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      Am I eligible for new free childcare scheme – and how to apply?

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      Millions of parents in the UK will be able to access 30 hours of free childcare a week from Monday as a government-backed scheme is expanded.Working parents of children between nine months and four years old are now eligible for the full 30 hours. This is up from 30 hours for just three- to four-year-olds and 15 hours for all other children.The government said the scheme will save working parents an average of £7,500 a year in childcare fees.Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Giving every child the best start in life is my number one priority, which is why we are delivering on our commitment to provide hundreds of thousands of children with 30 hours of government-funded early education. “Whether it’s to save up to £7,500 a year, support parents to get back to work or reduce the pressure on grandparents who so often have to step in, the benefits are widespread.”Millions of parents in the UK will be able to access 30 hours of free childcare a week from Monday More

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      Awkward moment Nick Robinson reminds Chris Philp he opened Bell Hotel for asylum seekers

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      Nick Robinson reminded Chris Philp that he, as immigration minister under the Conservative government, opened up the use of the Bell Hotel in Epping for the use of housing asylum seekers during a live interview on BBC Radio 4 on Monday, 1 September.Labour’s use of asylum hotels has led to widespread protests over the summer.Asylum seekers were moved into hotels during the coronavirus pandemic.“Who was the minister who opened the Bell Hotel to asylum seekers without consulting the community? Do you by any chance remember?,” Mr Robinson pressed Mr Philp.Mr Philp began to explain, “Well, the last government did open that hotel,” before Mr Robinson interjected with, “It was you, you were the immigration minister, you did it.” More

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      Defiant Reeves admits working people ‘feel stuck’ but insists Britain is not broken

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      Rachel Reeves has admitted that hardworking people feel “stuck” as economic growth continues to lag and pressure mounts on her to raise new taxes.In stark comments on the state of Britain’s economy, the chancellor acknowledged that families are “squeezing every penny to make ends meet” and that more needs to be done to help working people “get ahead in life”.But a defiant Ms Reeves also hit back at critics such as Nigel Farage who claim that “Britain is broken” – insisting she was working to boost the economy and “build a stronger Britain”. Writing exclusively for The Independent, she said: “Britain isn’t broken, but for working people, it feels stuck.Rachel Reeves (Anthony Devlin/PA) More

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      Even Reform voters now want to unpick this one Brexit measure, shock poll reveals

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      A shock new poll has revealed that even a majority of Reform UK supporters now want to unpick parts of Brexit and move the UK closer to the EU.The major YouGov survey of 2,224 voters has underlined a significant shift in attitudes to the Brexit debate and suggests that Nigel Farage’s continued hostility towards the EU is not even landing with his own party’s supporters.According to the findings, 55 per cent of Reform UK (previously the Brexit Party) voters want a permanent youth mobility scheme for young people in the UK and Europe to be put in place with just 34 per cent opposing.Even Reform supporters are now leaning towards closer ties with the EU More

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      Calls for phone snatching law change – but expert warns it may not go far enough

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      Stolen mobile phones could soon be permanently disabled in a bid to combat the soaring levels of theft across the UK – but a security expert fears it may not be enough to stop the problem of fraud.Labour MP Dawn Butler is seeking an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, which would require mobile phone companies to block stolen phones within 48 hours of a police report and pay financial penalties if they fail to do so. In theory, this would discourage people from swiping them as they would lose resale value.Ms Butler, who has recently announced she will stand for London mayor if Sadiq Khan stands down, said: “Tech giants have a clear responsibility here: the tools already exist to disable stolen devices, and it’s time to use them.”Dawn Butler, who is tabling the amendment, is the Labour MP for Brent East More

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      ‘It’s not a miracle drug!’ Tory peer vents frustrations about failing to lose pounds on weight-loss jabs

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      While shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has become the British political poster boy for weight-loss jabs, one of his former colleagues has been less impressed.Tory peer Ed Vaizey has been left frustrated in his bid to trim his weight by taking Mounjaro.The ex-culture minister told The Independent that despite hundreds of thousands of people shedding pounds from taking weight-loss jabs, in his experience it was “certainly not a miracle drug” – but admitted he could have taken other measures to help him lose weight.“My suspicion is that I am a typical man in the sense that I think ‘I buy this drug, I inject it, it should do all the work.’ But I suspect that if I stop drinking and had a reasonably sensible diet, it would probably have helped me lose weight quicker than if I was just doing it as a diet,” he said. Ed Vaizey is a little frustrated with weight-loss treatments More

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      Farage and Reform ‘whipping up anger’ on migrants, cabinet minister warns

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      A senior cabinet minister has accused Nigel Farage and Reform UK of “whipping up anger” as tensions mount around migrant hotels.Education secretary Bridget Phillipson claimed that Reform leader Mr Farage has “no interest” in finding solutions to the migrant crisis and small boats and is using it to build political support.Her comments came less than 24 hours after Reform was forced to suspend a councillor in Epping, James Regan, over racist comments on social media while he was taking part in protests outside the Bell Hotel in the Essex town.The 61-year-old councillor described the hotel as “a third world paedophile babysitting centre”, among other remarks.Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson (Lucy North/PA) More

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      Musk appears to compare UK police to Nazi war criminals after five masked men were arrested trying to get into refugee hotel

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      Elon Musk appeared to compare the U.K. police to Nazi war criminals in a post on X as he ratcheted up his anti-immigration crusade across the pond. Since being ousted from the U.S. government following a very public fallout with President Donald Trump, Musk has turned his attention back to stoking the flames in the U.K., which is currently engulfed in an immigration row. Anti-immigration protesters and anti-racism demonstrators have clashed in heated rallies across the country in recent weeks, after the U.K. government won a court challenge allowing asylum seekers to continue to be housed at a hotel in Epping, Essex, in Southeast England. Musk shared a post on his social media platform from a user that referenced the post-WWII Nuremberg trials, where the defense of “just following orders” was used by Nazi officials who committed crimes against humanity in the Holocaust. After the trials, one of the seven Nuremberg Principles makes clear that a person who “acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.” Elon Musk has been fanning the flames of protests in the U.K. More