UK

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 moreCloseFormer Scottish first ministerAlex Salmond penned a series of poignant X posts about Scottish independence just before his sudden death at the age of 69.The Alba leader died on Saturday afternoon at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy Forum in the North Macedonia lake-resort town of Ohrid, the party’s general secretary Chris McEleny confirmed.Mr Salmond had made a speech at the event, and the party said it understood he suffered a heart attack at lunch in a crowded room, although there will be a post-mortem examination to confirm the cause of death.Tributes have been pouring in for Mr Salmond – who served as first minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014 and was leader of the SNP on two occasions, from 1990 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2014.Contemporaries from across the political spectrum expressed their condolences and shock at his death, with many referencing his passion for Scotland and fight for Scottish independence.Former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond has died suddenly at the age of 69 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 owner of P&O ferries will attend a key investment summit after Sir Keir Starmer distanced himself from comments by a minister who called the firm a “cowboy operator”.After efforts by Downing Street to smooth relations, it is understood that DP World will now attend Monday’s gathering, despite the row over Louise Haigh’s comments about the firm. The ferry operator’s Dubai-based parent company was expected to announce £1 billion of investment in the UK at the Government’s International Investment Summit, which is thought to be key to government plans to attract investment to the country.But DP World was reported to have pulled out of the event and placed its investment plans under review, according to Sky News, after Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Transport Secretary Ms Haigh repeated criticism of P&O Ferries.The operator faced scrutiny by politicians from both main parties in March 2022 when it suddenly sacked 800 British seafarers and replaced them with cheaper, mainly overseas, staff, saying it was necessary to stave off bankruptcy.P&O Ferries was sharply criticised by MPs from all parties after suddenly sacking 800 seafarers in March 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 moreCloseFormer Trades Union Congress president Matt Wrack has fired a warning shot across the bow of Sir Keir Starmer after his failure to back transport secretary Louise Haigh over comments she made about the owners of P&O Ferries.The row exploded after DP World yesterday decided to cancel £1 billon investment in Thames Gateway following comments on a new workers rights package made by Ms Haigh and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.Mr Wrack, the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union who led the negotiations with Labour on the worker’s rights package, warned Sir Keir that criticism of Ms Haigh was “unacceptable” and he praised her for taking on “rogue employers” like P&O’s parent company DP World.Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer with Transport Secretary Louise Haigh (Owen Humphreys/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 moreCloseBarristers have issued a “warning shot” to the new government in the long-running dispute over legal aid funding, as the Criminal Bar Association raised the threat of industrial action.In a twin blow, as patience wears thin over Labour ministers’ handling of the courts crisis, the Law Society simultaneously urged solicitors to consider either scaling back or stopping taking on legal aid cases, warning that the system is now “at the limits of financial viability”.Funding for legal aid – which helps people pay for legal advice and representation – has fallen by 28 per cent in real terms over the past decade, with remuneration fees for lawyers involved in civil cases now approximately half of their value in 1996, according to the National Audit Office.With the pool of lawyers willing to take on such work severely diminishing, further reducing the number of people able to access legal aid after austerity-era laws tightened eligibility, legal professionals have been engaged in a years-long battle to urgently boost the funding available.Fuelling mounting frustration, the Criminal Bar Association revealed this week that Sir Keir Starmer’s government has been sitting for two months on an independent report assessing the dire state of criminal legal aid – and urged ministers to publish it ahead of the chancellor’s upcoming Budget.Warning that “there may be an assumption that we will not react” if the as-yet-unpublished report’s recommendations are not implemented, the group’s chair Mary Prior KC said it will ballot its members “to consider what the next steps will be” and is “ready to act in accordance with their wishes”.Raising the spectre of the strikes, which saw parts of the justice system grind to a near-halt in 2022 over the legal aid row, the group’s chair Mary Prior KC said that “experience has taught us that there is no movement from government without significant disruption to the courts”.Describing Ms Prior’s statement as “a warning shot to the Ministry of Justice” and “quite possibly the start of the resumption of industrial action”, criminal defence solicitor Stephen Davies said: “Who could blame [them]? We have been ignored repeatedly.”The courts backlog means some judges are now scheduling new trials for as far away as mid-2027 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 moreCloseKemi Badenoch has previously declared herself “the one person that can beat Keir Starmer”. And now she is close to becoming the prime minister’s direct opponent in politics after reaching the final head-to-head in the Conservative Party leadership election against Robert Jenrick.Her allies say she is straight-talking and has the proven Conservative credentials to win back disillusioned voters. But can she win the support of party members?She has been accused of making enemies too easily. And after a number of slip-ups throughout the campaign trail there are some concerns the former business secretary is too much of a risk of controversy to lead the Tory party to victory. Ms Badenoch has defined herself as the “culture war” candidate after dedicating herself to anti-woke policies. Over the years, she has regularly taken aim at gender identity services and used her Tory party conference platform to reject critical race theory.Earlier this year she even found herself in a public row with Doctor Who actor David Tennant, who is a vocal trans rights advocate, after he said he wished she “did not exist anymore”.Kemi Badenoch previously said she is ‘the one person that can beat Keir Starmer’ 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 has risked deepening a rift in his own government after he used an interview with the BBC to criticise his transport secretary Louise Haigh.The prime minister appeared on the BBC News Newscast podcast with Adam Fleming and Chris Mason, where he was pressed on Ms Haigh’s comments to ITV earlier this week where she suggested a boycott of P&O ferries.The transport secretary had been discussing widespread anger with the ferry company over its decision to fire and rehire 800 employees to save money.The fallout saw P&O’s parent company DP World cancel a £1 billion Thames Gateway investment in protest ahead of the government’s major investors summit on Monday. It is understood the firm particularly objected to Ms Haigh calling them a “cowboy operator”.Grilled on what he thought of the minister’s comments, the prime minister slapped her down publicly.P&O’s parent company DP World cancelled a £1 billion Thames Gateway investment More