Reform UK leader expected to promise deregulation and spending cuts as Labour and Conservatives attack policies The prospect of looming tax rises and a fall in business investment will restrict the UK’s economic growth rate next year to less than 1%, according to a health check of the economy by a leading consultancy. Phillip Inman has the story. Good morning. Even though Reform UK has had a clear lead over all other parties in opinion polls for much of the year, it has multiple vulnerabilities. One of them is that immigration is the only potential winning issue it has got, because on all almost other subjects its policy offer is flimsy and its credibility is minimal. And nowhere is this more obvious than on the economy, where the party has already had to admit that the £90bn tax cuts it was proposing in its manifesto last year are now being ditched because they are unacheiveable. Continue reading...

Family size around the world is dropping. That choice by couples is triggering a population shift that's sending shock waves through economies.