UK

Doctors no longer have the support of the public for strike action, Wes Streeting has warned, urging them to vote against proposed walkouts this week. Resident doctors in England, formerly known as junior doctors, are demanding a massive 29 per cent pay uplift to end the ongoing cycle of strikes that has caused “so much harm to patients and the wider healthcare system”. They have started receiving ballots for renewed industrial action after ministers last week announced that most doctors would receive a 4 per cent pay rise following the latest review of public sector pay, with resident doctors to receive an extra £750 on top of the uplift.While the British Medical Association (BMA), the union representing doctors, said the pay rise does not go far enough in restoring historical pay freezes, Mr Streeting warned: “We can’t afford to return to a continuous cycle of stand-offs, strikes, and cancellations.” Resident doctor members of the BMA have taken industrial action 11 times since 2022, with NHS England estimating the walkouts led to almost 1.5 million appointments being cancelled or rescheduled.Health Secretary Wes Streeting (Lucy North/PA) More

Portugal’s anti-immigration Chega party notched another political gain for Europe’s far right on Wednesday after it was assigned the second-most seats in parliament — meaning it will become the head of the parliamentary opposition to the new government.That shatters the pattern of Portugal’s center-right and center-left mainstream parties alternating between heading a government or leading the opposition.Chega’s strides since the May 18 election coincide with gains elsewhere by far-right forces. In Europe, those include France’s National Rally, the Brothers of Italy and Alternative for Germany, which are now in the political mainstream.Leading the opposition is quite the accomplishment for a once-fringe party that competed in its first election six years ago, when it won one seat. It has surged recently with its hardline stance against immigration and with the inability of traditional parties to form lasting governments. The May 18th election was Portugal’s third in as many years.Chega, which means “Enough,” secured 60 of the National Assembly’s 230 seats after it picked up two more seats on Wednesday from the overseas voters of the European Union country of 10.6 million people.“This is a profound change in the Portuguese political system,” Chega leader Andre Ventura told supporters after Chega bested the Socialists by two seats.The center-right Democratic Alliance, led by the Social Democratic Party, captured two more seats to take its tally to 88.Following the election, incoming Prime Minister Luis Montenegro was already looking at heading another minority government similar to the one that fell two months ago in a confidence vote after less than a year in power.But now Montenegro and other parties will face an emboldened far-right competitor that campaigned under the slogan “Save Portugal” and describes itself as a nationalist party.___Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. More

Rachel Reeves is facing a revolt from an influential group of Labour MPs amid accusations that she has forgotten about investment in the North and Midlands.The concerns flagged by the red wall group of MPs come as the chancellor is in a standoff with other cabinet ministers, including deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, over the details of her upcoming spending review.The red wall areas in the North and Midlands are particularly under threat from the surge in support for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which swept to power in county councils earlier this month, including Durham at the expense of Labour.With the spending review set to be published on 11 June, it is understood that the Treasury has set a deadline of this weekend for government departments to agree spending plans, which will set priorities and budgets until the next election.Rachel Reeves is facing backlash from angry red wall MPs More

Peter Mandelson has hit out at what he said was a “fetish” for scrapping EU rules that work in Britain’s favour but warned that the UK will not rejoin the bloc “for the foreseeable future”.Speaking at the Atlantic Council in Washington, the UK’s ambassador to the US defended Sir Keir Starmer’s “reset” deal with the EU, saying the previous deal Britain had struck with the bloc was “pretty miserable”.He denied that closer alignment with the EU would begin the process of Britain rejoining it.“Why make a fetish of dis-alignment when we know that it’s in the interests of our business and traders to pursue and to follow those rules and standards”, he said.Peter Mandelson speaking at the 2025 Atlantic Council Christopher J Makins Lecture More

Boris Johnson’s ex-wife has urged Sir Keir Starmer to take a “more radical” approach to Brexit in order to correct the errors made in the EU deal struck by her former husband.Marina Wheeler, a human rights lawyer, has announced she is writing a new book urging the prime minister to go much further in his Brexit reset mission and build closer relations with Brussels. The new book, titled A More Perfect Union, will call on political leaders to admit that “Europe is once again central to Britain’s future” and argue that Britain should “build a union” with the bloc again.It comes just days after Mr Johnson launched a scathing attack on the prime minister’s Brexit deal, which he claimed was “hopelessly one-sided”. “Starmer promised at the election that he would not go back on Brexit. He has broken that promise as he broke his promise on tax”, the former prime minister posted on X. Sir Keir – who has made a Brexit reset a centrepiece of his administration – said last week’s UK-EU summit marks a “new era” of relations with the bloc, adding that it is about “moving on from stale old debates” and “looking forward, not backwards”.Boris Johnson and Marina Wheeler, who have four children together, separated in 2018 (Dominic Lipinski/PA) More

Plans to release violent criminals, including sex offenders, from prison early will make Britain less safe without more funding, the heads of the Metropolitan Police, MI5 and the National Crime Agency have warned.The senior police and security chiefs have publicly called on ministers to provide “serious investment” at next month’s spending review – piling pressure on Rachel Reeves to rethink her strct borrowing rules.In a joint letter to the Ministry of Justice, seen byThe Times, they argue that, without the “necessary resources” the decision to release more people early could be “of net detriment to public safety”.Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley (James Manning/PA) More

Doctors in England are demanding a massive 29 per cent pay uplift to end the ongoing cycle of strikes that has caused “so much harm to patients and the wider healthcare system”. Resident doctors in England, formerly known as junior doctors, have started receiving ballots for renewed industrial action following criticism of the government’s recent pay rise offer.The fresh demands will pile further pressure on the chancellor ahead of next week’s spending review. Rachel Reeves is facing mounting questions over whether or not she will be able to stick to her fiscal rules – restrictions the government sets itself to constrain its own decisions on spending and taxes – amid mounting spending demands. Health secretary Wes Streeting said there was ‘a revolution taking place in medical technology’ (Lucy North/PA) More

The UK and US must cooperate on new technologies such as artificial intelligence to counter the “clear shared threat” from China, Lord Peter Mandelson has said.The British ambassador to the US used a speech in Washington on Tuesday to warn that China posed a more serious threat than the Soviet Union and urge the UK and US to use this month’s trade deal as a springboard for even closer cooperation.Speaking to the Atlantic Council, he said: “We face a clear shared threat.“There is nothing in this world I fear more than China winning the race for technological dominance in the coming decades.“China represents a far more dynamic and formidable strategic rival than the Soviet Union ever was – economically sophisticated, highly innovative and strategically patient.”Labour has attempted to thaw relations with Beijing since coming to power, with ministers including Rachel Reeves and David Lammy visiting the country after a period of disengagement under the Conservatives – although the Government insists it will challenge China where necessary.But US President Donald Trump has been consistently hostile, applying much higher tariffs to Chinese goods than those from any other country.Arguing that the UK and US should “combine forces” to “drive the scientific breakthroughs that will define this century”, Lord Mandelson said AI should be “the spearpoint” of British-American collaboration.He added: “Rather than stifling these transformative technologies through excessive regulation, our two governments must unleash their immense potential for human benefit and Western advantage.”Lord Mandelson’s comments follow the announcement of a trade deal between London and Washington earlier in May that saw the US cut tariffs on British steel and cars, while keeping the 10% levy on imports in general.At the time, the Government said the agreement opened a path to “a future UK-US technology partnership”, as well as a digital trade deal subject to further negotiation.Lord Mandelson suggested that the 10% tariff rate was unlikely to come down, noting Mr Trump appeared “quite wedded” to the figure as a baseline.But he added that the two countries could look “within that baseline” to reduce tariffs and non-tariff barriers “where it is in our mutual advantage”. More