UK

A war of words has erupted over Bridget Phillipson’s school reforms, with the education secretary urging critics to “try leaving London for a change”.Ms Phillipson said she was being attacked by Tory shadow ministers and “their friends in the commentariat” all based in the capital, with many academies outside London struggling or failing altogether. She wrote in The Daily Telegraph: “Opposition shadow ministers and their friends in the commentariat should try leaving London for a change: they’ll find plenty of underperforming academies which need new answers to drive up standards in their classrooms.”Ms Phillipson urged critics to ‘leave London for a change’ More

Watch live as Labour is expected to announce plans to slash billions of pounds from the UK’s benefit bill amid a growing backlash among the party’s backbenchers.Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall will address the House of Commons laying out the Sir Keir Starmer’s plans for welfare reform to get more people back to work and cut the cost of the benefits bill by as much as £5bn.Labour backbenchers have met the plans with fierce criticism. Veteran left-winger Diane Abbott described the overhaul as “not a Labour thing to do”.Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden defended the plans, saying that the Cabinet is “united” behind the move and that people on long-term sickness benefits should not “languish there forever”.Reforms to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) are widely expected, with Labour MPs understood to be divided on the cost-cutting policy package. The payment is designed to help people with extra costs incurred by their disability, whether they are working or not. More

Millions of people will be prevented from signing off work and living off sickness benefits indefinitely, Cabinet minister Pat McFadden has warned ahead of major welfare reforms to be announced on Tuesday. Issuing a stern message ahead of the work and pensions secretary’s statement in the Commons, Mr McFadden – seen by many as Keir Starmer’s de facto deputy prime minister – said the government was determined to make the welfare state “fit for the 21st century”. He vowed to see off rebel Labour MPs opposed to benefits cuts and rejected calls for the new measures to be replaced by a wealth tax.Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden More

The shocking scale of the benefits cuts needed by Rachel Reeves to balance the books could see the disabled and long-term sick lose as much as £1,200 a year, a leading think tank has warned.The analysis by the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies comes as work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall will unveil plans to slash benefits by around £5bn.The government has already indicated that it will focus on working-age welfare claimants, particularly those claiming disability and incapacity welfare payments, with fears that the annual bill for these benefits will hit £70bn by 2030.The concerns come as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) downgraded the UK’s already low growth forecasts in the wake of the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs around the world.Chancellor Rachel Reeves met with regulators on Monday to discuss ways of cutting red tape to boost growth in a bid to kickstart the economy More

Keir Starmer has been told he is “running out of excuses” to press ahead with the controversial deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.It comes after a minister admitted that Britain actually has a protection in international law against one of the major reasons senior politicians have been briefed that the UK has no choice but to hand over the islands.The government is closing in on a deal to hand over the Chagos Islands on the back of an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that the archipelago belongs to Mauritius. The agreement would see the UK lease back the Diego Garcia airbase for 140 years at an expected cost of £18bn. Donald Trump has indicated he backs the deal but critics point out that the ICJ ruling is only advisory.The Independent has learned that senior politicians have been briefed that one of the main reasons to go ahead with the deal is that the UK would fall foul of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), preventing ships going to and from the base. But a written answer has revealed that the UK is protected under international law against UNCLOS challenges.US navy at Diego Garcia More

Nigel Farage’s unveiling of 29 new Reform UK councillors fell apart within less than an hour as it emerged just nine are new, with only three of those standing for election. The Reform leader used a press conference at a swanky London hotel on Monday to unveil the slew of new councillors, claiming their defections proved “this party is very much on the up”.But the lack of high-profile names among the new defectors fed speculation that a steady stream of turncoats has largely dried up as a result of a bitter spat between Mr Farage and Rupert Lowe, the ousted ex-Reform MP. The Conservatives said Mr Farage was seeking to distract from the open warfare engulfing Reform and hoodwink journalists. Tory officials pointed out that while Mr Farage claimed all the councillors had defected in the past two weeks, four had joined Reform a month or more before the press conference. The Conservatives said Nigel Farage used Monday’s announcement as a distraction from Reform UK infighting More