Rayner forces councils to build 370,000 homes as Abbott leads Labour rebellion on Reeves’ spending cuts – live

Amid a furious war of words between Rachel Reeves and Jeremy Hunt over the £22bn black hole in Britain’s finances, a clear winner has emerged, says Sean O’Grady:

Sir Keir Starmer has said the attack in Southport “touches a nerve with the whole country”.

Speaking to ITV he said: “I think it touches a nerve with the whole country. It’s awful to contemplate, to hear for myself the experiences of the first responders, what they had to deal with.

“It’s really hard to take in for anybody. It’s not what any of them came to work for. But of course, they’re professionals, and they deal with it.”

He added: “I think about the families, the friends, the loved ones, those directly impacted, and, of course, the wider community here. But there’s no pretending I think that anybody in the country is not untouched by what happened yesterday”

The chancellor has been tackled by their own side over how many more elderly people will die of cold as a result of stripping 10 million pensioners of their winter fuel payments.

In response to the red-on-red criticism in Parliament, the government frontbench said it understood the “disappointment”, but insisted it was the right, if tough choice, given the state of the public finances inherited from the Tories.

The new administration was also accused of “picking” on pensioners with the move, which it was claimed would wipe out the benefits of the triple lock, which guarantees state payouts rise each year in line with inflation, earnings or by 2.5% – whichever is higher.

Challenging the government, Labour peer Lord Sikka argued the move was “taking away” £300 from pensioners by “a measure that was not in our manifesto”.

He told the upper chamber: “I have received already many messages where pensioners are very, very concerned about this.

“The government could have introduced a taper to lessen the pain to help many pensioners. Would the minister give a commitment that he would have another look at that?”

He also pointed out a document produced by the Treasury “has lots of financial numbers but there is no mention of any human whatsoever”.

Lord Sikka said: “Last year, 5,000 pensioners died because of cold and were unable to afford heating. Has the minister made any estimates of how many more will die because £300 will be taken away from them?”

Social housing plans announced by the Deputy Prime Minister as part of Labour’s overhaul of planning have been welcomed by organisations working with those most impacted by a shortage of homes.

Angela Rayner described the Government’s overhaul of the planning system as “the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation”.

Although not stating a specific figure as a target for the number of social homes to be built annually, Ms Rayner stated an “aspiration” that in 2025-26, which is the first full financial year of the new Parliament, the number of social rent homes “is rising rather than falling”.

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper, speaking in the Commons in response to Ms Rayner’s announcement, described a “conspicuous absence of a particular target on social homes – not affordable homes but on social homes”.

The Liberal Democrats have repeatedly called for a target of building 150,000 social homes a year.

Charities such as Shelter have long set out a target of 90,000 social homes a year, which they said is “necessary to end homelessness and relieve the extreme pressure on private renting”.

They said building 90,000 social homes “would pay for themselves in just three years and return an impressive £37.8 billion back to the economy, including through jobs, savings to the NHS and the benefits bill”.

Diane Abbott has led criticism of Rachel Reeves’s spending plans labelling them “renewed austerity”.

It comes as the chancellor unveiled a raft of brutal cuts to deal with a £22bn black hole in the country’s finances.

But her set of measures to save up on funding has sparked criticism among members of her own party.

The veteran MP for Hackney has accused Ms Reeves of presiding over an era of “renewed austerity”.

Ms Abbott is leading a left-wing backlash over the chancellor’s move to scrap winter fuel allowance payments, cancel transport projects and Boris Johnson’s plan to build more hospitals.

James Cleverly has criticised the government’s housebuilding plan after Angela Rayner set out a target of 80,000 new homes a year for London.

He tweeted: “We need to build more homes in urban areas like London, massively increasing densification.

“Labour would rather concrete over the greenbelt than make Sadiq Khan do his job.”

British nationals in Lebanon risk “becoming trapped in a warzone” if they fail to leave, the foreign secretary has warned.

In a House of Commons statement on Lebanon and a conflict between Israel, Lebanese Hezbollah and other non-state actors, David Lammy told MPs: “The prime minister chaired a Cobra meeting this morning and I’m working with Foreign Office consular teams to make sure we are prepared for all scenarios, but if this conflict escalates, the government cannot guarantee we’ll be able to evacuate everyone immediately.

“People may be forced to shelter in place and history teaches us that in a crisis like this one, it is far safer to leave while commercial flights are still running rather than running the risk of becoming trapped in a warzone.

“My message, then, to British nationals in Lebanon is therefore quite simple: leave.”

It comes as tensions have been escalating after Isreal’s military said it struck several targets in neighbouring Lebanon linked to Hezbollah.

Angela Rayner has said the new homes built by the government “should have character and style”.

Speaking during the Commons debate, Tory MP Sir John Hayes told MPs that he had served on the Building Beautiful Commission and as he asked Ms Raynerfor a meeting to discuss the new homes that Labour hopes will be built.

“For she will know that the wealthy can always live in beautiful places, in beautiful homes. But the people from council houses, as she and I originate, deserve their chance to know, to sense and to see beauty,” he said.

The housing secretary replied: “I absolutely agree with everything that [Sir John] says and I know the minister will be meeting shortly with all stakeholders, and I think he’s got a meeting with those that you’ve just mentioned as well in the coming days.

“I would love to work with [Sir John] to make sure that we build the houses that people deserve, whether those are social affordable housing or any other housing. They should be beautiful. They should have character and style, and we’re determined to make that happen.”

Housing secretary Angela Rayner insisted the government’s housing targets will not “ride roughshod” over the wishes of local communities.

Tory MP Wendy Morton said: “I’m no nimby but today what we’re seeing is a lurch back to top-down mandated targets that will ride roughshod through local communities, like those that I represent.”

Ms Rayner said: “It’s not riding roughshod over local decisions and what local people want because having mandatory housing targets and plans means that people will be able to decide.

“What we’re saying – and what we said at the general election – is that we will build 1.5 million homes. We said that really clear and we have a mandate to do that. We think the new method for housing targets works better.”

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said his constituents were being “priced out of being able to live in their local community” as he asked what number of the 1.5 million homes would be “affordable” and how many would be council homes.

Ms Rayner replied: “That can be chosen by the local area, if they say ‘I want a particular amount of social rents’, they can put that in there, and I would say that, again, looking at the document, looking at the methodology that we’re using, I think, and looking at the affordability test, I think that that makes things much better in terms of giving a number and a figure that reflects the realities of people in the local area.”