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 moreCloseSir Keir Starmer has agreed a deal to deport migrants arriving in the Chagos Islands in small boats to a British island territory.Refugees arriving in the archipelago will be removed to St Helena, another UK territory more than 5,000 miles away in the Atlantic Ocean.The deal was reached in the wake of a political agreement for the UK to hand the Chagos Islands over to Mauritius, following negotiations that began in 2022.That decision, announced earlier this month, is designed to secure the future of a secretive military base on the island of Diego Garcia, but it has also left the UK without sovereign territorial control over the islands.An agreement was reached to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius following negotations that began in 2022 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 moreCloseKeir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have been accused of preparing to break a manifesto pledge with reported plans that could see hundreds of thousands more people dragged into paying higher rates of tax. The row centres on income tax thresholds, which have been frozen since 2021.While they remain fixed, inflation on wages pushes more workers into paying higher rates of the levy. The freeze had been due to end in 2028, but Ms Reeves is thought to be preparing to extend it in the Budget announced at the end of the month, as part of her drive to raise £40bn and plug a hole in the public finances. Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves look to fill a £22bn “black hole” in public spending announced in late July 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 moreCloseChancellor Rachel Reeves has been warned that her plan to hike inheritance tax risks punishing middle-class homeowners as the backlash against her Budget intensified.Ms Reeves is considering an increase on the “death tax”, which raises about £7bn for the Treasury each year, despite the fact it is routinely found to be one of voters’ least favourite measures.Senior Conservatives said the chancellor was forcing those who had saved all their lives to “pay the price”, as criticism of her Budget mounts. Shadow chancellor Jeremy Hunt accused Labour of planning the tax rises for months, without “the courage to admit it to the public during the election campaign”. He added: “Unfortunately it looks like it will be people who have saved all their life to provide an inheritance to their family who will pay the price for Labour’s tax rises.”Meanwhile, Sir Iain Duncan-Smith told The Independent the tax would “punish ordinary people who have worked hard”. Referencing the £325,000 cut off for charging inheritance tax, the former Tory leader said: “We’re not talking about ‘zillionaires’. With house prices in southern England, you won’t even get a flat for that money. A two-bed flat in London would be twice that price.”A cabinet row over swingeing cuts to spending in the Budget has already erupted into the open, while the chancellor has come under pressure for a series of measures, including her decision to strip winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners.While it is unclear exactly what measures Ms Reeves is planning, Jason Hollands of advisory firm Evelyn Partners warned changes could drag more middle-earners into paying the tax, which currently hits 4 per cent of estates.“The 4 per cent of estates paying it makes it seem like a tax with a marginal impact but that figure doesn’t include people trying to reduce their estate,” he said. “It’s the heirs who are often not wealthy who get clobbered by the tax.” Currently, no tax is due on estates worth up to £325,000. This is topped up to £500,000 if you own a home and leave it to your offspring and your assets are worth less than £2m.A couple can benefit from both allowances, upping the limit further.There are also exceptions, such as gifting assets at least seven years before death, but those caught out pay a flat 40 per cent on the amount not covered by the allowances.Tax expert Dan Neidle, founder of Tax Policy Associates, said the tax has a “lot of emotional resonance”, and that even when people are told that the tax largely affects millionaires, they still hate it.“It’s very leaky and the very rich pay it at a lower rate than the comfortably off,” he added. Money expert Martin Lewis, who spoke to Ms Reeves about the Budget on Thursday, warned that while the tax “makes the wealthiest (shoulder) a bigger brunt, in reality psychologically many, many more people than who will pay Inheritance Tax fear it.”A recent YouGov poll found just 27 per cent of the public would support a rise in inheritance tax, while 60 per cent oppose the idea. Other polls have consistently shown Britons consider the tax to be unfair.The £325,000 limit has been in place since 2009, meaning that as house prices have risen, more people have been dragged into paying the tax. Single people and those wanting to give their homes and savings to charities or friends and not their children don’t get some of the extra allowances. As the post-war baby boomer generation ages – the eldest are 78 – their wealth will soon start to be inherited in earnest, dragging more people into the tax, said Mr Hollands. Boomers benefited from the economic rally since the end of World War II and sibsequent rise in house prices.Labour may be tempted to close the net on land and business allowances, said Mr Hollands. They were put in place to stop a death from breaking apart a farm or small family firm. But the government may decide that the help is being abused by canny multimillionaires who are neither farmers nor small business operators. The rich can buy farmland to avoid inheritance tax (David Davies/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 moreCloseThe Treasury is reportedly considering plans to raise Inheritance Tax at the Budget, as part of an attempt to raise £40bn and plug a hole in the public finances. According to the BBC, the chancellor is considering multiple changes to the tax, which is charged at 40 per cent on the property, possessions and money of somebody who has died above a £325,000 threshold.Any changes to Inheritance Tax would most significantly impact the wealthy, with the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimating that just 5 per cent of all deaths incurred the charge in 2022–23.It raises about £7bn a year for the government and includes a number of reliefs, including exemptions for gifts given when a person is alive. But a recent YouGov poll found just 27 per cent of the public would support a rise in inheritance tax, while 60 per cent oppose the idea. Other polls have consistently shown Britons consider inheritance tax to be unfair. The Treasury is looking to raise as much as £40 billion at the budget 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 moreCloseDowning Street has slapped down Tory MP Sir Christopher Chope after he claimed Kemi Badenoch is “preoccupied with her children”.Weighing in on the Conservative Party leadership race in a television interview, the MP for Christchurch had claimed it was impossible to be an opposition leader while spending “all your time” with your family.Asked about the remarks, which sparked widespread backlash, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said on Friday: “His comments are never directed at men or fathers, bizarrely.”Sir Christopher Chope in the House of Commons, Westminster (House of Commons/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 considering around £3bn of cuts to the welfare bill over the next four years by restricting access to sickness benefits, it is understood, as the chancellor embarks on a brutal cost-cutting mission to fill a so-called £22 billion black hole left by the Tories.Under Conservative proposals, welfare eligibility would have been tightened so that around 400,000 more people who are signed off long-term would be assessed as needing to prepare for employment by 2028/29, as well as being entitled to £260 a month less in benefits. The OBR estimated the reforms would cut around £3bn from the welfare bill. According to The Telegraph, Ms Reeves has agreed to honour the £3bn savings, but work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall will decide exactly how the system will be changed to save the same amount.Asked why Labour was pressing ahead with plans made by the previous Conservative government to reform work capability rules, work and pensions minister Alison McGovern said the department “has to make savings because we are in a terrible financial situation.”But she added: “To be clear, on that point we will bring forward our own reforms because the last 14 years have been a complete failure when it comes to employment.”Chancellor Rachel Reeves giving a speech at the Treasury (Jonathan Brady/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 moreCloseLondon primary schools are being encouraged to introduce healthy relationship classes as part of a new attempt to tackle the influence of Andrew Tate and combat violence against women.Teachers will be provided with online courses and toolkits to help them run classes and workshops in every school, Sadiq Khan announced on Friday. The move comes as research shows that young people are increasingly being exposed to misogynist influencers on social media.One in three young males have a positive view of Tate, polling from Savanta showed, while one in ten children have watched pornography by the time they are nine, research conducted by the Children’s Commissioner last year indicated. The Savanta survey, which spoke to 1,200 16-25 year-olds in June 2023, showed that 32 per cent of young men say they have a positive view of him, compared to just nine per cent of young women. Tate, who has described himself as the “king of toxic masculinity”, has millions of followers on social media and regularly expresses extreme views about women. He is currently facing charges of human trafficking, rape and exploiting women in Romania – allegations which he denies.The toolkit is aimed at teaching pupils about healthy and respectful relationships as part a wider attempt to tackle violence against women and girls.On Friday, the London mayor wrote to every primary school in London to highlight the importance of pupils learning about equality and respect, saying there has “never been a more important time to counter the pernicious influence of those who preach misogyny online”.He said: “Young people must learn about respectful relationships before they start seeing content from individuals like Andrew Tate online.”The new £1million toolkit, funded by the mayor and developed by educational experts Tender, uses workshops, drama and interactive sessions in the classroom to teach pupils between ages 9 and 11 what harmful behaviour looks like.The toolkit will be used by primary school teachers and supported by specially trained workshop leaders, City Hall said.Mr Khan said: “It’s never too early to start educating young Londoners about the need to treat one another fairly and kindly. And it’s important for young boys and girls to learn about equality and respect for one another.London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced a new healthy relationships toolkit 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 moreCloseLess than a third of voters have trust in the government as Labour’s woes intensify, according to a new poll.The Conservatives have also closed the gap with Labour to its lowest level since April 2022, when Boris Johnson was still prime minister. The Techne UK weekly tracker poll for The Independent will pile pressure on Sir Keir Starmer as he prepares for the toughest test of his premiership so far – this month’s Budget. Already a cabinet row over swingeing spending cuts has erupted into the open, even as the party tries to move on from controversies over freebies, tickets to Taylor Swift concerts and the decision to strip millions of pensioners of their winter fuel allowance.In a chaotic few weeks, Sir Keir has also been forced to sack his chief of staff Sue Gray and faced accusations he will break a manifesto pledge with tax rises in the Budget. Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer is preparing for the toughest test of his premiership so far, the Budget More