Markus Andrews

Sir Sadiq Khan has dubbed Donald Trump “racist, sexist, misogynistic” and “Islamophobic” in the latest in a long-running war of words between the feuding pair. It came after Mr Trump branded Sir Sadiq a “terrible mayor” in a stinging attack over immigration and carbon-reduction policies.Addressing the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, the US president said: “I look at London, where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it’s been changed, it’s been so changed. “Now they want to go to sharia law. But you are in a different country, you can’t do that.”Khan: ‘I’m just thankful that we have record numbers of Americans coming to London’ More

The home secretary has ordered an urgent review into the use and cost of taxis ferrying asylum seekers between hotels and to and from medical appointments. Shabana Mahmood’s call follows an investigation into life inside asylum hotels, which found one migrant sent on a 250-mile journey to a GP appointment at a cost to the Home Office of £600. In other cases, migrants are transported hundreds of miles across the country via taxi when they are moved between hotels. An investigation found that one migrant was sent on a 250-mile journey to a GP appointment at a cost to the Home Office of £600 More

A top Labour minister has defended Sir Keir Starmer’s under-fire chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, amid mounting attacks over the failure to declare donations to his Labour Together think tank. The organisation, where Mr McSweeney was director before coming to work for Sir Keir, was fined by the elections watchdog over its handling of £740,000 donations in 2021. But the Tories claimed a leaked email from a lawyer to Mr McSweeney had sought to mislead the Electoral Commission.Work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden on Wednesday said the Conservatives were targeting Mr McSweeney because he is a “very talented man”.Pat McFadden said he had full confidence in Downing Street chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney More

Nigel Farage has said Republicans “have to get used to things being said that they don’t like” after late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel was suspended last week having made comments about the death of MAGA commentator Charlie Kirk.Responding to a caller on Nick Ferrari’s LBC programme on Wednesday (September 24), the Reform UK leader expressed how the political party supporters “need to be careful, otherwise they’re going to be guilty of the very thing they accused the other side of.”Jimmy Kimmel returned to his show on Tuesday night, assuring his audience that it was “never [his] intention to make light of the murder of a young man.” More

A new political party, Advance UK, has had its inaugural launch event cancelled by a council-owned hotel in Newcastle.The party is led by former Reform deputy Ben Habib and backed by right-wing activist Tommy Robinson and billionaire Elon Musk. It was scheduled to hold a conference in the city on Saturday. While the venue was not initially disclosed, it was understood to be the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the city centre.Newcastle City Council confirmed the hotel management cancelled the booking “on health and safety grounds” following an online protest.When Advance UK announced the event in August, it said it had chosen Newcastle because it was “the symbolic heart of Brexit”. The party vowed to “fight unapologetically for sovereignty, free speech, and restoring pride in our nation”.Tommy Robinson speaks during the recent Unite the Kingdom march in London More

There is growing public support for a “super-digital identity card” which would allow people to access public services and report problems in their local area, a new report from Sir Tony Blair’s think tank suggests. The report, which surveyed more than 2,000 adults, saw 62 per cent of people say they favour introducing a form of digital ID alongside an app that would allow them to report things such as potholes and missed bin collections. Three-quarters of those polled supported the use of such an app to track the progress of applications made to local authorities, while some 69 per cent said they wanted it for voting or receiving official notifications, the Tony Blair Institute report showed. The Tony Blair Institute surveyed 2,000 people on digital ID More

Donald Trump has taken to the United Nations to show how pointless Britain’s courting of the US president with a state visit really was.Speaking at the UN’s annual general assembly, he told world leaders that London is heading for sharia law and issued all-too-clippable rallying cries for far-right extremists in Europe.Sir Keir Starmer’s enlistment of King Charles III in a charm offensive with carriage rides around Windsor, state dinners and three days of non-stop flattery delivered nothing but anti-British ranting and un-British extremism.Mr Trump raged: “Look at London, where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it’s been so changed, so changed. Now they want to go to sharia law, but you’re in a different country.“You can’t do that. Both the immigration and their suicidal energy ideas will be the death of Western Europe. If something is not done immediately, they cannot, this cannot, be sustained.”Donald Trump told world leaders that London is heading for sharia law and issued all-too-clippable rallying cries for far-right extremists in Europe More

Rachel Reeves needs to row back on her manifesto pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT, a leading think tank has said, as the chancellor seeks to fill a £30bn black hole at the Budget. The chancellor should “reject the path of least resistance” and consider rowing back on her “rash” commitment not to raise the three main taxes at the Budget, the Institute for Government (IfG) said, arguing Labour’s “unrealistic” approach to tax has left Ms Reeves reaching for “piecemeal changes”.It comes amid a growing expectation that the Treasury will have to increase taxes by as much as £30bn in the upcoming Budget, as a result of sluggish productivity, government U-turns and higher than expected interest payments. Higher tax and spending cuts are set to drag on UK growth next year More