Reeves warns more difficult choices to come after axing winter fuel payment to plug ‘£22bn black hole’ – live

Rachel Reeves said the cost of the junior doctors’ pay rise was £350 million, on top of the £9.4 billion for wage increases for the rest of the public sector.

Asked how much it would cost to settle the junior doctors’ pay, the Chancellor told Times Radio: “It’s £350 million.”

She said that was a “drop in the ocean” compared to the £1.7 billion cost of industrial action to the economy last year.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves gas warned there are “more difficult choices to come” to plug the £22bn black hole Labour claims the Tories have left in public finances.

She told Sky News: “There are difficult decisions, but that comes with government. I embrace those decisions even though they are not the decisions I would have wanted to make.

But she said the move is “to be able to make change that is profoundly rewarding and to be able to grow our economy and get us out of the mess we have inherited.”

She added: “I am proud of our record in the last three and a half weeks. And we have only got started.”

With her fury-filled Commons statement on public overspending, the chancellor of the Exchequer accused the previous Tory administration of a cover-up – and may also have secured Labour a decade in power, says Andrew Grice:

Almost 100 rural constituencies in England have less than one hectare of right to roam land, an analysis has found.

The Right to Roam campaign looked at Natural England maps alongside the latest constituency boundaries to pinpoint land which is accessible for the public to use under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act.

The law, passed in 2000, gave people a right to roam over certain landscape types or “access land”, namely mountains, moorland, heathland, downland and commons, covering some 8% of England.

But many of these landscapes are highly fragmented, leaving some access lands stranded within a “sea” of other landscape types where the public has no legal right to walk.

Right to Roam said it excluded these “access islands” from its analysis because the public cannot reach them.

The group found that 96 rural seats have less than one hectare of right to roam land, calling these areas “access deserts”.

Wirral West, Tonbridge, Selby, Yeovil, South Cotswolds and Stratford-on-Avon were among these constituencies, according to the research.

Right to Roam campaigners called on the Labour government to extend the public’s right of responsible access to the countryside.

They sent all MPs in the new parliament an “access league table” on Monday, ranking each constituency by how much access land it contains.

Former education minister Gillian Keegan has been accused of ignoring a recommendation for teachers pay rises during the Conservative government.

Rachel Reeves told Sky News: “The former education secretary had the recommendation of teachers pay rise. She sat on her desk and chose to do nothing with it.

“Analysis I published yesterday showed in the NHS alone industrial action cost last year £1.7bn. The cost of doing nothing and rejecting the recommendations of the review bodies is significant.”

The chancellor was relentless: a £22bn black hole of unfunded promises. The national reserves not just blown, but double-spent. She did not quite bellow ‘J’accuse’, but that was the gist, writes Joe Murphy:

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is facing questions from Sky News following her statement to the House of Commons on Monday.

The Labour cabinet minister has accused the former Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt of “lying” to the public and parliament about the state of public finances.

She said: “Jeremy Hunt covered up from the House of Commons and from the country the state of public finances, he did that knowingly and deliberately.

“He lied during the election campaign about the state of public finances. And the worst thing is that is even worse than that. During the election campaign I was really clear that everything I was putting forward was fully funded and fully costed.”

Government legislation designed to help nationalise train operation in Britain has moved closer to becoming law.

The Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill would ensure that appointing a public sector train operator as existing contracts expire becomes the default position rather than a last resort.

It would mean privately-owned operators such as Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, Great Western Railway and Thameslink would be gradually brought into public ownership.

MPs voted 351 to 84, majority 267, to give the Bill a second reading on Monday evening and it is expected to clear its remaining stages in the Commons on September 3.

Transport secretary Louise Haigh said there was “nothing ideological about fixing what’s broken” and also pledged to “rip up contracts early” if train operators do not meet their obligations to passengers.

Shadow transport secretary Helen Whately labelled the Bill “a rushed piece of left-wing ideology”, although Liberal Democrats’ transport spokeswoman Wera Hobhouse said passengers were “repeatedly failed” under the previous Conservative government.

• Sweeping changes to England’s planning system are set to be announced by Angela Rayner as the government seeks to clear a path to build 1.5 million new homes.

• Angela Rayner expected in Hampshire on planning-related visit this afternoon.

• The prime minister is set to chair the cabinet in Downing Street.

• Parliament is expected to rise for summer recess at close of business

• Chancellor Rachel Reeves is on the morning media round and Jeremy Hunt and Mel Stride are on for the Tories.

It’s almost been a month since Labour’s historic election victory, which sparked renewed conversation about electoral reform.

Even a fleeting glance at July’s election results shows that Britain’s first-past-the-post system can produce some interestingly disproportionate outcomes.

Labour scored about 35 per cent of the popular vote – modest by historic standards – but managed to secure 63 per cent of seats in the House of Commons, and thus also a landslide 174-seat majority.

Political columnist Andrew Grice is here to answer your questions on the alternatives to first-past-the-post and whether there’s enough appetite for reform in Westminster.

Register to submit your question in the comments box under this article.