Newslinks for Tuesday 10th of June 2025 | Conservative Home

Conservatives call for an apology to pensioners after Labour U turn on Winter fuel

“Chancellor Rachel Reeves faced calls to apologise for putting nine million people through winter fuel misery. In a screeching U-turn yesterday, she restored the payment to pensioners with an annual income of £35,000 or less. She couldn’t say how she’ll pay, with tax rises feared. Tories called it a “humiliation” as she was accused of creating her own financial black hole. It marked the culmination of one of the biggest political U-turns in modern history following fury at the mass benefit snatching last July. Handing back the £200-£300 sum to three quarters of pensioners will cost the Treasury £1.25billion, and only saves £450million from when it was universal. Ms Reeves could said there was still “work to do to ensure the sums add up”. She axed the universal payment last July in a bid to save £1.5billion — after claiming the Tories had left a £22billion financial black hole. Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride hit back: “Rachel Reeves has created her own black hole and now she’s scrambling to fill it with borrowed money or likely tax rises.” – The Sun

• I’m not sorry! Reeves refuses to apologise for winter fuel shambles despite restoring payments to millions of pensioners… amid fears of tax hikes to fund U-turn – Daily Mail
• Reeves’s winter fuel raid to raise just £250m instead of £1.5bn – Daily Telegraph
• Rachel Reeves to restore UK winter fuel payments to most pensioners – FT
• Winter fuel payments threshold to rise to £35,000, Reeves announces – Guardian
• Winter fuel payment restored for all pensioners on less than £35k – The i
• Labour civil war brewing after winter fuel U-turn – Daily Express
• Reeves and Cooper forced into U-turn over pensioner fuel payments – The Times
• Winter fuel U-turn solves one headache for Starmer but creates two more – The i

Comment

• Starmer and Reeves owe the nation’s pensioners an apology – Helen Whately, Daily Express
• Rachel Reeves’ winter fuel U-turn has exposed depths of incompetence that are barely credible. This is why the political damage will be permanent – Stephen Glover, Daily Mail
• Rachel Reeves will try and paper over the cracks… but we’re facing economic catastrophe – Esther McVey Daily Express
• My sympathies, Rachel Reeves. Cutting public spending isn’t easy – Kwasi Kwarteng, Daily Telegraph
• Labour can’t preach about hard choices while spending billions on migrant hotels  – Harry Cole, The Sun

>Today

Home Secretary loses police funding battle with Chancellor ahead of Spending Review

“Rachel Reeves has refused to meet Yvette Cooper’s demands for extra police funding despite warnings that it means the government could miss its flagship pledges on law and order. The Times has been told that the chancellor imposed a settlement on the home secretary on Monday after weeks of negotiations went down to the wire. Reeves has agreed to give the police a real-terms increase in their funding over the three-year spending review period. However, Cooper pressed for more money, arguing that the increase was not enough to meet the government’s pledge to recruit 13,000 frontline officers by 2029. A Whitehall source said: “Rachel imposed the settlement on Yvette in the end. Yvette pushed very hard but was told that there simply isn’t the money for it.” Britain’s most senior police officers have already warned Sir Keir Starmer that they will face “stark choices” about which crimes they investigate without the additional funding.” – The Times

• Ministers finally settle spending plans with Rachel Reeves’ Treasury 48 hours before they are to be revealed, as minister says ‘austerity is over’ – Daily Mail
• Rayner and Reeves reach eleventh-hour truce in spending battle – The i
• Khan accuses Reeves of ‘levelling down London’ – Daily Telegraph
• Cooper told to find savings elsewhere to protect spending on police – FT
• Yvette Cooper ‘on resignation watch’ after spending row with Reeves – Daily Telegraph
• Home Office may be forced to cut police numbers as result of Treasury deal – Guardian

Comment

• Mark my words, we’re headed for a monster debt crisis – Robert Jenrick, Daily Telegraph

…meanwhile immigration and crime issues pile up for Home Secretary Yvette Cooper

“BRITAIN’S £4.7billion annual bill to keep migrants in hotels and look after them takes every penny of tax from 582,000 workers. The shocking number revealed today is equivalent to the population of Manchester. Statistics expert Jamie Jenkins, who did the research, said: “This isn’t just unsustainable. It’s outrageous. A government that borrows billions each year, can’t control borders, and taxes its citizens to pay for hotel rooms and housing for people who’ve just arrived is not working for the British public. It’s time for a system that protects the people who pay in. That rewards contribution. That puts citizens first.” Latest figures show there were 32,345 asylum seekers staying in up to 210 hotels.” – The Sun

• Man who was spotted fleeing Heathrow airport staff on the tarmac was ‘being deported from Britain on a commercial flight’ – Daily Mail
• People smugglers advertise ‘back door’ migrant routes on Facebook – Daily Telegraph
• Grooming gangs national inquiry demands grow as Tories force vote on new probe into ‘disgusting’ crimes – The Sun

Increase defence spending now says NATO head, or ‘start learning Russian’

“People in Britain had “better learn to speak Russian” if they are not prepared to increase defence spending to 5 per cent and meet the growing military threat from President Putin, the ­secretary-general of Nato has warned. Mark Rutte said that all Nato ­countries were “on the eastern flank now” as the latest advances in Russian missile technology allowed Putin’s forces to hit targets in western nations in “a matter of minutes”. He said Russia was producing more ammunition in three months than the whole of Nato turned out in a year, and could threaten the alliance militarily within three to five years. He added that the danger would not “disappear” even if the war in Ukraine ended because Putin had pivoted the Russian economy to military production with technical support from China. He said there was a pressing need to increase spending on air and missiles defences by 400 per cent.” – The Times

• Spend more or get ready to speak Russian, Nato chief warns UK – Daily Telegraph
• ‘Ramp up defence spending or start learning Russian’: NATO boss Mark Rutte’s chilling warning as he piles pressure on Starmer to hike military budget by £30Bn – Daily Mail
• Putin could attack Nato by 2030, alliance boss warns as ‘Europe needs to build its own Golden Dome defence system’ – The Sun
• Britain’s military chaos: Hollowed out with too few to fight – Daily Express

Greta Thunberg is held by Israel and to be shown Oct 7th film after ‘selfie yacht’ is intercepted before it reached Gaza

“Israel’s military has been ordered to show Greta Thunberg footage of Hamas’s Oct 7 2023 attack on southern Israel. Israel Katz, the defence minister, on Monday congratulated the IDF for its interception of an aid boat carrying Ms Thunberg and 11 other activists before it could reach Gaza. After confirming the passengers would be deported back to their home countries once the boat reached the Israeli port of Ashdod, he said he had instructed troops to “show the flotilla passengers the video of the horrors of the October 7 massacre”. Mr Katz said he wanted them to “see exactly who the Hamas terrorist organisation they came to support and for whom they work is, what atrocities they committed against women, the elderly, and children, and against whom Israel is fighting to defend itself” – Daily Telegraph

• Israeli forces take control of Gaza aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg – Guardian
• Trump: Israel has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg – Daily Telegraph
• Greta Thunberg is locked in an Israeli jail for migrants and will be dragged to court with other ‘freedom flotilla’ activists, her lawyer claims – after snub from Sweden – Daily Mail

Comment

• Greta Thunberg should thank Israel for intercepting her Gaza selfie ship – Jonathan Sacerdoti, Spectator

Nigel Farage vows to reindustrialise Wales in Port Talbot speech

“Nigel Farage said his party chairman “lost his rag” when he quit last week, as the Reform leader sought to draw a line under reports of infighting with the launch of his campaign to take power in Wales next May. In his first extended public appearance since Zia Yusuf’s resignation and surprise return, Farage said he had “forgiven” his colleague and pledged to build a “much broader team” before elections to the Welsh Senedd next year. Farage said he had worked “inseparably” alongside Yusuf but admitted the former chairman had “lost his rag” when he abruptly quit Reform last Thursday. Farage was speaking in Port Talbot, the steelmaking town near Swansea, to set out Reform’s plans to reindustrialise Wales, but opened his speech with a lengthy explanation of Yusuf’s resignation and return. It came after the former chairman, who has now returned to Reform to oversee its programme of cost-cutting in local councils, told the BBC the row had been “a storm in a teacup”. – The Times 

• BBC bosses in talks about how to win over Reform-voting viewers – Daily Telegraph
• Why Farage is outperforming Starmer in the battle for working-class voters – Guardian
• Revealed: The new Reform chairman who used to be a TV presenter – Daily Mail

News in Brief

• Decline is a choice – it’s time to choose something else – Lawrence Newport, CapX
• America’s philosophical civil war – Mary Harrington, Unherd
• Britain is not ready for the AI revolution – Steve Loftus, The Critic
• This is not the healthcare system taxpayers deserve – Matthew Bowles, CapX