Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen 3.05pm BST Liz Truss, the chief secretary to the Treasury, has hinted that English local councils may get more generous government funding or see an end to real terms cuts to their funding.After a speaking event in Edinburgh, Truss was asked about complaints from Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, that local council funding cuts had gone too far and needed to be halted. (See 11.15am.) Street, who is due to give the opening speech at the Tories annual conference in Birmingham on Sunday, told the Birmingham Mail “the cuts have gone far enough. It’s not reasonable to expect that this continues.” He was echoing complaints from many council leaders in the West Midlands, and elsewhere in England, including from Tory led administrations in Somerset and elsewhere.Now of course going into the spending review, which is next year, and the local government finance settlement at the end of this year, we need to make sure that local councils have the wherewithal that they need. And what we have already done is given more flexibility in terms of council tax.But I can’t pre-announce what’s going to happen with the local government funding settlement or the spending review.The prime minister is well aware of the views of the Conservative parliamentary party; she is the person charged with getting a deal. It is a tough thing to do but she is doing a very good job of that. I’m convinced she will secure a deal that can command the support both of the European Union and of the parliamentary party. 2.23pm BST This is from Sky’s Mark Stone.“Has anyone got any euros?” asks Labour Party aide as @jeremycorbyn & @Keir_Starmer’s cab rolls into the @EU_Commission for meeting with @MichelBarnier and team. We’ve all been there. pic.twitter.com/xGRLlekqw0 Continue reading…
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