Home News

Your support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreCloseDisposable vapes are set to be banned across Britain next year amid fears children are illegally buying the devices.New laws will reportedly give suppliers a deadline of 1 June 2025 to get rid of all stock across England, with the UK government expecting devolved nations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to follow suit.The number of children vaping has tripled in the last three years with a significant proportion (nine per cent) of 11 to 15-year-olds using the devices, figures show.“It is deeply worrying that a quarter of 11 to 15-year-olds used a vape last year,” health minister Andrew Gwynne said.“We know disposables are the product of choice for the majority of kids vaping today. Banning them will keep them out of the hands of vulnerable young people.”New laws will give suppliers a deadline of 1 June 2025 to get rid of all disposable vape stock across England More

Your support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreCloseRachel Reeves has been boosted by a sharp drop in inflation as she seeks to find £40bn of tax hikes and spending cuts in this month’s Budget. The chancellor will welcome the dip, which saw inflation fall under the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target for the first time in more than three years, as she prepares for what promises to be a brutal Budget.The consumer price index (CPI) dropped to 1.7 per cent, down from 2.2. per cent in August, according to the Office for National Statistics.Rachel Reeves has identified a £40 billion funding gap she will seek to plug in the Budget. Issue date: Wednesday October 9, 2024. More

Your support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreCloseTributes have flooded in for former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond, who has died aged 69. The Alba Party leader, who served as Scotland’s first minister between 2007 and 2014, passed away on Saturday after giving a speech in North Macedonia.Describing his death as “sudden” and “a shock”, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar paid tribute to Mr Salmond as “a central figure in politics for over three decades”.Anas Sarwar said Alex Salmond’s ‘contribution to the Scottish political landscape cannot be overstated’ More

Your support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreCloseThe prime minister has recalled the murder of a woman stabbed 71 times by her abusive ex-partner as he gave his personal backing to The Independent’s Brick by Brick campaign to build a safe refuge for women and children fleeing domestic abuse.In an exclusive interview, Sir Keir Starmer vowed that he and his cabinet would donate to the campaign, which aims to raise £300,000 to build a safe haven for women and their children.He cited the case of Jane Clough, a nurse killed by her ex-partner after he was let out of prison on bail against the family’s wishes. Sir Keir met her parents while working as the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).“Jane was left living in fear he would hurt her again,” he told The Independent. “Day after day, she took care not to travel to work alone. The one morning she didn’t, he was waiting for her in a hospital car park. He stabbed her 71 times.“I’ve seen so many families torn apart, and so many lives destroyed, by domestic abuse. That’s why I’m determined that those at risk should have more support, places they can feel safe, and be able to access the services they need to rebuild their lives. “And it’s why I am so pleased to back The Independent’s Brick By Brick campaign to support victims of domestic abuse. I don’t only support the campaign, but I want the campaign to go on and get bigger.”Be a brick, buy a brick and donate here or text BRICK to 70560 to donate £15The prime minister has personally backed The Independent’s Brick by Brick campaign More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind 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 ThomasEditorLabour’s flagship overhaul of private renting laws has been debated in parliament and is set to progress as the party reaches its 100th day in power. The Renters’ Rights Bill sets out a raft of new legislation designed to give greater rights and protections to private renters in the UK, as set out in Labour’s election manifesto.The delivery of the new bill is being led by deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, who is also the housing secretary. The Labour minister has said she is “determined to get this bill into law as soon as possible.”Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and chancellor Rachel Reeves More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind 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 ThomasEditorHaving once said that Boris was the life and soul of the party, but not safe in taxis, I have to say that having read his memoir he is not safe behind a keyboard either. That is, if you are looking for truth, integrity, seriousness and profundity in a politician, let alone a prime minister.His new memoir, Unleashed, is Billy Bunter let loose in Westminster with its endless whooses and biffs and sockeroos. Is Boris a serious writer, a chronicler of the Covid years, an eye-witness to some of the most challenging and troubled times in our island’s history? No, he’s more Beano or Dandy than Gladstone or even Rory Stewart. Farcical rather than factual seems to be his preferred mode of travel. This is a book of two voices – the caricature bombastic Boris, and the calm, quiet and calculating Boris. Some would say this perfectly reflects the two-faced nature of Boris Johnson the Janus – a classical allusion he will understand better than most, even if he doesn’t appreciate it.But then Boris was always a split personality. He did after all write two essays, one that argued for Britain leaving the EU and the other with us remaining. He was split, pulled in opposite directions, but not for the reasons you might expect. He was agonising over what would best serve him. And was always thus.Sitting opposite Boris in cabinet, I wanted to hold a mirror up to him. Did he realise the appalling faces he pulled when Theresa May, the then prime minister, was speaking? That face he adopts of amused determination – shoulders hunched, brow scowled, mouth pursed as though bracing for an assault or a charge? Nobody maintains that pose for long and when he forgot to hold it his look would settle into the innocent picture covering the front of Unleashed… But it was never long before the classic Boris face returned.The first version is that caricature of himself, the exaggerated performance that makes him almost un-satirisable. You’ll remember it from speeches filled with explosive language and absurdist imagery – it’s what makes him such a memorable orator and, for a while, such an unstoppable force. The second voice is a much more calm, emotionally involved tone, whose gentle concern almost makes you believe his desire to do good. Almost being the key word here.What’s most interesting is when he chooses to use both versions throughout the book and at the end, you’re left wondering which is the real one, and which is the performance. Fame or infamy? Family man or unfaithful rogue? Courageous or calamitous? Always we are left wondering who is the real Boris. And if a real Boris exists at all. We discover a man whose mission never gets quite beyond “boostering” – not the economy, for which the term was coined, but boostering Boris himself.Unsurprisingly the first, almost parody, voice of Boris is most clear in his chapters on Brexit. Boris casts himself undoubtedly and inevitably as the hero of Brexit – he revels in his own dazzling genius, in the campaign’s simplicity, in its crude but effective language, and his own “brilliant clarity of message”. And he ridicules the Remain campaign, which “had everything except the one thing you really need: they lacked conviction”. What on earth does he think the rest of us were doing? Campaigning so hard it put political careers, let alone friendships, on the line. If he thinks we lacked conviction, I’ve got a bus with a slogan to sell him. And it would have a slogan which was not ridiculed for being full of fantasy facts. While this exuberant, provocative Boris recalls these years, as if they were a personal military triumph for his country, that jubilant joy at winning grinds to a shocking, screeching halt as the victory sinks in. Let me put it plainly: in a memoir designed to cement his legacy, it screams out that he had no plan apart from to get a medal for winning. The horror of his justification for having no clue how to proceed once he’d convinced the country to follow him out of Europe may test the patience of readers who were not Brexit supporters. “Now what the hell were we supposed to do,” he whines. “We had no plan for government … negotiation … it is utterly infuriating that we should be blamed.”Amber Rudd served in Boris Johnson’s cabinet for two months More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind 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 ThomasEditorAn extraordinary blame game has erupted dragging in Liz Truss and James Cleverly following Sir Keir Starmer’s shock decision to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.The deal is meant to secure the future of a secretive military base on the island of Diego Garcia, but it has left the UK without sovereign territorial control over a piece of land that is crucial to Western security in the Indian Ocean. The US-UK base will remain on Diego Garcia, but this latest development has led to fears that China could achieve its goal of setting up bases on the Chagos Islands.The sudden announcement was rapidly followed by a furious tweet from Tory leadership contender James Cleverly calling the Labour government “weak, weak, weak”. However, it quickly emerged that the talks to hand over the islands were instigated by Mr Cleverly himself before being halted by his successor as foreign secretary David Cameron.In a pointed tweet, his Tory leadership rival and former security minister Tom Tugendhat described the fact that the talks were opened under a Conservative government as “disgraceful”, though he did not namecheck Mr Cleverly.But Mr Cleverly’s camp has hit back with a briefing that blames former prime minister Liz Truss and suggests that the loss of the islands is part of the toxic legacy of her 49-day premiership.A source close to Mr Cleverly said: “Ultimately, the direction is set by the prime minister on these matters. [Liz] Truss’s decision surprised many people. These included James Cleverly, who inherited responsibility for the talks when he became foreign secretary and had to make the announcement.”They noted that Mr Cleverly’s talks had followed discussions held by Ms Truss herself with the prime minister of Mauritius.The source went on: “After the initial formal negotiations began, James Cleverly, Grant Shapps and Oliver Dowden were working on it together. They agreed that there wasn’t going to be ground found that would be acceptable. After 15 months of James Cleverly in the Foreign Office, it wasn’t signed off, but [Keir] Starmer and David Lammy signed it off in the first three months.”The Independent has approached Ms Truss’s office for comment.There is a joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia, one of a cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean known as the Chagos Islands More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind 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 first charter flight carrying British citizens out of Lebanon has landed in Birmingham amid escalating conflict in the Middle East.The Dan Air plane touched down at Birmingham International Airport shortly before 8.40pm, having departed from Beirut and stopped off in Bucharest, Romania, on its journey.Foreign secretary David Lammy said earlier on Wednesday that more charter flights have been arranged for this week following Israel’s ground offensive into southern Lebanon against the Iran-backed Hezbollah – which has followed more than a week of heavy bombardment. The Israeli military has warned people to evacuate around 50 villages and towns across southern Lebanon with intense clashes with Hezbollah forces.Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in the past year and around 1.2 million people have been displaced from their homes, Lebanese authorities say. The majority of the deaths came in the past two weeks.There are believed to be around 4,000 to 6,000 Brits in Lebanon, many of whom have been left unable to book flights out of the country due to cancellations and skyrocketing prices.But the UK government announced this week that a charter flight would carry hundreds of Brits home, at a price of £350 per head.Foreign secretary David Lammy wrote on X/Twitter on Wednesday afternoon: “The first charter flight taking British nationals out of Lebanon has now departed.“We have arranged another flight for tomorrow, and further flights over the coming days for as long as there is demand and it is safe to do so.”People greet their family members arriving via a commercial flight from Beirut on Wednesday More