UK Politics

The failure of officials to collect ethnicity data on grooming gangs which abused children has been a “bloody disaster”, the author of a damning report into the scandal has said. Baroness Casey told MPs that information on perpetrators is “incomplete and unreliable”, as she hit out at what she described as a “public irresponsibility”. Statistics had been “half” collected, she told members of the Commons Home Affairs committee, adding: “That’s a bloody disaster, frankly.” Baroness Louise Casey appeared before MPs More

Sir Keir Starmer has promised to keep “tightening the screws” on Vladimir Putin as he announced a raft of fresh sanctions on dozens of new Russian finance, military and energy targets. The prime minister is piling fresh pressure on the Russian war machine and seeking to win further backing from G7 leaders at a key summit in Canada. After repeated refusals from Putin to engage in peace talks, and fresh Russian strikes on Kyiv on Tuesday, the PM said his sanctions will “choke off his ability to continue his barbaric war” in Ukraine. Sir Keir Starmer spoke to reporters while travelling to Canada for the G7 summit (PA) More

President Trump brandished his trade deal with the UK at the G7 meeting in Canada, announcing he had finally signed it after weeks of wrangling – then promptly dropped it on the ground.Keir Starmer was quick to respond to the US president’s clumsiness, bending down to pick up the precious agreement, set to protect auto industry jobs in Britain.The whole thing could be seen as a metaphor for how the Republican sees these kinds of deals – and continues to treat them.Because there is a sting in the tail to what the two men signed in Alberta. Whopping tariffs of 25 per cent remain on British steel – one of the industries that can least afford them. And the prime minister now faces a race against time to try to get rid of them, before they cripple an already beleaguered industry. The US president sent shockwaves through the global economy when he announced his steel tariffs – and then, a few weeks ago, plans to double them. US President Donald Trump (left) shakes hands with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer More

The author of a damning report into grooming gangs has revealed she found the word ‘Pakistani’ “tippexed out” in archive files about child victims. Louise Casey, whose national audit on grooming gangs was published on Monday, said “do-gooders” had covered up information on race and ethnicity believing that otherwise “all the racists are going to be more racist”. Speaking to Sky News after the publication of her report, she said: “I was following through on a children’s file in archive and found the word ‘Pakistani’ tippexed out.Baroness Casey’s report was described as ‘damning’ More

Sir Keir Starmer landed an important diplomatic victory when Donald Trump finally confirmed the implementation of the UK-US trade deal.After “shaking hands” on the deal in a virtual meeting broadcast to the world last month, there had been concerns that Sir Keir still had not got the deal with the US in place.Mr Trump confirmed the deal was “done” at a brief press conference outdoors at the G7 summit in Canada after the two met. The deal will now be in place by the end of the month and will mean zero tariffs on aerospace. However, the aim of getting zero tariffs on steel from the UK is “still a work in progress”.Asked if the UK could be hit by future tariffs, the president said: “The UK is very well protected. You know why? Because I like them. The prime minister has done a really good job. He has done what other people have been talking about for six years and he has done it.” Starmer and Trump at the G7 More

Efforts by the world’s biggest democracies to toughen sanctions against Russia and hold a joint position on the Middle East crisis look set to be thrown into chaos by Donald Trump.The US President, who landed in Alberta, Canada late on Sunday night, opened off his remarks at the G7 summit by suggesting it had been a “mistake” to boot Russia out of the former G8.It had already been reported by CBS News that Trump does not intend to sign a G7 statement related to Israel and Iran, citing unnamed U.S. officials.President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney on the sidelines of the G7 Summit, Monday, June 16, 2025, in Kananaskis, Canada. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) More

Keir Starmer has handed councils the bill for paying for the black hole in UK finances amid warnings of the biggest rises in local taxation in two decades.The prime minister told journalists on a trip to the G7 summit in Canada that it is up to councils if they want to charge the full 5 per cent increase amid concerns that he has unleashed a series of massive tax rises.As a result of last week’s spending review councils can increase the council tax by up to 5 per cent while the police have also been given the powers to use a similar rise in their precept to raise extra funds. The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) has already warned of the biggest rise in council tax for two decades.Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer More

Summits are usually very formal, almost scripted events where leaders of the world’s biggest democracies meet to discuss all the issues their officials have already negotiated before. But on the odd occasion humanity breaks out from the robotic formal proceedings.Such a moment came as Keir Starmer – a man normally famed for his aversion to the spontaneous – came out of an apparently agreeable bilateral meeting with the Italian PM Giorgia Meloni.Across the hotel lobby he spotted German chancellor Friedrich Merz and the two immediately were drawn to one another and sat down to have a chinwag off the books. Soon Ms Meloni had joined them followed by the host Canadian PM Mark Carney and French President Emmanuel Macron.After the initial water, glasses of wine arrived.World leaders having a glass at the G7 More