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Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had given a theme to the week by sitting weeping behind Sir Keir Starmer during Prime Minister’s Questions. She later said: ‘It was a personal issue.’ Sir Keir said: ‘She will be Chancellor for a very long time to come.’ No. 10 said she and the Prime Minister were ‘in lockstep’. The government found itself short of the £5 billion it had meant to save in the welfare bill, thwarted by its own MPs. The Office for Budget Responsibility said that, with rising debt, ‘The UK’s fiscal position is increasingly vulnerable’. Asked whether she would rule out tax rises in the autumn, the Chancellor said: ‘I’m not going to, because it would be irresponsible for a Chancellor to do that.’ Lord Kinnock said that ministers were ‘willing to explore’ a wealth tax. Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, said that lifting the two-child benefit cap would ‘come at a cost’. The question remained whether the government would guarantee education, health and care plans for almost 640,000 children with special needs. Lord Tebbit, an ally of Margaret Thatcher, died aged 94. President Emmanuel Macron of France paid a state visit. The Bayeux Tapestry will be displayed in the British Museum from autumn 2026 to July 2027. In the first week of July, 1,135 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats. Oscar Black, aged 15, became the youngest person to swim from Northern Ireland to Scotland, in 16 hours, 38 minutes.
The Post Office Horizon scandal drove 13 people to suicide, the first report from the official inquiry found. Zarah Sultana, the independent MP for Coventry South since she lost the Labour whip last year, said she was forming a new party with the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. James McMurdock, MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, relinquished the Reform party whip while allegations about his business conduct during the Covid pandemic are investigated. Rishi Sunak MP, a former prime minister, joined Goldman Sachs as a senior adviser. The Birmingham dustmen’s strike celebrated its first six months.
A ten-year plan for the National Health Service envisaged care being moved from hospitals into the community, expansion of the use of the NHS app and the development of an AI diagnostic early warning system. Resident (junior) doctors voted to strike for a 29 per cent pay rise on top of last year’s 22 per cent. The automated line-calling system at Wimbledon was turned off by mistake, annoying Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Palestine Action became
a proscribed organisation; police arrested 29 supporters in Parliament Square. One in ten cars sold in Britain in June was made in China. A paramedic who covertly gave a pregnant woman an abortion drug to kill their unborn child was jailed for ten years and six months. Yorkshire Water imposed a hosepipe ban that could last till the winter.
Abroad
Elon Musk said that he was launching a new political party, the America party, after falling out with President Donald Trump, notably over his One Big Beautiful Bill. On Independence Day, Mr Trump had signed the bill into law. It is expected to cut about $4.46 trillion in tax revenue over ten years. Among its hundreds of provisions, it cuts Medicaid spending, increases funding for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency by more than $100 billion, provides $46.5 billion to build a wall on the Mexican border and increases tax deduction for whaling boat captains. In Kerr County, Texas, at least 84 died in flash floods, including 27 children and staff (with 11 missing) from a camp beside the river Guadalupe.
Mr Trump said he was ‘very disappointed’ by a telephone conversation with President Vladimir Putin of Russia over Ukraine. Immediately afterwards, Ukraine suffered its worst attack, mostly against Kyiv, by 550 drones and missiles. ‘We’re going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves,’ said Mr Trump. Qatari and Egyptian mediators worked with delegations from Hamas and Israel in indirect ceasefire talks in Doha. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, met Mr Trump in Washington. Mr Trump began playing with import tariffs again.
In Spain the right-wing party Vox promised to deport eight million people if it wins the next election. French police waded into the water south of Boulogne and slashed an inflatable boat loaded with men and some women and children. In Australia, Erin Patterson, 50, was found guilty of murdering three of her relations by marriage by feeding them beef Wellington poisoned with death cap mushrooms. CSH
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