Winter fuel payment latest: Rachel Reeves warns more difficult choices to come after allowance to plug ‘£22bn black hole’

The elections watchdog has been reprimanded over online security lapses which allowed a database containing details of 40 million voters to be hacked.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found that the Electoral Commission did ensure its servers were kept up-to-date with the latest security updates.

Stephen Bonner, deputy commissioner at the ICO, said: “If the Electoral Commission had taken basic steps to protect its systems, such as effective security patching and password management, it is highly likely that this data breach would not have happened.

“By not installing the latest security updates promptly, its systems were left exposed and vulnerable to hackers.”

The data breach, which has been blamed by the government on Chinese hackers, occurred in August 2021 but was not identified until October 2022.

Yvette Cooper will address the House of Commons this afternoon about the stabbings in Southport yesterday.

Police are searching for a motive behind the attack as six children remain in critical condition.

The home secretary is in the area to meet the chief constable, police and crime commissioner and mayor, followed by a meeting with the first responders who attended the scene.

Ms Cooper will then head to Hart Street to lay flower and attend a community event with MP Patrick Hurley.

After meeting with Home Office staff at the Southport campus, she will return to London to deliver a statement to MPs in parliament.

Rachel Reeves has accused Jeremy Hunt of lying about the state of the public finances after revealing a £22bn hole in the public finances.

The chancellor branded her predecessor as a liar, in her strongest condemnation yet of Mr Hunt and Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party.

MPs are barred from referring to other members as liars in the chamber as it is deemed unparliamentary, but even outside of the commons it is unusual for senior politicians in the UK to accuse one another directly of lying.

“It is even worse than that, because during the general election campaign I was clear everything I put forward was fully funded,” she told Sky News on Tuesday.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has accused Labour of selling a “fiscal fairytale” with the chancellor’s claim that the Tories had left behind a £22 billion black hole in the public finances.

The former Tory MP said the figures had been “invented” and accused the government of being “simply dishonest”.

He told GB News: “When the Labour chief secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne wrote [in 2010] that there was no money left, he was telling the truth.

“But in what has been dubbed the ‘biggest lie in British politics’ Rachel Reeves, the Artful Dodger of 11 Downing Street, takes us for fools in an effort to pick your pocket.

The former business secretary, who lost his seat at the general election, claimed that “inventing a £22 billion black hole and blaming the Tories while spending £8 billion on green energy that won’t cut your bills and £11 billion on overseas climate aid is simply dishonest”.

Sir Jacob added: “Do not be fooled by their fiscal fairytales. Labour has not been in office for a month and already its spin has turned into outright dishonesty.”

Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick said his party has been “unable or unwilling” to do what is required to cut the number of people coming to the UK.

The former immigration minister said hundreds of thousands of people “we didn’t need” had arrived legally while “dangerous” immigrants could not be deported.

Mr Jenrick, who backs pulling out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to tackle issues around small boat crossings, said “our people and Parliament must be sovereign”.

In a video to launch his leadership campaign, he said: “When I was minister for immigration, I saw dangerous people coming into our country. I saw us unable to deport them. I saw hundreds of thousands of people we frankly didn’t need coming in legally.

“But our politics was unable or unwilling to deliver what was needed. The new government aren’t going to fix things. They have too many delusions.

“Our party is our country’s best hope. But we have a mountain to climb and real choices to make. We won’t regain people’s trust with platitudes.”

A peer has been accused of Islamophobia after giving a “disgusting and outrageous” speech in the House of Lords.

Lord Pearson of Rannoch claimed “radicals” plan to “take us over through the power of the womb and the ballot box” after discussing government plans to improve counter-terrorism measures at public venues following the King’s Speech.

“The sharia allows Muslim men to have four wives at a time, most of whom are having at least two children, so the Muslim population is going up 10 times faster than our national average,” he told the House of Lords last Thursday (25 July).

“On past trends, Birmingham and nine other English local authorities will be majority Muslim by 2031. The radicals’ plan is to wait until they can take us over through the power of the womb and the ballot box.”

Our race correspondent Nadine White has the full story:

The chancellor has confirmed she is ending universal winter fuel payments, which are currently paid to all pensions.

She said those not receiving pension credits or other means tested benefits will not receive winter fuel payments from this year onwards.

Under the previous plans, those born before September 25, 1957, could have received between £250 and £600 to help pay for the heating over the winter period.

Most received the grant, which was available to those on a State Pension, Pension Credit, Carers Allowance and Income Support.

The French border control zone at the Port of Dover will be expanded to reduce the risk of queues at peak times when new EU rules come into force.

Under the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES), expected to come into force in the Autumn, travellers entering from the UK and other non-EU countries will have to register their details at the EU border and provide biometric data.

As the Government prepares for the change, Home Office Minister Seema Malhotra laid a statutory instrument in Parliament on Monday to allow French border officials to operate in an expanded zone at the Port of Dover.

It will commit the Home Office to working with the French Government, local authorities and businesses to streamline EU border checks at the port.

The change in law is part of the preparations to minimise the risk of traffic disruption. The aim is to create more space to process passengers for a better customer experience.

The Home Office is working with the French Interior Ministry to amend the border control arrangements between the two countries to accommodate the expanded zone.

The port plans to change the location of passport control for passengers arriving to board the ferry from the Eastern Docks to a new border control zone at its Western Docks.

The port has also been making major upgrades to its port infrastructure, including building bespoke facilities to carry out the checks.