News Round-Up

• “IFS dismisses Reeves’s claim she “had” to drop £30 billion tax bomb in Budget” – Rachel Reeves’s claim that she had no choice about dropping a £30 billion tax bomb in the Budget has been challenged by the Institute of Fiscal Studies, reports the Mail.
• “Susanna Reid confronts Reeves over broken tax vows” – Chancellor Rachel Reeves was challenged by Susanna Reid on how anyone could “believe anything you say” as she toured broadcast studios defending her tax raid, according to the Mail.
• “Starmer accused of ‘misleading’ public over Labour’s Budget tax plans” – Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of “misleading” the public over Labour’s big tax plans in a car-crash interview after the Budget, reports the Mail.
• “Starmer denies ditching two-child benefit cap to avoid leadership challenge” – Sir Keir Starmer has rejected suggestions that he ditched the two-child benefit cap to prevent Labour MPs from ousting him, says the Telegraph.
• “This is Rayner’s Budget, not Reeves’s” – It is no wonder the former Deputy Prime Minister liked what she heard from the Chancellor, writes Tony Diver in the Telegraph.
• “Rachel Reeves may have just killed the Great British pub” – Raise one last pint while you still can, says Rory Hanrahan. The Great British pub is on its last legs, thanks to National Insurance hikes, minimum wage increases and alcohol duty.
• “Number of asylum seekers in migrant hotels jumps to more than 36,000” – The number of asylum seekers living in hotels at the taxpayers’ expense has jumped to more than 36,000, the highest level for nearly two years, reports the Mail.
• “More than 53,000 illegal migrants are missing” – According to internal Home Office figures, more than 53,000 illegal migrants have absconded and are missing, says LBC.
• “Asylum seekers now make up 44% of net migration to Britain” – The number of asylum seekers coming to Britain has surged to a record high, making up 44% of total net migration, reports the Mail.
• “Hungary is paying €1m a day to block illegal migrants. What a bargain” – A new tourist video makes a virtue of the EU fining Hungary €1 million a day and claims it has made Viktor Orban’s country the safest destination in Europe, writes Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
• “Migration to surge despite Mahmood’s crackdown” – The OBR has warned the Home Secretary that net migration will hit 340,000 by 2030 because of Boriswave migrants remaining in the UK rather than returning to their home countries, says the Telegraph. 
• “Young people are fleeing Britain” – Net migration is down, but only because young Britons are leaving in droves, writes Michael Simmons in the Spectator.
• “BBC’s Amol Rajan forced to apologise after benefits ‘scroungers’ claim” – The BBC’s Amol Rajan was forced to issue a grovelling on-air apology after being accused of branding benefit claimants “scroungers”, reports the Mail.
• “The obvious truth about BBC bias” – In the Spectator, Rod Liddle argues that the BBC is in liberal-Left la-la land and that only a politically diverse workforce can rescue it.
• “Army halts use of £6 billion Ajax fleet after vibrations leave 31 injured” – The Army has suspended the use of its Ajax armoured vehicles after 31 soldiers fell ill while using them, reports the BBC.
• “Railway station clock cost £120,000” – A station clock to commemorate Labour’s state ownership of the railways cost the taxpayer £120,000, says the Telegraph.
• “Labour to hand retired miners £2.3 billion” – Labour will hand another £2.3 billion to retired miners, leaving taxpayers on the hook for decades of pensions, according to the Telegraph.
• “Drivers face annual mileage check at MOT centres under Rachel Reeves’s pay-per-mile car tax plans” – Owners of EVs will be required to visit MOT centres to have an annual mileage check-up to adhere to new pay-per-mile car taxes, reports GB News.
• “Drivers’ fury at new pay-per-mile tax” – The Mail reports electric vehicle owners are fuming after the Chancellor revealed plans to slap a mileage-based tax on their eco-friendly cars from April 2028.
• “Rachel Reeves’s poison pill” – Maurice Cousins, Campaign Director at Net Zero Watch, reacts to Rachel Reeves’s Budget.
• “What is a ‘climate crisis?’” – Before we declare a ‘climate crisis’, perhaps we need a clear definition – grounded not in fear, but in evidence, says Andy May on Clintel.
• “Death by a thousand reports” – In Climate Scepticism, John Ridgway shows how climate change bureaucracy just adds to the grief.
• “A few markers on the road to the demise of the climate apocalypse” – The climate apocalypse narrative is quietly unravelling, notes Francis Menton on Manhattan Contrarian.
• “Adam Carolla and Joe Rogan are right, government is to blame for the severity of LA’s fires, not climate change” – Adam Carolla and Joe Rogan are more knowledgeable about Los Angeles’s climate and wildfires, apparently, than the state government, says Linnea Lueken in Climate Realism.
• “Aussie Greens celebrate CO₂ emissions cuts” – Australia’s biggest emissions cut yet is thanks to renewables – but it’s crushing manufacturing, writes Eric Worrall in WUWT?
• “The revelations about what the Gaza hostages suffered are the most painful yet” – In the Spectator, Jonathan Sacerdoti says freed Gaza hostages are describing sexual abuse and torture, yet Britain is barely paying attention.
• “The Left is desperate to believe mass deportations are backfiring. They’re not” – The Washington Post can no longer claim that Trump’s policies aren’t working, so now it’s pretending they’re unpopular, writes Paul du Quenoy in the Telegraph.
• “This is what it looks like when you lose” – On The Tucker Carlson Show, Tucker says Britain has turned into an island of defeated people and Britons remind him of Native Americans who have resigned themselves to their own extinction.

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