Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, is facing embarrassment after it was revealed that he asked for a bedroom to be specially fitted to the plane he used to travel to Margaret Thatcher’s funeral last month.

Workers will pay no tax on the first £10,000 of their wages from next year – 12 months earlier than originally planned. Bringing forward the personal allowance rise will mean a cumulative benefit for typical basic-rate taxpayers of £705 since the coalition took power, according to Treasury figures.

* Fuel duty rise scrapped.

Think tank finds only four in 10 low-paid families will see 85 per cent of their childcare bill met by the Government

Workers will not pay any tax on the first £10,000 of their wages from next year - 12 months earlier than planned.

More than one million low-income earners would be taken out of the income tax net altogether under Liberal Democrat plans to raise the tax-free personal allowance to close to £13,000.

Watchdog says only implausibly large surge in tax revenues or a significant drop in state spending could help Chancellor's boast be lived up to

Ed Miliband's 'working people'  sound very much like the Tories' 'strivers'

A three day event, dubbed the 'London Anniversary Games', will be held at the Stratford stadium in July

Economy has been damaged by the biggest cut in defence spending in 40 years, fewer exports and sluggish growth in company stockpiles

Taxes will have been increased almost 300 times by the coalition Government before its term of office ends in 2015, new research claimed today.

Chalk up another victory for the PR departments of the global investment banks. Some – including Goldman Sachs – are reportedly considering deferring bonuses for their UK staff until after 6 April to take advantage of the lower top rate of income tax. The prospect of too-big-to-fail banks using such a sly bit of avoidance to save their already over-remunerated staff a tax bill – and at the expense of the struggling British Exchequer – has understandably provoked disgust. Labour's Chris Leslie has warned them to "think carefully" about their reputations.