Newslinks for Friday 19th December 2025

UK borrowing rises to second-highest level ever – a record beaten only during the pandemic

“Government borrowing over the past eight months surged to its second-highest level despite tax receipts accelerating after Rachel Reeves’s first two budgets, official figures showed. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Friday that the government borrowed £132.3 billion between April and November, up by £10 billion over the same period last year. It was the second-highest total recorded for that period, beaten only in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, which necessitated a surge in government spending to support the economy… The body said that tax revenues climbed by £25 billion over the past eight months to £516 billion, led by a rise of £21 billion in national insurance payments and £14 billion in income tax receipts. Spending rose by £55 billion to £736 billion over the same period, pushed up by a £15 billion increase in benefit payments. Reeves, the chancellor, announced a £25 billion payroll raid on businesses in her first budget in October last year, which took effect in April. In her second budget, delivered last month, she extended a freeze on income tax thresholds, which is projected to raise nearly £10 billion in additional revenues.” – The Times

• No wonder they don’t want us to vote! Grim figures show Rachel Reeves’ raking in £5.5bn more tax in November BEFORE the Budget raid – but splurging on benefits and higher spending – Daily Mail
• UK suffers only deal-making slump in Europe as Labour hammers confidence – Daily Telegraph
• Rachel Reeves’s stamp duty raid rakes in an extra £900m – The Times

Comment:

• No reprieve for Reeves: Never mind the spin on inflation figures – we still don’t feel any better off – Ruth Sunderland, This is Money
• Keeping taxes low is good for growth and cuts the cost of living – but Reeves doesn’t seem to have a clue – The Sun says
• Devastation of the jobs apocalypse revealed: It’s about to get worse – Alex Brummer, Daily Mail
• Slash business rates or the high street will be wiped out – Ros Morgan, The Times

> Yesterday:

Labour’s running scared of voters

“Keir Starmer was last night accused of ‘running scared of the voters’ as he paved the way to cancel elections across the country. In an extraordinary move, Labour invited 63 councils to postpone next year’s local elections, which are widely seen as a litmus test for Sir Keir’s faltering leadership. The move would rob more than 10million people of a vote in May. And with half the councils involved run by Labour, it could limit the party’s losses and boost Sir Keir’s chances of survival. In some areas, the elections are being postponed for a second consecutive year, meaning councillors could go seven years before finally facing the voters. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage likened the move to the actions of a ‘dictator’, adding: ‘Only a banana republic bans elections, that’s what we have under Starmer.’ Fellow Reform MP Lee Anderson said the Prime Minister was ‘frit’. Tory elections spokesman Sir James Cleverly said Labour was ‘running scared of the voters’, adding: ‘They thought they could completely overhaul local government and stack the deck in their favour. They were wrong. Earlier this month, Labour cancelled mayoral elections and now they are at it again with council elections, fiddling the democratic process to serve their own political interests.’ Conservative justice spokesman Robert Jenrick said: ‘Even during the pandemic elections were not cancelled for a second year running. Slashing jury trials. Cancelling elections. These are the hallmarks of a Government that doesn’t trust the people.’” – Daily Mail

• Local elections could be delayed again for millions of voters – The Times
• Local elections set to be postponed for millions more – Daily Telegraph

Comment:

• Sir Keir Starmer’s lessons from Down Under for 2026 – Patrick Maguire, The Times
• Labour postponement of mayoral elections is an abuse of democracy – The Times View
• My lesson from 2025: Reform is much more vulnerable than it appears – Gaby Hinsliff, The Guardian

> Today:

> Yesterday:

Phillipson blocks safe spaces for women

“Bridget Phillipson is blocking the publication of trans guidance that would force business and public bodies to protect women-only spaces. The Women and Equalities Secretary has given a statement to the High Court describing the proposed rules as “trans-exclusive” and has failed to sign them off more than three months after receiving them. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance was drawn up following a landmark Supreme Court ruling that only biological women are women under equality law. In her High Court submission, Ms Phillipson says that banning transgender women – biological males – from women’s lavatories would also mean women could not take their “infant sons” into changing rooms at swimming pools. She argues that the EHRC guidelines are discriminatory; that the Supreme Court ruling on biological sex mainly concerned maternity rights, and that there are already “many entirely plausible exceptions” to a single-sex rule. In April, the Supreme Court ruled that sex under the Equality Act means biological sex – which has been interpreted as meaning that trans women (people born as men) must be excluded from single-sex spaces such as women’s changing rooms, lavatories and hospital wards. Businesses and public bodies are awaiting new guidance from the EHRC that explains their legal requirement to protect single-sex spaces as a result.” – Daily Telegraph

• Government says trans rules must have commonsense exemptions – The Times
• Labour minister Bridget Phillipson BLOCKS new ECHR guidance on women-only spaces on the grounds they are ‘trans-exclusive’ – Daily Mail
• Women and Equalities Secretary blocks women-only spaces as ‘trans-exclusive’ – Daily Express

Comment:

• Labour’s plan to lecture schoolboys will not protect women and girls – Kemi Badenoch, Daily Telegraph
• Labour’s plan to fight violence against women and girls is cowardly and useless – Miriam Cates, Daily Telegraph

News in brief:

• Labour’s violence against women plan is empty posturing – Joan Smith, UnHerd
• Talk of war is political performance art – Chris Bayliss, The Critic
• Kemi Badenoch is right to call for more defence spending – Eliot Wilson, The Spectator
• Britain’s inflation fixation has gone too far – Damian Pudner, CapX