Here are 5 important things happening in the UK today, Monday (8 December 2025):
- Young people to lose benefits if they turn down work: Young people will be stripped of their right to claim benefits if they refuse a taxpayer-funded job after 18 months without a job, the work and pensions secretary says. Pat McFadden told the BBC they would need a “good reason” to decline one of the 55,000 six-month placements, to be rolled out from next April. The government has announced the roles could span areas including construction and hospitality – although companies taking part are yet to be confirmed. [BBC]
- More than 100 MPs join calls to regulate AI: More than 100 UK parliamentarians are calling on the government to introduce binding regulations on the most powerful AI systems as concern grows that ministers are moving too slowly to create safeguards in the face of lobbying from the technology industry. A former AI minister and defence secretary are part of a cross-party group of Westminster MPs, peers and elected members of the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish legislatures demanding stricter controls on frontier systems, citing fears superintelligent AI “would compromise national and global security”. [Guardian]
- Labour urged to delay petrol car ban: Labour has been urged to delay a ban on petrol and diesel cars as Brussels reportedly prepares to push back its own deadline by five years. Ministers have been warned that sticking with the current 2030 ban on the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles would be disastrous were the EU to extend its deadline to go all-electric to 2040. [Telegraph]
- Graduates will be £24,500 worse off from the budget: Graduates will pay an additional £24,540 as a result of a triple whammy of measures announced in last month’s budget. Before the general election the Labour party told graduate voters that they would pay less under their leadership. But frozen loan repayment and income tax thresholds will cost graduates an average of £22,900 across their loan term, according to analysis by the Intergenerational Foundation (IF), a think tank and charity. Changes to salary sacrifice schemes create a potential further penalty of £1,640. [The Times]
- On Monday, Oil was trading higher at $63.52. The pound is trading at $1.33, €1.14, and ¥9.42.
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