our full support and backing.<\/p>\n
Bank bosses have been lobbying intensively against bank tax rises since narrowly escaping higher levies during last year\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n
That includes JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon, who said earlier this year he could scrap plans for a new \u00a33bn London headquarters<\/a> if the UK government became hostile to banks. News of the tower \u2013 which will house more than half of its 23,000 UK staff \u2013 was unveiled just days after former Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves spared the sector of further tax rises in her 2025 autumn budget.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n Gender pay gap continuing to decline, ONS says<\/p>\n The Office for National Statistics has also published a report on the gender pay gap<\/a>. It says:<\/p>\n double quotation markThe gender pay gap for full-time employees has continued to decline in the UK. It was 6.8% in April 2026, down from 7.2% in April 2025. This compares with 9.4% a decade ago and 16.4% 25 years ago.<\/p>\n This chart shows the pay gap trend over time.<\/p>\n Pay gap \u2013 trend Photograph: ONSPay gap – figures Photograph: ONSShare<\/a><\/p>\n Patrick Maguire was not the only person to interview John Healey yesterday. Robert Peston, ITV\u2019s political editor, spoke to the chancellor too, and he has written a blog<\/a> about the most interesting points to emerge. This is what Peston says about Healey\u2019s comments about the banks. (See 10.41am<\/a>.)<\/p>\n double quotation markSecondly, I asked Healey whether he sees the banks as making excessive profits, which would be the coherent justification for him to increase the surcharge on bank profits \u2013 as he is expected to do in the Budget next week.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cYou know the banks are the engine of investment in this country. The banks are doing well at the moment and that is good to see.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s good for Britain \u2013 and the budget is where I\u2019ve got decisions to take across the economy, across the tax system. I will set those out on Wednesday next week.\u201d<\/p>\n This sounded like he will increase the surcharge but doesn\u2019t have an economic rationale for doing so.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Survey shows ‘significant increase’ in proportion of adults in England and Wales experiencing domestic abuse, ONS says<\/p>\n There has been a \u201csignificant increase\u201d in the proportion of adults in England and Wales who have experienced domestic abuse, the Press Association report. In its report on today\u2019s crime figures (see 9.54am<\/a>), PA says:<\/p>\n double quotation markSome 9.6% of people aged 16 and over are estimated to have been the victim of domestic abuse in the year to March 2026, or around 4.7 million people.<\/p>\n This is up from 7.8%, or around 3.8 million people, in the year ending March 2025.<\/p>\n The rise indicates \u201creal change\u201d in the prevalence of domestic abuse and is a \u201csignificant increase\u201d, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which carried out the survey.<\/p>\n The jump has been driven by a rise in partner abuse, experienced by 7.9% of people aged 16 and over in the latest figures, compared with 6.1% in the previous year.<\/p>\n Some \u201cminor changes\u201d to the way the survey is carried out are likely to have influenced the size of the increase, the ONS said.<\/p>\n But their best assessment is there has been a genuine rise in the level of domestic abuse.<\/p>\n While there has been a jump in the prevalence of partner abuse, figures for family abuse are broadly similar, at 2.8% of adults in the year to March 2026, compared with 2.7% in the previous 12 months.<\/p>\n Meghan Elkin, ONS head of crime statistics, said: \u201cWhile minor survey changes and the usual uncertainty around gathering data on this sensitive topic are likely to have affected these estimates, our assessment is that the rise in domestic abuse includes real change.<\/p>\n \u201cMore data points are needed to further understand the uncertainty and what this tells us about trends in domestic abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Badenoch criticises government for not sending minister to speak at Police Federation conference<\/p>\n Kemi Badenoch has criticised the government for not sending a minister to address the Police Federation\u2019s conference.<\/p>\n Addressing the federation this morning, she said she was \u201cnot scared to wade in\u201d and not scared to \u201cback the police\u201d.<\/p>\n She told the audience:<\/p>\n double quotation markToo often these days, we fail to recognise sacrifice and service. Whether it\u2019s hounding brave and elderly veterans through the courts, hounding police officers who try to do the right thing, or even ordinary members of the public who step in to help only to find that they\u2019re in trouble themselves.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no wonder the people in this country are becoming too scared to wade in, too scared to do the right thing. Well, I am different. I am not scared to wade in, and I am not scared to back the police.<\/p>\n I think it is telling that for two years in a row, the Labour government has not sent anyone to address this conference \u2013 not the policing minister, not the home secretary.<\/p>\n But Badenoch also said she would not promise police officers a big pay rise.<\/p>\n double quotation markNow, I know that you would also like a massive pay rise as well.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sorry that I can\u2019t promise that just yet \u2013 at least not on day one.<\/p>\n I am not going to stand here and promise something without a plan to pay for it.<\/p>\n Too many politicians have done that, and it only leads to disappointment.<\/p>\n Kemi Badenoch speaking at the Police Federation conference at the Novotel London West, Hammersmith, this morning. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau\/PAShare<\/a>Criminals who refuse to attend sentencing face losing prison privileges under new rules<\/p>\n Offenders who refuse to face their victims\u2019 families in court for sentencing could be stripped of privileges or kept in cells for weeks under government changes granting wider powers to judges in England<\/a> and Wales, Geneva Abdul reports.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Barclays boss indicates that he accepts bank taxes will rise in budget, suggests that’s ‘bearable’, and backs Healey Kalyeena Makortoff is the Guardian\u2019s banking correspondent.<\/p>\n CS Venkatakrishnan, CEO at Barclays, seems to have admitted defeat over bank tax hikes, which are expected to be a headline measure in Healey\u2019s budget next week.<\/p>\n When asked whether the bank might consider tilting assets or investment out of the UK and to the US – where it also has operations – as a result of higher taxes, Venkatakrishnan gave his full backing to the chancellor.<\/p>\n He told reporters:<\/p>\n double quotation markI recognise that the chancellor and the government has been entrusted with an important duty by the public and the people. And they have to balance a host of considerations. He [Healey] is the man in the arena, and I deeply respect the responsibility he bears on his shoulders and wish him well.<\/p>\n His long term goal is the same as our long term goal, which is to get growth.<\/p>\n Second, we are already a bank, which makes, effectively, half of our money elsewhere [outside] the UK. And so this is not a question of a financial hit to us. It\u2019s bearable. It is a question of proportion and it\u2019s a question of market signaling. But as I said, I deeply respect the responsibility that the chancellor has and he has our full support and backing.<\/p>\n Bank bosses have been lobbying intensively against bank tax rises since narrowly escaping higher levies during last year\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n That includes JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon, who said earlier this year he could scrap plans for a new \u00a33bn London headquarters<\/a> if the UK government became hostile to banks. News of the tower \u2013 which will house more than half of its 23,000 UK staff \u2013 was unveiled just days after former Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves spared the sector of further tax rises in her 2025 autumn budget.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Healey argues his budget will refute Andy Haldane’s claims about Tory policies being better for growth than Labour’s<\/p>\n Here are some more lines from Patrick Maguire\u2019s interview with John Healey in the Times<\/a>. This passage sums up the overall picture very well. Maguire writes:<\/p>\n double quotation markSo what is the chancellor now concentrating on? One could be forgiven for thinking him utterly unreconstructed: a party man and proud of it. There is no such thing as Healeyism, he says when the conversation turns to Anthony Crosland\u2019s evangelism for the mixed economy: \u201cI\u2019m just Labour.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJust Labour\u201d is exactly what the bond markets fear \u2014 and, indeed, it is what gives Kemi Badenoch hope of pulling off a comeback to rank alongside Lazarus and Bobby Ewing for utter implausibility.<\/p>\n As explained earlier, while not going into specifics, Healey was keen to present himself as someone reducing the burdens facing businesses \u2013 especially smaller businesses. (See 9am<\/a>.) But here are some other lines.<\/p>\n Healey argued that his budget next week would refute the claim made by Andy Haldane, the former Bank of England chief economist, about Labour not having the right policies to promote growth<\/a>.<\/a> In an article for the Financial Times, Haldane said Conservative policies were better for the economy, partly because they were more likely to support \u201ccuts to business and employment taxes and regulation to unleash animal spirits\u201d. In his write-up, Maguire says:<\/p>\n double quotation markIt was Haldane who also said<\/a>, memorably and mercilessly, that the markets had concluded that this was a \u201ctraditional tax-and-spend socialist government with better TikTok videos\u201d. At Westminster, this sort of criticism is at risk of curdling into thick and immovable consensus. What does Healey say to that? \u201cI\u2019d say to Andy Haldane,\u201d he growls, fixing me with a cold stare, \u201cspeak to me next Thursday.\u201d And, for the record, he speaks explicitly of \u201cmaking an argument for how you bring welfare costs down\u201d \u2014 albeit not via the \u201ccrude cuts\u201d that were Starmer\u2019s undoing.<\/p>\n double quotation mark[Healey] is \u201cacutely conscious\u201d, too, of the \u201ctrade off\u201d between an ever-increasing minimum wage \u2014 particularly for the youngest workers \u2014 and levels of employment.<\/p>\n He knows the many businesses who \u201cwant to employ young people\u201d sometimes cite that upward ratchet as a reason they cannot.<\/p>\n Healey defended the part he played in bringing down Keir Starmer. Healey resigned from Starmer\u2019s government over defence spending, and this contributed to the loss of support for Starmer in the parliamentary party that led to him standing down. Referring to this period, Healey said:<\/p>\n double quotation markThe country was ready for a change \u2026 Wherever you stood on the spectrum of the [parliamentary Labour party], there was a recognition that we needed a change.<\/p>\n He also argued that changing leader had been good for the party.<\/p>\n double quotation markWe have a very rare moment now. We\u2019re in the middle of a parliament, the second half of a parliament, and we\u2019ve got a chance of a new hearing. People are at least willing to listen again \u2026 the Labour party is actually quite determined and disciplined, and in any party, the second half of a parliament starts concentrating minds.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Robbery up 10%, while overall crime rates generally going down, ONS figures show<\/p>\n The Office for National Statistics\u2019 latest report on crime figures<\/a> is out. It covers crime in England and Wales in the year ending June 2026 and it starts:<\/p>\n double quotation markCrime against individuals and households has generally decreased over the last 10 years with some notable exceptions, such as fraud.<\/p>\n This chart shows some of the key figures. The crime survey figures are based on what people tell researchers about the crimes they have experienced; the other figures related to the crimes reported to the police.<\/p>\n Crime figures Photograph: ONSShare<\/a><\/p>\n At this stage of the budget process, John Healey<\/a> has almost certainly made all his key decisions. But, just in case he hasn\u2019t, he could try our budget interactive. It allows you to make a decision on some of the options facing the chancellor, and then it will tell you what the impact would be on budget headroom, and how the markets and the polls might react.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Healey accepts Labour has put a \u2018lot of pressure\u2019 on business and says helping entrepreneurs will be a budget priority<\/p>\n Good morning. A week today John Healey, the chancellor, will be doing a media round defending the budget he is presenting on Wednesday next week. Ahead of that, he has given an interview<\/a> to Patrick Maguire from the Times. As you would expect, there is no real detail in it about the measures he will be presenting to MPs. But the big picture message is very clear \u2013 and quite surprising, coming from a chancellor serving a PM who in some respects is steering left compared to his predecessor. Healey says that he wants to be on the side of bloody-minded entrepreneurs who make a profit, he acknowledges that government has made their life harder over the past two years, and he suggests that cutting the \u2018cost of living\u2019 for business is just as important as cutting the real cost of living for families.<\/p>\n In the quote that gives the Times its splash headline, Healey says:<\/p>\n double quotation markI want to be a chancellor who backs business in Britain making a profit, and those entrepreneurs who, in the end, are the ones who challenge the status quo, come up with innovative ideas and are trying, some of them through sheer bloody-mindedness, to keep going through these sorts of pressures \u2026<\/p>\n If you\u2019re not making a profit, you\u2019ve got nothing to put back into the business. And for the people who start up these businesses, the ones who really thrive and grow, they have to make a profit \u2014 and they will be much more inclined to put it back into their own business. But we want it to grow here and stay here.<\/p>\n Times splash. Photograph: The Times<\/p>\n And this is what he says about the government has recently been putting \u201ca lot of pressure\u201d on business.<\/p>\n double quotation markIf you talk to any of the businesses that have come in and have either had one-to-ones or round tables with me, I have recognised that in recent times there\u2019s been a lot of pressure: employment law, regulation, tax, input costs, supply chains.<\/p>\n And so when I talk about the cost of business, and recognising that in the same way as we\u2019re recognising the cost of living pressures, I\u2019m conscious of that as I go into the budget for both businesses and households.<\/p>\n All chancellors \u2013 including all Labour<\/a> chancellors \u2013 say they want to help businesses make a profit. But many people in the business community suspect that, when they face fiscal pressure, Labour government will usually default to treating business as a cash machine.<\/p>\n Healey\u2019s comments about wanting to be seen as \u201ca chancellor who backs business\u201d and about how tax rises and the Employment Rights Act have increased costs sound like an implicit rebuke to Rachel Reeves, his predecessor. In his interview Healey defends her decision to increase employer national insurance, saying she had to deal with the \u201cdereliction of duty\u201d of the last Tory government on the economy. But Healey still gives the impression of wanting to be seen as markedly more pro-business than Reeves.<\/p>\n In his interview Healey does not give details of how he will cut costs for business next week. But, in his write-up, Maguire says:<\/p>\nKalyeena Makortoff<\/p>\n