Yahoo News Thursday evening news briefing: Labour to shut loophole in VAT raid on private school fees
Good evening. Josh here to take you through the day’s news.
Labour will prevent parents paying private school fees before its VAT raid comes into force, The Telegraph can reveal.
Elsewhere, it has been claimed that the Duke of Sussex “deliberately destroyed” potential evidence relating to his High Court phone hacking claim against the publisher of The Sun.
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Labour to shut loophole in VAT raid on private school fees
Senior Labour sources confirmed the party will announce anti-forestalling legislation to prevent a flurry of pre-payments on school fees if it wins the election on July 4. The Telegraph understands it will be unveiled in Labour’s first Budget if Sir Keir Starmer becomes prime minister – read the full story here.
Badenoch compares Labour’s race reforms to apartheid South Africa
Kemi Badenoch has compared Labour’s plans for a Race Equality Act to apartheid in South Africa. The business secretary accused Sir Keir Starmer of having a “morally repellent” plan to force businesses into “classifying your workforce by race” through the new act, which would enshrine in law equal pay rights for black people, Asians and other ethnic minorities.
Follow our general election live blog for the latest updates.
Gordon Hughes | The true cost of Labour’s net zero plans is slowly being revealed
Zia Yusuf | Nigel Farage is no Islamophobe. He loves Britons of all races and religions
Who should I vote for? | Reform and Labour come out on top in The Telegraph’s manifesto knockout game
Readers’ verdict | ‘Rishi Sunak is finally sounding like a true blue’
A view from Westminster
Dominic Penna, Political Correspondent
Just one week out from election day, it would take an unprecedented reversal of fortunes to save Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives at the ballot box. And Steve Baker confirming reports he is mulling a Tory leadership bid if he keeps his seat shows even Sunak’s own ministers already have one eye on the post-election battle for the soul of the party.
There was something different last night, however. The Prime Minister was as confident as they come as he had the edge over Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in the final head-to-head TV debate. A stump speech in Derbyshire earlier today was bursting with a similar energy.
It is like someone has flicked a switch going into the final week of the campaign. And had Sunak shown this do-or-die mentality sooner, who knows what those polls might be saying now.
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Prince Harry ‘destroyed’ potential evidence, phone hacking case hears
News Group Newspapers is seeking the release of emails, as well as text messages and WhatsApp messages, sent and received by the Duke, and material held on two encrypted hard drives.
The publisher wants access to the many texts sent between the Duke and JR Moehringer, the author who ghostwrote his memoir, Spare – read more here.
Evening Briefing: Today’s essential headlines
Marine Le Pen | The looming French election poses a threat to global financial stability and the British economy, the Bank of England has warned.
Jay Slater | Family calls in TikTok sleuth in hunt for missing teenager
US | Trump may have walked into a trap of his own making in TV debate
Watch: Cristiano Ronaldo saved by stewards as fan jumps from stands
Cristiano Ronaldo was at the centre of another European Championship security scare after a fan almost landed on him jumping from the stands – watch the full video here.
Comment and analysis
Michael Young | Politicians should be allowed to have a flutter
Tony Brenton | Farage is telling uncomfortable truths on Ukraine
Tom Harris | Only one man has spoken for the nation in this joyless election campaign
Tom Sharpe | ‘Civilian’ ships could soon carry carrier-crippling drone swarms. A new age of warfare is coming
Madeline Grant | John Swinney treats Woman’s Hour listeners to another dose of man blames everyone but himself
Dispatch
‘There were men everywhere with guns – they shot my mum in front of me’
As Haiti spirals into anarchy, The Telegraph meets the children caught between gang violence and societal collapse.
Editor’s choice
Revealed | The jobs that will pay your children’s private school fees
The hiker’s bucket list | Europe’s 15 greatest walking holidays
Sport briefing: Today’s essential headlines
England vs India | Latest updates as rain threatens T20 World Cup semi-final in Guyana
Des Lynam | Lineker is right to criticise abysmal England
Ian Broudie | ‘I don’t want to be remembered for Three Lions’
Matt Law | If Southgate is going to walk after the Euros, he should announce it now
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