Newslinks for Wednesday 15th October 2025

Reeves admits looking at tax rises in budget

“Rachel Reeves has told Sky News she is looking at both tax rises and spending cuts in the budget, in her first interview since being briefed on the scale of the fiscal black hole she faces. “Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well,” the chancellor said when asked how she would deal with the country’s economic challenges in her 26 November statement. Ms Reeves was shown the first draft of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) report, revealing the size of the black hole she must fill next month, on Friday 3 October. She has never previously publicly confirmed tax rises are on the cards in the budget, going out of her way to avoid mentioning tax in interviews two weeks ago… She was clear that relaxing the fiscal rules (the main one being that from 2029-30, the government’s day-to-day spending needs to rely on taxation alone, not borrowing) was not an option, making tax rises all but inevitable.” – Sky News

• Brits warned of tax rises & spending cuts ahead of Rachel Reeves’ Budget – after she is slammed for ‘killing growth’ – The Sun
• Reeves admits tax rises being considered in Budget – Daily Telegraph
• Banks step up lobbying over threat of Reeves tax hikes – Sky News
• Chancellor urged not to raise taxes on ‘drained’ businesses in Budget – ITV News
• Scrap £100k tax trap, Reeves told – Daily Telegraph

Comment:

• This tax trap is killing youthful aspiration – Alice Thomson, The Times
• Rachel Reeves must break her promise not to raise income tax – Jeremy Warner, Daily Telegraph
• Reeves could make the cost of living crisis even worse – Hugo Gye, The i
• The Tories will regret smearing Farage as a socialist – Poppy Coburn, Daily Telegraph
• Fears of a meltdown build as the rush of money into safe havens continues – Alex Brummer, Daily Mail

> Today:

Tories push for release of key China court case documents

“Ministers are “looking at the options” after prosecutors said they had no objection to critical evidence in the Chinese spying case being published. In an extraordinary row between Whitehall and the Crown Prosecution Service, senior government sources claimed on Tuesday that it could not publish evidence given by the government’s deputy national security adviser because of objections by prosecutors. However, the CPS has publicly denied the government’s claims, saying that it had made no request for the government not to release the statement. “The statements were provided to us for the purpose of criminal proceedings which are now over,” the CPS said. “The material contained in them is not ours, and it is a matter for the government independently from the CPS to consider whether or not to make that material public.” …. It paves the way for three key witness statements by Matthew Collins, the deputy national security adviser, to be published. It could shed a crucial light on why the trial of two men accused of spying for China collapsed… Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: “The CPS has said that the government can release the witness statements that led to the collapse of the China spy case. Since this evidence would have been cross-examined in court, it cannot be secret. The government should now urgently release Matt Collins’s witnesses statements and the correspondence around them in the interests of full transparency. Otherwise, there will be legitimate questions about what exactly the government is hiding. It is clear the government chose to deliberately submit inadequate evidence that led to two alleged spies getting off scot-free. They must now also explain who was guiding Matt Collins in preparing this evidence.”” – The Times

• Tories seek to keep up pressure over collapsed China spy case – BBC News
• The ‘street fighter’ civil servant Labour blames for China spy case fiasco – Daily Telegraph
• Government under pressure to release China spy case evidence – BBC News
• Ex-Cabinet secretaries lead mutiny over Labour’s China spy debacle – Daily Telegraph
• Ministers delay decision on Chinese super-embassy – The Times

Comment:

• Labour has put us in danger – now China has a green light to spy on us – Mark Wallace, The i

> Today:

>Yesterday:

We don’t have control of our borders, admits Home Secretary

“Shabana Mahmood will say on Wednesday that Britain’s failure to control its borders is eroding trust in politicians and the credibility of the state. At a summit with Balkan interior ministers in London, the Home Secretary will issue one of the frankest assessments yet of the risks the Government is running if it fails to get a grip on the migration crisis. She will say that only through international co-operation can countries secure their borders. In 2024 alone, almost 22,000 people were smuggled along routes through the Western Balkans, while 35,500 migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats this year, up 30 per cent on last year. Her forthright approach comes as Labour seeks harder-edged policies restricting rights for migrants in an attempt to reverse Reform’s surge in popularity. “The public rightly expect that their Government will be able to determine who enters their country and who must leave,” she will say. “Today, in this country, and I know in many if not all of yours, that is not the case. And the failure to bring order to our borders is eroding trust not just in us as political leaders … but in the credibility of the state itself.”” – Daily Telegraph

• Failure to tackle migrant crisis is eroding trust in politicians, Mahmood warns – The Independent
• Migrants will need A-level standard English to work in Britain – Daily Telegraph
• Employers set to pay more to hire migrants as immigration rules tightened – CityAM
• Boris Johnson refutes ‘Boriswave’ of immigration – The Independent

> Yesterday:

News in brief:

• Tony Blair’s Strava governance – Mary Harrington, Unherd
• Inside Britain’s socialist dogfight – Max Jefferey, The Spectator
• Labour must engage the alternative media, not oppress it – Kate Hoey, The Critic
• Is Steve Reed a Nimby in disguise? – Hary Phibbs, CapX