Kwarteng says national insurance increase will be reversed from 6 November, saving 28m people £330 on average next year The Treasury has just announced the national insurance increase introduced earlier this year will be reversed from 6 November. It put out a press release announcing the change to coincide with the introduction of the health and social care levy (repeal) bill. It said: The 1.25 percentage point rise in national insurance will be reversed from 6 November, the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, has announced today. Delivering on the prime minister’s pledge to slash taxes to help drive growth, scrapping the rise will reduce tax for 920,000 businesses by nearly £10,000 on average next year as they will no longer pay a higher level of employer national insurance and can now invest the money as they choose. The government will also cancel the planned health and social care levy – a separate tax which was coming into force in April 2023 to replace this year’s national insurance rise. This will help almost 28 million people across the UK keep more of what they earn, worth an extra £330 on average in 2023-24, with an additional saving of around £135 on average this year. The health and social care levy (repeal) bill, legislating for the tax change, has been introduced into the House today. As part of the cancellation of the levy, the chancellor is also set to confirm that the increases to dividend tax rates will be scrapped from April 2023 in his growth plan tomorrow. The increased dividend tax was introduced in April 2022 to ensure those who gained income from dividends contributed the same amount to help fund health and social care. The levy was expected to raise around £13 billion a year to fund health and social care. The chancellor confirmed today that the funding for health and social care services will be maintained at the same level as if the levy was in place, protecting the NHS through the winter and ensuring long-term investment in social care. The Treasury press release confirms what had been expected to be a key feature of the “emergency budget” coming tomorrow. The decision to put it out now will reinforce suspicions that Kwarteng has a surprise announcement saved up for tomorrow – possibly a stamp duty cut. Afternoon summary Kwasi Kwarteng, the chancellor, has announced that the national insurance increase introduced earlier this year will be reversed from 6 November. (See 2.46pm.) Britain’s economy is now in recession, the Bank of England has said, as it raised interest rates to tackle the worst bout of inflation for 40 years. Ministers are setting up a £500m emergency fund to get thousands of medically fit patients out of hospital as soon as possible in an attempt to prevent the NHS becoming overwhelmed this winter. Liz Truss is considering designating fracking sites as nationally important infrastructure, potentially cutting out local communities and breaking a leadership election promise, the Guardian can reveal. Britain’s poorest households risk spending almost half of their disposable income on gas and electricity bills this winter despite the government’s energy price guarantee, according to a report. Nick Macpherson, a former permanent secretary at the Treasury, says the UK is already paying a price in higher borrowing costs for the fact that the Treasury, which decides fiscal policy, and the Bank of England, which decides monetary policy, are at odds with each other. Ipsos Mori has published its latest political monitor. It says the polling “does not show a significant polling bounce for Liz Truss”. The fieldwork was carried out in the week after Truss became prime minister and it has Labour on 40% (down 4 points from July), and the Conservatives on 30% (no change). Keir Starmer has a narrow lead over Truss on who would make the most capable PM (40% versus 36%), but when respondents were asked about the two leaders’ characteristics, Starmer was ahead of Truss or level with her on all positive attributes, except being patriotic. On the economy, the picture is more mixed. The Conservatives are ahead of Labour as being the party most trusted to grow the economy, and to manage inflation. But Labour is ahead on reducing the cost of living (probably the most important of the four criteria) and on taxation. During his speech in the Ukraine debate in the Commons, Boris Johnson briefly thanked the “inspirational leadership of Vladimir Putin” before quickly correcting himself and saying Volodymyr Zelenskiy. He said: Thanks to the heroism of the Ukrainian armed forces, thanks in part to the weapons that we are proud to be offering … thanks also, of course, to the inspirational leadership of Vladimir Putin – the inspirational leadership of Volodymyr Zelenskiy, forgive me – the Russian forces have, in recent days been expelled from large parts of the north-east of the country around Kharkiv. Labour MP Apsana Begum says party has "failed in its duty of care" towards her The Labour MP Apsana Begum, who is returning to work after being off sick and who is facing a “trigger ballot” reselection process, has accused the party of failing in its “duty of care in relation to my health and wellbeing”. Liz Truss will chair a cabinet meeting tomorrow, before Kwasi Kwarteng’s statement to MPs. As my colleague Jessica Elgot reports, this is what usually happens before a budget – although No 10 insists that tomorrow’s statement isn’t actually a budget. If it were a budget, the independent Office for Budget Responsibility would have to publish a new economic forecast alongside it, which could have been awkward given what other economists are saying about government borrowing. Sinn Féin says figures showing Catholics outnumbering Protestants in NI indicate need to prepare for "unity referendum" Northern Ireland census figures have confirmed a landmark change in faith and national identities, with Catholics outnumbering Protestants for the first time and those identifying as British-only dropping significantly. Colum Eastwood, leader of the nationalist SDLP, said it was “a seminal moment in the history of modern Ireland”. He explained: The census figures published today reveal that, by any measure, the constitution of the North has been transformed utterly 100 years on from partition. That is a moment of true change because it reflects a sustained period of lasting change. As we have built a more inclusive and diverse society, we have together shattered the bonds of an oppressive state which engrained discrimination against a Catholic minority in its every outworking for far too long. We are never going back to state-sponsored discrimination against any religious minority. I hope that all those who lived through decades of discrimination and who experienced the sharp end of that oppressive state are able to breathe a sigh of relief today. The significance of this transformation should not be downplayed or diminished out of fear or insincere politicking. I acknowledge that today’s figures may generate feelings of insecurity for some. But it is my honest hope that we can all now take a moment of serious and sincere reflection about the scale of change we have experienced and commit to a conversation about the powerful potential for change in the future. In a statement the Sinn Féin MP John Finucane said the census figures were “another clear indication that historic change is happening across this island”. He went on: There is no doubt change is under way and irreversible. How that change is shaped moving forward requires maturity to take the challenges which face our society. We can all be part of shaping a better future; a new constitutional future and a new Ireland. Finucane said the Irish government should set up a citizens’ assembly to prepare for a possible “unity referendum”. However, the Democratic Unionist party said that “to draw political conclusions based on the number of Protestants and Catholics is simplistic and lazy”. In a response for his party, the DUP MLA (member of the legislative assembly) Phillip Brett said: For the last 20 years, there has been a trend towards a Protestant minority, a Catholic minority and a minority who don’t identify as either. Rather than focus on a divisive border poll we should ensure that Northern Ireland builds first-class public services and a genuine shared future. Truss could follow Trump and move UK embassy to Jerusalem Liz Truss has said she is considering relocating the British embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in a controversial move that would break with decades of UK foreign policy in order to follow in the footsteps of Donald Trump. My colleagues Bethan McKernan and Patrick Wintour have the story here. MPs are holding a general debate on Ukraine, and Boris Johnson has just been called to speak from the backbenches. He says Vladimir Putin is on course to lose as many troops in the war in Ukraine as America lost in the entire 20 years of the Vietnam war. He goes on: In all those seven months of horror that this modern Moloch has personally unleashed, he has not attained a single one of his objectives in a war that, do not forget, was meant to be over in days. Johnson also says the announcement by Putin of partial mobilisation in Russia has generated such panic that the price of a one-way ticket from Moscow to South Africa rose to $50,000. The Scottish government is going to keep its ban on fracking, even though the UK government will allow fracking in England, Michael Matheson, the Scottish government’s energy secretary, has confirmed. The Labour party has sold a stall at its party conference to a company led by a leading Conservative donor whose comments about “foreign Muslims” running urban areas were recently condemned by the Labour party chair, Anneliese Dodds. My colleague Henry Dyer has the story here. And here is Kwasi Kwarteng, the chancellor, announcing the change on Twitter. Kwarteng says national insurance increase will be reversed from 6 November, saving 28m people £330 on average next year The Treasury has just announced the national insurance increase introduced earlier this year will be reversed from 6 November. It put out a press release announcing the change to coincide with the introduction of the health and social care levy (repeal) bill. It said: The 1.25 percentage point rise in national insurance will be reversed from 6 November, the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, has announced today. Delivering on the prime minister’s pledge to slash taxes to help drive growth, scrapping the rise will reduce tax for 920,000 businesses by nearly £10,000 on average next year as they will no longer pay a higher level of employer national insurance and can now invest the money as they choose. The government will also cancel the planned health and social care levy – a separate tax which was coming into force in April 2023 to replace this year’s national insurance rise. This will help almost 28 million people across the UK keep more of what they earn, worth an extra £330 on average in 2023-24, with an additional saving of around £135 on average this year. The health and social care levy (repeal) bill, legislating for the tax change, has been introduced into the House today. As part of the cancellation of the levy, the chancellor is also set to confirm that the increases to dividend tax rates will be scrapped from April 2023 in his growth plan tomorrow. The increased dividend tax was introduced in April 2022 to ensure those who gained income from dividends contributed the same amount to help fund health and social care. The levy was expected to raise around £13 billion a year to fund health and social care. The chancellor confirmed today that the funding for health and social care services will be maintained at the same level as if the levy was in place, protecting the NHS through the winter and ensuring long-term investment in social care. The Treasury press release confirms what had been expected to be a key feature of the “emergency budget” coming tomorrow. The decision to put it out now will reinforce suspicions that Kwarteng has a surprise announcement saved up for tomorrow – possibly a stamp duty cut. Coffey tells Tory MP she will look into case for introducing tax relief on private health insurance During the statement Thérèse Coffey also told MPs that she would look into the case for introducing tax relief on private health insurance. She was responding to the Tory MP James Cartlidge who said: [Coffey] will be aware figures show that as many as one in 10 adults in England have used the private sector in the past 12 months. Does she agree without them, waiting lists will be even higher and will she therefore consider the reintroduction of tax relief on private medical insurance, first introduced by Ken Clarke in 1989, and scrapped by the party opposite? Coffey said she would “look into that for him and respond to him”. Coffey reveals she gave up trying to get A&E treatment over summer after waiting almost nine hours In her statement Thérèse Coffey told MPs that she gave up trying to get A&E treatment in a hospital over the summar after waiting almost nine hours. The next day she went to a different hospital, and was seen quickly, she said. She told the story as she said she would not change the four-hour waiting time target for A&E. She said: I can absolutely say there will be no changes to the target for a four-hour wait in A&E. I believe it matters, and I’ll give you a personal experience recently. Just in July I went to A&E, I waited nearly nine hours myself to see a doctor and I still didn’t get any treatment. I was asked to go back the next day, so I went to a different hospital just three miles away and I was seen and treated appropriately. That’s the sort of variation that we’re seeing across the NHS. Tory health committee chair Jeremy Hunt criticises two-week appointment target for GPs, saying it won"t help In the Commons Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative chair of the health committee and former health secretary, told Thérèse Coffey that he welcomed much of what was in her plan. But he criticised the proposal to tell GPs that they had to offer people an appointment within a fortnight, one of the headline elements in the package. (See 9.43am.) Hunt said: If targets were the answer, we would have the best access in the world in the NHS because we have more targets than any other healthcare system in the world. GPs alone have 72 targets. Adding a 73rd won’t help them or their patients because it’s not more targets the NHS needs, it’s more doctors. Hunt also asked when Coffey would provide “hard numbers"” setting out how many extra staff the NHS would need in the future. In response, Coffey said she remembered supporting Hunt from the backbenchers when he was health secretary. She said this politely, but in the light of his criticism of her announcement, it sounded as if she was making a point. On workforce planning, she said her department was looking at this. But she said she wanted to make it more straightforward for qualified people to come and practice in the NHS in England. She went on: Frankly, I was astonished to learn we can’t even have people who are accredited in Scotland to come straight away and be dentists in England. It’s those sorts of things where we will be laying regulations the first day we are back after the recess, and that will enable the General Dental Council to accelerate this sort of aspect of streamlining.