UK Politics

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorIreland is set to play a pivotal role in Keir Starmer’s plan for a crucial reset in relations with the European Union. The UK government believes the Irish are “very influential” within the bloc. And Ireland has already signalled its willingness to discuss with other EU countries the potential for a closer relationship with the UK in the wake of Labour’s landslide election victory. The prime minister began to write the start of what he hopes will a new chapter in the relationship with the EU as he welcomed continental leaders to a summit in Oxfordshire on Thursday.  The PM wants a reset in UK/EU relations More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorRachel Reeves has hinted at inflation-busting pay rises for public sector workers, highlighting the cost of industrial action from “not settling”.The chancellor has promised that “people won’t have to wait long” for a decision after reports that independent pay review bodies have recommended a 5.5 per cent rise for teachers and around 1.3 million NHS staff.“There is a cost to not settling, a cost of further industrial action, and a cost in terms of the challenge we face recruiting,” she told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme.Rachel Reeves accused the Conservative government of having ‘run away’ from making tough decisions on pay More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditor Britain’s new Treasury chief said Sunday she will run the economy with “iron discipline,” but suggested she’ll give public sector workers an above-inflation pay raise to help end a wave of strikes and strife.The Labour Party government is under pressure from supporters and trade unions to spend more on salaries and welfare benefits, two weeks after it was elected on promises not to hike personal taxes or increase public borrowing,“I think people know that things are a mess,” Treasury chief Rachel Reeves told the BBC, arguing the previous Conservative government had left “public services on their knees, a tax burden at a 70-year high, debt almost the same size as our entire economy.“I’m going to level with people about the scale of the challenge and then begin to fix the foundations,” she said. “I am going to run our economy with iron discipline, bringing stability back.”The center-left Labour Party won a landslide election victory on July 4 on a promise to get the U.K.’s sluggish economy growing, unleash a wave of housebuilding and green energy projects and patch the country’s frayed public services.It faces a wary, weary electorate eager for relief from a cost-of-living squeeze that saw interest rates top 11% in late 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the tax-cutting plans of briefly serving Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss.Inflation has fallen back to 2%, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government wants to settle strikes by thousands of hospital doctors that have put more strain on the creaking state-funded National Health Service. Nurses, teachers, railway staff and other public-sector workers have also held walkouts over the past year to demand higher pay.The Times of London reported that the independent bodies that advise on public sector pay had recommended a 5.5% raise for teachers and around 1.3 million NHS employees. Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank, said that could cost the government 3 billion pounds ($3.9 billion) more than it had budgeted for.Reeves, the country’s first female chancellor of the exchequer, said the government was looking at the recommendations and would find a way to give workers a raise and “make the sums add up.”“There is a cost to not settling, a cost of further industrial action, a cost in terms of the challenge that we face in recruiting, retaining doctors, nurses and teachers,” she said.The government is also under pressure from anti-poverty groups and many Labour lawmakers to scrap a policy introduced by the Conservatives that limits a widely-paid welfare benefit and tax credit to a family’s first two children. The new government says it can’t afford to abolish the two-child cap.Conservative lawmaker Jeremy Hunt, Reeves’ predecessor as Treasury chief, said it was “absolute nonsense” to claim his party had left the economy in the worst state in decades after its 14 years in office.“She wants to lay the ground for tax rises,” he said of Reeves. “She should have been honest about that before the election.” More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorNail bars and car washes will be targeted by immigration officers as they step up enforcement action over the summer, the Home Secretary has announced.Yvette Cooper said 1,000 civil servants had been redeployed from working on the now-abandoned Rwanda scheme to staffing a new “returns and enforcement programme”.The new programme is intended to “increase returns of those with no right to be here and to make sure rules are respected and enforced” and will see raids on businesses suspected of employing illegal workers ramped up.Yvette Cooper said the government is ‘drawing up new plans for fast track decisions and returns for safe countries’ More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorJeremy Hunt has apologised for failures in the UK’s pandemic preparations, admitting he was part of the “groupthink” highlighted by the Covid Inquiry.The former health secretary and chancellor said he was one of many who “over prepared for pandemic flu” and “didn’t think about other types of pandemic”.Mr Hunt was asked whether he would apologise for government failings, telling the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “Absolutely.Jeremy Hunt said he was part of the ‘groupthink’ highlighted by the official Covid inquiry More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorTees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has called on Suella Braverman to conduct the Conservative Party leadership contest “with civility” after she warned the party risks becoming “centrist cranks”.Ms Braverman, who is poised to launch a leadership bid, said the party could do better than becoming “a collection of fanatical, irrelevant, centrist cranks”.Suella Braverman is expected to launch a bid for the Conservative leadership (PA) More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorRachel Reeves has doubled down on Labour’s opposition to scrapping the two-child benefit cap, highlighting the £3bn annual price tag of the measure.The chancellor came under pressure over the limit, which prevents parents from claiming benefits for any third or subsequent child born after April 2017.Scrapping the policy would lift an estimated 300,000 children out of poverty, according to the Child Poverty Action Group.Ms Reeves was asked about opposition to the George Osborne-era cap from Labour heavyweights including Gordon Brown and Andy Burnham, but said she could not make “unfunded spending commitments”.Rachel Reeves has announced a review of the pensions sector (Jonathan Brady/PA) More