Rachel Reeves unveiled a Budget with £26bn in tax rises, higher fuel duty and a £4.7bn pensions measure, while welfare spending heads to about £406bn. Critics call it the biggest tax squeeze in decades as growth stalls; the government says it’s needed to fund services and restore stability.

David Lammy is exploring plans to replace juries with judge-only trials for offences carrying up to five years, keeping juries for the most serious and public-interest cases. The aim is to cut the Crown Court backlog, but critics say it risks miscarriages of justice and weakening victims’ rights.

Campaigners warn many older people may struggle to heat homes this winter as energy bills stay high. They urge the Chancellor to use the Budget to ease pressures, saying frozen income tax thresholds and other rises risk leaving pensioners worse off.

Analysis warns pensioners could be about £800 a year worse off if the Chancellor extends the freeze on the income-tax personal allowance to 2030. The House of Commons Library says it could pull hundreds of thousands into tax and cost pensioners around £7bn in 2029–30.