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 Correspondent A new foreign minister was named in Sweden on Tuesday, nearly a week after the post was vacated in a surprise resignation.The move to appoint Maria Malmer Stenegard, 43, came after Tobias Billström said on Sept. 4 that he was leaving the government in a shock departure. Malmer Stenegard had previously been migration minister.Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also made other changes to his center-right government as part of a Cabinet shakeup.Johan Forssell, who was development minister, takes up the migration portfolio vacated by Malmer Stenegard. Benjamin Dousa replaces Forssell as development minister.The Swedish government leader also tapped Jessica Rosencrantz as the new European Union affairs minister. She replaces Jessika Roswall, who was nominated as Sweden’s new EU commissioner in July.All are members of Kristersson’s conservative Moderates party. Finally, two Liberal ministers swapped roles: Johan Pehrson became education and research minister, while Mats Persson became minister for employment and integration. In October 2022, Kristersson formed a center-right, minority Cabinet with his own Moderates, the Liberals and the Christian Democrats. It was relying on Sweden Democrats, the populist party with far-right roots that supports the government but isn’t a part of it.Kristersson’s announcement was made as Swedish lawmakers returned to the Riksdagen, Sweden’s 349-seat parliament, after the summer recess.Billström, who steered the Scandinavian country along a sometimes bumpy road to NATO membership and is a strong supporter of Ukraine, said that he was resigning and that he hadn’t decided what to do in the future. 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 CorrespondentLabour will give renters the right to have pets and end no-fault evictions as it revives a package of rental reforms abandoned by the Tories.In a major overhaul of renters rights to be introduced to Parliament on Wednesday, the government has vowed to “clean up the mess” in the rental market left behind by the Conservatives.Sir Keir Starmer’s party will abolish Section 21 so-called no-fault evictions, under which tenants can be removed from rented housing when a fixed-term tenancy ends or during a rolling tenancy.Angela Rayner said renters have been let down for too long as the government published plans to ban no-fault evictions 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 won his first major political test as prime minister, seeing off a major rebellion over his government’s plans to cut winter fuel payments to 10 million pensioners.On a day when the prime minister defended making tough decisions and rejected the “snake oil of easy answers” in his speech to the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Brighton, he stared down a threat of mutiny from his own backbenchers.Despite criticism at the TUC of his “austerity” policies, Sir Keir said he made no apologies for doing what was needed to fix the country.Just one Labour MP voted against the cut, while another 53 abstained. However, only 12 of those did not have permission to be away from parliament on other business.Keir Starmer faced the biggest rebellion of his time as prime minister 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 CorrespondentUS secretary of state Antony Blinken gave the strongest indication yet that the Labour government’s attempts to heal the relationship with the EU in the wake of Brexit have significantly improved relations between Washington and London.With Sir Keir Starmer set to fly to Washington DC this week to meet up with US president Joe Biden, there had been concerns that the so-called “special relationship” may have been cooled by David Lammy’s announcement that he was suspending 30 arms export licences to Israel.However, the two men insisted that they are working hand in hand, and united to condemn Iran after it was revealed that the country has been sending ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine. Sources have suggested that Tehran is receiving nuclear technology in exchange. Mr Blinken said that the US would be imposing further sanctions on Iran, and it is understood that the UK will follow suit.US secretary of state Antony Blinken, left, and British foreign secretary David Lammy were speaking at a joint press conference in London 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 CorrespondentKemi Badenoch has regained momentum in the race to become the next Tory leader, while Mel Stride has been eliminated.Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick won the second round of voting in the contest to replace Rishi Sunak, but Ms Badenoch picked up the most votes, narrowing the gap slightly. She also saw off a challenge from ex-home secretary James Cleverly, keeping him in third. Seen as the early favourite, Ms Badenoch appeared to stumble last week when she came second in the first round of voting. But she gained some ground on Mr Jenrick in the latest round, picking up six votes, the most of any contestant, to his five.The results of the second ballot saw Mr Jenrick receive the backing of 33 MPs, Ms Badenoch 28, Mr Cleverly 21, Tom Tugendhat 21 and Mr Stride 16.As the MP with the lowest number of votes, Mr Stride automatically leaves the race. The remaining four contenders will now proceed to the upcoming Conservative Party conference, which will be dominated by the contest.Badenoch at the launch of her Conservative Party leadership bid 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 CorrespondentLabour has ordered a review of Tory plans to make British workers earn £38,700 or more in order to bring their spouses to the UK.Home secretary Yvette Cooper has given the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) nine months to report back on what the minimum income requirement for family visas should be.Under plans announced last year by Rishi Sunak, the threshold was hiked from £18,600 to £29,000.Sir Keir Starmer promised before the election to cut net migration 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 British lawmaker Mel Stride became the second candidate to be kicked out of the Conservative Party leadership contest, leaving four contenders still running to lead the party after its catastrophic election defeat.Stride garnered just 16 votes in a ballot of Conservative lawmakers on Tuesday, finishing last of five contenders.Former Home Secretary Priti Patel was ejected last week in an earlier vote.The four remaining contenders – Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat — will make pitches to delegates at the Conservative Party conference in early October, after which lawmakers will whittle their number down to two.Party members across the country will then vote to pick a winner, who will be announced Nov. 2. Jenrick, who quit his role in the government led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak over his opposition to its policies on immigration, reinforced his front-runner status, securing 33 votes. He has wooed the party’s right wing, arguing that the U.K. should curb immigration and leave the European Convention on Human Rights in order to take tough measures to stop people seeking asylum in the U.K.Badenoch, a former business secretary, got 28 votes, while former foreign secretary Cleverly and ex-security minister Tugendhat each received 21 votes.The party’s last contested leadership selection, in mid-2022, saw members choose Liz Truss over Sunak. Truss resigned after just 49 days in office when her tax-cutting plans rocked the financial markets and battered the value of the pound. The party then chose Sunak to replace her. In July, Sunak led the Conservative Party to its worst election result since 1832. The Conservatives lost more than 200 seats, taking their tally down to 121. 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 seen off a backbench rebellion over plans to cut the winter fuel allowance but the Government’s majority on the matter fell to 120.MPs voted 348 to 228 to axe the payment for all but the country’s poorest pensioners, rejecting a Tory bid for the controversial policy to be blocked. The Government’s usual working majority is 167.The division list has shown Labour MP for Normanton and Hemsworth, Jon Trickett, supported the Conservation motion while no vote was recorded for 53 Labour MPs, although this does not automatically equate to an abstention for each MP as they may have received permission to miss a vote.For example, some may not record a vote because they were unable to attend due to other commitments.A further five independent MPs, who were recently suspended from the Labour Party for rebelling against the two-child benefit cap, also backed the Tories – John McDonnell, Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne and Zarah Sultana.The interactive map below shows how your local MP voted for the Conservative motion to keep the universal winter fuel allowance. Ministers insist that the measure is necessary in order to fill a “£22 billion black hole” in the public finances which they say was left behind by their Tory predecessors.But some backbenchers had said they feel unable to back the cut, which will see millions of pensioners lose the £200 payment and only those claiming pension credit or other means-tested benefits continue to receive help with their energy bills this winter.Mr Trickett, who served in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, said he feared the measure would cause more pensioners to fall into poverty during the winter and “could not in good conscience make my constituents poorer”.In a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, he said: “This winter will be extremely difficult for my constituents of all ages.“After years of obscene profiteering by energy companies, they are hiking bills once again.“I fear that removing the payment from pensioners will mean that many more will fall into poverty this winter.“We know that the consequences of pensioner poverty are devastating. It can even be a matter of life and death.“I have worked behind the scenes to try and change the Government’s position, but to no avail.“Our country is richer than it’s ever been, but the wealth is not shared fairly.“In my view the Government should be looking to raise revenues from the wealthiest in society, not working class pensioners.”He added: “I will sleep well tonight knowing that I voted to defend my constituents.” More