Politics latest: Starmer 'looking' at cuts after chancellor confirms 10,000 civil service jobs to be axed (2025)

Sir Keir Starmer is "looking across the board" at departmental cuts ahead of the spring statement, he said this morning.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is preparing to deliver her fiscal statement on Wednesday, and it is widely anticipated to focus largely on spending cuts.

Labour has signalled it will not to raise taxes in the statement.

Asked about this, Starmer said the government is "looking across the board" on making cuts to unprotected departmental budgets.

He told the BBC: "We're not going to alter the basics, but we are going to look across and one of the areas that we will be looking at is: can we run the government more efficiently?

"Can we take some money out of the government? And I think we can.

"I think we're essentially asking businesses across the country to be more efficient, to look at AI and tech in the way that they do their business."

By Faith Ridler, political reporter

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is poised to deliver an update on the health of the British economy on Wednesday.

The spring statement is not a formal budget - as Labour pledged to only deliver one per year - but rather an update on the economy and any progress since her fiscal statement last October.

While it's not billed as a major economic event, Rachel Reeves has a big gap to plug in the public finances and speculation has grown she may have to break her self-imposed borrowing rules.

Here, Sky News explains everything you need to know.

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Sky News' Sam Coates and Politico's Anne McElvoy present their guide to the day ahead in British politics.

With two days to go until the spring statement, Chancellor Rachel Reeveshas been fighting off talk that she is taking Britain back to austerity.

Over the weekend she confirmed plans to cut civil service running costs by 15% and her statement is expected to unveil further savings.

Reeves could also be on course to break the foundational promise of her chancellorship - her own fiscal rules.

What corrective action is she expected to take? And what else can we expect to hear from the chancellor on Wednesday?

Alcohol and feeling anxious after a tough time with work were part of the reason why former Labour MP Mike Amesbury hit a constituent, he has said.

The former Runcorn and Helsby MP said he had "probably about six and seven pints" in three pubs on an empty stomach after a busy Friday in parliament.

Amesbury pleaded guilty in January to assaulting constituent Paul Fellows, 45, after a row in the street in Frodsham, Cheshire, in the early hours of 26 October 2024.

He said the incident happened as the Labour government were having "a tough time", but admitted: "I am being punished and rightfully so."

Amesbury told GB News: "I was a very public face in community, a connected Member of Parliament but whether it winter fuel, other issues as well. People quite, quite vexed.”

He was given a 10-week prison term, which was reduced to a suspended sentence after an appeal and has resigned from parliament.

A by-election is due to be held in Runcorn and Helsby later this year.

Continuing her media round this morning, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander was asked about Chancellor Rachel Reeves accepting free tickets to see Sabrina Carpenter live earlier this year.

Reeves defended her decision to accept the tickets yesterday, insisting she will declare them in the expected way.

Alexander said she had nothing to add on the chancellor's concert, but noted she has been unable to go to any herself "partly because I’ve been very, very busy".

She told Times Radio: "I haven't taken any tickets, to be honest, since I was elected back in (July) as a new Member of parliament, and going straight into the Ministry of Justice and then coming straight into the Department for Transport.

"I actually, sadly, haven't been to see any concerts at all over the last nine months, partly because I've been very, very busy."

Pressed on this, Alexander said she has not been to concerts because she has "a very busy diary and I’ve got to prioritise my time".

She added: "When I've got time off, actually, spending some time with my family and my husband is actually a more attractive option to me, if I’m honest."

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is now joining Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast, to discuss a fire that shut down services at Heathrow Airport last week.

Questions have since been raised about whether the closure was necessary, after the National Grid claimed it had the power necessary to keep it open.

Alexander says: "Clearly the fire that happened at a substation on the outskirts of Heathrow late on Thursday night, early on Friday morning, was an unprecedented situation and very significant in terms of its magnitude.

"I had a conversation with the chief executive of Heathrow on Friday morning.

"He told me that whilst there are multiple power supplies into the airport, the fire had created a very significant problem with respect to Terminals 2 and 4 specifically, and that there had to be some reconfiguration of power supplies into the airport."

Heathrow had to be 'turned off' and 'restarted'

Alexander says this meant "all the systems had to be turned off, and all the systems had to be restarted again in a safe way".

The minister explains that while there were backup generators available, these were "designed to protect the critical systems within the airport, not to power the entirety of the airport".

Alexander was pressed on comments byJohn Pettigrew, the head of the National Grid, who said "there was no lack of capacity from substations".

He also claimed that Heathrow is served by three substations, any of which would provide enough energy to keep the airport going.

Only one of three substations was not functional due to the fire.

The minister reiterates that there were "significant" problems in two terminals, and it was the judgement of the airport to close.

Alexander says she will look "very closely" at a report commissioned by Heathrow Airport, reiterating that it was Heathrow's decision to shut.

In a somewhat awkward exchange, the minister was then asked how many conversations she had with the chief executive of Heathrow Airport in the wake of the fire.

She repeats that she spoke to Thomas Woldbye once, on Friday morning, when the decision was made to close.

However, Alexander says she had a "number" of calls with officials, including Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.

Wilfred then asks if the minister has personally checked that the other two power substations are safe and uncompromised.

She avoids the question, insisting Heathrow would not have reopened if this were not the case.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is preparing to deliver the spring statement on Wednesday, and it is expected that she will announce vast public sector cuts.

So what are the decisions she is set to announce?

Our political correspondent Ali Fortescueexplains...

Unions have warned that key services could deteriorate after Rachel Reeves confirmed plans to cut civil service running costs by 15%.

The chancellor said Labour was looking to cut back the civil service by slashing its "back office functions, the administrative and bureaucracy functions" by the end of this parliament.

The leader of the biggest civil service union said any cuts will hit frontline services after years of underfunding by previous Conservative governments.

Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Fran Heathcote said: "The impact of making cuts will not only disadvantage our members but the public we serve and the services they rely on.

"We've heard this before under Gordon Brown when cuts were made to backroom staff and consequences of that was chaos."

Reeves told Sky News she was "confident" civil service numbers could be reduced by 10,000, but one union chief said the cuts could lead to some 50,000 staff being let go.

FDA general secretary Dave Penman explained: "We're talking about something that’s close to 10% of the entire salary bill of the civil service over the next three to four years.

"The civil service is about half a million staff. So that could be up to 50,000 staff who would go."

Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect, said there must be "a realistic assessment of what the civil service doesn’t do in future as a result of these cuts".

The government is telling local councils they must publish data on how many potholes they have fixed or risk losing their share of an extra £500m set aside for fixing roads.

From the middle of next month, local authorities across England will start to receive their allocation of the £1.6bn for fixing roads across the country.

But in order to get the full amount, all councils must publish annual reports on how many potholes they've filled - or see a quarter of the additional £500m in funding the government has allocated this year withheld.

By 30 June, all councils must publish reports detailing how much they are spending, how many potholes they have filled, what percentage of their roads are in what condition, and how they are minimising disruption.

Meanwhile, the transport secretary is unveiling a funding package of £4.8bn for 2025-6 for National Highways to deliver critical road schemes and maintain motorways and major A-roads.

Good morning!

Welcome back to the Politics Hubon Monday, 24 March.

All eyes are on the Treasury this week, as Chancellor Rachel Reeves prepares to deliver her spring statement on Wednesday.

Yesterday, Reeves told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that she is "confident" 10,000 civil service jobs can be axed after numbers ballooned during the pandemic.

She is expected to unveil a raft of spending cuts during thespring statement- but has ruled out tax rises.

Meanwhile, the government is telling local councils they must publish data on how many potholes they have fixed or risk losing their share of an extra £500m set aside for fixing roads.

This is a key part of Downing Street's drive to ensure the voting public sees and feels the difference the government is making in their local communities as they fight off a challenge from Reform UK.

Reform UK will today announce their candidate for the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, which will take place after ex-Labour MP Mike Amesbury quit.

This followed Amesbury's sentencing for assaulting a constituent.

Joining us to discuss all this and more will be:

• Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander at 7.15am
• Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith at 8.15am

Follow along for the very latest political news.