UK Politics

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 moreCloseKeir Starmer has issued a grim warning on a Budget later this week that is expected to feature record-breaking tax rises.The prime minister used a major speech in Birmingham on Monday to pave the way for “tough decisions” on Wednesday when Rachel Reeves delivers her first Budget.With his government already under siege for its economic plans, Sir Keir tried to clear up what he means by “working people”, whose taxes he has promised to protect.The prime minister mentioned “working people” 24 times in his speech as he tried to see off criticism over his own vague definition by saying: “they know who they are”.In his party’s manifesto there was a promise to not increase income tax, national insurance or VAT but already that appears to be under threat with a rise on the employers’ rate of national insurance now widely expected.Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (Darren Staples/PA) 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 moreCloseA video of suspended Labour MP Mike Amesbury appearing to punch a constituent was “shocking”, the prime minister said. Sir Keir Starmer also defended Labour’s decision to suspend him after he was filmed being involved in a late-night altercation.Footage appeared to show the 55-year-old MP for Runcorn and Helsby repeatedly hitting another man as others nearby shout “stop it”.Asked about the incident after giving a speech in Birmingham on Monday, Sir Keir said: “Look, I’ve seen the video footage. It’s shocking. We moved very swiftly to suspend him as a member and as a member of parliament.Mike Amesbury has been suspended by the Labour Party (PA) 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 moreCloseWatch live as Sir Keir Starmer warns that Britain faces “unprecedented challenges” in a speech on Monday, 28 October, ahead of Labour’s first Budget for 14 years.The prime minister’s speech in the West Midlands — a region in which Labour swept away the Tories in the general election — comes amid widespread speculation that Rachel Reeves is set to raise taxes by between £25 billion to £40 billion.Sir Keir will say that the country faces unprecedented challenges after the last government covered up the state of the public finances and crumbling public services:“We have to be realistic about where we are as a country. This is not 1997, when the economy was decent but public services were on their knees. And it’s not 2010, where public services were strong, but the public finances were weak. These are unprecedented circumstances.“And that’s before we even get to the long-term challenges ignored for fourteen years. An economy riddled with weakness on productivity and investment. A state that needs urgent modernisation to face down the challenge of a volatile world.”The chancellor is now expected to increase employer contributions to national insurance by 2 per cent despite promising not to increase national insurance in the Budget.There are also expected to be hikes in inheritance tax and capital gains. Ms Reeves has pledged not to increase “taxes on working people” including income tax, employee contributions to national insurance or VAT. 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 moreCloseLabour is expected to extend an income tax measure that has been described as a “stealth tax” at the upcoming Budget as more people are set to pay higher rates.Officials have said Rachel Reeves is looking to extend the freeze on income tax thresholds, which has dragged millions of earners into paying higher rates of income tax since 2021.Experts predict the move could raise £7bn a year for the Exchequer – but has been criticised by some as an underhand way to raise tax. Some critics have claimed that doing so would break a central Labour manifesto pledge to “not increase taxes on working people.”However, responding to the reports, a government source told the Financial Times: “We said we would protect working people and not increase rates of income tax, national insurance or VAT.”Many have taken this to mean that the government would not consider extending the freeze as an income tax rise, as it would technically remain the same.Rachel Reeves will announce her budget on October 30 (Stefan Rousseau/PA) 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 is set to unveil Labour’s first Budget in a generation on Wednesday – and the first ever written by a female chancellor. She has warned that it will involve “difficult decisions” – as she blamed the last Tory government for leaving a £22bn black hole in the public finances. Paul Johnson, the director of the high-respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank has already said it could be the “biggest tax-raising budget” ever and yet it still could leave “a lot of public services still feeling squeezed”. Here we take a look at some of the key measures expected:Ms Reeves is expected to raise employer national insurance payments. Labour has pledged before the election not to raise NI, but the party insists that applied only to employees, not employers.But critics have accused ministers of breaking their promises and planning to bring in a ‘tax on jobs’.Rachel Reeves will be unviling Labour’s first Budget in a generation 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 moreClose Lithuania’ s center-left opposition parties celebrated victory on Monday after prevailing over the center-right ruling coalition in the final round of national elections.With 100% of votes counted from Sunday’s polls, the Social Democrats won 52 seats in the 141-seat parliament, known as the Seimas, ending the four-year rule of the Homeland Union government led by conservative Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė.The Social Democrats will start talks on forming a majority cabinet with two smaller center-left parties, the Democratic Union and the Union of Peasants and Greens, which won respectively 14 and 8 seats. The coalition is expected to control at least 74 seats.Šimonytė’s Homeland Union won only 28 seats in the two-round election.Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, who heads the Social Democrats, thanked supporters as a cheering crowd celebrated victory in downtown Vilnius on Sunday.“I am very grateful to the people of Lithuania who were so active today voting for us” she said adding that “the results have shown that the people want change, a completely different government.”The outcome was a surprise to the ruling conservatives, who were only two seats behind the Social Democrats after the first round.Analysts had predicted that Lithuania is set to continue a historic pattern where voters tend to look a different way every four years.Šimonytė conceded, noting the pattern. “In Lithuania that’s the way it is, every election we see the pendulum swinging in one direction or the other,” she told reporters. “We respect the will of the voters.”The vote in Lithuania, which borders Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave to the west and Belarus to the east, came at a time when Russia’s war in Ukraine is fueling greater fears about Moscow’s intentions, particularly in the strategically important Baltic region. Analysts say there won’t be any significant change in Lithuania’s foreign policy. The European Union and NATO member is a staunch supporter of Ukraine.The outgoing government faced criticism for the strict measures it adopted during the pandemic, with many complaining that her government didn’t do enough to help companies during lockdown. Others say thousands of people didn’t have proper access to health care.Šimonytė also has been lambasted for her handling of migrants arriving via Belarus. Lithuania has claimed its eastern neighbor, as well as Russia, was orchestrating the influx of people, mostly from Africa and the Middle East.Although the country has seen annual double-digit personal income growth and has one of the lowest inflation rates in the 27-nation bloc, most voters did not seem to be impressed.The results also mean that the new cabinet can be formed without the populist Nemuno Aušra party which came in third, with 20 seats. Its leader Remigijus Žemaitaitis had to resign from parliament earlier this year for making antisemitic statements.Following the results, Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s foreign minister, announced his resignation from the leadership of Homeland Union and said he was leaving politics. Turnout on Sunday was 41.31 percent, among the highest for a runoff. 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 borrowed the language of the former Tory chancellor George Osborne to say her first Budget will be for “strivers” as her party faced a deepening row over the definition of “working people”.Labour has pledged not to raise key taxes, including income tax, VAT or national insurance, on working people. But the government is under mounting pressure to clarify who will be affected after a cabinet minister came under fire for repeatedly refusing to say if a small business owner earning £13,000 a year qualified.In a sign of how high the stakes are, on Sunday Paul Johnson, the director of the highly respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank, warned this could be “one of the biggest tax-raising budgets ever”. And former Bank of England governor Mervyn King warned that Ms Reeves’s plans for extra borrowing could drive up mortgage payments. Chancellor Rachel Reeves will outline her Budget on Wednesday 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 moreCloseA Nigel Farage-inspired bid to persuade Donald Trump to veto Sir Keir Starmer’s controversial Chagos Islands deal can be revealed today.The Independent has seen legal advice on Sir Keir’s controversial deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius sent to Mr Trump that was requested after the Reform UK leader raised the issue directly with the former president’s team.The advice was drawn up by legal experts who worked alongside Mr Farage in the Brexit campaign.Mr Farage says he was not directly involved in the legal advice but his links with Mr Trump are believed to have played a vital part in the initiative.The aim of Mr Farage and his allies is to persuade Mr Trump to block the deal if he becomes president again.The UK/US airbase on Diego Garcia More