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 ThomasEditorKeir Starmer has insisted that his suggestion members of the House of Lords should retire at 80 is not a comment on Joe Biden’s ability to continue as US president.The newly elected prime minister and his wife Victoria are due to have dinner at the White House with the Bidens this evening on his first official visit since winning the election last week.But Sir Keir arrives at a time when a number of senior Democrats have questioned whether the 81-year-old president is fit to run for a second term.Keir Starmer is preparing for dinner with the US president 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 ThomasEditorAlistair Carns’s decision to leave the Royal Marines after 24 years’ service to stand for Labour came as a huge surprise. The colonel, who won the Military Cross in Afghanistan, was widely viewed as someone who would rise very high in the armed forces.Now, five days after being elected in Birmingham Selly Oak he has been appointed veterans’ minister. He was one of 13 former services personnel voted in as new Labour MPs, something that does no harm to Keir Starmer’s attempts to portray his party as one that can be trusted with the defence of the realm.Carns, who joined the Royal Marines at 19, was due to be promoted to brigadier last month, which at the age of 44 would have made him among the youngest in that rank. He has served in every major conflict this country has been engaged in for the last two dozen years.Much of Carns’s service history – 14 of his 24 years – cannot be made public for security reasons. He won his Military Cross during a six-month tour that began at the end of 2010. Those of us who reported from Afghanistan remember the fierce, sustained violence of this period as the Taliban made increasing use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and lethal ambushes.But it was during his last posting in a conflict zone that Carns began to think hard about how he could best address the challenges Britain faces in an increasingly dangerous world. The answer, he decided, was to enter politics.Carns says he decided to stand because ‘change is best delivered via the ballot box’ 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 ThomasEditorFormer Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg is reportedly filming a new a fly-on-the-wall reality TV series following his general election defeat The Discovery+ series, said to be titled Meet The Moggs, will follow the former minister in his 17th-century country home and star his wife Helena and their six children. The former MP for North East Somerset was among a number of Tory “big beasts” to have lost their seat last week, with filming thought to have captured his efforts on the campaign trail via the production company Optomen. Mr Rees-Mogg is not the first MP to turn to TV following politics. The move follows the likes of Nigel Farage on I’m A Celebrity and Matt Hancock on SAS: Who Dares Wins. The former GB News presenter left families in shock last month when he walked into their children’s first holy communion with a camera crew. Sir Jacob had permission to appear with his family and a film crew for a mass at St Joseph and St Teresa Church in Somerset,  but while a sign had been put up, the families of some dozen children said they did not know he would be in attendance.He was also joined by the team while canvassing in Longwell Green, on the edge of Bristol before the election. The film crew was with Jacob Rees-Mogg as he canvassed in Longwell Green last week 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 ThomasEditorAnas Sarwar has said the two child benefit cap implemented by the previous Conservative government was “wrong” and has urged Sir Keir Starmer’s government to scrap it.The Scottish Labour leader said that ditching the cap, which has been described by campaigners as “cruel”, would depend on being able to grow the economy.However, he insisted that his party would be “pushing at an open door” for abolition of the policy that was introduced by George Osborne in 2017 and restricts Child Tax Credit and Universal Credit to the first two children in most households.Neither the Conservatives nor Labour committed to scrapping the cap in their general election manifestos. Sir Keir said it was a “tough decision” not to promise to scrap it but said he would not make “unfunded promises”.Mr Sarwar told the Daily Record: “We will continue to push for it to happen and we want to make sure we’re part of helping create the economic conditions to make that happen.“But I honestly believe we are pushing at an open door. This is a government that wants to do even more than it promised to do, but we’re going to do it in the right way.”Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer (right) and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar during an event in Edinburgh to welcome new Labour MPs in Scotland, following Labour’s victory in the 2024 general 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 ThomasEditorMicrosoft has relinquished its seat on the board of OpenAI, saying its participation is no longer needed because the ChatGPT maker has improved its governance since being roiled by boardroom chaos last year. In a Tuesday letter, Microsoft confirmed it was resigning, “effective immediately,” from its role as an observer on the artificial intelligence company’s board. “We appreciate the support shown by OpenAI leadership and the OpenAI board as we made this decision,” the letter said. The surprise departure comes amid intensifying scrutiny from antitrust regulators of the powerful AI partnership. Microsoft has reportedly invested $13 billion in OpenAI. European Union regulators said last month that they would take a fresh look at the partnership under the 27-nation bloc’s antitrust rules while British competition watchdogs have also been looking into the deal. Microsoft took the board seat following a power struggle in which OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was fired, then quickly reinstated, while the board members behind the ouster were pushed out. “Over the past eight months we have witnessed significant progress by the newly formed board and are confident in the company’s direction,” Microsoft said in its letter. “Given all of this we no longer believe our limited role as an observer is necessary.”With Microsoft’s departure, OpenAI will no longer have observer seats on its board. “We are grateful to Microsoft for voicing confidence in the Board and the direction of the company, and we look forward to continuing our successful partnership,” OpenAI said in a statement. It’s not hard to conclude that Microsoft’s decision to ditch the board seat was heavily influenced by rising scrutiny of big technology companies and their links with AI startups, said Alex Haffner, a competition partner at U.K. law firm Fladgate. “It is clear that regulators are very much focused on the complex web of inter-relationships that Big Tech has created with AI providers, hence the need for Microsoft and others to carefully consider how they structure these arrangements going forward,” he said. OpenAI said it would take a new approach to “informing and engaging key strategic partners” such as Microsoft and Apple and investors such as Thrive Capital and Khosla Ventures, with regular meetings to update stakeholders on progress and ensure stronger collaboration on safety and security. 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 ThomasEditorCampaigners are preparing to launch a fresh pilot for a four-day working week in the hope that the new Labour government will be more open-minded to ways of flexible working.The scheme is being run by the UK’s 4 Day Week Campaign with flexible working consultancy Timewise and companies interested in the project can sign up for a start in November.The pilot – which will also look at other flexible working policies such as compressed hours and a shorter working week – will report its findings to the government in the summer next year.Campaigners are preparing to launch a fresh pilot for a four-day working week More