PIP now supports 4.1 million people and costs the taxpayer more than £27bn a year, with the bill forecast to pass £41bn by 2031. More than half of those claimants are over 50, and the reform options being modelled would leave older claimants worse off. In a debate dominated by youth worklessness, the arithmetic points somewhere else.
Vicky Richter · 22 September 2026Families due to arrive at Manchester Airport this morning (Tuesday 22 September) after leaving Mauritius, with some Chagossians saying they are too frightened to speak publicly for fear of reprisals.
Vicky Richter · 22 September 2026The share of the universal credit bill going to households with at least one foreign national has barely moved in years, sitting at 15.6 per cent. The bill has gone from £7.5bn to £11.9bn in two.
Vicky Richter · 21 September 2026Germany, Italy and Poland are among eleven countries demanding that Brussels stop producing new laws for twelve months, arguing that simplification must start before legislation is adopted rather than years after. It is a warning from eleven of the EU's 27 member states, and it lands in the middle of a budget fight and an industrial crisis.
Vicky Richter · 21 September 2026A Budget submission from the Labour donor Dale Vince would raise capital gains tax to as high as 45pc and put the proceeds into the personal allowance, lifting it from £12,570 to £15,570. The Prime Minister and the Chancellor are examining it. No decision has been made. HMRC's own illustrative modelling suggests a rise of that kind can cost the Exchequer money, and capital gains tax is the most volatile tax the Treasury collects.
Vicky Richter · 21 September 2026Seven volunteers, two hours, 18 bags of rubbish. The mechanical street sweepers Glasgow committed to buy for Possilpark in 2022 are still not on the road.
Vicky Richter · 21 September 2026The Church of England has withdrawn an interfaith award from a Pakistani cleric six days after the Archbishop of Canterbury presented it at Lambeth Palace on the 25th anniversary of 9/11. Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi once promised Osama bin Laden the title "Saifullah" and referred to "Palestinian freedom fighters" in remarks about the 7 October attack. Lambeth Palace has not explained how the nomination was approved.
Vicky Richter · 18 September 2026Andy Burnham has committed to net zero by 2050 in his strongest intervention on climate since entering Downing Street, pairing nearly £30m for community energy with a promise that Britain will believe in itself again. But a major energy decision facing the government, on the Jackdaw gasfield, will not now come before a byelection the Greens are fighting hard.
Vicky Richter · 18 September 2026The average diesel price is now less than 4p from the all-time record set four years ago. And if supplies fail, the Government's emergency plan for the pumps is written and waiting.
Vicky Richter · 17 September 2026Eight ministerial departments have disclosed £1.89 million of spending on influencers and content creators since July 2024. Add HMRC and NHS England’s national campaigns team, and the disclosed total rises to £2.54 million.
Vicky Richter · 17 September 2026Mayors are to sit on nine new regional bodies with powers to control Britain's water companies. The Prime Minister calls it public control without nationalisation. Critics see another layer of committees on top of a regulator that already failed.
Vicky Richter · 17 September 2026In 2016, we made the case for Brexit with the information we had then. We talked about sovereignty, borders, democracy, trade and the fundamental principle that the people who make Britain's laws should ultimately be accountable to the British people.
By Great British PAC CEO Claire Bullivant and Chief Policy Director Andrew Hunt · 16 September 2026Stories originally reported by our sister title, the Conservative Post. Join the PAC to get them first.
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