Politics Live

Politics Live first covered Andy Burnham's approach to the EU and the row over his claim about Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum. Burnham was said to be meeting EU leaders next month and planning to attend a Brussels summit in November to seek post-Brexit deals on areas including energy, youth movements, food and drink. He told the Commons that sticking with the status quo was not good enough and that there should later be a serious dialogue about long-term options, while Labour's manifesto red lines ruled out a return to the customs union, single market or freedom of movement until the next general election. The programme also reported that Burnham had said in a podcast interview that he was given a clear answer that Russia did interfere in the referendum; Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson accused him of lying, Downing Street said he believed Russia tried to interfere but was not successful, and Kemi Badenoch and Ed Davey asked for evidence that had not been provided.

The next story was a planned £16.5bn data centre at Chapelcross in Scotland, which if approved would be one of the world's biggest and is intended for AI large language model training. Concerns raised included its one-gigawatt energy use, possible impact on greenhouse gas targets, water consumption, and diesel backup generators that would run for maintenance and could make it a major polluter. The programme reported that MSPs had voted to pause new applications pending revised Scottish government regulation, that environmental impact assessments would be required for hyperscale data centres over 50 megawatts, and that planning decisions would still be subject to scrutiny. Panel discussion covered grid capacity, renewable energy, local consultation, the automated nature of data centre jobs, and a dispute over a proposed cabling corridor for offshore wind in a Conservative MP's constituency.

The final substantive item concerned hairdressers' calls for a VAT cut ahead of the Budget, after the Hairdressers Gazette reported that the industry was uniting behind a 10% VAT call a month before the 28 October Budget. Toby Dicker of the Salon Employers Association said salons were among the hardest-hit high street businesses, that SMEs provide 60% of private sector jobs, that employment and apprenticeships were falling, and that the VAT threshold and rent-a-chair arrangements created an uneven tax playing field. He said an emergency VAT cut was needed. Labour MP Preet Gill pointed to small business rates relief and a £3,000 apprenticeship payment; Conservative MP Andrew Snowden favoured supporting the whole high street through measures such as scrapping business rates for most high street businesses and reducing national insurance for young people; and SNP MP Dave Duggan supported a VAT cut but questioned affordability, citing UK tax receipts of about a trillion pounds and a cost of £40bn to £50bn.