Barclays boss indicates bank taxes in budget ‘bearable’ and backs Healey – UK politics live
Özet haber: The Office for National Statistics has also published a report on the gender pay gap. It says: The gender pay gap for full-time employees has continued to decline in the UK. It was 6.8% in April 2026, down from 7.2% in April 2025. This compares with 9.4% a decade ago and 16.4% 25 years ago. This chart shows the pay gap trend over time.
The Office for National Statistics has also published a report on the gender pay gap. It says: The gender pay gap for full-time employees has continued to decline in the UK. It was 6.8% in April 2026, down from 7.2% in April 2025. This compares with 9.4% a decade ago and 16.4% 25 years ago. This chart shows the pay gap trend over time.
Patrick Maguire was not the only person to interview John Healey yesterday. Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor, spoke to the chancellor too, and he has written a blog about the most interesting points to emerge. This is what Peston says about Healey’s comments about the banks. (See 10. 41am.)
Secondly, I asked Healey whether he sees the banks as making excessive profits, which would be the coherent justification for him to increase the surcharge on bank profits – as he is expected to do in the Budget next week. He said: “You know the banks are the engine of investment in this country. The banks are doing well at the moment and that is good to see.
“It’s good for Britain – and the budget is where I’ve got decisions to take across the economy, across the tax system. I will set those out on Wednesday next week.” This sounded like he will increase the surcharge but doesn’t have an economic rationale for doing so.
There has been a “significant increase” in the proportion of adults in England and Wales who have experienced domestic abuse, the Press Association report. In its report on today’s crime figures (see 9. 54am), PA says: Some 9. 6% of people aged 16 and over are estimated to have been the victim of domestic abuse in the year to March 2026, or around 4. 7 million people. This is up from 7. 8%, or around 3.
8 million people, in the year ending March 2025. The rise indicates “real change” in the prevalence of domestic abuse and is a “significant increase”, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which carried out the survey. The jump has been driven by a rise in partner abuse, experienced by 7. 9% of people aged 16 and over in the latest figures, compared with 6. 1% in the previous year.
Some “minor changes” to the way the survey is carried out are likely to have influenced the size of the increase, the ONS said. But their best assessment is there has been a genuine rise in the level
Kemi Badenoch has criticised the government for not sending a minister to address the Police Federation’s conference. Addressing the federation this morning, she said she was “not scared to wade in” and not scared to “back the police”. She told the audience: Too often these days, we fail to recognise sacrifice and service.
Whether it’s hounding brave and elderly veterans through the courts, hounding police officers who try to do the right thing, or even ordinary members of the public who step in to help only to find that they’re in trouble themselves. It’s no wonder the people in this country are becoming too scared to wade in, too scared to do the right thing. Well, I am different.
I am not scared to wade in, and I am not scared to back the police. I think it is telling that for two years in a row, the Labour government has not sent anyone to address this conference – not the policing minister, not the home secretary. But Badenoch also said she would not promise police officers a big
