UK Politics

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentDiane Abbott has accused Sir Keir Starmer of treating her like a “non-person” during a race row over comments made by major Tory donor.In March, The Guardian reported that Frank Hester had told colleagues that looking at Ms Abbott makes you “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.The veteran Labour MP said she expected more support from the prime minister and the Labour Party, having been left feeling in danger by Frank Hester’s comments.“One of the reasons it made me frightened is two MPs have been killed in recent years,” Ms Abbott said.Diane Abbott was suspended after suggesting Jewish, Irish and Traveller people experience prejudice but not racism More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House Correspondent A speech by the Dutch king on Tuesday is to lay out the new government’s plans for the coming year as members of the hard right-led coalition bicker over its plans to drastically slash migration.The day, marked by pageantry as the royals are driven through The Hague in ornate horse-drawn carriages, also brings the first major test of a technocratic new government chosen by the right-wing parties that triumphed in last year’s elections. King Willem-Alexander’s speech to lawmakers from both houses of the Dutch parliament is written by the government and lays out legislative plans and the budget for the coming year.On Monday, a senior member of a party in the coalition said she would oppose the government’s plans to rein in immigration if a key political advisory panel rejects them.The comments Monday by Nicolien van Vroonhoven of the New Social Contract party triggered angry reactions from Geert Wilders ’s populist anti-immigration Party for Freedom, which won national elections last year, and the conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy.The spat underscored the fragility of a coalition that was pulled together after months of negotiations. Prime Minister Dick Schoof was eventually chosen to head a cabinet made up of politicians and civil servants because the leaders did not want the outspoken Wilders as prime minister.While the government seeks consensus on a deal to drastically dial back immigration, a town in the northern Netherlands opened a sports hall overnight to accommodate asylum seekers who otherwise would have been forced to sleep outdoors because of a shortage of space at a reception center.The mayor of Ter Apel accused Margriet Faber, the minister responsible for asylum seekers and migrants, of allowing an accomdation crisis to escalate.“The minister is shunning her responsibility. She is responsible for people who come to the Netherlands for asylum. She has had enough time and sufficient opportunity to accommodate people in a decent way. She consciously does not do this,” mayor Jaap Velema said in a statement Monday.The government is planning to declare an “asylum crisis” to pave the way for tougher measures including reining in visas for family members of people granted asylum and making it easier and quicker to deport migrants who are not eligible for asylum. The government also plans to apply for an opt-out from European Union migration rules and step up border check following similar moves implemented Monday by neighboring Germany. It remains unclear how many of the Dutch government’s plans can be enforced. More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentSir Keir Starmer has claimed that Britain can learn lessons from Italy on how to reduce migration, after far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s administration saw small boat arrivals fall by more than 60 per cent this year.Ahead of a visit to Rome, Sir Keir hailed Italy’s “dramatic” drop in unregulated migration and expressed interest in Ms Meloni’s proposed asylum processing scheme in Albania, just months after scrapping the Tories’ controversial Rwanda scheme.Claiming that his talks with Ms Meloni had marked a return to “British pragmatism”, Sir Keir also praised Italy’s “upstream work” in north Africa, saying: “I have always made the argument that preventing people leaving their country in the first place is far better than trying to deal with those that have arrived.”Reducing the number of perilous small-boat crossings across the Channel is a political priority for the Labour government, which has announced its intention to “smash” people-smuggling gangs but has stopped short of opening safe alternative routes for asylum seekers to travel to Britain to have their claims heard.The prime minister is now looking to Italy’s example, where the country’s interior ministry reported a 62 per cent fall in migrant arrivals on Italian coasts over the first seven months of 2024. Frontex, the EU’s border force, has calculated a 64 per cent fall in the number of people arriving from north Africa to Italy and Malta.More than 1,000 people arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel over the weekend, as eight people died trying to make the journey More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentSir Ed Davey is expected to lay out his plan to overtake the Tories at the next general election and “finish the job” his party believe they started this year.The triumphant Liberal Democrat leader, now heading a group of 72 MPs, will use much of his party conference speech in Brighton to focus on the Conservatives and their leadership contest to replace Rishi Sunak, which Sir Ed has described as “scraping the bottom of the barrel”.Sir Ed – who has become well known for his colourful stunts – will also focus on key priorities of the NHS and social care, and will insist that his party’s success in July means that it has to justify its actions to the voters.“The modern Conservative Party is so out of touch with so many of its former voters – so far removed from the real lives of ordinary people – that it no longer merits a place at the top table of our politics,” he is expected to say. “On 4 July we made a great start, but now let’s go further. Let’s finish the job.”It comes as senior sources in the party have made it clear that while the Lib Dems outperformed their wildest dreams in this year’s election, they have “far from maxed out” in taking seats from the Conservatives, who were reduced to a historic low of 121 seats. Other sources pointed out to The Independent that the Lib Dems came second in 27 seats – 21 of which are held by the Conservatives.Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper and Ed Davey on the general election trail earlier this year More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentSir Keir Starmer has shown “great interest” in Italy’s controversial scheme to send migrants to be processed offshore, the country’s leader Giorgia Meloni has said.A defiant Italian premier also defended her deal with Albania, brushing aside humanitarian concerns as “completely groundless”.Sir Keir has not ruled out a similar scheme in the UK and said he would employ “British pragmatism” when it comes to solving the small boats crisis, after a summit with Ms Meloni in Rome.The two met after another tragic weekend in which eight people died attempting to cross the English Channel.Before the prime minister’s trip, No 10 praised Ms Meloni and said the pair would discuss her country’s success slashing boat crossings by 60 per cent over the past year.Keir Starmer with Giorgia Meloni at Villa Doria Pamphili in Rome More