record high, and the office for budget responsibility says it would represent the largest fall in living standards since the 19505. our business correspondent emma simpson reports. these reforms will save around two million self employed people an average of £350 a yearfrom april. better than nothing. tuning into the autumn statement at walthamstow market. a good place to test the mood. pensioners seemed happy. him increasing pension, that s good for me. and young workers like the rise in the minimum wage too. 10% more i m going to win i m going to earn. yeah. who wouldn t like it? but other workers said the cut to national insurance isn t enough. not with the way things are at the moment. the cost of living is too expensive. £450, divide that by 12, divide it by the family that you ve got. is it enough? i don t think so. here are the key details. first, that national insurance cut. it s going from 12% to ten for all employees from january. the self employed will see a
as he s always said, labour say he won t commit to anything that cannot be funded in future. so that s, i guess, a sort of clarification from labour there just to kind of calm anyone who might have heard that and had any concerns. of course, there is another huge political race going on over the atlantic and last night we saw the first tv debate between joe atlantic and last night we saw the first tv debate betweenjoe biden and donald trump. let s get some more on that, i am joined by democratic strategist and former presidential campaign strategist to the republican party. thank you both very much for being here on bbc news. laura, ifi very much for being here on bbc news. laura, if i can start with you, we have seen a lot of reaction to joe you, we have seen a lot of reaction tojoe biden s performance described by some as panic. what would you say, what is your response to what you have seen? i say, what is your response to what you have seen? you have seen? i would call i
be allowed to persist. labour has been focused on defence with keir starmer reaffirming his commitment to the uk nuclear deterrent. he said protecting the nation would be the bedrock of a future labour government. the lib dems deputy daisy group has outlined the snp leaderjohn swinney has called for a respectful contest ahead of the scottish leader s first television debate of the campaign that gets under way tonight. here is our political correspondent. should only biologically female be able to use women s services? just people who are biologically female, also those who have change their legal sex on a birth certificate? conservatives say that women s services should be able to refuse any one of is biologically male without facing legal challenges. it is quite clear that the intentions in the law are being misinterpreted just because of changes, social changes, and what we are trying to do is reemphasise that sex, in the law, means biological sex. it always has done but th
this is row that has been ongoing for months but has really, really been ongoing for the past few days, and this all goes back to a letter diane abbott wrote to the observer newspaper 1a months ago now. after that letter, she was accused of anti semitism and she said in the letter thatjewish people along with irish and traveller people didn t face racism all their lives and after that was published she apologised very quickly and she was suspended from the parliamentary labour party pending an investigation. now, if you are someone who has been suspended, if you are suspended when an election is happening, you can t run again as a labour candidate so we didn t hear anything about the investigation or the outcome of it for a long, long time. then, when the general election was called, we suddenly needed an answer, needed to know whether or not dianne abbott would be allowed to run. and several days ago, the bbc s newsnight programme reported that investigation concluded five m
the authorities in papua new guinea now say more than 2,000 people were buried by a devastating landslide in a remote village. south africa has seen far fewer electricity blackouts in the last few months. critics say it could be an attempt to buy more votes for the forthcoming general election. welcome to verified live three hours of breaking stories and checking out the truth behind them. we start here, where the uk s general election is in full swing and rishi sunak has been defending his plan for mandatory national service for 18 year olds. the prime minister was on the campaign trail in buckinghamshire, defending the proposal as a bold move that ll foster a culture of service. under the tory plan, all 18 year olds will be legally required to take up either a 12 month placement in the armed forces or cyber defence or give up the equivalent of one weekend a month to volunteer in their communities. i believe this is the right thing to do because this is how we will del