Overview
- Financial Times reporting, cited across coverage, says Chancellor Rachel Reeves has made a late U-turn on a planned Income Tax rise that would have breached Labour’s manifesto pledge.
- The Evening Standard says the reversal rattled markets and left a large gap in the fiscal plan that now needs to be filled by other measures.
- Internal tensions escalated as senior Labour figures pressed Keir Starmer to remove No.10 chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, with claims of a toxic culture inside Downing Street reported.
- Health Secretary Wes Streeting publicly accused Downing Street insiders of trying to undermine him, called the behavior juvenile, and reaffirmed his loyalty to the Prime Minister.
- Some ministers are described in the Daily Mail as discussing if and when Reeves should be replaced, while separate commentary links a recent growth contraction to policy uncertainty.