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Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, repeatedly mentioning an inherited ‘£22 billion black hole’, raised taxes by £40 billion in the Budget, while saying she was abiding by Labour’s manifesto promise not to increase taxes on ‘working people’. A big hit came from increasing employers’ contributions to national insurance; the threshold at which it begins to be paid was reduced from £9,100 to £5,000. But income tax and NI thresholds for employees would be unfrozen from 2028. Capital gains tax went up; stamp duty for second homes rose. Fuel duty would again be frozen. The non-dom regime was abolished. Tobacco went up; a pint of draught went down a penny. The minimum wage would rise. Defence spending would rise by £2.9 billion. The bus fare cap in England was raised to £3. Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, rebuked the Chancellor for announcing in America new fiscal rules (confirmed in the Budget). ‘The premature disclosure of the contents of the Budget has always been regarded as a supreme discourtesy to the House,’ he said.
Mike Amesbury, MP for Runcorn, was suspended from the Labour party after footage showed him punching a man in the street in Frodsham, Cheshire; a witness said that they had been discussing a swing bridge over the river Weaver. Manchester United sacked Erik ten Hag as manager. A boy had fallen ill after being handed bread by Sergei Skripal to feed ducks in Salisbury on the day in 2018 that Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with novichok, an inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess was told. A dustcart burst into flames near Oxford Street in London. Twenty-two tons of fine cheddar were stolen from Neal’s Yard Dairy in London.
Axel Rudakubana, aged 18, accused of murdering three young girls in Southport, was additionally charged with a terrorism offence, as the government had been aware for some weeks. Tommy Robinson was jailed for 18 months for contempt of court for repeating false claims against a Syrian refugee. Three migrants died when their boat sank in the Channel and another man drowned four days later. In the seven days to 28 October, 1,663 migrants in small boats arrived in England; the number so far this year surpassed the 29,437 for the whole of 2023. A man from Bolton who used AI technology to turn photographs of real children into ‘depraved’ images was jailed for 18 years. AI was used to recreate the voice of Sir Michael Parkinson for an interview podcast series.
Abroad
Israel is to ban Unrwa, the UN’s Palestinian aid agency, from operating in the country and the occupied areas under its control. Israel struck targets in Iran, in retaliation for an Iranian barrage of missiles launched on 1 October. Four soldiers were reported to have been killed by the Israeli attack. Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, said the attack should not be ‘exaggerated or downplayed’. Israel said its forces had detained 100 terrorists at Kamal Adwan Hospital inside the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. Israel made an air strike on the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. The Lebanese health ministry said at least 60 people had been killed in Israeli attacks on the eastern Bekaa Valley.
North Korean troops were operating in the Kursk region of Russia where Ukrainian troops had a foothold, Nato said. The ruling Georgian Dream party gained a majority of 53.92 per cent despite exit polls indicating a win for four opposition parties; President Salome Zourabichvili of Georgia said the election had been ‘totally falsified’. The long-ruling Liberal Democratic party lost its majority in the Japanese parliament after a snap election called by Shigeru Ishiba, the Prime Minister, who took office in October. President Emmanuel Macron of France told Morocco’s parliament that Western Sahara should be under Moroccan sovereignty. More than 50 died in Spanish floods. England lost the Test series in Pakistan 3-1 after being bowled out for 112 in their last inning.
In the civil war in Sudan there were reports from the central state of Gezira of the mass killing of civilians by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Zhang Yiming, co-founder of TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, became China’s richest person with a fortune put at £38 billion. The Pope published an encyclical called ‘Dilexit Nos’ (‘He loved us’) on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Alex Ikwechegh, a Nigerian MP, apologised after a video circulated of him slapping a man who had delivered some snails, saying: ‘I will slap the hell out of you.’ CSH
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