UK Politics

A minister has defended Labour’s planned welfare cuts after Diane Abbott warned reducing benefits is “not a Labour thing to do”. Treasury minister Emma Reynolds vowed there will “always be a safety net for the most vulnerable” amid a growing backlash among MPs at Sir Keir Starmer’s plans. She said Labour is “the party that created the welfare state back in 1945” and that it will “maintain that crucial safety net for the most vulnerable”. Emma Reynolds vowed there will “always be a safety net” for the most vulnerable More

People in the UK are likely to believe that fictional heroes like Harry Potter and Gandalf would share their political views, while villains like Darth Vader and Cruella de Vil would vote for opposing parties, new research shows.The University of Southampton researchers behind the study say this tendency, for people to project their own views onto fictional characters, is fuelling political polarisation.The tendency also extended beyond fiction. When presented with news stories about politicians engaging in charitable or corrupt behaviour, participants tended to associate the “good” politician with their preferred party and the “bad” politician with the opposition.Dr Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte of the University of Southampton explained the implications of these findings: “If we see ‘villains’ as belonging to the other side, then we also tend to associate more and more negative attributes with that group. “This is not only bad news for polarisation, but also makes us more easily susceptible to misinformation that confirms the existing biases we hold about the voters of certain parties.”The first of two studies, conducted by researchers from the University of Southampton and the University of Vienna, surveyed 3,200 individuals in the United Kingdom and United States. Participants were asked which political party they believed various fictional characters from popular franchises, including Marvel, Disney, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and Star Wars, would support.Cruella de Vil, the villain of the 101 Dalmatians movies, was thought by many respondents to vote for opposing political parties More

Two British women born on the Chagos Islands are set to bring legal action against the UK Government, saying the territory should remain in UK hands and not be given over to Mauritius.Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe, who were both born on Diego Garcia, have launched legal action against the Foreign Office, contesting the proposed transfer agreement.Central to their case is the right to return to their birthplace. Chagossians were forcibly removed from the islands by 1973 to make way for a US-UK military base, and there is currently restricted access to the islands, with permits required for travel.The proposed agreement includes a lease-back arrangement for the base on Diego Garcia, funded by British taxpayers.While seemingly endorsed by US President Donald Trump, the deal faces resistance from the Conservative party. Lawyers representing the two women have sent a pre-action letter to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), asserting that the Chagossian people have shut out of the conversation about the future of the islands, despite being the native inhabitants.Bertrice Pompe is one of two women launching legal action against the UK government over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands More

Rachel Reeves is preparing to axe a significant number of regulators, as the government continues its war on red tape.It comes as part of an attempt to kickstart economic growth and “free businesses from the shackles of regulation”, the chancellor said. Regulators have been summoned to Downing Street on Monday for a meeting with Ms Reeves, where she is expected to announce more detail on how the government will cut the cost of regulation by a quarter and set out plans to slim down or abolish the bodies themselves.The meeting follows the announcement last week that NHS England – dubbed the world’s largest quango – would be scrapped as part of efforts to cut costs and boost economic growth.Rachel Reeves has said she wants to ‘free businesses from the shackles of regulation’ More

Rachel Reeves may be forced to raise taxes to plug holes in Britain’s public finances, a leading think tank has warned, after the government failed to rule out watering down plans to slash the benefits bill. It comes ahead of the chancellor’s spring statement on March 26, where she is expected to make a raft of public spending savings to make up for tightening fiscal headroom and balance the books.Initial reports had suggested that Personal Independence Payments (PIP) would be frozen from rising in line with inflation for a year, but the plan has been met with strong opposition – and is now expected to be dropped. Rachel Reeves said the current welfare system is not working (Peter Cziborra/PA) More

Two tales of maverick MPs, both incredibly popular with the party membership but both forced out because they represented a challenge to the leader’s authority and were considered too outspoken and too rightwing.One man links both those tales – Ashfield MP Lee Anderson. In 2024 he was the maverick MP ousted from Rishi Sunak’s Tories by an unbending chief whip. But in 2025 he is the party chief whip forcing the latest outspoken right winger Rupert Lowe out of Reform.By chance, memories of his painful episode with the Conservatives have been replayed in detail with the publication of the diaries of Rishi Sunak’s former Tory chief whip Simon Hart entitled “Ungovernable: Diaries of a Chief Whip”.Farage embraced Anderson as a Reform MP More

At least 44 fires have broken out in the Houses of Parliament over the past decade, with more than 1,000 incidents of asbestos uncovered, figures have shown. Concerns have been raised repeatedly that the iconic Westminster building could face a Notre-Dame style blaze if restoration work is not completed, with four fires in 2024 alone.However, plans to restore the Palace of Westminster are likely to cost billions, with the fastest option likely to take more than a decade and would consist of both the House of Lords and Commons relocating on a temporary basis. Details of the toxic materials were released to Labour peer Peter Hain, which showed that asbestos had been found in 1,057 items. Plans to restore the building cost billions of pounds (John Walton/PA) More