Healey’s Budget to Buy Breathing Room for UK and Labour

Chancellor John Healey will deliver his maiden Budget today, offering short-term help for households and businesses facing a tough winter and longer-term plans to bring down Britain’s high energy prices - including the scrapping of standing charges on gas bills. The mother of a girl who died after being attacked by a 14-year-old boy with a six-inch kitchen knife calls his community sentence ‘disgraceful’ after the judge called him a "bright lad". And the long-term jobless reject Labour's £1.2bn back-to-work policy after the number joining up in the first year of the scheme was way below target.