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      Voices: Does the BBC pay its stars too much? Join The Independent Debate

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      Support trulyindependent journalismOur 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 ThomasEditorFind out moreThe BBC has revealed its highest-paid stars in an annual report – but is the corporation paying too much for its personalities?Gary Lineker again topped the list for the seventh year running, with a salary of £1.35m.The Match of the Day anchor was followed by radio presenter Zoe Ball, at £950,000. Huw Edwards, who left in April 2024 for medical reasons, saw a £40,000 raise. Greg James, Stephen Nolan, and Fiona Bruce also received salary increases. Notably, the likes of Michael McIntyre and Claudia Winkleman were absent from the list, as their salaries, paid through commercial entity BBC Studios, are not disclosed.The BBC has published its annual report amid increased scrutiny of its flagship show Strictly Come Dancing over its culture and treatment of contestants. The report also reveals that half a million households cancelled their TV licence last year, as the BBC struggled to retain younger audiences who are increasingly turning to streaming platforms. The BBC has until the end of 2027 to negotiate a new funding deal with the government. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy have expressed strong support for public funding of the BBC, in contrast to the previous government, which aimed to abolish the licence fee.Now we want to know what you think. Is the BBC paying stars like Gary Lineker too much? Is the licence fee value for money? And should the corporation continue to be funded by the public?Share your thoughts by adding them in the comments — we’ll highlight the most insightful ones as they come in.All you have to do is sign up and register your details — then you can take part in the discussion. You can also sign up by clicking ‘log in’ on the top right-hand corner of the screen.Make sure you adhere to our community guidelines, which can be found here. For a full guide on how to comment click here.Join the conversation with other Independent readers below. More

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      Watch: MPs arrive at Downing Street ahead of Starmer’s cabinet meeting

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      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 ThomasEditorWatch again as MPs arrived at Downing Street on Tuesday (23 July) ahead of Sir Keir Starmer’s cabinet meeting.Sir Keir is facing pressure from MPs in the Commons, including from inside his own party, to change his position and abolish the two-child benefit cap.A King’s Speech debate could end with a vote on the matter on Tuesday evening if Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle selects one of several amendments that have been tabled.The prime minister has said there is “no silver bullet” to end child poverty and acknowledged the “passion” of Labour MPs considering rebelling over the continuation of the policy that affects some 1.6 million children.The SNP has tabled an amendment, which it says is backed by Plaid Cymru, the Green Party, the SDLP, the Alliance Party, and independent MPs including Jeremy Corbyn.NP Westminster Leader Stephen Flynn MP said: “Keir Starmer must not fail his first major test in government by refusing to scrap the cap. It is the bare minimum required to tackle child poverty – and to begin to deliver the change that people in Scotland were promised.” More

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      Listen: Suella Braverman told to hang her head in shame by angry LBC listener

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      Suella Braverman has been told she should be “hanging your head in shame” over the Tory party’s approach to immigration.The former home secretary, who was a guest presenter on LBC on Tuesday morning (23 July), took a call from a listener called James in Glasgow.James told her: “You should be hanging your head in shame. The Tory party has exacerbated this problem for political gain.”James also urged her to apologise for the £700 million Labour claimed she spent on the scheme.Ms Braverman asked: “What is your solution, James?“We promised and failed and for various reasons we didn’t succeed. Do you think they [Labou] are going to fix the problem?” More

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      Bibby Stockholm contract will not be renewed as Labour to shut down migrant barge

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      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 ThomasEditorThe Bibby Stockholm contract will not be renewed, the Home Office has announced, with Labour confirming plans to scrap the migrant barge next year.Extending the use of the boat, moored in Dorset, would have cost over £20 million next year, the government said. The barge will continue to be used until January 2025. The latest announcement forms part of Labour’s plan to make £7.7 billion of savings in asylum costs over the next decade. Dame Angela Eagle, minister for border security and asylum, said the Home Office has set in motion plans to save money on accommodation which is “running up vast bills for the taxpayer”. Yesterday, home secretary Yvette Cooper set out plans to clear the asylum backlog, something the department said would save “billions of pounds”. A view of the Bibby Stockholm barge at Portland Port in Dorset (Matt Keeble/PA) More

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      Data watchdog reprimands school over facial recognition for canteen payments

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      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 ThomasEditorA school has been reprimanded by the data protection regulator after using facial recognition technology (FRT) to take cashless canteen payments from pupils.The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said Chelmer Valley High School, in Chelmsford, Essex, broke the law when it “failed” to complete a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) before starting to use the technology.The secondary school, which has around 1,200 pupils aged 11-18, had not properly obtained clear permission to process the children’s biometric data and students were unable to “exercise their rights and freedoms”.In March last year, the school began using the technology to take cashless canteen payments, before an assessment was made of the risks to the children’s information.We’ve taken action against this school to show introducing measures such as FRT should not be taken lightly, particularly when it involves childrenLynne Currie, head of privacy innovation at the ICOLynne Currie, head of privacy innovation at the ICO, said: “Handling people’s information correctly in a school canteen environment is as important as the handling of the food itself.“We expect all organisations to carry out the necessary assessments when deploying a new technology to mitigate any data protection risks and ensure their compliance with data protection laws.“We’ve taken action against this school to show introducing measures such as FRT should not be taken lightly, particularly when it involves children.“We don’t want this to deter other schools from embracing new technologies. But this must be done correctly with data protection at the forefront, championing trust, protecting children’s privacy and safeguarding their rights.”The reprimand comes after the ICO told North Ayrshire Council last year that its use of FRT to take canteen payments in nine schools was “likely” to have infringed data protection law.Concerns were raised when FRT was introduced in North Ayrshire schools in 2021 as part of a replacement of its existing cashless catering system.The data watchdog also found that Chelmer Valley High School failed to seek opinions from its data protection officer, or consult with parents and students, before implementing the technology.In March last year, a letter was sent to parents with a slip for them to return if they did not want their child to participate in FRT, the ICO said.This failing meant that no prior assessment was made of the risks to data subjects, no consideration was given to lawfully managing consent, and students at the school were then left unable to properly exercise their rights and freedomsICO reprimand to Chelmer Valley High SchoolUntil November last year, the ICO warned that the school had been wrongly relying on “assumed consent” for facial recognition – except where parents or carers had opted children out of the system.The data protection regulator also noted that most students would have been old enough to provide their own consent, so the parental opt-out deprived students of the ability to exercise their rights.The reprimand said: “Chelmer Valley High School has therefore failed to complete a DPIA where they were legally required to do so.“This failing meant that no prior assessment was made of the risks to data subjects, no consideration was given to lawfully managing consent, and students at the school were then left unable to properly exercise their rights and freedoms.”The school provided a DPIA to the data watchdog in January this year, and it begun obtaining explicit opt-in consent from students in November last year.Ms Currie added: “A DPIA is required by law – it’s not a tick-box exercise.“It’s a vital tool that protects the rights of users, provides accountability and encourages organisations to think about data protection at the start of a project.”Chelmer Valley High School has been approached for comment. More

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      Sunak’s scrapping of HS2 will cost £100m and take up to three years, National Audit Office warns

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      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 ThomasEditorRishi Sunak’s decision to scrap the second phase of HS2 will cost up to £100m and it could take three years to shut down sites where work has begun, an official report has revealed.The former prime minister’s plans also mean the government has £592m worth of land and property on the route from Birmingham to Manchester it needs to flog, which the government spending watchdog has warned could take years and distort local housing markets.The National Audit Office (NAO) laid bare the cost of Mr Sunak’s decision to scrap phase 2 of the high-speed rail plan, first revealed by The Independent last September.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the northern leg of HS2 was being axed at the Conservative conference (Hollie Adams/PA) More

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      British army not as strong as it should be because of ‘historic underinvestment’ says defence chief

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      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 ThomasEditorBritain’s army is not as strong as it should be because of “historic underinvestment”, the head of the military has admitted, with “deficiencies in people, equipment, stockpiles, training and technology”.Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of defence staff, said there was a need for “humility” to recognise the limitations and “near-term financial challenges” faced by our armed forces.But he said Russia, the main adversary of the West, has been hugely damaged by brutal losses in Ukraine and will take a decade or more to rebuild its military strength to the level it had at the time of Vladimir Putin’s invasion and rectify the shortcomings exposed.And he rejected the idea that conscription was needed, as proposed in the Conservative manifesto at the election. Baltic and Nordic nations “are talking about mass resilience and conscription”, he said. “That is understandable. They border Russia. The threat is close. Our geography is different.”Keir Starmer’s new government has committed to raising defence spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product but has not said when it will meet that aim.“There are near-term financial challenges to work through,” said Admiral Radakin. “We are addressing historic underinvestment. And beneath the headline capabilities, there are deficiencies in people, equipment, stockpiles, training and technology.”He sought to refute critical comparisons made by some analysts between Russian and British military capabilities, pointing out that UK forces would be fighting alongside Nato partners in any conflict with Putin.“It’s frustrating when I hear commentators contrasting Britain’s capabilities with those of Russia without acknowledging the context that we will only ever fight a war with Russia or any other peer aggressor alongside our allies and partners,” he told the Land Warfare conference at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London. “The Nato overmatch against Russia is enormous.”Putin may threaten the nuclear option if a major conflict broke out with the West, he said, and one way to ensure he does not go down that path is to demonstrate that Nato is united and strong“There is the conundrum of deterrence: that it is because of the disparity in conventional forces that Putin might be tempted to raise the nuclear spectre,” said Admiral Radakin. “Paradoxically, this is precisely why we must continue to strengthen and extend our conventional overmatch so that we are never confronted with that scenario.”Nato, he pointed out, is growing from 30 to 32 nations; 23 member states now spend 2 per cent of GDP on defence, compared to just three members a decade ago. And the combined 3.2 million uniformed personnel “already outmatch Russia’s 1.2 million.” New member Sweden brings an additional 25,000 active personnel and 40,000 reserves, while Finland adds another 23,000 regulars and 280,000 reserves. On any measure of conventional strength – troops, tanks, armoured vehicles, fast jets, submarines – the alliance is battle-ready, he said.He warned, however, that Russia could offer a clandestine threat rather than a conventional attack under which a Nato state would invoke the Article 5 clause on mutual aid.“Putin may not directly attack a Nato member in such an overt manner as to trigger Article 5, we have seen that he’s able to threaten us in other ways, in cyber and space and underwater where our energy infrastructure and digital networks are most vulnerable,” Admiral Radakin said.“Our role as military leaders is to reassure the nation and stiffen its resolve. And our advice to ministers needs to be grounded in a thorough and honest assessment of the threats we face.“Yes, the threats can change and evolve, which is why we keep them under review and test them against the intelligence we receive from our allies.” More

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      The two rebellions Labour could face in Parliament today

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      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 ThomasEditorSir Keir Starmer faces two potential Labour rebellions today as MPs continue to debate the bills unveiled in the King’s Speech last week.There are 11 amendments to the speech tabled by different groups of MPs. Speaker Lindsay Hoyle will decide at the end of the session which will be voted on by MPs.The two most likely to be worrying Sir Keir will be the one’s tabled by his own MPs.Several Labour members have put forward an amendment on the two-child benefit cap, which has been backed by 21 more MPs, as well as an amendment to stop arms sales to Israel, which has been backed another 26.Prime minister Keir Starmer in commons More