Spring statement 2025 latest: Starmer warns of cuts ‘across the board’ with ‘50,000 civil service jobs up for axe’

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has said she was “too busy” to go to concerts after Chancellor Rachel Reeves has faced criticism for accepting free tickets to see Sabrina Carpenter live.

She told Times Radio: “I haven’t taken any tickets, to be honest, since I was elected back in (July) as a new Member of Parliament, and going straight into the Ministry of Justice and then coming straight into the Department for Transport.

“I actually, sadly, haven’t been to see any concerts at all over the last nine months, partly because I’ve been very, very busy.

“As a Member of Parliament, I have never accepted tickets to any concerts or anything like that.”

When pressed on the issue, she said she has not been to concerts because she has “a very busy diary and I’ve got to prioritise my time”.

She added: “When I’ve got time off, actually, spending some time with my family and my husband is actually a more attractive option to me, if I’m honest.”

Rachel Reeves has been urged by one of her former advisers to abandon Labour’s commitment to the state pension triple lock, warning that the pledge is “bonkers” and risks hobbling the government’s ability to manage the economy.

Jim O’Neill, a former Treasury minister who quit the Conservatives and later advised Ms Reeves, warned the chancellor had “hemmed herself in” with unsustainable manifesto commitments ahead of Wednesday’s spring statement.

His comments come as senior economists and Labour figures warn that the government has “boxed itself in” with pledges not to raise major taxes or break the triple lock – which guarantees the state pension will rise by 2.5 per cent, average earnings, or inflation, whichever is highest.

David Maddox, Archie Mitchell and Kate Devlin report:

As he addressed the Liberal Democrats spring conference, party leader Ed Davey argues that Britain should have little truck with Trump.

Ministers “want to get our sleeves rolled up” and fix potholes for good, the prime minister said on Monday, as he announced an additional £4.8bn of funding to carry out work on motorways and major A-roads.

Local authorities will start to get their share of £1.6bn in highway maintenance funding confirmed last year, up £500 million from the previous year, in mid-April.

Average living standards could fall for all UK families by 2030, with those on the lowest incomes hit twice as hard as middle and high-earners, a new forecast suggests.

While much discussion has focused on whether Ms Reeves will meet her “iron-clad” fiscal rules after rising borrowing costs wiped out the £10bn of headroom in her October budget, the JRF warned a preoccupation with the public purse risks a deterioration in the finances of ordinary families going under the radar.

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander responded to reports that the airport’s chief executive went back to bed after the crisis began late on Thursday night.

She said: “I’ve had to deal with some pretty stressful situations in my time.

“I probably would struggle to sleep, to be honest.”

She added: “It’s my understanding that he placed his chief operating officer in charge.

“He will have also known that there was going to be a huge number of very difficult decisions the following day.

“I’m not going to justify decisions that Heathrow leadership did or didn’t take. I wasn’t sat at the table. I didn’t have the information that he had available to him at that time.”

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted potholes are “not boring” as the Government announced a £1.6 billion cash injection into local government to fix Britain’s roads.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, the Prime Minister said: “I can tell you, if you hit a pothole, there will be some people hitting a pothole this morning, and then they are picking up an average £600 bill to their car or their van.

“That isn’t boring, that is really irritating. We’ve got far too many of them, and this is about getting that job done.”