UK Politics

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read more German voters are choosing a new government in an election Sunday dominated by worries about the years-long stagnation of Europe’s biggest economy, pressure to curb migration and growing uncertainty over the future of Ukraine and Europe’s alliance with the United States. The center-right opposition is favored to win, while polls point to the strongest result for a far-right party since World War II.Germany is the most populous country in the 27-nation European Union and a leading member of NATO. It has been Ukraine’s biggest second-weapons supplier, after the U.S. It will be central to shaping the continent’s response to the challenges of the coming years, including the Trump administration’s confrontational foreign and trade policy. What are Germans voting for? More than 59 million people in the nation of 84 million are eligible to elect the 630 members of the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, who will take their seats under the glass dome of Berlin’s landmark Reichstag building.Germany’s electoral system rarely produces absolute majorities, and no party looks anywhere near one this time. It’s expected that two or more parties will form a coalition, following potentially difficult negotiations that will take weeks or even months before the Bundestag elects the next chancellor.This election is taking place seven months before it was originally planned after center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition collapsed in November, three years into a term that was increasingly marred by infighting. There’s widespread discontent and not much enthusiasm for any of the candidates. Who could take charge? Center-right opposition leader Friedrich Merz’s Union bloc has consistently led polls, with 28-32% support in the most recent surveys, and Merz is favored to replace Scholz. Scholz’s Social Democrats have been polling between 14-16%, which would be their worst postwar result in a national parliamentary election.The far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has been running in second place with around 20% of the vote — well above its previous best of 12.6% in a national election, from 2017 — and has fielded its first candidate for chancellor in Alice Weidel. But other parties say they won’t work with it, a stance often known as the “firewall.”The environmentalist Greens also are running for the top job, with outgoing Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, but have been polling a little behind Scholz’s party.Merz has pledged “stability instead of chaos” after Scholz’s three-party coalition collapsed following long-running internal arguments, including over how to revitalize the economy.But it’s unclear whether the conservative leader, if he wins, will be able to put together a stable government that does much better. Merz hopes for a two-party coalition, but may end up needing a third partner to form a government. The realistic candidates to join a Merz government are Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats — who were the smallest partner in Scholz’s collapsed government and may not manage to stay in parliament. The Free Democrats and another small party are hovering are hovering at around 5% of the vote, the threshold to qualify for seats in parliament. If they do, there may be no majority for a two-party coalition. What are the main issues? The contenders have made contrasting proposals to turn around the German economy, which has shrunk for the past two years and hasn’t managed real growth in much longer. That’s going to be a central job for the new government.Migration moved to the forefront of the campaign in the past month following deadly attacks committed by immigrants. Merz vowed to bar people from entering the country without proper papers and to step up deportations if he is elected chancellor. He then brought a nonbinding motion calling for many more migrants to be turned back at Germany’s borders. Parliament approved it by a narrow majority thanks to AfD votes — a first in postwar Germany. Rivals made Merz’s attitude toward AfD, which generated protests, an issue. Scholz accused Merz of “irresponsible gambling” and breaking a taboo. Merz has rejected those accusations, saying that he didn’t and won’t work with AfD. He has repeatedly and categorically said since that his party will “never” do so.Mainstream parties have vowed to keep up support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. And after the Scholz government reached a NATO target of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense, the next administration will have to find a way to keep that going — and likely expand it, in the face of U.S. demands — once a special 100 billion-euro ($105 billion) fund to modernize the military is used up in 2027. More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreSir Keir Starmer will condemn the “dangerous right-wing politics” of Reform UK and insist that Nigel Farage’s party are “not the answer for Britain”.In a sign of growing fears in Downing Street at Reform’s surge in the polls, the prime minister will take the fight directly to the insurgent right-wing party, arguing its policies are “alien” to the needs of working people. Mr Farage’s party topped Labour in Techne’s weekly tracker poll for The Independent for the first time last week, with 26 per cent of the popular vote, and is on course to win its first seats at Holyrood in next May’s Scottish elections. Keir Starmer will take the fight directly to Reform UK More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreSir Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelensky are piling pressure on Donald Trump to ensure European leaders are at the table in talks to end Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. With a rift opening between Europe and the White House over Ukraine, the prime minister and president Zelensky held talks on Saturday to plan for a “very active” week ahead for the conflict. French president Emmanuel Macron and Sir Keir are each visiting Mr Trump in Washington to discuss his peace plans, days after the president accused France and Britain of having “done nothing” to end the war.Sir Keir Starmer has reiterated the UK’s support for Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelensky, despite the apparent rift between the Ukrainian president and Donald Trump (Carl Court/PA) More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreBritain will hit Russia with new sanctions to mark the third anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine amid a growing rift between the US and Europe in support for Volodymyr Zelensky. Sir Keir Starmer is planning a “triple whammy” of measures to support Kyiv, including the fresh sanctions as well as military aid and a crackdown on Russian dirty money in the UK. In a bid to “turn the screws” on Putin’s regime, David Lammy said he would on Monday announce the biggest package of measures since the early days of the conflict.Sir Keir Starmer and David Lammy are hoping to pile pressure on Vladimir Putin More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read more The contenders in Germany’s election made their final appeals to voters Saturday, with opposition leader and front-runner Friedrich Merz vowing to revive the stagnant economy and defend Europe’s interests in the face of a confrontational U.S. administration. Chancellor OIaf Scholz, meanwhile, insisted that he still hopes for an improbable last-minute comeback.Germans are electing a new parliament Sunday after a campaign focused on the state of Europe’s biggest economy and calls to curb migration, while uncertainty has grown rapidly about the future of Ukraine and the strength of Europe’s alliance with the United States. It appears to have done little to shift parties’ position in polls. They have consistently shown the center-right opposition, main challenger Merz’s Union bloc, in the lead. It’s ahead of the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, which is on course for the strongest result for a far-right party since World War II, but has no other party willing to go into government with it.Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats have shown little sign of coming back from a large poll deficit after the chancellor’s three-party coalition collapsed in November following a long-running argument about how to revitalize the economy. That led to the election being held seven months ahead of schedule.At a closing rally in a Munich beer hall, Merz told supporters that “three years in opposition are enough.”Germany is a traditional leader of the 27-nation EU and the bloc’s most populous member, but like fellow heavyweight France has been consumed in recent months by domestic instability. Merz said that “with me, Germany will have a strong voice in the European Union again.”“Europe must be a player and not ask maybe to get a seat at a side table,” he said. “No, we must sit at the main table; and we must safeguard our interests against Russia, against China, and if necessary also with respect to America.”“Anyone who shows up there as a dwarf is treated as a dwarf and sent home as a dwarf,” Merz added. He said, however, that “we will only gain respect in this European Union again if … we finally overcome our country’s economic weakness.” He said that was “overwhelmingly homemade.”Merz also underscored his calls for a tougher stance on migration, which created friction in recent weeks. Last month, he brought a nonbinding motion calling for many more migrants to be turned back at Germany’s borders to parliament. The motion was approved thanks to votes from Alternative for Germany, or AfD — a first in postwar Germany that prompted opponents to accuse Merz of breaking a taboo. He rejects the criticism.“We will under no circumstances discuss any talks, never mind negotiations or a participation in government, with AfD,” Merz said Saturday.At an event in Potsdam, which he represents in parliament, Scholz again cast doubt on Merz’s reliability and portrayed his party as the strongest bulwark against AfD playing any role. “Anyone who wants to be sure this doesn’t happen must ensure that there are strong Social Democrats and that they can provide the next chancellor,” Merz said.On the sidelines of an earlier event in Potsdam, Scholz said that he was “convinced that, this time, many people will only make their decision at the polling station.”“I don’t believe in miracles, but in an election victory,” he said, German news agency dpa reported.If Merz does win, it’s unclear whether he will be able to put together a two-party coalition or need a third partner, a more awkward prospect.“If we govern, we need few partners and not an endless number of them,” senior conservative ally Markus Söder said in Munich. More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreSir Keir Starmer has been urged to stand up to Donald Trump’s “torrent of lies” when he visits the United States next week, as the president accused Britain of “doing nothing” to end the war in Ukraine. As global outrage over the US president’s chaotic position on the conflict grows, the prime minister has been issued a stark warning over the state of the transatlantic alliance and has been urged to challenge the president in the “strongest possible terms” when he sits down with him on US soil. It comes after Mr Trump was widely condemned for wrongly claiming that Kyiv started the war and for describing Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator”. In his latest intervention, the US president claimed “nobody’s done anything” to end the war, after the US this week began peace talks with Russia that excluded Ukraine. Asked about next week’s visits by French president Emmanuel Macron and Sir Keir to Washington, Mr Trump told Fox News: “They didn’t do anything either [to end the war]. The war’s going on, no meetings with Russia, no nothing.”Keir Starmer has reiterated the UK’s support for Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelensky, despite the apparent rift between the Ukrainian president and Donald Trump More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreThe solicitors’ watchdog is investigating business secretary Jonathan Reynolds after he said he was a member of the profession on his CV despite having never qualified.The cabinet minister, who entered parliament before completing his training, claimed on his old constituency website that he was a solicitor at the Manchester branch of the law firm Addleshaw Goddard before becoming an MP. And in a 2014 speech to the House of Commons he said he had “worked as a solicitor in Manchester city centre”.His LinkedIn profile also previously stated he was both a “trainee solicitor” and a “solicitor” with an overlap in dates. The profile has since been updated.A spokesperson for the Solicitors Regulation Authority said the watchdog had previously looked at the issue “and contacted Mr Reynolds about the profiles”, but was now reinvestigating.“The materials were corrected, and we closed the matter with no further action, based on all the evidence we had at the time,” the spokesperson said. “However, we’ve now become aware of further information, so we will look at this.”Labour sources stressed that the business secretary immediately corrected an administrative error on his LinkedIn profile when this was highlighted to him, adding that the SRA did not contact Mr Reynolds before briefing the media.Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds previously said he had been a solicitor in Manchester More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreThe UK government’s push for data access which led to Apple withdrawing a security tool from the UK has made users “less secure”, experts have said.The tech giant said on Friday it was withdrawing an opt-in feature called Advanced Data Protection (ADP) from its iCloud service in the UK, which increased the amount of personal data protected by end-to-end encryption, which no-one beyond the account holder – not even Apple – can access.The decision came after the Government had made a request under the Investigatory Powers Act to gain blanket access to that data.Apple has previously said it would never build a “backdoor” to get around its end-to-end encryption as this could also be exploited by bad actors.And cybersecurity experts have criticised the Government’s approach, saying the tech giant has taken the “obvious option” of impacting UK users rather than making its data security tools weaker globally.Encryption expert Matthew Hodgson, chief executive of secure communications firm Element, said Apple’s decision to remove ADP from the UK was because it did not want to create a “master key” which could be used to break its encryption tools.“This is a serious wake up call for the UK government and its never-ending quest to undermine end-to-end encryption. Apple is way more committed to privacy than it is to the UK, and rightly so,” he told the PA news agency.“Essentially, the Government asked for a master key to be able to look into anyone’s phone back-up – with entry being allowed on the basis of a warrant.“This means that if an attacker were to somehow get access to this ‘master key’ they would suddenly have access to every iCloud back-up.“The UK government tried to force Apple to give the UK a backdoor into its end-to-end encryption for iCloud.“There was no way Apple would capitulate and sabotage its secure system for everyone.“Apple has taken its most obvious option of stopping the service in the UK. It could go further and simply withdraw from the UK entirely.”He added that it was “impossible” to create a backdoor for an end-to-end encrypted service and for it to remain “secure”.Removing ADP is not just a symbolic concession but a practical weakening of iCloud security for UK usersSpeaking to Sky News, Professor Alan Woodward, visiting professor of computing at the University of Surrey, said: “Apple is sending a very strong message here, which is that, if you want to do this for your people, then reluctantly, and with great disappointment, we will do it, but we’re certainly not going to do it globally.“So actually, the only thing that the UK government has achieved in all of this is to disadvantage UK users.“They’ve made that corner of the internet less secure for us.”Professor Oli Buckley, a professor in cybersecurity at Loughborough University, said Apple’s “concession” on the issue meant UK user data could be more at risk from government data requests.“There is still encryption on Apple devices, things like iMessage and other on-device data encryption still exist, but now data specifically stored in iCloud (which has a huge number of users) will be accessible to Apple and potentially government agencies through legal requests,” he said.“Removing ADP is not just a symbolic concession but a practical weakening of iCloud security for UK users.”Meanwhile, Dray Agha, senior manager of security operations at cybersecurity firm Huntress, said the decision to “weaken” encryption would also leave users more at risk from hackers.“Apple’s decision to pull Advanced Data Protection in the UK is a direct response to increasing Government demands for access to encrypted user data,” he said.“Weakening encryption not only makes UK users more vulnerable to cyber threats but also sets a dangerous precedent for global privacy.“Governments argue this helps law enforcement, but history shows that any backdoor created for one party can eventually be exploited by bad actors.“The broader concern is that this move could pressure other companies to weaken their security, putting personal data worldwide at greater risk.”A number of online safety charities, as well as police and security services around the world long warned of the dangers of end-to-end encrypted services, arguing that they allow offenders such as terrorists and child abusers to hide more easily.Rani Govender, policy manager for child safety online at the NSPCC, said this was an opportunity for Apple and other firms to consider other ways of protecting users, particularly children.“We know that end-to-end encryption allows offenders to groom and manipulate children and build communities where they can share vile child sexual abuse material without detection,” she said.“As Apple change their approach to encryption on their services, they must take this opportunity to ensure that they are considering other measures they can put in place to better protect children.“All tech companies should be finding ways to tackle online risks to children whilst upholding privacy of their users, and Ofcom and Government should hold them accountable for doing so.” More