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 moreClose Britain’s new Labour Party government is announcing billions of pounds in investment in U.K. artificial intelligence, life sciences and infrastructure on Monday at a business summit attended by executives from major international companies — though it was the absence of Elon Musk that made headlines.Prime Minister Keir Starmer ’s center-left administration is eager to attract investment into Britain’s sluggish economy, and to convince corporations that its push to improve workers’ rights won’t come at the expense of businesses. It also needs to reassure trade unions, which are key Labour backers, that wooing business won’t come at workers’ expense.Starmer told about 300 executives from banks, investment firms, pharmaceutical companies, tech firms and others that after several years of economic and political turmoil and “policy churn” under the Conservatives, Britain is once again a stable place for investors.“This is the moment to back Britain,” he said, pledging to oversee a “hard-headed” industrial strategy and “galvanize growth” but slashing unnecessary regulation.“We will rip up the bureaucracy that blocks investment,” Starmer said.Unions worry that may mean lowering standards on health, safety and the environment, a claim the government denies. Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said reducing red tape did not mean “cutting corners or lowering standards, but making sure that the government takes on some of the burden of compliance, so that our nation can benefit.”A sign of the tensions facing the government as it tries to please both employers and employees came after Transport Secretary Louise Haigh last week urged people to boycott P&O Ferries, which in 2022 fired 800 seafarers to replace them with cheaper contract staff.Its parent company, Dubai-based DP World, reportedly threatened to pull out of the investment conference because of the remarks. After Starmer rebuked Haigh and reassured the company that hers was “not the view of the government,” DP World confirmed Monday it would invest in a 1 billion pound ($1.3 billion) expansion of the London Gateway container port.Business executives attending the summit were rubbing shoulders with government ministers at London’s magnificent medieval Guildhall before a reception with King Charles III at St. Paul’s Cathedral.Not among them was Musk, whose social media platform X was used to spread false information during anti-immigrant violence that erupted in Britain this summer. Musk himself posted messages insulting Starmer and saying the U.K. was headed for civil war.After the BBC reported in September that Musk would not attend the investment summit, the Space X and Tesla boss posted on X: “I don’t think anyone should go to the UK when they’re releasing convicted pedophiles in order to imprison people for social media posts.” He was apparently referring to the government’s decision to release hundreds of inmates — though not sex offenders — early because of overcrowded prisons.Kyle, the technology secretary, denied Musk had been snubbed for political reasons.“Elon Musk has never come to any of the past investment summits that have been held under the previous government, he doesn’t tend to do these sort of events,” Kyle said. “But I stand absolutely ready to engage with him, to talk about any potential global investments he’s making. I’m not aware of any at this moment in time.” 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 moreCloseRobert Jenrick would “poison” the Conservative Party and wants to go further to the right than Nigel Farage, an influential former Tory MP claimed.In a damning assessment of the former immigration minister, Matthew Parris dubbed him a “slick, smooth-tongued salesman with all the attributes of a crowd-pleaser, except the ability to please a crowd”.He attacked Mr Jenrick as a political chameleon, having moved from being a “former Cameron Remainer” to someone promising to “out-Farage Farage”. He asked: “Which is the real Jenrick: Robert the hard-grafting functionary and one-nation pragmatist we saw in a previous incarnation? Or Rob the Reform-adjacent head-banger, throwing out chunks of stinking raw meat to the Tory right, like his pledge to take Britain headlong out of the European Convention on Human Rights: a folly that would threaten Northern Ireland’s Good Friday agreement?”And, throwing his weight behind Kemi Badenoch in the race to succeed Rishi Sunak, Mr Parris said the shadow business secretary has “thrilling philosophical courage”.Former Tory MP Matthew Parris offered a damning assessment of Robert Jenrick 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 is set to address the International Investment Summit 2024 on Monday, 14 October.The prime minister is expected to pledge to get rid of regulation that “needlessly holds back investment” at the major business conference.Labour is set to unveil investment deals worth billions in AI, life sciences and infrastructure as the government is eager to show it is making progress on its mission to deliver economic growth after marking 100 days in office and ahead of the Chancellor’s first Budget on 30 October.Technology secretary Peter Kyle has said he stands “absolutely ready to engage” with Elon Musk after it was reported the Tesla chief was not invited to Monday’s summit.Mr Kyle told Times Radio that Mr Musk “doesn’t tend to do these sort of events”, after previous reports that the tech boss had been snubbed as a result of his social media posts during this summer’s riots.Asked whether the Government should have invited the X owner, Mr Kyle told the station: “Let me just send my very best to him on the safe landing of the booster rocket yesterday, it was a stunning achievement and I did watch slack-jawed at the staggering achievement that that represented.“Elon Musk has never come to any of the past investment summits that have been held under the previous government, he doesn’t tend to do these sort of events, but I stand absolutely ready to engage with him, to talk about any potential global investments he’s making – I’m not aware of any at this moment in time.” 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 moreCloseReform UK supporters have been offered paid tours of parliament in an apparent breach of House of Commons rules, it has emerged.Nigel Farage’s party has emailed some activists offering tours with an MP for up to £300 as part of a fundraising drive.Rules for MPs explicitly forbid the offering of access in exchange for payment.In 2020, Green Party former MP Caroline Lucas was found to have breached parliamentary rules by giving a tour of the Commons in exchange for a £150 contribution to a fundraising campaign.She apologised for the “completely unintentional” breach and said the money had been returned.After becoming aware of Reform’s apparent breach, the right-wing party is offering a refund to those who purchased the tickets.A party spokesman said the ticketholders had been given refunds 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 moreCloseAlex Salmond has died having failed to achieve just two of his great ambitions – make Scotland an independent country, and judge the annual Tartan B*****s contest for the worst Scottish political story of the year, held at the strictly private Christmas dinner for Holyrood hacks.The first he almost achieved in 2014, the second he begged each year to be allowed admittance to, when he hosted festive curry nights for journalists at the first minister’s residence Bute House. It suited his tastes for revenge and humiliating others.My first memory of meeting Salmond involved walking down Union Street in Aberdeen in 2007 and watching as people ran out of shops to come and shake his hand and talk to him.The only other two British politicians I have witnessed receiving such adulation were Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, who in many ways shared the populist ingredients to change the UK story. Salmond brought the SNP to power and almost delivered independence, Farage delivered Brexit and destroyed the Tories.Alex Salmond speaks at a North Macedonia conference hours before his death 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 moreCloseBritain’s top pollster has warned that the Conservatives cannot win whether Robert Jenrick or Kemi Badenoch ends up winning the Tory leadership contest.Professor Sir John Curtice described the pair, battling it out in the last stage of the race to succeed Rishi Sunak, as “unknown quantities” who do not have what it takes to turn the party’s fortunes around.“In short, despite their ideological stance, neither Ms Badenoch nor Mr Jenrick is necessarily well set to heal the electoral divide on the right,” he wrote in a damning article for The Independent.Robert Jenrick has painted himself as the serious candidate in the race More

Conservative Party leadership candidate Robert Jenrick would make Jacob Rees-Mogg Tory party chairman 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 moreCloseThe business secretary has slapped down his cabinet colleague Louise Haigh for attacking a major ferry operator on the eve of Sir Keir Starmer’s investment summit.Jonathan Reynolds said the transport secretary was not speaking for the government when she dubbed P&O Ferries a “rogue operator” and called for the firm to be boycotted.It followed a 24-hour scramble in Downing Street after P&O’s owner threatened to pull a £1bn investment in a new Thames freeport – timed to coincide with the crucial summit – in response to the transport secretary’s remarks.Labour is trying to drum up investment into the UK to help kickstart the sluggish economy. Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds slapped down Louise Haigh over the comments More