Newslinks for Sunday 2nd November 2025

Counter terrorism police investigate train stabbings

“A counter terror probe has been launched after a knife rampage on a train left nine fighting for their lives. Two people were arrested by officers at the scene of the horror near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, with 10 victims rushed to hospital with stab wounds. Nine are believed to have suffered life-threatening injuries, while one has serious but not critical wounds. There have been no fatalities, British Transport Police said in the early hours of Sunday morning. The force has declared the attack a ‘major incident’ and is probing the stabbing spree alongside counter-terrorism police.” – Mail on Sunday

Reeves was warned by two estate agents that she would need licence to rent out home

“Rachel Reeves was warned by a second firm of estate agents that she needed a licence to let out her family home, The Mail on Sunday has been told. The Chancellor has been engulfed by scandal since the Daily Mail last week revealed that she had been illegally renting out her south London property for £3,200 a month without the proper licence. After initially telling Sir Keir Starmer she had been unaware of the rules, she was humiliated when emails between her husband and their lettings agency, Harvey & Wheeler, revealed extensive conversations about the need to secure the paperwork. Now a source has told this newspaper that before engaging that company, Ms Reeves and her husband had approached blue-chip estate agency Knight Frank about managing the property – and were warned about the need for the licence.” – Mail on Sunday

• How on earth can we believe a single word from this Chancellor? – Leader, Mail on Sunday
• The seven key principles Starmer’s government broke last week – Dan Hodges, Mail on Sunday

Budget 1) Chancellor  “to ban luxury cars for benefit claimants”

“Rachel Reeves will block sickness benefits claimants from getting subsidised luxury cars in a bid to show she remains serious about reining in welfare. The Chancellor is set to announce sweeping changes to the controversial Motability scheme this month over fears it has become “unfair” to the taxpayer. She is poised to end access to high-end marques like BMW and Audi and pare back perks such as top-of-the-range insurance and breakdown cover. Ms Reeves is concerned that Motability is offering “a premium motoring experience subsidised by the taxpayer”, which is out of reach to many working families.” – Sunday Telegraph

Budget 2) NHS capital spending “to be protected”

“Reeves will protect capital spending in the NHS — which will rise by £29 billion in real terms by the next election — and disavow what her team calls the “sugar rush” approach of George Osborne, who “always cut capital budgets … to sort out his day-to-day problem” at the eventual expense of public health and productivity. A friend said: “She rejected that at the beginning of the process.” – Sunday Times

• 1 in 3 GP partners earn more than the PM, Wes Streeting reveals – Sunday Times

Budget 3)  Council Tax “may be doubled for higher bands”

“Families face council tax bills of up to £10,000 a year under plans being considered by Rachel Reeves to double rates on more than a million homes. The Chancellor is said to be looking at proposals to apply a 100 per cent increase to the two highest council tax bands, which would predominantly hit households in London and the South East. On Saturday night, critics warned that many pensioners, who live on fixed incomes, would be unable to afford such steep increases and would end up “forced out of their homes”. It comes with Ms Reeves understood to be considering a capital gains tax raid on inherited assets, including property, as well an exit tax on entrepreneurs fleeing Britain.” – Sunday Telegraph

• Labour’s war on wealth is a slow-motion disaster – Leader, Sunday Telegraph
• The chancellor is stuck between a fiscal rock and a political hard place – Andrew Rawnsley, The Observer
• Labour’s tax acrobatics have turned into the greatest political pantomime on Earth – Mel Stride, The Sun on Sunday

Budget 4) “Working people” to be defined as those earning less than £46,000 a year

“Rachel Reeves is targeting workers earning £46,000 a year or more in this month’s Budget, as she struggles to fill a £40 billion hole in the public finances – while claiming to keep her promise not to increase taxes on ‘working people’. The Tories have seized on claims by Whitehall sources that the Treasury had solved the conundrum by defining ‘working people’ as those in the bottom two-thirds of earnings, which equates to a salary of £45,000 or less. That effectively brands the top third of earners as ‘wealthy’ – encompassing jobs such as HGV drivers, teachers and head chefs at the Wagamama restaurant chain.” – Mail on Sunday

Badenoch declares the Conservatives are ready to govern again

“Kemi Badenoch suggests the Tories are ready to govern again as she today marks one year as leader. The Conservative boss said she has been “rebuilding” the party after their hammering at the general election. Ms Badenoch added: “The Conservative Party now stands once again for what made Britain strong in the first place — responsibility, fairness, competence and pride in our nation.” Despite poor polling, she said they had raised more donations than rivals combined, adding: “We’ve exposed the hypocrisy of Labour’s behaviour and the weakness of their policies, forcing U-turns on winter fuel payments, grooming gangs and welfare cuts. “The Conservatives have shown how to fix welfare, stop the boats, cut energy bills and make work pay again.” Ms Badenoch has warned that Labour’s “fun police” tax on betting will destroy jobs and embolden black market bookmakers.” – The Sun on Sunday

Veteran who shot IRA terrorist faces fresh Troubles ‘show trial’

“A British Army veteran is being prosecuted for the attempted murder of an IRA gunman more than 50 years after the terrorist was shot, it can be revealed. Known as Soldier B, he faces trial over the shooting of Eugene Devlin in West Belfast in May 1972. It comes despite Sir Keir Starmer being urged to stop the “show trials” of Troubles veterans after a former paratrooper was cleared of murdering civilians on Bloody Sunday.” – Sunday Telegraph

• Pursuing veterans while pardoning the IRA smacks of ‘two-tier justice’ – Richard Dannatt, Sunday Telegraph

Conservatives warned deportation policy would hit their own voters

“Many of those whose official status is that they have indefinite leave to remain (ILR) can vote in general elections because they are nationals of Commonwealth countries including Australia, India, Jamaica, New Zealand or Pakistan and have the right to live in the UK after five years on a work visa or because their relatives live here. Data on ILR is patchy and doesn’t include people granted ILR before 2004, but about 2.8 million people have ILR and Oxford’s Migration Observatory estimates that 431,000 are non-EU citizens. But this policy became seen as an own goal for the Tories. “British Indians are the one group the Conservatives have been encouraged by their progress with,” said Sunder Katwala, director of the thinktank British Future. “And it’s the group with the largest number of people they were threatening with deportation.” – The Observer

Joint Conservative/Reform UK student group formed

“Last year’s freshers’ fair was a dismal time for Newcastle University’s Conservative society, with just six new students showing any interest in joining at the start of the autumn term. But this year’s event brought dozens of students showing up with renewed enthusiasm – after the Tory students merged with the Reform UK students, shrugging off a rebuke from Conservative party headquarters to do so. “Interest increased tenfold. I think we Conservatives were just becoming a bit irrelevant,” said Henry Bateson, a one-time Conservative student who switched to Reform UK and is now president of Newcastle’s merged Conservative and Reform UK society.” – The Guardian

Complaints at schools compare Reform UK to Nazis

“Reform UK has demanded an investigation after teachers at a group of leading state schools made ‘inappropriate and slanderous’ comparisons between the party and the Nazis. Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, complained after discovering that staff at the Orion group, which runs eight academy schools in south London, used a picture of him in teaching materials to illustrate ‘extremism’ – defined as activities which ‘reject British Values’. The materials also placed Reform to the right of Ukip and next to the BNP and the Nazis at the ‘fascism’ end of an illustration on the Left-wing/Right-wing political spectrum of beliefs. The secondary school lessons were for pupils in Year 10.” – Mail on Sunday

Labour warned that new towns need infrastructure first

“Labour is being urged to get shops, transport and other infrastructure sorted before breaking ground on its first new town. The Government has pledged to build at least three new towns this parliament, with 12 sites identified for development in total which could cost up to £48 billion. UK infrastructure policy adviser Mark Coates and a new report by a House of Lords committee are both calling an infrastructure-first approach to the plans. Mr Coates, who helped to deliver the Elizabeth Line and transport for the 2012 Olympics, said Labour risks creating “postcodes, not places” with the proposals. He told the Express most of the areas earmarked for development lack clear plans for rail transport links, warning this could undermine the project and also Ed Miliband’s net-zero ambitions before a single brick is laid.” – Sunday Express

Other political news

• Afghan who threatened to kill Farage mocks him in video filmed in prison – Sunday Telegraph
• Green party surging as Polanski’s social media strategy woos the young – The Observer
• Pressure UAE over Sudan massacres, MPs tell Cooper – Sunday Telegraph
• Salmond died penniless after expensive court cases – Sunday Times
• Thousands of poorest Scots to receive free weight-loss jabs in trial – BBC
• Phillipson ‘ready to take on unions’ over year 8 reading tests – The Guardian
• Military homes to be renovated in £9bn government plan – BBC
• MPs urge minister to adopt definition of Islamophobia – The Guardian
• Reform UK back automation of tube trains – Sunday Express
• BBC licence fee to rise above £180 a year – Sunday Telegraph

Hannan: Our slide into poverty is a political choice

“On current trends, our standard of living will fall behind Lithuania in five years’ time and behind the Czech Republic in six. The deadweight of taxation and debt have pushed us steadily down the league tables, from 12th place at the beginning of the century to 24th today. If nothing changes, we will fall to 46th by 2050 – a middle-income nation. Along the way, we’ll be overtaken by Romania, Georgia, Turkey and Moldova. Moldova, for Heaven’s sake. This is not some statistical trickery, some prestidigitation with numbers. We can observe the immiseration around us. We see it in the closed pubs, the boarded-up shops, the profusion of charity and low-budget outlets. We hear it in the resigned tone of young graduates sending out unanswered job applications. We feel it in the judder of unfilled potholes under our tyres. We learn it from friends who are leaving for higher salaries and lower taxes in the UAE or Australia or even Portugal. None of this is inevitable. It is the direct result of choices we have made – and, depressingly, that we continue to make.” – Sunday Telegraph

Colvile: Labour has abandoned welfare reform

“The number of people of working age claiming Pip — the main disability benefit — has risen from two to three million since 2019, and is set to hit four million by the end of the decade. Spending is increasing even more rapidly, from £11 billion in 2019 to an expected £34 billion by 2030. Back in March the view of the government — for the most obvious of reasons — was that this rise was unsustainable. Indeed ministers are still “committed to making sure the system is sustainable”. They just aren’t going to do anything about it. Instead the review will take those soaring costs as a given, rather than the symptoms of a social and financial disaster. And it will be “co-produced” with the disability lobby, which instantly precludes pretty much any of the policies that would bring the surge in disability spending, and the mushrooming caseload, under control.” – Robert Colvile, Sunday Times

News in brief

• How the Conservatives can win again – Mark Brolin, CapX
• Is the British Council worth saving? – Philip Patrick, The Spectator
• Britain must escape from the prison of foreign labour – Tom Jones, The Critic
• Why Rachel Reeves survives while Rayner fell – Ethan Croft, New Statesman
•  Britain’s drift towards civil war – David Betz and Michael Rainsborough, Daily Sceptic