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 moreConcerns have been voiced by MPs regarding the reliance of critical UK IT infrastructure on overseas hosting following widespread disruption to Amazon Web Services (AWS). The outage caused significant interruptions for numerous online platforms, including HMRC, Halifax, and Lloyds. The monitoring site Downdetector recorded a surge in reports on Monday, indicating thousands of users experienced service interruptions across AWS itself, HM Revenue & Customs, Snapchat, Starbucks, Slack, and Ring.Customers also reported an increase in outage reports at UK banks including Lloyds, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland – with 6,925 Downdetector outage reports at Lloyds at 9.31am.An error message posted on Halifax’s website read: “Sorry, we’re unable to process your request at the moment. We’re currently having some technical problems.”Gaming platforms Roblox and Fortnite were also affected.A spokesperson for VodafoneThree said that although its networks were “operating normally” the outages had affected some of its apps and websites.AWS is the world’s largest cloud computing provider and offers a wide variety of services, including storage, databases, machine learning, and security tools.The Treasury Committee has now queried why Amazon had not been designated a critical third party (CTP).New rules came into force at the start of the year which allowed regulators to intervene to improve the resilience of CTPs which are key service providers to the financial sector.In a letter to Lucy Rigby MP, the economic secretary to the Treasury, the committee of MPs set out a series of questions linked to the outages.They asked why the Treasury had not designated Amazon Web Services, or any other major technology firm, a CTP.Committee chairwoman Meg Hillier also cited speculation that the AWS outage related to its US operations and asked if the Treasury was concerned that “seemingly key parts of our IT infrastructure are hosted abroad”?The committee also asked what work the Treasury was doing with HMRC, which it said might have been affected by the outages, to look at what went wrong and how to prevent such incidents in future.Reported outages on Downdetector appeared to spike between 9am and 10am for most services, and then decline through Monday, with AWS saying at 10.27am it had seen “significant signs of recovery”.The Treasury Committee has now queried why Amazon had not been designated a critical third party (CTP) More

Lucy Powell has issued a major challenge to Sir Keir Starmer’s authority, insisting that she will push the prime minister to reconsider the direction of the party in a bid to rescue Labour from its dismal poll ratings.The Manchester Central MP is widely regarded as the frontrunner in the deputy leadership race against education secretary Bridget Phillipson, with voting set to close on Thursday and the result declared on Saturday.Speaking to The Independent, Ms Powell insisted that if she is declared the winner on Saturday morning, her mandate will be “that we need to make some changes to how we operate” as she admitted the party has “not been able to control the agenda… we’ve made some mistakes, some missteps”.She says the leadership has failed to listen to MPs, most notably over the welfare rebellion which shook the government before the summer and which she believes was a key factor in her losing her cabinet job. “I wasn’t [happy about the welfare cuts], and I fed back that there were issues with it, and it was going to be a real challenge. I offered solutions and ways forward and all of that. And if that’s why I was sacked, then so be it,” she said.Lucy Powell is planning to shake things up should she become deputy leader More

The speaker of the House of Commons has hinted at a possible security crackdown in the wake of the China spy scandal, as he said he was speaking to officials about “access arrangements”.Sir Lindsay Hoyle said he had sought legal advice on how to “pursue this issue in other ways”, days after telling MPs he was “very angry” over the collapse of a case against two men accused of spying for China.Ministers are continuing to face questions over why prosecutors dropped the charges, which has sparked a political row over who is to blame for the failure to prosecute.Speaking in the Commons on Monday afternoon, Sir Lindsay said: “I remain disappointed by what has happened in this case. The security minister told MPs there’s ‘nothing’ Keir Starmer could have done about the case falling apart More

A senior backbench MP has called for parliament to beef up the King’s powers so that he can permanently strip Prince Andrew of his titles.Rachael Maskell, the MP for York Central, said the disgraced royal has an association with the city, citing a poll which found the vast majority of residents want him to have his Duke of York title formally removed. He has been forced to voluntarily give up his titles, but the only way Andrew can be fully relieved of them is through an act of parliament. And Ms Maskell said the monarch should be given the power to formally remove royal titles “not just for this incident, but for any future occurrence, indeed, any titles at all, including peerages”. She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I didn’t come into parliament to discuss princes and princesses. “But a simple clause could be added to a constitutional bill or a private member’s bill; it would take very little time at all, but would give increased powers to the monarch to be able to have those duties into the future.“We have seen the pain, heard the pain and are learning more from victims and survivors. I think as a result of that, it would be appropriate to have legislation in place for this occurrence.” Prince Andrew has given up his Duke of York title More

Piers Morgan has revealed whether he would ever get into politics as he criticised “shockingly mediocre” MPs.Appearing on BBC Breakfast on Monday (20 October), the broadcaster weighed in on whether he would ever throw his hat in the ring for prime minister, stating that “PM for PM has a certain ring to it”.The 60-year-old revealed that it has never appealed to him, though slammed the current government as “mediocre” and compared it to previous iterations that were “full of smart people who had all done things in the real world”. “I don’t get that sense any more”, he said.He added that he believes politicians should be paid very high salaries in order to deliver the best results, like in Singapore. “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.” More

Rachel Reeves has indicated further cuts to welfare are likely under this Labour government as she looks ahead to her second autumn Budget.The chancellor has indicated that more tax rises and spending cuts can be expected at the fiscal event, as analysis from the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) finds that the Treasury will need to find at least £22bn to tackle weak economic growth.Asked about changes to the benefit system on Channel 4 News, the chancellor said: “We can’t leave welfare untouched,” adding: “We can’t get to the end of this parliamentary session and I’ve basically done nothing … We have to do reform in the right way and take people with us.”The government was forced to abandon £4bn in proposed cuts to disability benefits in July after Labour MPs mounted a backbench rebellion against the plans.While some changes to Universal Credit are still set to come into effect in April, these are unlikely to yield any major savings.Rachel Reeves has indicated further cuts to welfare are likely More

British troops will be given new powers to shoot down drones threatening UK and US military bases with plans to extend them to protecting airports.Defence secretary John Healey is set to unveil his vision on how to protect Britain’s most critical military bases in response to a growing threat posed by Russia today in his Mansion House speech.Although the new powers will initially apply only to military sites, the government was “not ruling out working to extend those powers” to other important sites like airports, the Telegraph said, citing a source.Currently, troops can use specialist counter-drone equipment, which can track incoming drones, hijack signals, and divert them.The new proposal will give soldiers or Ministry of Defence Police a “kinetic option” to shoot them on site, which they can only do now in extreme circumstances.Defence Secretary John Healey More

British holidaymakers face the prospect of pricier getaways if Rachel Reeves implements tax increases in next month’s Budget, warn the UK’s two largest tour operators. Tui’s UK managing director, Neil Swanson, warned that “holidays will become too costly for some people if the Chancellor does this”. Jet2 chief executive Steve Heapy, meanwhile, feared the Budget could raise taxes by £50 billion annually, “screwing Middle England”. Ms Reeves is exploring tax rises and spending cuts for her 26 November Budget, aiming to address an estimated £50 billion fiscal deficit.Her inaugural Budget last October saw the announcement of an additional £40 billion in annual taxes.Mr Swanson warned that travel companies would be forced to raise holiday prices if taxes on businesses were increased further.People will be priced out of the market if taxes are raised, warn travel bosses More