UK Politics

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentWatch as Sir Keir Starmer and Giorgia Meloni share plans for tackling illegal migration at a news conference in Rome on Monday, 16 September.The prime minister has said he is “very interested” in Italy’s strategies to reduce irregular migration.Sir Keir is visiting the Italian capital as he continues his attempts to reset relations with the UK’s nearest neighbours, with migration expected to be at the top of the agenda.The “dramatic reductions” in the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea into Italy is something the government wants to understand, the PM added.Sir Keir has indicated he is open to pursuing an arrangement similar to Italy’s migration deal with Albania, whereby asylum seekers will be held in the Balkan state while their claims are processed.On Monday morning, home secretary Yvette Cooper also confirmed the government is looking to Italian-style migration policies in several areas, including a deal with Albania and a “major returns” scheme.“There are four different things that the Italians are doing that we’re interested in,” Ms Cooper told BBC Breakfast.“The first is the work that they are doing around organised immigration crime. That’s the work that we are substantially gearing up, where we will be doing a huge technology upgrade as well, and where we want to work with Italy, with Germany, with other European countries, with France as well.” More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentWatch as Sir Keir Starmer meets with Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, in Rome on Monday 16 September.The pair are expected to discuss migrant boat crossings, with Sir Keir “interested” in learning about Italy’s scheme to send migrants rescued at sea to Albania to process their asylum claims.Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, on Monday morning also confirmed the government is looking to Italian-style migration policies in a number of areas, including a deal with Albania and a “major returns” scheme.“There are four different things that the Italians are doing that we’re interested in,” Ms Cooper told BBC Breakfast.“The first is the work that they are doing around organised immigration crime. That’s the work that we are substantially gearing up, where we will be doing a huge technology upgrade as well, and where we want to work with Italy, with Germany, with other European countries, with France as well.“The second thing they’re doing is they’re working with other countries upstream to prevent people leaving North Africa in the first place…working with Tunisia, we think we should be part of those international co-operations as well.“The third thing they’re doing is major returns. So they’re speeding up returns for those who don’t have a right to be there. We’ve been doing that through the summer as well, so we’ve had a substantial increase in returns for people who don’t have a right to be in the UK, because the rules need to be respected and enforced.“The fourth thing they’re doing is the Albania programme, but that hasn’t started yet, so we’ll need to see what that does. It’s very different from the Rwanda partnership that the UK government had, and we’ll have to see how that plays out.” More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentYvette Cooper has defended an Italian deal which will let the country process some asylum claims offshore in Albania, describing it as “very, very different” from Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan.The home secretary said the arrangement is not comparable to the previous government’s plans to deport some migrants to the east African nation, stressing that the Albanian scheme involves processing.Under the Conservatives’ scheme, which Labour scrapped immediately after the general election, asylum seekers would have been permanently deported to Rwanda.Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Italian scheme is not similar to the previous UK government’s Rwanda deportation plan More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentSir Keir Starmer has made a mistake by ruling out Britain rejoining the EU single market, the leader of the Liberal Democrats has said.Piling pressure on the Labour leader to u-turn on UK membership of the single market, Sir Ed Davey said “if you’re going to rebuild our economy and get growth, you have to go further”.The prime minister has embarked on a reset of Britain’s post-Brexit relations with the EU, after years of acrimony under successive Conservative PMs.Sir Ed Davey played volleyball with a group of young carers and staff on Brighton Beach on Sunday (Stefan Rousseau/PA) More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentTalks between leading nations on how to tackle the growing threat of cyber attacks are to be convened by the UK on Monday as part of a three-day summit on the issue.Ministers will be joined by representatives from the US, EU and others for talks on how to strengthen global cybersecurity workforces, including through boosting skills and developing new professional standards.The talks come in the wake of a number of high-profile cybersecurity incidents globally, including the cyber attacks on Transport for London and NHS providers, as well as the global IT outage which shut down global transportation systems and other infrastructure.This is a shared challenge, which is why we’re bringing together global allies to discuss and agree steps to keep us safe online, improve cyber skills and protect our economy and public servicesCyber security minister Feryal ClarkLast week, the UK designated data centres as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) in order to give the sector greater protection and support from cyber incidents, blackouts and environmental disasters.As well as the international collaboration on the issue, the Government has announced a new scheme to fund the providing of new cyber skills training at universities, local councils and businesses in regions across England and Northern Ireland to help bolster security, as well as to help organisations developing new technologies for use in cyber defence.Cyber security minister Feryal Clark said: “The UK needs a significant improvement in its cyber defences after the previous government failed to strengthen our cyber laws – we’re fixing that.“Later this year, we’ll bring forward new measures to better protect the nation from cyber crime and our new regional skills programme will support the next generation of cyber talent and innovators.“But this is a shared challenge, which is why we’re bringing together global allies to discuss and agree steps to keep us safe online, improve cyber skills and protect our economy and public services.” More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentSir Keir Starmer insisted he does not want to get involved with people’s personal life choices when questioned on whether he wants to persuade people to have more children.The issue was put to the prime minister amid growing concern the birth rate in the UK, and many Western countries, is leading to population decline and long-term issues with an ageing population.But when asked if he had any ideas on how to persuade people to have more children in Britain and if he thought the birth rate needed to rise, it provoked an impromptu laugh from Sir Keir during a flight to Washington.The prime minister had been asked: “What can you do?”Starmer laughs with journalists at a question during his flight to Washington More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentFour-week waits for a GP appointment could be on course to reach a new record high this year, new analysis suggests.The Liberal Democrats, who carried out the research, said fixing the GP crisis is critical and are campaigning for everyone to have the right to see a GP within seven days.Health and social care has been a much-discussed topic by the party leader in Brighton this weekend, as their autumn conference has continued.According to the party, NHS data suggests in the seven months to July 2024 there were 10.3 million waits of four weeks or longer for a GP appointment.Sir Ed Davey said the focus of improving the NHS should be on social care More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentThe Liberal Democrat chief whip has questioned the commitment of Nigel Farage and Lee Anderson to their roles as MPs.At the party’s autumn conference in Brighton, Wendy Chamberlain suggested constituency work appeared not to be the priority for the Reform UK MPs, both of whom host shows on GB News.Months after it was revealed Mr Farage was the highest-paid MP outside of parliament, with a £98,000-a-month GB News gig, Ms Chamberlain backed potential plans to stop MPs hosting shows outside parliament.And speaking to The Independent at her party conference, Ms Chamberlain said: “The saddest thing of all is communities like Clacton and Ashfield are the ones that actually need the most assiduous constituency MPs to get underneath the casework.“It suggests [where] your priorities are, if you are earning more from doing that kind of stuff (TV) than you are as a constituency MP… I’d be interested to know what the constituency experiences are to date.“You just need to look at Nigel Farage’s record in the European Parliament, he was doing more outside it than inside.” In response, Mr Farage, who was in Chicago on Friday in this third visit to the US in just over two months, told The Independent: “I don’t know whether she goes on holiday.“I have not this year but I am fulfilling diary commitments. We are making good progress in Clacton.”Asked what Sir Keir Starmer’s government needed to do to halt the rise of Reform before the next election, Ms Chamberlain said he had to “deliver on a fundamental and basic level”.Reform won five seats at the general election, but had a 14.3 per cent share of the vote – higher than the Lib Dems, which received a 12.2 per cent share.Ms Chamberlain’s comments came on the second day of the Liberal Democrats’ autumn conference, with Sir Ed Davey promising the Lib Dems “will hold [the Government] to account” when they disagree, adding that the party believes there needs to be “reform and investment” in the health service.Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Sir Ed said his party “absolutely will challenge the Government where we disagree with them”, and pledged to be a “better opposition than the Conservatives”.He later added: “We’re worried that in the NHS debate, they’re talking about reform before investment, when we think there needs to be reform and investment.“So we will hold them to account, but we will be different from the Conservatives because being constructive means you have a different tone.” More