Free Republic

Summary Andy Burnham says he will remove VAT (Sales tax) from electricity bills in October, cutting the rate from 5% to 0% This will be funded by scrapping Keir Starmer's digital ID scheme, No 10 says, but former minister Darren Jones argues the ID scheme was "unfunded" The new government "will have to set out how it will pay for its new policies at the Budget", Jones says Pushed on whether savings had been found for digital IDs, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds tells the BBC "they would have had to have been", calling today's announcement a "legitimate decision" Later on,...

A total of 18 mothers, 13 girls and nine boys, who were being held at a U.S. detention center in Artesia, N.M., were scheduled to be on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement charter Monday. But two passengers fell ill and didn't board, officials said. Hordes of politicians, camera crews and aid workers were on hand to welcome the women and children when they landed at the Ramon Villeda Morales airport. Even the nation’s first lady and her entourage were present, a show of support by government officials who have been scrambling to figure out how to alleviate what’s been called...