UK's war plans will cost equivalent of 3p rise in income tax
The winner of the next election will be forced to make the “hard choices” of deeper spending cuts or tax rises to fund Britain’s defence spending commitments and prepare the country for war, experts have warned.
UK defence spending will reach only 2.7 per cent of GDP by 2029, as set out by Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) this week.
But this means that whoever wins power at the 2029 election will then need to significantly ramp up defence spending year on year to reach the Nato commitment of 3.5 per cent by 2035.
Three families reflect on the early signs of the illness, which affected their parents.
They include the things they missed or dismissed, what they’d do differently and what they’d want other people in the same position to know.
One of the first incidents that rang alarm bells for Robert was his mum falling victim to a suspected scam from someone selling mattresses door-to-door.
She also started to struggle with cooking and making her special dishes she’d been making for decades without a problem.
We [had] just sort of played along with everything. But on one particularly bad day, I blurted it out over the phone, ‘Because you’ve got dementia, mum!’ She threatened to kill herself, which was very scary. Maybe it’s something I should have explained properly to her from the get go…
I think we missed some of the really early subtle signs.
Rosie’s mother was diagnosed with Young Onset Alzheimer’s Disease at 58 but some symptoms, like brain fog, were put down to the menopause.
She had become more forgetful, and was repeating herself, but as she had always “been scatty” it was dismissed.
It was on strange things like going to the same buffet.
Chloe was just 14 when her mum, Sarah, was diagnosed with young onset frontotemporal dementia, a rare form of the disease.
Another time Sarah, who was diagnosed in her forties, forgot how to boil an egg.
On Saturdays, when she’d usually go shopping, she’d go out and come straight back home, almost like she forgetting
what she was going out for.
Officials have drawn up contingency plans to cut further green levies from energy bills if prices remain high this winter, The i Paper has been told.
Several options are now circulating among Burnham’s transition team who are believed to be weighing up how to deliver on that pledge. A Treasury source said work on a package was ongoing to help with rising costs.
Burnham could remove remaining green levies from energy bills, funded through general taxation instead.
One proposal would be to raise the bank surcharge from its current 3 per cent.
Replace stamp duty, loosen fiscal rules and tax the capital gains uplift on inherited assets.
A written statement published by the Chancellor said the remaining sum would be “confirmed at Budget 2026, in a fair and balanced way”.
The coronation of Andy Burnham is fraught with dangers. Never will a prime minister have arrived in Downing Street with so little scrutiny of what he wants to do.
Sir Keir Starmer’s much-delayed Defence Investment Plan had one big bet at its heart: drones are the future of warfare.
American company Anduril makes the “Seabed Sentry“- a weighted cylinder that uses sensors and AI to monitor what is happening under the sea. They could be used to listen out for spying and sabotage by Russian submarines. They are far cheaper than crewed submarines using traditional sonar.
A dozen of the cylinders can be dropped onto the seabed at a time by an autonomous submarine, with the devices forming a network which communicate between themselves and listens out for undersea activity.
The UK is woefully unprepared with the Royal Navy in a desperate condition. Whoever sits in Downing Street come next September will need to address matters of defence, homeland and cyber defence especially, with urgency.
Electric flying taxis could be above the streets of London by 2028, a manufacturer has claimed. Here’s what you need to know.
Vertical Aerospace is still testing the aircraft and it will need to be approved by both the approval from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA). But the company says the aim is for air taxis to become as cheap and convenient as ordering an Uber to the airport.
Writer Sadhbh O’Sullivan looked into her own forgotten subscriptions when she became a first-time buyer, and realised how much she was wasting on things she wasn’t using.
I’d long considered myself to be quite a reasonable spender.
But the hidden costs across her bank accounts, like free trials that hadn’t been cancelled and memberships for abandoned services, proved otherwise.
It was full of small amounts, £2.99 here, £4.50 there. These small amounts added up.
According to a Nationwide survey almost one in five Brits don’t use every platform they pay for.
The bank suggests they could save as much as £400 a year by ditching them.
National Trading Standards’ 2025 research found 4.7 million people were paying for subscriptions they didn’t know they’d signed up for.
In 2024, a government report found unused and unwanted subscriptions cost consumers up to £1.6bn a year.
Hunt them down
Banking apps usually list your ‘subscriptions’ separately from direct debits and standing orders so you can easily spot what you’re shelling out on.
Check everything
You can be debited through credit cards, E-payment services, your mobile phone bill, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Don’t vow to use a subscription you’re not going to, even if you
have good intentions.
Many businesses have changed from monthly to annual payments so look further back.
Make sure to track any subscriptions you have kept so you can cancel them, if need be, in future.
But staff say many people treat their shops like a tip.
Here they share the most useful donations they get, and the
ones that drive them mad.
The quality of donations over the last year has diminished.
Claire Stockman, head of retail for St
Luke’s Hospice [pictured], says many donations include used items from fast fashion like Boohoo and Primark, which they cannot sell for more than £2, if at all.
of what comes into St Luke’s Hospice is unsellable, Stockman says.
She adds its soiled, damaged beyond
repair or smelly.
Harriet, a volunteer at Crisis in Dalston,
says people bring in clothes that are dirty and stained – things that they cannot sell
on Vinted.
She also sees dirty kitchenware and technology that no longer works.
There was a box donated after someone’s family had passed and in it were all these medals. I researched them and the whole collection ended up going for £2,340…
A good donation is anything new with tags on, anything that hasn’t been opened, or higher quality items.
Items that have been well looked after are more likely to sell and generate a better price for charity too.
Harriet adds that knick-knacks and wine glasses are surprise hits in her branch.
Here, psychologists, career consultants and sleep experts give their best advice on how
to beat the gloom that the
work week is looming…
Pave the way on Friday
Psychologist Maria-Teresa Daher-Cusack says to wrap up tasks and not to leave big or difficult things for Monday. And write a to-do list for the next week so you know what to expect when you return after the weekend.
Get outside early
Doctor Naheed Ali says getting out on a Sunday morning – not sleeping late – helps regulate the circadian rhythm that can become skewed over the weekend.
On Sunday spend time away from technology to allow yourself a personal reset away from doom scrolling.
Put yourself in the best position to rest by avoiding large meals, screens and caffeine.
If possible don’t stack your Mondays with high-pressure tasks.
Don’t just save joyful things for the weekend. On lunch breaks, try to do something you enjoy.
If the Sunday scaries are constant, listen to them. If every Sunday fills you with dread and nothing seems to quell it it’s worth asking if it’s the job, the culture or the career itself. No one should spend half their weekend bracing for impact… ” says Victoria McLean
But no country’s energy system is 100 per cent secure and large-scale blackouts, although rare, are possible.
Here’s how to prepare, and what could happen, if we do have a blackout.
If the UK’s power went down tomorrow, these are the ways it is likely to impact you first.
For EV owners that are already on the road, Professor Keith Bell, who works in electricity planning, recommends that those with an EV with reasonable charge use it as a generator, like your own store of electricity.
In the case of the power system going down, petrol isn’t a totally safe option as queues at petrol stations could be huge and places are likely to run out of fuel.
The longer the power takes to return the worse things are likely to get. In 2021 Storm Arwen physically damaged power lines across the UK.
During the 1977 New York blackout, which lasted 25 hours, there was civil unrest, resulting in widespread looting and arson, although intense heatwaves are thought to have exacerbated the situation.
To get updates during a power cut – a car radio can be used, but in severe weather it might be safer to stay inside.
A minimum of 2.5-3 litres of drinking water per person per day is recommended.
The Government recommends opting for torches over candles, for safety reasons.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said getting from 2.7 per cent to 3.5 per cent in six years would require an extra £25bn of annual spending in today’s terms – the equivalent of 3p on income tax.
Makerfield MP Andy Burnham, who is expected to succeed Starmer as prime minister later this month, has his eyes on a 2029 Labour victory to implement a 10-year plan to transform Britain.
But the IFS assessment suggests that Burnham, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage or Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch as prime minister after the next general election would be forced to impose huge tax rises or spending cuts to reach the Nato target.
Starmer and Reeves have faced criticism from former military chiefs for going slow on defence spending in the run-up to 2029.
The DIP published on Tuesday outlined an extra £15bn of defence spending over the next four years on top of the £283bn already committed. But £4.7bn of the £15bn is yet to be found.
The £25bn black hole awaiting the next government is on top of the £4.7bn Burnham will have to find in his first Budget this autumn under the DIP.
The £4.7bn shortfall has fuelled speculation that the new prime minister will increase capital gains tax (CGT), as recommended by his close ally Louise Haigh or introduce another wealth tax to fund the gap.
It emerged last weekend that Haigh, who has been tipped for a senior role in Burnham’s new cabinet, had previously called for an increase in CGT.
And there was uncertainty over how the £10.7bn that the Chancellor has already earmarked for Whitehall spending cuts will be raised, with No 10 saying only that the full plans will be set out “by the autumn”.
Bee Boileau, a research economist at the IFS, said the £4.7bn in unidentified spending was “not huge” and worked out at just over £1bn a year over four years.
She added: “Options for funding this, as with any spending commitment, include cuts to other spending, increases to taxes, or borrowing.”
Burnham has committed to stick to Reeves’s fiscal rules, which would rule out borrowing more money, meaning he will have to raise taxes or cut spending.
Although these would not be large, “choosing where they would fall would still be a difficult political choice,” Boileau added.
But she said: “The real challenge will likely be the commitment to hit 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence in 2035.
“Certainly, if the 3.5 per cent commitment is stuck to, whoever wins the next election will face hard choices about how to fund higher defence spending.”
Boileau added that getting from 2.7 per cent to 3.5 per cent of GDP implies additional spending each year of £25bn in today’s terms, “a much more significant sum which would be much harder to find through non-defence spending cuts or tax rises”.
She said: “One comparison is that it’s around the size of the Ministry of Justice and Foreign Office combined, or it’s equivalent to putting around 3p on all rates of income tax, or on the standard rate of VAT.”
Burnham’s team declined to comment on whether the incoming prime minister would put up wealth taxes this autumn and on the issue of tax rises or spending cuts after the 2029 election.
Meanwhile, Downing Street was unable to clarify which transport schemes would be axed or delayed under the £10.7bn in immediate Whitehall cuts, other than two road upgrades.
Asked whether rail projects might be in line for cuts, Starmer’s official spokesman said: “Even as we make these changes we’re still investing heavily in transport infrastructure with £7.3bn to resurface local roads and almost £27bn for our strategic road network – while also protecting major rail investments like Northern Powerhouse Rail and ensuring no impact on bus or rail services.”
The transport and energy departments will face the biggest cuts, of £700m and £2bn respectively, while other ministries will have to take a 1 per cent slice off their capital budgets.
The Government insisted all of the cuts have been earmarked, but says the detail will be set out “by the autumn”.
The Department for Transport cuts will involve cancelling A38 Derby junctions and A46 Newark Bypass schemes, but these do not make up the £700m total.
Savings to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero will mean it has to “reshape its capital budget in a way which continues to protect the clean power mission, drive renewable and nuclear build-out and insulate us from future gas price spikes on the path to energy independence” – but the precise details will not be set out until the autumn.
On health, No 10 did not rule out delays to new and upgraded hospital projects, saying only that the seven hospitals affected by the reinforced concrete (Raac) scandal, and the first wave of new hospitals, would be protected – leaving open the door to some builds in later waves being delayed.
Starmer’s official spokesman said: “We have set out a credible plan for funding. The vast majority of this package has already been funded by reprioritising departmental spending with £10.3bn identified now.
“We’ve worked with secretaries of state across Government to find savings and reallocations in a way that protects day-to-day spending on frontline services.”
But the King’s Fund warned that cuts to capital budgets at the Department for Health and Social Care would hit supplies of NHS equipment such as MRI and CT scanners.
Siva Anandaciva, director of policy, events and partnerships at the health think tank, said: “While many people understand the need to increase defence spending, cutting the NHS capital budget, which helps maintain NHS buildings and equipment, including MRI and CT scanners, will have a knock-on effect on patient care.”