Reeves says inflation fall shows ‘plan for change is working’ – as it happened
Reeves: inflation figures are latest ‘encouraging sign that our plan for change is working’
Speaking about the latest inflation figures, chancellor Rachel Reeves said there were “encouraging signs that our plan for change is working.”
UK inflation dropped to 2.6% in March, meaning prices are rising slightly more slowly. Reeves said:
Inflation falling for two months in a row, wages growing faster than prices, and positive growth figures are encouraging signs that our plan for change is working, but there is more to be done.
I know many families are still struggling with the cost of living and this is an anxious time because of a changing world.
That is why the government has boosted pay for three million people by increasing the minimum wage, frozen fuel duty and begun rolling out free breakfast clubs in primary schools.
Key events
Closing summary
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The British and French governments are involved in early talks about a returns agreement that would involve both countries exchanging people seeking asylum. Officials have discussed a pilot scheme under which a small number of people who come across the Channel to the UK by irregular means would be sent back to France.
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The Conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride has claimed government choices are “driving up the cost of living.” Reacting to news that inflation had slowed, Stride said: “Inflation remains above target and we know from official forecasts that price rises are set to increase further this year because of the chancellor’s choices.
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UK inflation has fallen to 2.6%, increasing pressure on the Bank of England to cut interest rates.
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Some 705 people arrived in the UK on Tuesday after crossing the English Channel, according to provisional figures from the Home Office. It is the highest number of arrivals on a single day so far this year, PA Media reported. The cumulative number of arrivals by small boats in 2025 now stands at a provisional total of 8,888.
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China has accused UK politicians of “arrogance, ignorance and a twisted mindset” as it defended British Steel’s owner Jingye after a barrage of criticism over the narrowly averted shutdown of its blast furnaces. Beijing’s embassy to the UK accused unspecified British public figures of slandering China’s government and businesses, in comments published on Wednesday on its website.
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A government minister has reiterated the call for the Unite union to accept a deal and end the bin strike in Birmingham. Speaking on GB News this morning, Lillian Greenwood, parliamentary under-secretary of state for the future of roads, said residents were facing “a completely unacceptable situation”
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The trade secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, will travel to Beijing to revive a key trade dialogue with China despite saying it had been naive to allow Chinese investment in sensitive sectors, the Guardian has learned
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Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has said he hopes the government won’t consider another Chinese firm for the future ownership of British Steel and the blast furnaces in Scunthorpe. Appearing on Sky News, Davey said “I would caution them against” another Chinese partner, telling viewers “One of the worries that I think we’ve all had is the Chinese firm might have been under orders being influenced by the Chinese government.
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The UK supreme court is set to rule on the legal definition of a woman. The case against the Scottish government was brought by the campaign group For Women Scotland
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Water companies’ pollution incidents in England increased by 30% in 2024.
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Nigel Farage has issued a local election campaign video this morning, which he recorded yesterday afternoon, in which he calls the Conservative party a “self-entitled arrogant up themselves bunch of losers.” He claims that while he has been out campaigning in Durham and Northumberland, the Conservatives “are not on the pitch, not campaigning out around the country, not appearing for any media interviews.”
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PA Media reports that Tommy Robinson has lost an appeal against his 18-month sentence for the civil offence of contempt of court at the court of appeal. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was jailed in October last year after admitting multiple breaches of a high court order made in 2021.
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A judge has fined Cambridgeshire county council £6m for health and safety breaches on the world’s longest guided busway after three deaths and multiple incidents of injury. PA Media reports that Ben Compton KC, for Cambridgeshire county council, requested that the authority be given six years to pay the money, adding: “It’s a council – these are hard times.”
The business secretary has been urged to suspend plans to visit China, after an MP was denied entry to Hong Kong to visit her family, PA Media reported.
Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse was held and questioned at Hong Kong airport when she flew there to see her son and newborn grandson, before being sent back to the UK.
Hobhouse, the MP for Bath who is a member of the Inter-parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac) which has been critical of Beijing’s human rights record, has said she believes the action was taken to silence her.
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has now written to foreign secretary David Lammy, urging the government to take five steps in response to Hobhouse’s deportation.
While Davey praised the initial support offered by ministers after news of his MP’s deportation, he claimed in a letter seen by the PA news agency that the government had since “been silent on attempts by Hong Kong officials to undermine Wera’s account of her detention”.
“For as long as this silence is allowed to continue, we can only conclude that the Chinese authorities have a secret blacklist of British parliamentarians,” he wrote in the letter, also signed by Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson Calum Miller.
Davey added: “It feels like you are now more interested in saving face with China than you are in standing up for the rights of British parliamentarians.
“There is also a wider principle at stake: if we timidly accept this kind of behaviour, it will only embolden China – together with other authoritarian states – in their efforts to intimidate us.”
Some 705 people arrived in the UK on Tuesday after crossing the English Channel, according to provisional figures from the Home Office.
It is the highest number of arrivals on a single day so far this year, PA Media reported.
The cumulative number of arrivals by small boats in 2025 now stands at a provisional total of 8,888.
This is 42% higher than at the same point last year, when the total stood at 6,265 and 81% higher than at this stage in 2023, when the total was 4,899.
There were 12 boats that arrived on Tuesday, which suggests an average of about 59 people per boat.
The shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, has criticised the government over channel crossings, claiming that Keir Starmer has lost control of British borders.
In a post on social media the MP for Croydon South said:
2025 so far is the worst year ever for illegal small boat crossings. This will only end with a removals deterrent where all arriving get promptly removed – then there would be no point crossing. But Labour cancelled Rwanda before it started. Starmer has lost control of our borders.
The previous Conservative administration, of which Philp was a part, spent £715m over two years on the Rwanda plan, including £50m on flights that never took off, without a single forced deportation being made.
Zarah Sultana, who was elected as Labour’s MP for Coventry South, has voiced her support for striking workers in Birmingham. Posting to social media she said “Amid a cost-of-living crisis, Birmingham bin workers were told to swallow an £8,000 pay cut. Now they’re being vilified for refusing. They’re absolutely right to strike – and they have my full solidarity.”
Sultana was among several Labour MPs who had the whip withdrawn from them shortly after last year’s general election for voting with the SNP on an amendment attempting to end the two child benefit cap.
Nigel Farage earlier was suggesting that while he was out campaigning for the May local elections that are taking place in some areas of England, the Conservatives were nowhere to be seen on the ground. They have been active on social media, however, and are attempting to hammer home a message associating the bin strikes in Brimingham with Labour-run councils.
Labour’s bin strike, coming to a town near you?
The Birmingham bin strike is a warning: Vote Labour, get trash.
The only way to stop them is to Vote Conservative on 1st May. pic.twitter.com/8NG3STdMSx
— Conservatives (@Conservatives) April 16, 2025
If you are interested more in the background to the dispute, at least from the council’s perspective anyway, the Birmingham Live website has published today a lengthy Q&A with council leader John Cotton.
China accuses UK politicians of ‘arrogance’ in British Steel row
Jasper Jolly is a financial reporter for the Guardian
China has accused UK politicians of “arrogance, ignorance and a twisted mindset” as it defended British Steel’s owner Jingye after a barrage of criticism over the narrowly averted shutdown of its blast furnaces.
Beijing’s embassy to the UK accused unspecified British public figures of slandering China’s government and businesses, in comments published on Wednesday on its website.
It followed criticism of the actions of Jingye, British Steel’s Chinese owner since 2020, by the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds. Reynolds accused Jingye of not acting in good faith after it threatened to shut down British Steel’s furnaces at Scunthorpe within days, with the loss of 2,700 jobs. The government stepped in on Saturday to avoid the shutdowns with emergency legislation to take control of British Steel.
In an unusual question-and-answer format, the Beijing’s embassy wrote: “The anti-China rhetoric of some individual British politicians is extremely absurd, reflecting their arrogance, ignorance and twisted mindset.”
You can read more of Jasper Jolly’s report here: China accuses UK politicians of ‘arrogance’ in British Steel row
UK in talks with France about deal to swap people seeking asylum
Rajeev Syal
Rajeev Syal is the Guardian’s home affairs editor
The British and French governments are involved in early talks about a returns agreement that would involve both countries exchanging people seeking asylum.
Officials have discussed a pilot scheme under which a small number of people who come across the Channel to the UK by irregular means would be sent back to France.
The UK would look to accept from France a limited number of people who have a right to be in Britain, especially those with a case for family reunification.
Home Office insiders have described the talks, first reported in the Financial Times, as positive.
A Home Office spokesperson said the government was “intensifying” its collaboration with France and other European countries.
Small boat crossings across the Channel are at record levels, with almost 8,200 people having made the journey to the UK since the start of the year, up 30% compared with the same period last year.
Before Brexit, the UK was a party to the EU’s Dublin regulation, under which people should be processed for asylum in the country at which they first entered the bloc.
Read more from Rajeev Syal’s report here: UK in talks with France about deal to swap people seeking asylum
A judge has fined Cambridgeshire county council £6m for health and safety breaches on the world’s longest guided busway after three deaths and multiple incidents of injury.
PA Media reports that Ben Compton KC, for Cambridgeshire county council, requested that the authority be given six years to pay the money, adding: “It’s a council – these are hard times.”
The judge rejected this and gave the local authority three years to pay, and also ordered that the council pay more than £292,000 in outstanding costs, saying “I acknowledge the financial challenges that face the defendant, I don’t underestimate that”.
However the judge pointed out that the council had set aside more than £18m in a reserve fund to cover legal risks.
PA Media is reporting a government spokesperson has said the country is seeking “a better deal with the EU” as well as considering a trade deal with the Donald Trump administration in the US.
It quotes the spokesperson saying:
Growth is a priority as part of our plan for change, delivering good British jobs and more pounds in people’s pockets. Reducing trade barriers for our businesses is vitally important to that, which is why we are seeking better trading relations with partners across the world – getting a better deal with the EU to see cheaper food and drink on people’s tables, alongside a new economic deal with the US.
