Labour to urge fuel duty rise delay

LABOUR will force a Commons vote next week to call for a planned 3p hike in fuel duty to be postponed for a second time.

Ed Balls said “it cannot be right” to hit struggling families and businesses with another tax rise, and urged MPs from all sides to back demands for the Government to cancel the increase due in January.

The shadow chancellor claims the move could be funded by cracking down on tax avoidance schemes.

105th archbishop to be unveiled

THE Bishop of Durham will be officially unveiled as the new Archbishop of Canterbury today.

The Rt Rev Justin Welby, an Eton-educated former oil industry executive, will become the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of the 77 million strong Anglican Communion.

He has not yet been officially named but after months of speculation, he has become the overwhelming front runner.

Council bosses face easier sacking

COUNCILS will be able to sack chief executives more quickly and cheaply under reforms being announced by Tory Eric Pickles today.

The Local Government Secretary is scrapping rules he believes push local authorities into paying expensive “golden goodbyes” to underperforming executives.

Town halls must appoint an independent person, usually a Queen’s Counsel, to review dismissal and disciplinary cases against those in the top job.

UKBA caseload ‘out of control’

THE number of outstanding immigration and asylum cases rose by 25,000 in three months and is “spiralling out of control”, making the total caseload the equivalent of the population of Iceland, an MP has said.

More than 300,000 cases needed to be dealt with at the end of June, up 9% over the previous three months, the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee said.

But clearing the backlog should not be a rushed job done without the proper checks, the committee’s report on the UK Border Agency (UKBA) warned.

Anger over TV ‘paedophile list’

TELEVISION show This Morning was facing a possible investigation today after presenter Phillip Schofield brandished a list of alleged paedophiles during a live TV interview with David Cameron.

Broadcasting regulator Ofcom confirmed it had received “a few” complaints about the daytime programme after Mr Schofield yesterday confronted the Prime Minister with names – understood to be Conservative Party figures – that he had put together after trawling internet rumours.

The presenter was forced to apologise after the list was briefly exposed on screen and was later widely denounced by politicians for the “outrageous stunt”.