"We were slightly cheated." Chef Yotam Ottolenghi tells Mishal Husain it was wrong to cut business rates on pubs but not restaurants — and explains what he wants to hear from UK Chancellor John Healey in this week's budget. Listen at or watch The Mishal Husain Show at

I’m giving thousands of pubs, clubs and music venues a 20% cut in business rates. I won’t stand by while these cherished local spaces disappear, replaced by boarded-up windows and ‘For Sale’ signs. They’re the heart of our communities and it’s time we backed them.

Pubs deserve our backing. I’m not sure some of @JohnHealey_MP's choices here do though... Our 20% cut in business rates will benefit thousands of pubs, clubs and music venues across the country.

Today marked one month since I became Prime Minister. Cutting tax on electricity bills. Capping bus fares at £2 in England. Making subscriptions easier to cancel. Cracking down on fake discounts. Giving 14-year-olds early access to technical education. Opening 159 new mental health centres. Investing to get all rough sleepers off the street this winter. Supporting farmers affected by the drought. Cutting business rates for pubs, clubs, and music venues. Shutting down 13 more asylum hotels. Giving mayors a share of income tax. Extending the 16-17 Saver Railcard. Bringing buses in the West Midlands under public control. Fast-tracking new homes near train stations. Cleaning up illegal waste dumps. Giving communities and councils more power over what opens on their high street. Opening No10 North. Giving disabled people 24/7 free bus travel. Delivering the biggest transfer of power, funding and responsibility from Westminster in a generation. It's a start, but I’m not complacent. I know that people need more and I promise that I will do everything I can to make yours and your family’s lives better. We're doing things differently to give people more breathing space and bring back hope. Here’s to the next month.

The Times's weekend read: * The Labour leadership contest has already begun. In No 10 Starmer is fighting for his political life, putting huge pressure on teh system to bolster his Premiership in face of existential threat posed by Andy Burnham * Expect a frenzy of activity in coming weeks - the defence investment plan, social media restrictions for under 16s, the Brexit reset. Announcements bogged down in months of bitter internal rows will finally come into public view * All the announcements are coming before or shortly after June 18th, the date of the Makerfield by-election. Starmer is trying to send a message to Labour MPs that he can deliver * He isn't the only one. Burnham has began issuing his own national leadership pledges - starting with a £300million cut in business rates for pubs and small businesses * His press release directly attacked Starmer and Reeves, accusing the government of 'undervaluing' their importance to local communities. This is a *Labour* candidate directly criticising a *Labour* government * The lines between the Labour Party and Burnham's campaign are increasingly blurred. Team Burnham now has a lot of the party machinery on his side - press officers, officials etc - and also has most of the cabinet out knocking doors in Makerfield. Power is already moving * Starmer thinks he can fight Burnham, but his allies are unconvinced. One said that he thinks Burnham has behaved 'appallingly'. 'His view is why should he make it easy for him?' * But there is an acknowledgement that Starmer is on borrowed time. That it is a case of when, not if he goes * There are divides in Team Burnham over when he should amke a move if he wins Makerfield. The 'go-now' camp say he must seize the opportunity or it could slip through his hands, using the momentum of the by-election to act decisively * But others think this could be disastrous - that he needs time to build up a proper plan for government and No 10. That if he doesn't he risks repeating Starmer's mistakes all over again * Then there's what's being billed as the 'battle for the soul of Burnham'. There are those on the left - Louise Haigh, Miatta Fahbulleh and others - who favour a radical break from Starmer. Then there are the centrists - Josh Simons, Jim O'Neill - are are said to be emphasising the importance of fiscal credibility. It is potentially a v unwieldy coalition

The Restore Britain Budget. Britain has spent decades being governed by politicians who believe the answer to every problem is yet more government - that policy has destroyed our country. More spending. More borrowing. More regulation. More taxes. More state. Parasitic overreach into our lives - delivered by politicians and civil servants who have no understanding or appreciation of how real wealth and opportunity is generated in the private sector. And what have the British people received in return? A country where working families struggle. Where businesses face punishing costs. Where young people cannot afford homes. Where failing public services demand ever more money, whilst prioritising endless third world migrants. Where inflation runs rampant. For British men and women, it is a government-backed scam. Corrupt incompetence. It is impossible for Britain to tax itself into prosperity. I repeat, IMPOSSIBLE. Wealth is created by people - the public sector should exist to support the private sector, not the reverse and that is the principle which underpins our philosophy. Restore Britain backs the farmer producing food, the white van man driving the economy, the engineer designing machinery, the shopkeeper serving customers and the entrepreneur risking everything to start a business. It comes down to this - Restore Britain will protect their freedom to succeed. If you work hard and contribute, we are on your side. Our Budget would begin the work of returning power, responsibility and money to the British people. First, the spending cuts - to come before ANY reductions in tax. Our 20 point plan to restore prosperity… 1. Freeze working-age benefit rates. We will freeze working-age benefit rates for the duration of the first Parliament. Britain cannot indefinitely increase expenditure without considering the burden on the people funding it. That would be morally wrong. The healthy indolent will not be rewarded. 2. Restrict welfare eligibility. No more benefits for foreigners, saving billions. No need to expand. 3. Reform sickness and disability benefits We will overhaul eligibility, assessment procedures and return-to-work support. People with serious disabilities and health conditions must receive appropriate protection. But those who can work, will work. If they refuse, they will be put to work. That simple. 4. Reform pensions. We will protect the State Pension while replacing the triple lock with annual CPI uprating. Public-sector pension arrangements will be overhauled to address differences with private-sector provision. These measures will save tens of billions - all outlined in full in our economic paper, The Wealth Of Our Nation. Next, take an axe to unnecessary government spending 5. The quango bonfire. We will conduct a comprehensive review of arm's-length public bodies, the default will be abolish unless there is a serious reason to retain. Where its functions duplicate a government department, consolidate them. Deliver accountability and savings. AI will mean vast cuts are possible. A LOT of Whitehall civil servants will lose their jobs. To be frank. 6. Freeze most departmental budgets. We will introduce a three-year nominal spending freeze across most government departments - the main exception will be our programme of mass deportations, which in the short term will cost, however as we know, any immediate funds will be quickly recovered and then some. 7. End public spending on Net Zero. We will end all public expenditure directed towards achieving Net Zero. Energy security will be our main priority. We will support investment in dependable domestic energy supplies, including the infrastructure needed to maintain a resilient electricity system. Energy security will be placed above any ideological dogma. If it makes Britain more resilient, we will pursue it. 8. Review government consultancy and discretionary expenditure. We will audit consultancy contracts, procurement services, and ALL external advisory work - spending that cannot demonstrate a clear public benefit should end. The procurement scam will end. All bullshit ESG and social value nonsense will be stripped away - if the public sector wants to use a third party firm, make it the best one - subject to right-to-work checks to ensure no illegals are being employed. As stated - spending cuts first, then tax cuts. Done carefully and responsibly. Here’s an overview of how a Restore Britain Government will lift the tax burden… 9. Raise the income tax personal allowance to £16,000. Nobody should be paying income tax on their first £16,000 of earnings. We will raise the personal allowance and extend the basic-rate income tax band to £100,000. We will also restore the full personal allowance to higher earners, ending the withdrawal that creates exceptionally high effective marginal tax rates. Success will be rewarded, hard work will be rewarded, ambition will be rewarded. 10. Cut corporation tax. We will introduce a zero corporation tax rate on the first £50,000 of company profits. Above that threshold, we will restore the headline rate to 19%, with a longer-term ambition of 15%. As soon as fiscal conditions allow. Let’s give small businesses the genuine breathing room to get their operation off the ground, and then use the corporation tax cut to compete with our neighbours. 11. Abolish inheritance tax and stamp duty. Families should not be punished for saving, investing and passing assets to their children. We will abolish inheritance tax. For farmers, for family businesses, for everyone. The state has no claim to a family's lifetime of accumulated wealth simply because somebody has died. I detest it. It will be binned for all. Stamp duty makes moving home more expensive, discourages mobility and creates unnecessary friction in the housing market. We will abolish it. 12. Reduce disruptive tax. We will cut the standard rate of VAT from 20% to 18%. We will also raise the VAT registration threshold to £150,000, helping smaller businesses grow without immediately facing additional tax burden. The amount of businesses hovering just under the current threshold is painful. The issue is OBVIOUS, yet nobody in government has thought to act. And we will ditch unnecessary taxes. We will abolish: Insurance Premium Tax. Air Passenger Duty. The Climate Change Levy. The UK Emissions Trading Scheme. We will also substantially increase the annual Capital Gains Tax exemption. Restore Britain’s objective is a tax system that is simpler, more predictable and less hostile to investment. Next, we will restore a state that works for our people. 13. Hold the NHS accountable. The NHS will remain free at the point of use for British citizens. We propose charging non-citizens at market rates - ensuring they actually pay the bills. We will make private healthcare expenditure tax deductible. If people want to go private, let’s make it cheaper. Alongside far-reaching structural reform, we will demand basic improvements in patient communication. Answer the telephone. Confirm referrals. Explain test results. Keep patients informed. Use AI to clear pressure on GPs. All patient-facing staff must demonstrate the English-language communication skills necessary to perform their roles safely. If staff can’t speak English to the required standard, they will no longer have a job. 14. Restore Britain’s education system. We will move towards greater school-level autonomy, with funding more closely linked to pupil numbers. We will remove VAT from private education and make private education tax deductible. We will also promote practical education, apprenticeships and stronger links between schools and employers. The aim will be to prepare children for working adulthood - full paper to come. Apprenticeships are vital - my businesses have developed hundreds and hundreds. It works, especially with the rise of AI. Student loan interest abolished for British nationals resident in the UK, full paper published. An overhaul of childcare regulation and funding - led by those in the sector who know what’s necessary and what’s not. Next. The Restore Britain Budget will work to restore a self-sufficient Britain, backed by sovereign AI capabilities. 15. Support British farming and food security. We will review the regulatory and tax burdens facing British farmers. Food security must be recognised as a matter of national resilience and urgency. That will be central to everything. We will make it FAR easier for domestic producers to compete for public-sector food contracts and examine ways to reduce unnecessary administration. Let’s use the public sector spend to back our own people, not import from foreign farmers. Britain should not become increasingly dependent on imported food while making it harder for its own farmers to survive. And we desperately need to bring more young people into the industry… 16. Ease pressure on transport network. We will rebuild Britain's transport network, tackling potholes, congestion and crumbling infrastructure while improving vital freight routes and rural roads - motorists will no longer be treated as cash cows. Fuel duty cut, and plenty more. (Full paper about to be published.) Get this right, and the whole economy is lubricated. 17. Back small businesses. We will review regulations introduced over recent decades, with a presumption in favour of removing law. Compliance simplified, licensing stripped back. Administrative burdens burned away. Scrap IR35, obviously. Business rates abolished for small high street businesses. Review car park charges. Boost police numbers in town centres. Restore confidence on the high street. Bring footfall back. Watch businesses thrive. 18. Develop sovereign AI capability. AI is coming whether we like it or not. We need to ensure that we have our own protected AI capability which can promote and defend our own interests. We’re already falling behind, and it’s getting worse. We have the opportunity to be a genuine world-leader. Let’s pursue it. 19. A foreign policy that puts Britain’s interests first. No endless foreign wars driving up the cost of living for ordinary families, no foreign aid unless explicitly to advance our interests. We will prioritise national security, trade, energy independence and protecting British citizens abroad. Spending will be increased, but our armed forces exist to defend Britain and our vital national interests, not to act as the world's policeman. 20. Protect sound money and fiscal stability. This is the most important of all. We will pursue a balanced Budget over the medium term and a declining debt-to-GDP ratio. Our aim is to cut the debt, not just the deficit. The era of mass money printing will end. Inflation will be controlled. The cost-of-living reduced. The aim - a Britain that belongs to its people Every Budget promises change, while the state grows larger and the taxpayer becomes poorer. Restore Britain offers a completely different direction. A smaller government that spends less - all helped by a massive reduction in the number of migrants living in Britain. Doing a small list of things, but doing them well. A welfare state that protects genuine need and expects personal responsibility. A tax system that rewards work, saving and enterprise. Public services that answer to the people who fund them. An economy built on productive businesses rather than a parasitic state. We do not believe the British people need politicians to manage every aspect of their lives. We believe they need the freedom to build better lives for themselves. In short - we will stop buying votes with other people’s money. Our ambition is not to make government richer. It is to restore the prosperity of the British economy, the British nation and the British people.

I want devolution to be a success. It would addresses many of the legitimacy challenges which central government faces, and done well would create much better incentives for growth. But I see four big risks which devolution advocates need to address: 1.Devolution expands the welfare state Pushing power down to regional government creates the scope for a fresh start on many problems, particularly incentives for economic growth. If local areas can see the benefits of infrastructure being built, because their government can retain some of those benefits locally, it will go a long way to creating goodwill for data centres, nuclear facilities and FDI. But they’re also a chance to start again on social policy. If areas have to pay for the constant expansion of the welfare state out of their own pockets, then they might think twice about it. My worry though is that if we design the system badly then it’ll just recreate all the worst tendencies of the centralised welfare state. Particularly if fiscal devolution isn’t set up so areas carry the consequences of financial mismanagement. Westminster has to be prepared to let parts of local government fail badly, and go through significant fiscal contractions, or the system will just create endless moral hazard. And in areas where that’s unrealistic, we shouldn’t be pursuing devolution. For example, funding social care locally out of council budgets has been a huge political failure, and there’s a strong consensus that it shouldn’t be the job of local government to finance care spending. Need is distributed relatively randomly throughout society, and it’s an area where the public have a strong sense that fairness is important. Because of this, my colleagues at Re:State have come up with an excellent alternative model for a prefunded social insurance system for social care, pooling risk at a national level. Social care is an example of where a local approach has failed, there are similar areas we should avoid devolving so we don’t just shifting a large welfare state to local areas to continue funding. 2.Devolution gets confused with redistribution. I expect that governments in the foreseeable future will want to do much more financial redistribution away from London to the regions. Not just to get “good growth in every postcode”, but to try to equalise or ‘level up’ economic opportunity across the regions in part by increasing transfers from London’s economy. Even doing this in isolation would be a mistake - the economy already has massive inter-regional transfers, though most are done through the NHS, welfare system and other public services rather than grants to local government. But even there, there is significant redistribution. Continuing the trend of taxing the South East more to pay for the rest of the country will deepen the divide politically. And it risks killing the growth engine of London so that it can no longer support the rest of the country even at current levels - London isn’t competing with Manchester and Glasgow for investment, but with Paris, New York and Tokyo - if it loses that race then we all lose out. But if more inter-regional redistribution is done in conjunction with a big devolution programme, then devolution will end up tarred with the same brush, and it will feel like ‘devolution for them but not for us’. 3.Devolution gets caught up in national efforts to improve local government Andy Burnham’s leadership has started with lots of moves to improve local government, but driven by Westminster. Policies like unilaterally capping bus fares, cutting business rates for some businesses, and committing to act on garish shop signage are all decisions about issues which should be made locally, not in Westminster. Burnham can’t go from being the Mayor of Manchester to the Mayor of Great Britain, he has to let other areas make decisions for themselves. That isn’t just a point about local legitimacy, though I think that’s does play a role. On lots of issues, we’ll make better decisions locally than nationally. Take Canada’s federal Housing Design Catalogue - the standardised housing designs made to smooth planning decisions at a national level are unattractive because they’re a compromise trying to have as wide an appeal as possible. If you make decisions about the built environment locally, they’re likely to be more tailored and thoughtful. 4.Devolution loses a cross-party consensus If some combination of issues 1-3 come about, many people may feel devolution has been a failed policy. But even if that doesn’t happen, and the outcomes are mixed, any of these scenarios and more seem likely to see the breakdown of the cross party consensus in favour of devolution. An increasingly patchy landscape of regions with strategic authorities and regions without them will make governance pretty tricky. Lots of areas don’t want a mayor. On balance I think they should all want one, and it’s worth trying to standardise the regional tier in the medium term. But imposing it against people’s will, particularly if it also seems to come with big costs, will likely mean the end of the strong cross-party consensus in favour of devolution that we’ve enjoyed for well over a decade. You can already see challenges between national and regional leaders that we didn’t used to have, for example the governments insistence that the retained income tax model for fiscal devolution can’t be used by conservative and reform mayors to give local rebates. More of these breakdowns along political lines seem likely in the future.