UK Politics

Ministers are ploughing £1.3bn into army recruitment to bolster the UK’s depleted armed forces and tackle a crisis of staff retention, The Independent can reveal. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) last month announced the creation of a new body, the Armed Forces Recruitment Service (AFRS), to streamline the hiring process and ensure the British military “remains ready to face emerging threats”. It is set to launch in 2027 and will replace individual schemes run by the Royal Navy, British army, and Royal Air Force. John Healey said ‘deep-set problems’ were plaguing the armed forces’ ability to recruit and retain staff More

Sir Keir Starmer has announced that NHS England will be abolished to free up more money for frontline services and bring management of the health service “back into democratic control”. The prime minister said the independent body which runs the NHS would go in a move to slash red tape and dramatically reduce costs by cutting duplication. Ministers said the plans, which will mean more than 9,000 job losses, would help deliver savings of hundreds of millions of pounds a year, which would be used to cut waiting times. The Tories tepidly welcomed the move, warning Labour it had to deliver, while health think tanks said that another reorganisation of the NHS risked diverting “time and energy” away from improving care for patients. Ministers have pledged more money for frontline services (PA) More

Slashing billions from the benefit bill and cutting the size of the civil service does not mark a return to austerity, Sir Keir Starmer has insisted, vowing that “we are not going down that route”.There is mounting unease at the prime minister’s plans to cut welfare spending by up to £6bn but Sir Keir said “part of the problem we’ve got with our public services is what was done to them a decade or so ago” by David Cameron and George Osborne. “We are not going down that route, none of our plans go down that route,” the PM vowed. Sir Keir Starmer has vowed no return to austerity under Labour More

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 moreSir Keir Starmer is in a race against time to secure a deal with Donald Trump’s White House to escape tariffs on steel and aluminium, and dodge further reciprocal tariffs which could come into play at the start of next month.It comes after the White House imposed 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports on Wednesday, signalling that last-ditch efforts to persuade Mr Trump to spare British industry from his global tariffs failed.While the European Union responded by announcing trade counter-measures and hitting American goods with retaliatory tariffs, the prime minister resisted calls for the UK to immediately hit back.Sir Keir Starmer is in a race against time to secure a deal with Donald Trump’s White House More

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 moreA cabinet minister accused of misrepresenting his CV has admitted to Parliament that he was wrong to describe himself as a solicitor when he never qualified.Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said he should have made clear that he was referring to his time as a trainee solicitor in a speech a he made in the House of Commons a decade ago. It is an offence for someone to call themselves a solicitor if they are not qualified and registered with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and the regulator is investigating Mr Reynolds’ claim.Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has apologised for the error More

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 moreSir Keir Starmer faces a clash with Civil Service unions after vowing to reshape the “flabby” state and slash the cost of bureaucracy.The Prime Minister said the Civil Service had grown by 130,000 since the Brexit referendum but services had not improved and it was “overstretched, unfocussed and unable to deliver the security people need”.But union leaders accused Sir Keir of “using the language of blame” to attack officials and called on him to avoid the “incendiary rhetoric” of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) in the US.As well as vowing to cut the cost of regulation by 25%, Sir Keir will use a speech on Thursday to promise to refocus the state on his key missions and create “an active government that takes care of the big questions, so people can get on with their lives”.He will take aim at a “cottage industry of checkers and blockers slowing down delivery for working people”, stepping up his criticism of regulation in the UK.Sir Keir will announce plans for greater use of artificial intelligence (AI) and technology across the Civil Service, promising that one in 10 officials will work in tech and digital roles within the next five years.Before the speech setting out his plans, Sir Keir wrote in the Daily Telegraph: “In such uncertain times, people want a state that will take care of the big questions, not a bigger state that asks more from them. We need to be operating at maximum efficiency and strength.“I believe in the power of the state. I’m not interested in ideological arguments about whether it should be bigger or smaller. I simply want it to work.”At the moment businesses are having to deal with “an overcautious flabby state” that gets in the way, he added.Reducing the size of the Civil Service and increasing the proportion of officials working in digital and data roles could save taxpayers up to £45 billion, the Government believes.Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union representing senior officials, said “many civil servants will be looking for the substance and feeling that, once again, the Prime Minister is using the language of blame rather than transformation”.He added: “Regulators are set up by ministers to regulate – if there’s a cottage industry at large then it’s because that’s what previous governments have wanted.“Blaming public servants for doing the job they were tasked with by ministers is just cheap politics and is increasingly following a pattern where the Government appears more interested in headlines than leadership.”Mike Clancy, general secretary of the Prospect union, said it was “right that the Government are pressing ahead with plans to make better use of new tech”, but added it would “find it challenging to compete for the skills needed” without increasing pay.He added: “Civil servants are not hostile to reforms but these must be undertaken in partnership with staff and unions.“I urge everyone in Government to avoid the incendiary rhetoric and tactics we are seeing in the United States, and to be clear that reforms are about enhancing and not undermining the Civil Service.”Technology Secretary Peter Kyle denied that the Government’s plans to reform the civil service were comparable to the Donald Trump administration’s Doge.He told LBC: “This is a disruptive programme. But it is a programme that will positively disrupt and we want to lead people through it.“We don’t want to scare people with the prospect of change, we want to excite people with the prospect of change.”Shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Alex Burghart said: “Labour is not serious about getting Britain growing.“The Prime Minister has no plan to reform the Civil Service or cut public spending.“Thanks to his budget the size of the state will reach a staggering 44% of GDP by 2030.”Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey dismissed Sir Keir’s proposals as “tinkering around the edges while our economy continues to stutter”, and called for an “ambitious new deal with the EU” to boost trade and grow the economy. More

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 moreKeir Starmer will put thousands of civil servants on job alert tomorrow as he hails a “£45bn jackpot” from digitalising government services.The prime minister will make the claim in a speech on Thursday linked to announcements over the weekend about reforming Whitehall to cut costs.In a worrying sign for many civil servants he will insist that jobs should not exist if artificial intelligence (AI) or computers can do them better.Sir Keir will hail a “new era” in government operations and while ministers have refused to set a target on how many jobs may be scrapped, his words suggest a potential major reduction.Keir Starmer More

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 moreThe poorest households in Britain are now poorer than the least well off in Slovenia after a decade and a half of stagnant income growth, a major report has revealed. Workers in Britain would be £4,300 per year better off had wages grown at the same pace as in the US after the 2009 financial crisis, according to research by the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) think tank.And, as Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves prepare to slash the benefits bill by billions, the think tank warned tax and benefit changes have also exacerbated the decline in British living standards. The poorest parts of Britain are now worse off than those in SloveniaIn one of the report’s starkest findings, it said the poorest parts of the UK are now worse off than their counterparts in countries like Slovenia and Malta, with incomes growing in the majority of Europe faster than those in the UK. And, in what will serve as a stark warning to the chancellor, with discussions ongoing to finalise the shape of Labour’s planned welfare cuts, NIESR said Britain has one of the least generous welfare systems of any developed country. In a series of recommendations to Ms Reeves, it called on the government to scrap the two-child benefit cap, boost benefits so payments “always cover the cost of living” and boost public and private investment. Senior economist Max Mosley said NIESR had uncovered the “uncomfortable truth” that “economic stagnation over the past decade is now threatening the UK’s position as a place for a high standard of living”.“A combination of weak productivity growth driving near-zero growth in real wages and cuts to welfare has resulted in a situation where we are neither delivering prosperity through high wages nor security through welfare,” he said. NIESR called on Rachel Reeves to scrap the two-child benefit cap More