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.CloseRead moreCloseSir Keir Starmer has ramped up the UK’s cooperation with Europe on migration, signing three new agreements to crack down on smuggling gangs. Saying a “major upgrade” on international co-operation is needed, the prime minister announced plans to sign three new agreements with Serbia, North Macedonia and Kosovo.The deals will increase intelligence sharing, expertise and co-operation in order to intercept criminal smuggling gangs, the government said.It comes ahead of the next meeting of the European Political Community, which will see the prime minister chair a meeting on migration on Thursday. The PM will meet with European leaders to urge “concerted action to reduce the number of deaths in the Channel as a result of dangerous and illegal small boats crossings”.He is also expected to say that all European countries bear a responsibility to “end the devastation caused by people smugglers and that lawful, international co-operation will be key to these efforts.”Almost 100,000 migrants transited through the Western Balkans last year, making it a key route. The European Political Community (EPC) is a forum which brings together 47 European countries to co-ordinate responses to shared challenges. The intervention follows Sir Keir’s speech to the Interpol Conference in Glasgow this week, where he called for organised immigration crime to be treated like terrorism.On Monday, the prime minister announced a £150m package of measures to tackle the small boat crisis, arguing that addressing the issue would be a “victory for humanity” that would help to save “countless lives”.International cooperation to tackle people smuggling networks will be a central feature of Thursday’s EPC meeting, Sir Keir said, warning that the UK cannot make progress on the issue on its own. “There is a criminal empire operating on our continent, exacting a horrendous human toll and undermining our national security.“Backed by our new Border Security Command, the UK will be at the heart of the efforts to end the scourge of organised immigration crime – but we cannot do it in isolation”, he said.“We need to go further and faster, alongside our international partners, and take the fight directly to the heart of these vile people smuggling networks. I will be making this the central feature of my discussions at the European Political Community meeting today.”Home secretary Yvette Cooper said cooperation with nations in the Western Balkans is “absolutely key to dismantling the criminal networks that orchestrate the exploitation of vulnerable people for financial gain”. She added: “Working more closely with Serbia, North Macedonia and Kosovo, we will share information and intelligence, and work across borders to map out what is happening and where, to break the business models of these unscrupulous gangs at source.“Through our intensified work, criminals will soon realise they have nowhere to hide.” 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.CloseRead moreCloseRachel Reeves has rejected an alternative proposal to her inheritance tax raid on family farms which farmers across the UK have damned for being “cruel” and warned will spell the end of their sector.The chancellor was confronted over her plans by former Tory minister John Glen during a hearing of the Treasury select committee in parliament, as he warned that it will have “a profound impact” on the farming community.Mr Glen, whose Salisbury constituency has farming interests, suggested that if Ms Reeves had wanted to “target large wealthy people who buy vast tracks of land” to avoid tax, then she could have looked at business assets rollover relief.“If you had a higher threshold you would then save a large number of farms that just do not have the liquidity [to pay the new inheritance tax],” he said.Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves at the Treasury Committee (House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA) 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.CloseRead moreCloseRevenge porn should be treated in the same way as child abuse and terrorist content online, an expert has told MPs.Doing so would mean non-consensual intimate images (NCIIs) could be quickly blocked from being viewed on the internet, the Women and Equalities Committee heard.Current protections in tackling what is a growing problem are not strong enough, said David Wright, director at the UK Safer Internet Centre.NCII abuse is when intimate content such as photos or video is produced, published, or reproduced without consent.Mr Wright said there had been a “terrifying” rise in revenge porn cases in recent years, with his organisation managing 1,600 cases in 2019 compared with just under 19,000 last year.In September, the Government announced that the sharing of revenge porn is to be classified as the most serious type of online offence under the Online Safety Act, meaning social media platforms will now have to take steps proactively to remove it.The change to the law will see the sharing of intimate images without consent upgraded to be made a priority offence under the new online safety rules, which are due to come into force from spring next year.Under the laws, material considered a priority offence – which also includes public order offences and the sale of weapons and drugs online – must not only be removed when it is found online, but platforms must also proactively remove it and take steps to prevent it from appearing in the first place – with large fines for those who fail to do so.But MPs on Wednesday heard there is a need to go further and classify adult NCIIs as illegal content in the same way child sexual abuse material is.Mr Wright said: “We want the NCII content to be treated in the same way as other illegal content – so child abuse content, terrorist content, which then will enable a number of things, but not least Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to actually to block access, from a UK perspective, to this content.“And even in that regard, I think thinking about the victims whose content we’ve made every effort to take down but is still online, there’s some comfort knowing that well, it’s not viewable, or there’s limitations on how much it could be viewed.”He said ISPs have told his organisation that they cannot block access to such content currently because they “run the risk of censoring the internet to non-illegal content”.The MPs were also told of an example of a perpetrator having been convicted but being handed back a device with all of the NCII material on it – something they branded “shocking”.Sophie Mortimer, manager at the Revenge Porn Helpline, said this would “stop dead” if adult NCIIs were made illegal in the same way as child sex abuse material.Executives from both Google and Microsoft told the committee that making such content illegal would help give more “clarity” on how to deal with NCII and to avoid instances where material was incorrectly removed from search results.Gail Kent, director of government affairs and public policy for search, news and Gemini at Google, told MPs: “So at the moment, and because the content isn’t illegal, we downrank it, we don’t remove it.“It is way down the ranking, but it still exists. If it were illegal, then we would remove it altogether.”Courtney Gregoire, vice president and chief digital safety officer at Microsoft, said she hoped the upgrading of NCII to a priority offence would also help online safety regulator Ofcom better target the websites actually hosting this content.“My hope would be how Ofcom would approach that, which would be to really focus attention on those who are hosting this content,” she said.“Search engines have a responsibility to think about how our search engine looks, but these victims deserve to get to the place that is hosting this content.“And so if we move that towards a priority offence, potentially coupled with the legality, there should be clearly a responsibility to the underlying hosts of this content to action this in a much more meaningful way, give the right to victims that they (the websites) have to have a reporting mechanism and that it should be actioned.”The committee is looking into the impact of NCII abuse on victims and what steps big tech such as Google and Microsoft are taking to prevent and tackle it.MPs on the committee are also considering the extent to which the Online Safety Act will be effective in mandating the removal of NCII and assessing how legislation could be improved. More

Trump joined by Melania, Baron and Trump children on stage at election partyYour 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.CloseRead moreCloseKemi Badenoch has attacked Prime Minister Keir Starmer over his MPs’ positions on Donald Trump and urged to invite the incoming president to address parliament.An energised Badenoch seized on Trump’s election victory to haul Sir Keir over foreign secretary David Lammy’s previous comments that Trump was “neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”.But the Prime Minister dodged the opposition leader’s demand to apologise, assuring his relationship with Trump was strong.Badenoch earlier congratulated Donald Trump on his historic election win, saying she looked to both countries working together to confront global challenges.But Labour is divided over the impending presidency, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s congratulations and celebration of close US ties coming up against comments from former Labour frontbencher Emily Thornberry, who has labelled Trump a racist and a predator.London mayor Sadiq Khan said many people would be fearful of what a second Trump presidency would mean for democracy and women’s rights. “The lesson of today is that progress is not inevitable. But asserting our progressive values is more important than ever,” he said.Show latest update 1730904327Ed Davey accuses Kemi Badenoch of cheerleading for TrumpLib Dems leader Ed Davey has accused Tory leader Kemi Badenoch of “cheerleading” for Donald Trump during PMQs and claimed it shows the opposition is out-of-touch with British values.Ms Badenoch’s first outing as Conservatives leader in PMQs saw her demand prime minister Keir Starmer apologise for previous comments by his foreign secretary, David Lammy, who once called Trump a neo-Nazi sympathiser, and urge him to invite the president-elect to speak at parliament.Lib Dems leader Ed Davey says it is a ‘dark, dark day’ for people around the world 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.CloseRead moreCloseRachel Reeves has given her top official at the Treasury a vote of confidence amid a row over whether the cover-up of a £22 billion black hole in government finances broke the law.The suggestion over illegality during Jeremy Hunt’s tenure as chancellor was made by Richard Hughes, the chief executive of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), yesterday.While criticism has been focused on the previous Tory government, questions are also being asked about the role of Treasury officials in the alleged cover-up.Rachel Reeves will face MPs on Wednesday 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.CloseRead moreCloseSir Keir Starmer has dodged demands from Kemi Badenoch to invite to President Trump to address parliament on his next visit to the UK.At her first PMQs as leader of the opposition, Ms Badenoch called for the prime minister to show that “he and his government can be more than student politicians” and ask the Commons speaker to extend the invitation to the president elect, who swept to victory in the US election overnight.In response, the prime minister accused Ms Badenoch of “giving a masterclass in student politics”. “We live in a more volatile world than we’ve lived in for recent decades”, he said. “It’s absolutely crucial that we have a strong relationship, that strong special relationship, forged in difficult circumstances between the US and UK.Badenoch addresses her first PMQs since winning the Tory leadership election 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.CloseRead moreCloseLee Anderson has apologised to the Commons for bullying and harassment after a parliamentary watchdog found he twice swore at a security officer when his pass did not work.The Reform UK MP allegedly told the guard “f*** off, everyone opens the door to me, you are the only one” when he was told he needed to have his pass checked at the gates to the Westminster estate.A complaint about the incident on 3 November was upheld by parliament’s standards commissioner.Mr Anderson initially appealed against the finding to the Independent Expert Panel, but the panel dismissed his case.Reform UK MP Lee Anderson has been told to apologise to the Commons (Maja Smiejkowska/PA) 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.CloseRead moreCloseKeir Starmer has sidestepped a call to apologise for his foreign secretary dubbing Donald Trump a “neo-Nazi sympathising’ sociopath”. David Lammy made the comment in an article when he was a backbench MP in 2018.A year before he also tweeted: “Yes, if Trump comes to the UK I will be out protesting on the streets. He is a racist KKK and Nazi sympathiser.” Mr Lammy has sought to build links with the Trump campaign since becoming foreign secretary, but the election result has shone a new spotlight on his comments, raising questions about his ability to work with the next US president. The prime minister came under pressure over the issue at prime minister’s questions in the Commons from the new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch. She asked him about the meeting he and Mr Lammy had with Mr Trump in September. David Lammy has previously called Mr Trump a ‘KKK/neo-Nazi sympathiser’ (Lucy North/PA) More