Andy Burnham is being urged to begin preparing Britain's return to the European Union a month before he presents a package of post-Brexit deals in Brussels. The IPPR wants membership written into government policy. Great British PAC asks why preparations for reversing Brexit are being urged before the British public has given any mandate to rejoin.
Vicky Richter · 19 October 2026The Metropolitan Police spent two days assessing a post on X and has now closed the matter. No charge will follow. But the episode has turned attention back to a decision that has never been put right: the agreement to hand sovereignty over the Chagossian homeland to Mauritius. We have been fighting that decision in the courts for more than a year, and on 5 November we will be back.
Vicky Richter · 19 October 2026General Sir Roly Walker told 700 soldiers at Catterick Garrison that Britons will soon be asked to "consent to sacrifices to prioritise defence and security". An Ipsos survey published on 14 October found 48 per cent of adults would not take up arms for Britain under any circumstances, though most back higher defence spending. The Government's answer on the money is due at the Budget on 28 October.
Vicky Richter · 16 October 2026John Healey called Britain's banks the "jewel" in the economic crown on Thursday. Within hours, the City was braced for a tax raid. The Chancellor is reportedly preparing to raise the bank surcharge from 3pc to 8pc in his 28 October Budget to help fund pre-Budget giveaways. Banks warn the move could cost the economy up to £20bn over a decade. Great British PAC is concerned that a raid on the sector the Chancellor himself calls central to growth will not repair the public finances, and that the bill may land on the households and small firms that depend on bank lending.
Vicky Richter · 16 October 2026Eighteen months after the Supreme Court ruled that "sex" in the Equality Act means biological sex, NHS England has finally told hospitals to apply it. The nurses who had to sue their own employer to win the same point have welcomed the guidance. Ministers have set no date for trusts to comply, announced no additional funding, and introduced no new enforcement mechanism beyond audit and reporting requirements.
Vicky Richter · 16 October 2026Just 734,000 of the 3.7 million additional payroll employments created since 2014 went to British nationals. Non-EU nationals took around 2.5 million. Over the same period, the out-of-work benefits caseload grew by 2.3 million people and the working-age welfare bill rose by £50 billion in real terms. A devastating new report chaired by Sir Iain Duncan Smith says this was not an accident. It was the planned outcome of a decade of decisions.
Vicky Richter · 16 October 2026The Government has finally acknowledged the need to change the 25% rule, but its proposed reduction to 15% falls short of the fundamental reform Great British PAC is demanding. The Child Maintenance Service still calculates payments using only one parent's income, even when children spend almost half the year in that parent's home. Great British PAC says the system needs rebuilding, not another patch.
Vicky Richter · 15 October 2026The Prime Minister wants access to EU asylum and crime databases back in time for the Brussels summit on 20 November. The Telegraph reports the price could be European Court of Justice oversight and an annual fee paid by the British taxpayer. Whitehall disputes the reported court demand, but the Government has not publicly detailed the legal and financial terms it would accept to regain access.
Vicky Richter · 15 October 2026The worst civil unrest in Mauritius for decades has prompted urgent demands for answers from the British Government after 27-year-old mother Élodie Thomas was shot by police, curfews were imposed and Chagossian representatives raised concerns that the injured woman may be a member of their community.
Clair Bullivant · 15 October 2026The International Monetary Fund has cautioned against blanket cost-of-living subsidies before John Healey's first Budget on 28 October, saying support should be targeted and temporary and that an urgent need to cut borrowing means help must be used "sparingly". It raised its forecast for UK growth in 2026 to 1.3 per cent but lowered its 2027 estimate to 1.2 per cent, citing higher energy prices and long-term interest rates. Andy Burnham's government has already cut VAT on household electricity at a Budget cost of £850 million and restored a £2 bus fare cap in England.
Vicky Richter · 14 October 2026Labour is facing fierce criticism over its plans to overhaul Northern Ireland's Troubles legislation, amid warnings from former Army chiefs and a veterans commissioner that British servicemen could remain vulnerable to repeated investigations decades after risking their lives in the service of their country.
Vicky Richter · 14 October 2026Luke Pollard told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Centrica, the owner of British Gas, has "deep pockets" and that the future of the Rough facility is "a very clear commercial decision for the company". Centrica is seeking a cap-and-floor mechanism to unlock £2bn of investment in the North Sea site, which supplies about half of the UK's gas storage capacity. No formal decision has been taken, and the energy department has not published the full response to its consultation that would determine whether storage operators receive support.
Vicky Richter · 14 October 2026Stories originally reported by our sister title, the Conservative Post. Join the PAC to get them first.
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