Unemployment rate down to 4.7%, and employment rate up in latest figures. Now down 0.5% from 5.2% peak last year. Measurement issues in the headline jobs figures, but the quality is increasing so these numbers may reflect situation better than last year’s numbers. Vacancies fell again though, lowest outside covid since 2014, but also in line with average. By sector the levels story is as would be expected - concentrated in social care/ retail and hospitality BUT they were all flat in latest quarter, retail actually added 3k vacancies. General picture of a low hire low fire low churn flat labour market, with some interesting under the hood stories. Peak in long term sickness driving fall in inactivity? Down 80k from 2.82m in Jun-Aug 2025 to 2.74m. The small has occurred amongst male workers. Female inactivity is flat. Overall still up 600k plus since pandemic. Age hit - Over 65s fastest age group adding to payrolls - up 5.6% in year to September. 25-34 yo down 1.9%. AI tech jobs challenge? Not coming through in the payroll numbers cut by age, eg for 18-24 year olds, but sectorally info & comms payroll numbers have fallen by the most of any major sector - down 2.5% over past year, bigger proportional hit than eg hospitality. Clear public-private split on growing payrolls and earnings growth.

Can't deal with Westminster snobbery about things like stories on parking. A *huge* deal to people. Young people jobs crisis? Let's sort out parking in our town centres to help local business Cost of living? Tell that to the family hit by a £100 fine

Headlines of labour market stats reinforce resilience of UK economy this year: - employment rate ⬆️ by 0.2% to 75.3% - amongst the highest on record - unemployment rate down⬇️ 0.1% - inactivity ⬇️ 0.1% in the latest quarter (and a full 1% since 2024 election)

Councillors elected in May 2026 no longer sitting for the party they were elected for: Reform UK 61 (4.2%) Green 14 (2.4%) Labour 10 (0.9%) Conservative 7 (0.9%) Lib Dem 6 (0.7%) Reform's 61: 36 now independent, 20 left the council, 5 joined another party (3 to Restore Britain). % is of each party's May intake

“A society which values freedom must protect everyone’s right to live openly and safely as themselves.” My piece for @IndyVoices on delivering our manifesto commitment to ban conversion practices 👉🏻 independent.co.uk/voices/con…

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Fantastic news - new figures show the waiting list at the Royal Devon fell by 1,011 patients between July and August. Congratulations to all the wonderful clinical and non-clinical staff who made this progress possible ❤️

Steve Race says weaker EU links hurt Exeter firms, language schools and air ambulances. @SteveRaceMP (@UKLabour) Westminster Hall, 12 October 2026 #Exeter #UK #ParliamentConnect #EUExports #EnglishLanguageSchools #EGNOS

📬 Exeter MP Steve Race (@steveracemp) will meet Ofcom with parliamentary colleagues later this month to press for further action over Royal Mail's service levels. Residents report that important post, including hospital appointment letters, is arriving late. Royal Mail says it is continuing changes meant to make deliveries more reliable. Read more 👇 labourhome.co.uk/steve_race_…

Yesterday, the Russians carried out one of their largest attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector – more than 15 critical power generation and transmission facilities were targeted across different regions of Ukraine. Restoration work is ongoing, with all necessary services and all available resources of Ukrainian energy companies involved. I thank everyone working practically nonstop to restore power. The most difficult situation was in Lutsk, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Shepetivka, Slavuta, and Netishyn. Energy facilities in the Kharkiv, Kyiv, Dnipro, and other regions were also hit. The Russians have scaled up their anti-energy operation and are trying to stretch our reserves and repair capabilities as thin as possible. Between 7 p.m. yesterday and 7 a.m. today alone, more than 320 jet-powered and gasoline-powered “shaheds,” along with loitering munitions, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles, were used against our energy sector, our cities, and our communities. And although our warriors are shooting down a significant number of them, the sheer scale and unrelenting pace of Russia’s strikes, specifically against our energy sector, are unfortunately having severe consequences. It is important that our European partners have already prepared new support packages for Ukraine. I am grateful to them for this. And it is important that everyone in America also sees what is really happening. At a time when the Russians have carried out such a massive attack on our energy sector, a decision was unfortunately made in America to completely disregard the Lindsey Graham Act, which was supposed to impose truly effective pressure on Russia to bring this war to an end. This Act could have helped enormously – and still can! But it needs to actually work, and every voice in support of it matters. Russia is trying to cause a blackout in Ukraine – right before winter. Russia is trying to leave millions of our people without electricity and heating. Pressure is needed to stop this. A U.S. sanctions blackout, easing pressure on the aggressor, financial rewards for Putin – all of this only encourages him to keep attacking. We must not give up ground. We must keep trying to end the war. To end it, not give Putin every reason to continue it indefinitely. I thank everyone who is truly fighting for peace and helping Ukraine!

An update on water reform💧 Labour is lifting the Thatcher-era ban on public ownership of water companies, paving the way for greater public control and potential nationalisation where water companies fail to serve our communities.

I was 8 years old when the Aberfan disaster happened. So were many of the children who died. I've been able to live, to love, to work as a surgeon and now as an MP. What lives might they have led? Hearing the Lewis Merthyr Band in Parliament this evening was heartbreaking. We will never forget them.

Lots to discuss in Washington DC about how we are working together to strengthen defence and deterrence around the world. Look forward to talking with @SecWar Pete Hegseth about our defence partnership - the closest of any two nations - that helps to make us all safer.

🇬🇧🇺🇸 UK Defence Secretary @wesstreeting is in Washington! Together with British Ambassador Sir Christian Turner (@CTurnerFCDO), he will meet with defence leaders to strengthen UK/US cooperation, advance shared security priorities and deepen our defence partnership. Read his @nypost op-ed ⬇️ nypost.com/2026/10/14/opinio…

UK-US defence must team up for freedom - and defeat tyranny once again. My piece for the @nypost ahead of my speech in DC this morning. 🇬🇧 🇺🇸 nypost.com/2026/10/14/opinio…,

📈 The strongest growth in the G7 📈 The strongest growth since post-Covid rebound 📈 GDP per capita increasing after a long stall A credit to the foundations laid by @RachelReevesMP. And a platform for @JohnHealey_MP to build on at next week’s budget.

Fastest rate of UK economic growth for almost four years at 2.1% YoY and a sprightly 0.7% QoQ to the end of August. Construction still firmly in the doldrums (-1.8% YoY) but services, manufacturing, investment & trade all showing decent Q3 momentum.

Exeter and the South West is home to some of the very best food and drink producers in the country, so it was fantastic to see them showcased in Parliament yesterday at the Taste of Devon event 🍎🧀🥂

Thank you to @UKHofficial for announcing 100,000 new jobs for young people not in education, employment or training over the next few years. This comes on top of a similar agreement reached last month with UK retail. theguardian.com/society/2026…

‘It’s quite hard for me to separate the personal from the political’ Minister for AI @KanishkaNarayan says ITV’s investigation into Reform racism is a ‘good reminder’ of what he sees as the central political question facing Britain #Peston