Marketing Newscast

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced an increase in defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, what he called the “biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War”. The increase from the current 2.3% spend will come from a cut in the foreign aid budget from its current level of 0.5% of GNI (gross national income) to 0.3% in 2027. Starmer also said he aimed to reach a 3% of GDP defence spend in the next Parliament. Speaking at a No. 10 press conference, he confirmed he would host European leaders in the UK this weekend to discuss future defence “as allies in light of the situation that we face”. Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said he welcomed the increase in principle, but queried how roughly £6bn of overseas development aid savings would bridge Starmer’s “supposed” £13.4bn increase in cash terms. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said he backed Starmer in raising defence spending but stressed it should “preferably use seize Russian assets to pay for extra support for Ukraine”. He also urged the Prime Minister to reverse “short-sighted cuts of 10,000 troops from our armed forces”, which were made under the previous government. Reform MP Rupert Lowe said on X he had written to the Secretary of State for Defence asking for urgent clarification on what the defence spending increase actually contains, and whether what he called the “Chagos Island surrender cash” is included in the additional outlay.

Speaking at the National Farmers Union (NFU) annual conference, NFU President Tom Bradshaw called Chancellor Rachel Reeves a “coward” for not attending, and slammed Keir Starmer for reneging on promises he made to protect British farming while he was opposition leader. Bradshaw said the new Labour Government’s proposals to make family farms pay a 20% Inheritance Tax levy from April 2026 wipes out “out our ability to plan, to invest and, often, to hope. It hangs over our farms, our families, our future: the Family Farm Tax.” Environment Secretary Steve Reed also spoke at the conference, and attempted to pour oil on troubled waters by promising to make state-owned institutions like the NHS and prisons buy local food, as well as promising to extend the Seasonal Worker Scheme for five years, but he was interrupted by protestors and castigated by an NFU member who told him that older farmers were “wishing their life away” in order to avoid the tax. Bradshaw also told reporters that contracts with organistions such as the NHS often “weren’t profitable”.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) is warning that up to 160,000 part-time shop workers – more than one in 10 roles - are at risk of losing their jobs because of Rachel Reeves’s tax raid on businesses. The increase in Employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) and a 6.7% increase in the National Living Wage are set to hit the retail trade especially hard, given the high number of people it employs on a part time basis, the BRC said, because they will be caught by the fact Reeves lowered the salary threshold at which employers must start paying employer NICs.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has laid out a host of measures it says Ministers must implement to meet the Government’s net zero goals. They include taxing families who go on foreign holidays, hitting them with a “frequent flier levy” that increases with the number of flights an individual takes to deter air travel. “As higher-income groups tend to be less responsive to price changes, tax rates would need to be sufficiently high to manage demand,” the CCC said. Other recommendations include: -

· Bans on petrol and diesel-powered lawnmowers

· An ultimate ban on gas hobs and cookers

· Ending the sale of new gas boilers by 2035

· A 27% drop in the numbers of cattle and sheep in the UK by 2040 in order to free up land for tree planting and peatland to cut methane emissions

· Cutting the amount of meat and dairy in ready meals by 15%, and making supermarkets, restaurants, hospitals and schools supply more vegan alternatives

· Making vegan food options cheaper than meat and dairy products

· Boosting investment in cultured meat production and replacing meat in foods with alternatives such as beans and lentils

· Taxing meat imports

· Transitioning farmers away from livestock to focus on tree planting, solar farms and growing crops for energy

· Working towards getting 80% of homes to have a heat pump by 2050

· Switching 7% of car journeys to public transport or walking or cycling instead by 2035

Reaching net zero goals would cost a net £4bn a year on average, the committee said, with annual spending peaking at a net cost of £33bn in 2029. For households, the biggest cost is likely to be installing heat pumps for the first time, it said, as this requires considerable retrofitting, including rewiring, bigger radiators and making space for a hot water tank. The CCC estimates this will cost households some £15,000, or £730 a year over the lifetime of a heat pump, and suggested taxpayers may need to fund subsidies for all households to pay the cost. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “This advice is independent of Government policy, and we will now consider it and respond in due course”.

The Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) is to look again at Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds’ false claim to be a solicitor, it said, after becoming “aware of further information.” Reynolds was accused last week of claiming to be a solicitor on several occasions, despite having only been a trainee at law firm Addleshaw Goddard’s Manchester office before running for Parliament and leaving the role before qualifying. Previously, the SRA said: “We are aware of this issue, however, having considered all factors involved, there is no need for us to take any action.”

Strikes on London’s Elizabeth Line this week have been called off. Train drivers’ union Aslef said a new pay offer was made from the line’s operators, MTR. However, further industrial action next month has yet to be suspended.

Plans to create a £1bn 10GWh battery gigafactory in Coventry which will create over 1,000 jobs by 2030 have been revealed, City AM reports. Volklec, a battery manufacturing start-up which set up shop in the West Midlands city last year, has entered into an exclusive license agreement with China-based Far East Battery (FEB) thata will see Volklec manufacture advanced lithium-ion batteries later this year from its base at the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC). That will then provide a base for the company to then work on plans for its gigafactory.