Keir Starmer promises to launch publicly-owned UK energy company as he hails ‘Labour moment’ – as it happened
Latest updates: the Labour party leader used his conference speech to spell out his plan for the UK. This blog is now closed
The decision to pay Liz Truss's new chief of staff, Mark Fullbrook, through a private company has been dropped after criticism from within the Conservatives as well as from opposition parties.
The government admitted over the weekend that Fullbrook would be paid through his lobbying firm, a move that could have helped him avoid paying tax. He had previously claimed the firm had stopped all commercial activities.
The world we are heading for is a bumpy few weeks. The chancellor is now going to have quite a tough time because he has now set out plans to balance the books in November. That is going to be very hard.
Actually balancing the books in November is going to be harder than it would have been to show you are balancing the books last week because higher interest rates will make it harder to do. You might need 15bn worth of tough choices now that you didn't need last Friday.
In the end, lower taxes will mean worse public services, or other people's taxes having to go up, and it is those choices and ducking those choices that markets are looking at and saying that is not what serious policymaking looks like.
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