In the run-up to the Budget, speculation about Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ tax return dominates the newspapers. The Times reports that she is urging Labor MPs to “unite over her budget”, attacking what she calls “misogynistic critics”. The pre-budget leaks had been “incredibly destabilizing”, he adds, and the newspaper quotes his speech to MPs in the House of Commons.
“The Chancellor will significantly reduce the annual Isa (Individual Savings Account) allowance from £20,000 in cash to £12,000,” reports the Daily Mail. Reducing the tax-free interest limit could “punish savers while causing mortgage rates to rise,” according to the newspaper. It reports that the chancellor could use her tax return to argue that “the billions of pounds sitting in savings accounts would generate better returns if invested in the riskier stock market.”
A proposal to introduce a council tax surcharge on properties valued at more than £2m could become a “sticker” for the government, the i newspaper writes. He describes the measure as a “mansion tax,” citing warnings from former Institute for Fiscal Studies economist Paul Johnson, who tells the newspaper that the system “needs a complete overhaul.”
Campaign group Silver Voices warns the chancellor that “many older people will struggle to heat their homes without help with the cost of living”, the Daily Express reports. “The frozen income tax thresholds planned in tomorrow’s budget will lead to housing freezes,” the newspaper writes, adding that people already struggling with rising energy costs “are being hit by higher tax bills.”
The Independent publishes “reports that efforts to grow the economy have stalled”, citing an unpublished analysis by the economic watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The newspaper claims that the OBR “has apparently lowered its growth forecast every year until 2029”, adding that the news “could not come at a worse time for the embattled chancellor”.
American and Ukrainian negotiators in Geneva drafted an incomplete peace proposal, which “leaves big calls for presidents,” says the Financial Times. “Washington had been pressuring kyiv to accept a 28-point proposal drawn up by American and Russian officials,” the newspaper writes. Parts of the plan, such as territorial concessions, crossed “Ukrainian red lines.” The newspaper says the outstanding “politically sensitive elements” of the Geneva plan will be decided by Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky.
“1,000 safer abuse victims,” writes Metro, reporting on the number of domestic abuse protection orders (DAPOs) imposed in the year since they were introduced. The newspaper states that DAPOs “limit the movements of perpetrators, and violations are punishable by up to five years in prison.”
Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable and unpaid carers will have their cases reassessed after a damning official review, The Guardian writes. Some carers were “plunged into difficulties; others were jailed” after being handed “draconian penalties of up to £20,000”. According to the newspaper, one review blames “government failure and mismanagement.”
The Daily Telegraph reports that BBC chairman Samir Shah “has insisted he will not resign despite deep divisions at the broadcaster.” He writes that board members are divided over how to respond to the Telegraph’s “revelation of bias in the corporation,” according to a leaked memo.
“Russia’s reform crisis” is the Daily Mirror’s front-page headline, as the paper says party leader Nigel Farage faces “increasing pressure to investigate pro-Putin links” in the party. This follows the jailing of former Welsh Reform UK leader Nathan Gill for accepting pro-Russian bribes.
The Daily Star leads with darts champion Luke Littler supporting the paper’s campaign to award a knighthood to motor neurone disease charity campaigner and former rugby league star Kevin Sinfield.
TV star Jeff Brazier has split from his wife Kate Dwyer, The Sun reports. It says the split comes 16 years after the death of Brazier’s ex-partner Jade Goody, who appeared on Big Brother years earlier.
