Business
Labubu dolls made up 90% of fake toys seized at UK border
Labubu dolls made up 90% of the £3.5m worth of fake toys seized at the UK border so far this year, according to Home Office data.
Labubu is a quirky monster character created by Hong Kong-born artist Kasing Lung, and popularised through a collaboration with toy store Pop Mart.
Although they are mainly marketed as adult collectibles and fashion accessories, with some even stating they’re only suitable for those over 15 on the box, they’re very popular with young people and children.
But nearly three in four seized toys failed safety tests, with the “dangerous fakes” being found with harmful chemicals or choking hazards according to the Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
A new campaign from the IPO called Fake Toys, Real Harms is aiming to highlight the dangers of buying counterfeit items.
The IPO found seven in ten fake toy buyers are motivated by cost, and just 27% cited safety as a purchase consideration.
Rare editions of real Labubus can can sell for hundreds of pounds on resale sites.
Demand for the limited toys became so great that Pop Mart paused sales in all its 16 UK shops in May following reports of customers fighting over them. The toys are now sold through an online lottery system.
Of the 259,000 fake toys seized by the IPO in 2025, 236,000 were counterfeit Labubus.
Nearly half of people who purchased fake toys reported problems, the government body also found.
Issues range from toys breaking almost instantly to unsafe labelling, toxic smells and even reports of illness in children.
The IPO’s deputy director of enforcement, Helen Barnham said: “These products have bypassed every safety check the law requires, which is why we’re working with our partners to keep these dangerous fakes out of UK homes.”
She added: “Child safety must come first, so we’re urging parents – please don’t let your child be the tester.”
The IPO stressed that experts are warning the Labubu trend “is just the tip of the iceberg.”
It warned that counterfeiting criminals target a wide range of popular toys and it’s important to be vigilant and aware of what you are purchasing.
Morrisons has said it will shut 52 of its in-store cafes along with some of its convenience stores, florists, meat and fish counters and pharmacies.
Eighteen market kitchens, 17 convenience stores, 13 florists, 35 meat counters, 35 fish counters and four pharmacies will also be affected.
The supermarket said the closures are part of a shake-up which will result in 365 people facing redundancy.
Full Morrisons store closure list
Cafes
Bradford Thornbury – West Yorkshire
Paisley Falside Rd – Renfrewshire, Scotland
London Queensbury – Greater London
Portsmouth – Hampshire
Great Park – Tyne and Wear
Banchory North Deeside Rd – Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Failsworth Poplar Street – Greater Manchester
Blackburn Railway Road – Lancashire
Leeds Swinnow Rd – West Yorkshire
London Wood Green – Greater London
Kirkham Poulton St – Lancashire
Lutterworth Bitteswell Rd – Leicestershire
Stirchley – West Midlands
Leeds Horsforth – West Yorkshire
London Erith – Greater London
Crowborough – East Sussex
Bellshill John St – North Lanarkshire, Scotland
Dumbarton Glasgow Rd – West Dunbartonshire, Scotland
East Kilbride Lindsayfield – South Lanarkshire, Scotland
East Kilbride Stewartfield – South Lanarkshire, Scotland
Glasgow Newlands – Glasgow, Scotland
Largs Irvine Rd – North Ayrshire, Scotland
Troon Academy St – South Ayrshire, Scotland
Wishaw Kirk Rd – North Lanarkshire, Scotland
Newcastle upon Tyne Cowgate – Tyne and Wear
Northampton Kettering Road – Northamptonshire
Bromsgrove Buntsford Ind Pk – Worcestershire
Solihull Warwick Rd – West Midlands
Brecon Free St – Powys, Wales
Caernarfon North Rd – Gwynedd, Wales
Hadleigh – Suffolk
Harrow, Hatch End – Greater London
High Wycombe Temple End – Buckinghamshire
Leighton Buzzard Lake St – Bedfordshire
London Stratford – Greater London
Sidcup Westwood Lane – Greater London
Welwyn Garden City Black Fan Rd – Hertfordshire
Warminster Weymouth St – Wiltshire
Oxted Station Yard – Surrey
Reigate Bell St – Surrey
Borehamwood – Hertfordshire
Weybridge, Monument Hill – Surrey
Bathgate – West Lothian, Scotland
Erskine Bridgewater SC – Renfrewshire, Scotland
Gorleston Blackwell Road – Norfolk
Connah’s Quay – Flintshire, Wales
Mansfield Woodhouse – Nottinghamshire
Elland – West Yorkshire
Gloucester – Metz Way – Gloucestershire
Watford – Ascot Road – Hertfordshire
Littlehampton – Wick – West Sussex
Helensburgh – Argyll and Bute, Scotland
Morrisons Daily convenience stores
Gorleston Lowestoft Road – Norfolk
Peebles 3-5 Old Town – Scottish Borders, Scotland
Shenfield 214 Hutton Road – Essex
Poole Waterloo Estate – Dorset
Tonbridge Higham Lane Est – Kent
Romsey The Cornmarket – Hampshire
Stewarton Lainshaw Street – East Ayrshire, Scotland
Selsdon Featherbed Lane – Greater London
Haxby Village – North Yorkshire
Great Barr Queslett Rd – West Midlands
Whickham Oakfield Road – Tyne and Wear
Worle – Somerset
Goring-By-Sea Strand Parade – West Sussex
Woking Westfield Road – Surrey
Wokingham 40 Peach Street – Berkshire
Exeter 51 Sidwell Street – Devon
Bath Moorland Road – Somerset
Paul SeddonPolitical reporter
Rachel Reeves has suggested she favours removing limits on benefits linked to family size at this month’s Budget.
The chancellor told the BBC it was not right that children in bigger families were “penalised” through “no fault of their own”.
The comments are a sign she could remove the two-child limit on working-age benefits introduced under the Conservatives in 2017.
Some Labour MPs have been calling for a full reversal of the policy, amid reports she was considering paring back payments after two children instead.
In September, the Guardian reported that Treasury officials were considering a tapered approach, under which parents would receive most benefits for their first child and less for subsequent children.
Other options under consideration included limiting additional benefits to three or four children, the newspaper reported.
But speaking to Matt Chorley on BBC Radio 5 Live, Reeves suggested she did not want to see benefits limited according to family size.
“I don’t think that it’s right that a child is penalised because they are in a bigger family, through no fault of their own,” she added.
“And so we will take action on child poverty. The last Labour government proudly reduced child poverty, and we will reduce child poverty as well.”
She added there were “plenty of reasons why” parents who decided to have three or four children could see their financial circumstances change.
Manifesto pledges
Elsewhere in her interview, she all but confirmed the government plans to break Labour’s manifesto pledge at last year’s general election not to raise income tax rates, VAT or National Insurance.
“It would of course be possible to stick with the manifesto commitments. But that would require things like deep cuts in capital spending,” she added.
“What I can promise now is I will always do what I think is right for our country. Not the politically easy choice, but the things that I think are necessary to put our country on the right path,” she added.
Labour’s 2024 election manifesto pledged not to raise the basic, higher, or additional rates of income tax, or National Insurance – prompting a row last autumn when Reeves announced a hike in the contributions paid by employers.
It also promised not to raise Value Added Tax (VAT), a sales tax, although the manifesto did not specify whether this applied to the rates, or which products are subject to the charge.
The chancellor has not ruled out continuing to freeze income tax thresholds beyond the 2028 date fixed by the last government, allowing more people to be dragged into higher bands as their wages rise over time.
Pressed on whether she could have avoided tax hikes through lower public spending, she said she was “not going to apologise” for increased funding for the NHS, adding that reducing waiting lists was one of her three Budget priorities.
She also claimed that some of the spending she unveiled at June’s spending review had been pencilled in, but not properly funded, by the Tories.
‘Same choices’
The two-child cap prevents households on universal or child tax credit from receiving payments for a third or subsequent child born after April 2017.
This is different to child benefit, which is paid to families where the highest-earning parent earns less than £80,000.
Separately, there is also an overall cap on the amount of benefits working-age families can claim, which has been in place since 2013.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank estimates fully reversing the two-child benefit cap could take 630,000 children out of absolute poverty, defined as households with an income below 60% median average, at a cost of £3.6bn a year.
Pressure to ditch the limit increased during the recent Labour deputy leadership contest, where successful candidate Lucy Powell and runner-up Bridget Phillipson both indicated they favoured more action on child poverty.
Reform UK is pledging to scrap the limit for working British couples if it wins power, although the Conservatives say the cap should remain in place, forcing a symbolic vote on the issue in the House of Commons in September.
Speaking after the vote, Tory leader said her party believes “those on welfare should have to make the same choices as those who aren’t,” and Labour and Reform were expecting working people to pay for “unlimited handouts”.
Business
US stocks today: Markets rise on hopes of US govt shutdown ending; Nasdaq jumps over 440 points, S&P 500 gains 1% – The Times of India
Global stock markets rose sharply on Monday as investors showed optimism amid reports that the US government shutdown could soon be resolved, after a breakthrough in the record 40-day standoff.Dow was trading up 115 points or 0.25%, reaching 47,103. Nasdaq also inched 1.95% or 448 points, to trade at 23,452 at 8:50 PM IST. S&P 500 also jumped 1% to 6,804. A group of Senate Democrats joined Republicans in a procedural vote on Sunday evening, clearing the path for a formal debate after a bipartisan deal was reached to fund government operations through January. “The more risk-on mood means it’s pretty much a sea of green on the boards,” Neil Wilson, UK Investor Strategist at Saxo told AFP. The reopening could bring much-needed clarity on US inflation and the soft labour market, both critical to the Federal Reserve’s plans for potential interest rate cuts next month. “If all goes well, some federal agencies could reopen as soon as Friday,” said David Morrison, senior analyst at Trade Nation. He noted that both investors and the Fed have been “flying blind since the beginning of October, with a near-complete absence of data.” Morrison added, “Fed Chair Jerome Powell has played down the prospect of another rate cut in December, as it is far from obvious that inflation has peaked.” Investor focus on Monday was dominated by the prospect of a government reopening, as concerns mounted over the impact on low-income households reliant on food benefits and potential disruptions to air travel ahead of Thanksgiving. “Shutdowns haven’t typically had a big bearing on the economy or on financial markets. But, this one… looked as though it might start to cause some trouble,” said analysts at Capital Economics. Optimism was further boosted by Pfizer’s reported $10 billion victory in the bidding war for biotech obesity specialist Metsera over the weekend. Wall Street opened higher following a week of losses sparked by worries that the AI investment boom had inflated tech valuations to unsustainable levels. European markets also climbed, mirroring gains in Asia. Tensions between the US and China eased further after Beijing announced a one-year suspension of “special port fees” on US vessels, coinciding with Washington’s pause on levies targeting Chinese ships. In currency and commodity markets, the dollar steadied against the euro and pound while rising against the yen. Oil prices gained slightly after last week’s decline amid concerns over supply and global demand uncertainties.
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