UK Politics

Sir Keir Starmer has lost another top aide after his head of communications confirmed she is leaving Downing Street on the eve of Labour’s conference. Steph Driver is the latest of several of the prime minister’s closest staff to depart No 10 in recent weeks. She follows Paul Ovenden, who stepped down earlier this month over a series of sexually explicit messages he had exchanged about Labour’s Diane Abbott. Steph Driver was Keir Starmer’s communications director More

Andy Burnham fuels leadership speculationSir Keir Starmer’s allies have said Andy Burnham’s would be Labour’s Liz Truss after the Manchester mayor shared his vision of how to “turn the country around”The Manchester mayor revealed on Thursday that MPs had asked him to challenge Starmer’s leadership, in an intervention that has fuelled speculation he could be seeking a return to Westminster.But a Labour figure told Bloomberg that Burnham’s policy suggestions are “unserious and irresponsible” and would risk triggering a bond market rout, saying he would be the party’s Liz Truss.Burnham told The Telegraph that he wanted £40 billion extra borrowing to pay for new council homes and also told the New Statesman that the government must stop being “in hock to the bond market”.He has denied he sought out MPs to ask if he should challenge the prime minister for the Labour leadership on Thursday morning, and urged the party to focus on a plan to “beat Reform”.“I’ve not gone out there, me on my own, people have been getting in touch with me and I’ve said to them its not a matter for me,” he told the BBC.“This is ultimately a matter for the party in Westminster to decide.”BREAKING: Every UK adult will need ‘Brit card’ digital ID under Starmer plan to tackle illegal migrationEvery adult in the country will be required to have a new government-issued digital identity card as part of a renewed attempt to tackle illegal migration.The prime minister will reportedly announce his backing for the scheme in a speech on Friday.The ‘Brit card’ would verify an individual’s right to live and work in the UK.You can read the full story from Millie Cooke below…Nicole Wootton-Cane25 September 2025 15:39Unite boss says neither Powell nor Phillipson bring change neededThe UK’s biggest union announced it would not back either contender in Labour’s deputy leadership contest on Thursday afternoon, saying neither would bring the change it believes the country needs.Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Britain needs change, not more of the same.“Workers are leaving Labour in droves and tinkering will not stem the tide.“Unfortunately, this election does not offer the alternative that Britain needs. For everyday people, it is irrelevant.“Labour must deliver real change. We need huge investment into our crumbling infrastructure and our public services, a pay rise for British workers and an end to the private profiteering that helps drive inflation.“Until the Government makes different choices, they will continue to haemorrhage support.”Veolia is taking legal action against the union Unite (Jacob King/PA) More

Andy Burnham has called on Sir Keir Starmer to scrap the two-child benefit cap, becoming the latest high profile Labour figure to call on the prime minister to change the policy.In the clearest sign yet that the Greater Manchester mayor is considering a return to Westminster to challenge the prime minister for the leadership, he said the benefit cap is “arbitrary” and could not be justified.He described the policy as “the worst of Westminster” and said he “never supported it”. Burnham appears to be mounting a challenge against Keir Starmer More

Boris Johnson has effectively ruled out joining Reform UK, raising fears about Nigel Farage’s approach to the economy and Britain’s national security. The former prime minister said Mr Farage’s party is “extremely dangerous” and that “we need a Conservative government that is strong on defence and doesn’t believe that the problem in Ukraine was that Nato provoked Putin”. Mr Johnson also attacked Reform’s plans to scrap the two-child cap on benefits, warning “we have got to spend less on public services”. Speaking to The Sun’s Harry Cole Saves the West, Mr Johnson said: “That party [Reform] was on zero when I was prime minister… and that was because we got Brexit done.Boris Johnson: ‘Who is to say whether that party will even exist before the next election?’ More

Low-income families will find it “near impossible” to afford food, heating and bills as UK faces a decade of falling incomes, a charity has said in a stark new warning.New analysis from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation claims that by the end of this parliament, disposable incomes in Britain will be on average £550 lower per year than in September 2024 – a fall of 1.3 per cent – and £570 lower than today. This would represent the worst fall in living standards seen by any parliament since detailed records began in 1961, with the foundation warning that such a decline will prompt voters to punish Labour at the next election. Low-income families will find it “near impossible” to afford food, heating and bills, a new report has warned More

Sir Keir Starmer is under mounting pressure to scrap the two-child benefit cap after his child poverty taskforce is set to recommend the move.The prime minister established a group of ministers and officials to look at how to bring down child poverty, with its recommendations due before Rachel Reeves’s Budget on 26 November. The much-delayed recommendations, however, are set to include the prime minister being told that scrapping the benefit cap is the most effective way to lift children out of poverty and that he must pursue the move. According to The Times, the taskforce has drawn up the main planks of a child poverty strategy, with lifting the two-child limit the top recommendation. And Dame Meg Hillier, chair of parliament’s Treasury committee, said it would be “unconscionable” if Labour failed to alleviate child poverty, pointing to scrapping the two-child cap as the most effective measure. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the senior Labour MP said: “I’ve been looking at it in detail, and I’m convinced that the quickest and easiest way to lift 350,000 children out of poverty and 700,000 children out of deep poverty, would be to really pick up the cap.” The prime minister established a taskforce to look at how to bring down child poverty More

The Tories have put in a formal complaint to the parliamentary standards commissioner over allegations of irregular donations to Keir Starmer’s leadership campaign in 2020.Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake has asked for an investigation after claiming he had uncovered new evidence regarding the role of Sir Keir’s now chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, in running the leadership campaign.He alleged that Mr McSweeney’s then thinktank Labour Together had in effect made undeclared donations to the Starmer campaign.The Conservatives have called for an investigation into donations made to Labour Together, a campaign group previously led by chief of staff Morgan McSweeney More

A family of three have become the first asylum seekers to arrive in UK as part of the government’s high-stakes new ‘one in, one out’ deal with France.It comes after four migrants were deported to Paris under Sir Keir Starmer’s flagship agreement, which ministers claim will dissuade migrants from making the deadly Channel crossings by showing they could be immediately sent back. In return a family, which includes a small child, have become the first to arrive in UK through the new legal route. But the prime minister is under pressure to demonstrate the scheme is working after more than 1,000 migrants arrived by small boat last Friday, after returns to France began.Migrants on a small boat in the Channel More