BoE interest rates coming as Badenoch planned to use taxpayer money on holiday – live

Far-right demonstrators threw flares towards Downing Street and a statue of Winston Churchill as they clashed with riot police in London.

A few hundred protesters joined the “Enough is Enough” demonstration in Whitehall on Wednesday evening in the wake of the tragic knife attack in which three children were killed and eight others were injured in Southport.

More than 100 people were arrested at the demonstration, where the crowd was heard chanting “Rule Britannia” and “we want our country back”.

Protesters hurl bricks and bottles at police in Southport in ugly scenes.

James Cleverly has urged the Conservative party to get its “act together” and scrutinise Labour’s spending and tax plans.

The Tory leadership candidate said his party needed to “protect the British people from this government”. 

Mr Cleverly tweeted: “We said that Labour would raise taxes. Labour said they wouldn’t. We lost the election (our fault). Now Labour say they will raise taxes.

“[The Conservatives] need to get our act together, hold Labour to account and protect the British people from this government.”

Angela Rayner has told council chiefs they have a “moral obligation to see more homes built”.

The Deputy Prime Minister, who is also the Housing Secretary, wrote to council leaders and metropolitan mayors on Wednesday to set out plans for 1.5 million new homes by 2029, which she described as “radical”.

She warned leaders they may have to tear up draft housing masterplans if they are at an early stage, and said authorities could have to map out new green belt boundaries.

The letters follow an exchange in the Commons with her Conservative shadow Kemi Badenoch, who warned Labour might approve “1.5 million ugly homes” if they press ahead with their plans.

In her letter to council leaders and chief executives, Ms Rayner wrote: “I know that, like every member of Government, you will feel not just a professional responsibility but a moral obligation to see more homes built, to take tough choices necessary to fix the foundations of our housing system.

“And we will only succeed in this shared mission if we work together, because it falls to you and your authorities not only to plan for the houses we need, but also to deliver the affordable and social housing that can provide working families with a route to a secure home.”

Annual house price growth has picked up to the fastest rate since December 2022, according to an index.

UK house prices rose 0.3% month-on-month in July, Nationwide Building Society said.

This resulted in a slight acceleration in the annual rate of house price growth from 1.5% in June, to 2.1% in July – the fastest pace since December 2022.

Across the UK, the average house price in July was £266,334.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “Prices are still around 2.8% below the all-time highs recorded in the summer of 2022.

“Housing market activity has been holding relatively steady in recent months with the number of mortgages approved for house purchase at around 60,000 per month.

“While this is still (around) 10% below the level prevailing before the pandemic struck, it is still a respectable pace given the higher interest rate environment.”

Kemi Badenoch asked to pay for a holiday flight to the US with taxpayers’ money while in government, the Guardian reports.

The shadow business secretary had travelled to Mexico for an official visit to discuss plans to join the CPTPP Indo-Pacific trade bloc.

Her business class fight was paid for by her department but she asked the DBT department office Gareth Davies to pick up the bill for a flight to Dallas she planned to take as a family holiday.

Badenoch’s request was refused as her office believed a taxpayer funded detour was not for official business, a source said.

The Bank of England could be encouraged to cut interest rates for the first time in more than four years amid growing evidence that inflation has been tamed, experts have said.

Expectations on financial markets show about a 65% chance of the Bank’s policymakers opting to reduce rates on Thursday.

The UK’s base rate has been held at 5.25% since August last year, the highest level since 2008.

Some experts think it could be cut to 5%, which would be the first time UK rates have been reduced since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.

It comes after new economic data suggested the UK’s cost-of-living crisis has eased in recent months thanks to inflation coming off the boil.

Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation hit 2% in May and June, which is the central bank’s target level, indicating that price rises have been brought under control.

Economists stressed that other key indicators of inflationary pressure – mainly services inflation and wage rises – have remained a concern for policymakers.

James Smith, developed market economist for ING, said it will be a “close call” but he expects a majority of policymakers to vote in favour of a 0.25 percentage point rate cut on Thursday.

He said services inflation – which looks only at service-related industries such as hospitality and culture – is the “guiding light for Bank of England policy right now”.

The prime minister will host senior police leaders in Downing Street this afternoon in the wake of violent unrest in multiple parts of the country.

He is expected to remind the police that people “exploit” the right to protest in order to “sow hatred” or commit “violent acts” should be met with “the full force of the law”.

Sir Keir Starmer will also commit to working in partnership with police forces across the UK to stop “mindless violence” following scenes of unrest in Southport, London, Hartlepool and elsewhere.

It comes as more than 100 people were arrested after protesters in Whitehall launched beer cans and glass bottles at police and threw flares at the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square.

Demonstrators wearing England flags and waving banners saying “enough is enough” and “stop the boats” had congregated outside Downing Street in the wake of the killing of three young girls in a knife attack in Southport, which social media posts had wrongly claimed was carried out by a Muslim asylum seeker who crossed the Channel in a small boat.

The angry scenes also included loud chants of: “We want our country back” and: “Oh Tommy Robinson”, referring to the right-wing activist. One man wore a shirt with the slogan: “Nigel Farage for Prime Minister, Tommy Robinson for Home Secretary”.

The government has been urged to pursue a youth mobility scheme with the European Union (EU) alongside the “new approach” to legal migration launched by Yvette Cooper.

The home secretary on Tuesday launched a plan to boost the UK workforce’s skills before recruiting abroad in a bid to bring overall numbers down.

In a swipe at the previous Conservative government, Ms Cooper said rising levels of legal migration in recent years reflected a “failure over many years to tackle skills shortages and other problems in the UK labour market”.

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell has the full story:

Angela Rayner’s planning “revolution” will see London’s housebuilding target slashed by 20,000 homes, despite a wider push to boost the number of houses being built each year.

The deputy prime minister and housing secretary unveiled a major overhaul of the planning system today, which will see all councils in England given new, mandatory housing targets as part of a plan to deliver 1.5 million more homes in the UK.

She warned that Britain is facing the “most acute housing crisis in living memory”, claiming that the number of new homes is set to drop below 200,000 this year – something Ms Rayner dubbed “unforgivable”.

Our political correspondent Millie Cooke has the full story:

An expert taskforce is being launched to spearhead Labour’s plans for a fresh generation of new towns.

The towns, which the new government says will create communities of at least 10,000 homes each, are billed as a part of the largest housebuilding programme since the post-war period.

Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, has asked two experts to lead the independent New Towns Taskforce.

Its chair, Sir Michael Lyons, has played leading roles in regeneration development company the English Cities Fund, as well as in local government, and has sat on the board of housing developers.

Deputy chair Dame Kate Barker is a housing economist who also chairs a major universities pension scheme and was an external member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee between 2001 and 2010.

While some of the new communities set to be built through the programme will be separate from existing towns, others will be urban extensions and regeneration schemes of existing places.

Ms Rayner has insisted the taskforce will “work together with local people to help us decide on the right places for these new towns, delivering more homes, jobs and green spaces”.

The communities will be governed by a “New Towns Code”, a set of rules for developers to ensure the towns are well-connected with infrastructure and public services, are well-designed, sustainable and are nice looking places.

The deputy prime minister’s appointment of Sir Michael and Dame Kate comes a day after she announced an overhaul of the planning system to pave the way for 1.5 million new homes over the next five years to tackle England’s acute housing crisis.