Afternoon briefing Wednesday 2nd July

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0:38Search IG.com to find out more. IG. Trade. Invest. Progress. Your capital is at risk. Other fees may apply. This is the Times Afternoon briefing on Wednesday 2nd July. A senior cabinet minister has told Times Radio the government will stick to its manifesto promises on tax despite another welfare U-turn. Last-minute concessions to ditch cuts to disability benefits mean ministers are now facing a£4.5bn hole in the public finances. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, insists that will need to be paid for. This is a decision that will have financial consequences. They will all be taken together with all the other moving parts that there are in the economy and the fiscal picture at the budget, and that will be set out at the time.

1:28But I'm not denying that when you set out on a plan that has a cost attached to it, and then you have to change that or take it forward in slower time, that is a decision with financial consequences. The Times' political editor Stephen Swinford says that warning will mean more taxes in the budget. Those words mean everything because he is basically saying in semantic language, which is what I live on as a journalist, I have to listen carefully to the lines and behind the lines what people are saying. That is as close as you will get to a Cabinet minister saying we are going to have to jack our taxes.

2:00Despite the concessions, 49 Labour-backbenchers still voted against the government. Among them was Andy MacDonald, who told Times Radio he wants tax rises on wealthier people. If you listen to people like the Patriotic Millionaires, who've campaigned for higher taxes for themselves, they're suggesting that a wealth tax of 2 % on assets over£10 million will produce for the Treasury£24 billion. pounds. Elsewhere, the Crown Prosecution Service is considering more charges over baby deaths at hospitals where Lucy Letby worked. The evidence they've received relates to Operation Hummingbird, which led to the nurses' convictions for murder and attempted murder.

2:42Three members of the leadership team at the Countess of Chester Hospital were arrested earlier this week as part of a separate operation. A report into the substation fire which shut Heathrow earlier this year has found the fire was preventable. The National Energy System operator says moisture was found in oil samples at North Hyde's substation in West London in 2018, but says nothing was done to replace insulators. Times Radio's business correspondent Dominic O 'Connell says no one comes out of the report particularly well. There was an opportunity in 2022 to do it, but then they deferred basic maintenance on that substation.

3:18So that's not very comfortable for national grid. For Heathrow as well, due to its expectation of the resilience of the wider network, its internal electricity systems were never designed or configured to take advantage of having more than one supply point because they didn't think it was going to fall over. The regulator Ofgem has launched an official investigation and the Dalai Lama says he will have a successor, ending years of speculation he could be the last spiritual leader of Tibetans. His trust says that the new leader could be of any gender and does not need to be from Tibet. The 14th Dalai Lama turns 90 this Sunday.

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4:16don't wait around. Whether you're a hands-on trader wanting full control over every single move, or you're actively scaling up your portfolio and looking for a platform you can trust, you need a partner that backs you. You need IG. We're talking zero commission on all stocks, shares and ETFs and absolutely no annual fees. IG was just voted best low-cost ISA at the 2026 Boring Money Awards, plus they've been trusted by British investors for over 50 years. search ig.com to find out more IG trade, invest, progress your capital is at risk, other fees may apply this January bare knuckle fighting championship takes over the ocean the inaugural bruise cruise sails from Miami to the Bahamas aboard the Norwegian Jewel three straight days with pool deck bare knuckle fights in the Caribbean massive parties, beach events, DJs cigars, tequila tastings in nonstop action.

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