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Pensioners just above threshold shouldn’t pay income tax, says No 10 – UK politics live

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Political donors could face tougher residency rules
It comes after Reform received donations totalling £72m from two British crypto-billionaires who have both recently lived abroad.

Unions urge ministers to soften planned changes to immigration rules
The home secretary wants to double the time it takes for most migrants to qualify for permanent residence.

Union leaders resist political donations cap after Reform given £72m
General secretaries say union funding is ‘cleanest money in politics’ and different to that from wealthy individual donors UK politics live – latest updates Trade unions have stopped short of backing a cap on political donations but called for further action on big money in politics, in a joint statement after Reform UK was given an unprecedented £72m from two donors . General secretaries have been split on a call for unions to back a specific cap on individual donors to political parties while protecting trade union donations, which the TUC said were the “cleanest money in politics” because it came from workers’ subscriptions. Continue reading...

Unions warn against 'out of control' political spending
In a joint statement, unions say donations totalling £72m to Reform UK threaten the "integrity of democracy".

Polling turns politics into one big game. There are too many of them – and that does us no good | Jonathan Liew
Surely that’s the lesson the Reform polling furore should teach us. Politics should be about actually helping people, not mastering the line on a graph Solemn faces all round. We will listen. We will learn. We will hone and improve. Yes, it’s time for the latest bout of profound soul-searching in the UK polling industry following the allegations raised by the recent Channel 4 investigation that a polling firm reportedly failed to declare that three polls it published before the local elections in May were commissioned by Reform. By now these reckonings are becoming a regular occurrence in the wake of big elections: pollsters gather in a room, nibble biscuits, ritually self-flagellate, and pledge to learn all the right lessons from the electorate they’ve just catastrophically misread. Yet for all its very public ignominies, political polling is one of those rare and precious industries th

Balaclava ban aims to address 'substantial' problems
Nottingham becomes one of the first cities nationally to take this step, its council leader says.