UK Politics

Your support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreCloseRachel Reeves has announced a change to the fiscal rules ahead of next week’s budget, allowing her to borrow billions more each year. The chancellor today confirmed her rules will “make space for increased investment in the fabric of our economy”, amid widespread expectation she will change the way debt is measured.She said her “investment rule” would “get debt falling as a proportion of our economy”.“That will make space for increased investment in the fabric of our economy, and ensure we don’t see the falls in public sector investment that were planned under the last government”, she wrote in the Financial Times on Thursday. She is expected to change the measure of debt to one which includes a wider range of state assets and liabilities. Using the new fiscal rule, Ms Reeves would seek to fund about £20bn pounds a year of extra investment using increased borrowing, the newspaper reported, giving her more room for manoeuvre in the October 30 Budget and allow her to invest in Britain’s crumbling infrastructure. Sir Keir Starmer is in Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Stefan Rousseau/PA) More

Your support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreCloseKeir Starmer has flown into an explosive row over reparations for the transatlantic slave trade at a summit in Samoa.Commonwealth leaders are preparing to defy the prime minister and agree plans to examine how there can be ‘reparative justice’ over the issue. The move comes despite Sir Keir’s call for the group to look to the future at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (Chogm), which begins in the pacific nation on Friday.The prime minister was expected to come under direct fire over slavery at the event, after the prime minister of the Bahamas Philip Davis said he was seeking a “frank talk” with Sir Keir about reparations. Diplomatic sources said officials are already negotiating an agreement to conduct further research and begin a “meaningful conversation”, which could leave the UK owing billions of pounds in reparations.British prime minister Keir Starmer on 22 October 2024 in Apia, Samoa More

Your support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreCloseSir Keir Starmer is under pressure to re-examine the UK’s relationship with the European Union, as a new group of MPs from across the political spectrum has formed to urge the prime minister to forge closer ties with the bloc. The group, which aims to “discover areas of mutual co-operation and interest” and probe the UK-EU relationship, held its first meeting on Tuesday,The Independent understands.The group will seek to “foster positive relationships with colleagues across Europe”, as well as “encouraging an open and honest dialogue for politicians of all stripes”, co-chair Dr Rosena Allin-Khan said. The meeting was attended by multiple prominent Labour backbenchers including Dawn Butler, Yasmin Qureshi and Marsha de Cordova.Prime Minister Keir Starmer shakes meets with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen at the European Commission headquarters during his visit to Brussels More

Your support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreClose Chipmaker Intel won a fresh victory on Thursday in a long-running battle against European Union competition watchdogs when the bloc’s top court confirmed a lower tribunal’s decision to overturn a billion-euro antitrust penalty. The EU’s Court of Justice said it upheld the decision to annul the fine issued more than a decade ago, dismissing an appeal from the European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer.The court said it “rejects all of the grounds of appeal raised by the Commission,” according to a press release summarizing the decision. Intel said in a statement that it’s “pleased with the judgment delivered by the Court of Justice of the European Union today and to finally put this part of the case behind us.”The case dates back to 2009, when the Commission slapped Intel with a 1.06 billion euro fine ($1.14 billion at current exchange rates) for allegedly using illegal sales tactics to shut out smaller rival AMD. The Commission accused Intel of abusing its dominant position in the global market for x86 microprocessors with a strategy to exclude rivals by using rebates.Intel scored a surprise win in 2022 when the EU’s General Court overturned the penalty, the decision that the Court of Justice backed on Thursday. The latest decision is still not the end of the road for the case, because the company is battling a separate 376.4 million-euro fine that Brussels imposed last year targeting some Intel sales restrictions that the General Court found were unlawful in its 2022 ruling. More