UK

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreBritain’s economy unexpectedly eked out growth in the final three months of last year, but Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she was “still not satisfied” as fears remain over a lacklustre performance.Official figures showed gross domestic product (GDP) edged 0.1% higher between October and December, defying forecasts by analysts and the Bank of England for a contraction in the quarter.It follows zero growth in the previous three months, which had led to fears that the UK was on the brink of recession.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that the economy expanded by 0.4% in December, which is better than most analysts expected, and marked a pick up following a 0.1% rise in November and a 0.1% fall in October.It eases the immediate pressure on the Chancellor, but there are still worries over whether she will meet her fiscal rules, as well as the impact on businesses and jobs from recent Budget measures.Speaking to broadcasters following the figures, Ms Reeves said: “The growth numbers have come in higher than many expected, but I’m still not satisfied with the level of growth that our economy is achieving.“And that’s why I am determined to go further and faster in delivering the economic growth and the improvements in living standards that our country deserves.”The ONS said growth in services and production drove the growth in December, which was the fastest monthly growth since March last year.The fourth quarter figures and an upward revision to first quarter output – to 0.8% growth from 0.7% previously – means the economy grew by 0.9% overall in 2024, up from 0.4% growth in 2023.But experts said the economy was not out of the woods yet, with the Bank last week halving its forecast for growth to just 0.75% for 2025.Warnings are mounting that moves to hike national insurance contributions and the minimum wage at last October’s budget will see businesses raise prices and slash jobs.The latest data also showed living standards under pressure, with real GDP per head – the volume of goods and services available to the average person, according to the ONS – falling by 0.1% in the last quarter and by 0.1% across 2024 overall.Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said Ms Reeves’ budget was “killing growth” and working people and businesses were “already paying for her choices”.Ms Reeves has vowed to spur on economic growth and make it the Government’s top priority, recently paving the way for a third runway at London’s Heathrow airport as part of this ambition.However, Britain’s independent forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), is expected to reveal downgrades to growth forecasts in the spring statement on March 26, which it has reportedly warned the Chancellor this will wipe out her £10 billion “headroom” — spare money against its spending plans.This will put Ms Reeves under pressure to cut spending or even resort to potential tax rises to keep her on track with fiscal rules, according to economists.Economist James Smith at ING cautioned that “tweaks to future spending plans look likely in March”.He said: “The lacklustre end to 2024 will only cement the loss of fiscal headroom the Treasury must now grapple with.“The OBR has predicted 2% growth this year. It now looks likely it will be around half that.” More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreSir Keir Starmer is to usher in a new generation of new towns around the UK with spades in the ground before the next election in 2029.The prime minister has revealed that there have been 100 applications from local councils to build new towns in every region in England with settlements starting at 10,000 homes and upwards.The 100 sites put forward by councils are currently being kept a secret but the final 10 to 12 will be announced in six months’ time.However, he would not rule out greenfield land being used even though the priority will be brownfield and semi-developed greyfield.Keir Starmer and King Charles look at a development in the Duchy of Cornwall More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreKeir Starmer’s biggest argument for handing over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius appears to have been “blown out of the water” by one of his own ministers.Over the weekend government security officials briefed Bloomberg that the UK had no option but to give up sovereignty on the islands which house the crucial Diego Garcia UK/US airbase because they were in danger of losing control of the satellite communications system.According to the official sources the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) which controls the network of satellite communications could sever the links “if an international court was to rule in future that the US and UK were using Diego Garcia to run satellite communications in breach of international law.”Diego Garcia base More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreThe Home Office has toughened up guidance to make it nearly impossible for refugees to become British citizens if they travel to the UK by small boat. The move has sparked an outcry from Labour MPs and refugee charities, who urged the government to reconsider.On Monday, the department updated guidance for staff assessing refugees so it now says applicants who have “made a dangerous journey will normally be refused citizenship”.Under the previous guidance, refugees who arrived in the UK by irregular routes would be required to wait 10 years before being considered for citizenship. The Refugee Council, which estimates the update will prevent over 70,000 refugees from obtaining British citizenship, said the move “flies in the face of reason”. People who left France in small boats arrive in Dover, Kent in a Border Force vessel More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreSir Keir Starmer has been warned by furious Scottish fishermen not to sell them down the river in his post-Brexit reset of relations with the EU. The prime minister has been told to keep hold of sovereignty over Britain’s fishing waters as he seeks to rebuild ties with the bloc, with EU leaders eyeing access to UK waters as a priority in negotiations. “The Scottish fishing industry has twice in the past been regarded as expendable by British prime ministers when it comes to Europe,” warned the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) chief executive Elspeth Macdonald. Ms Macdonald added: “We must not have a repeat of 1973 when the condition of entry to the EEC was that our richly endowed fishing waters be pooled with other members, or of 2020 when the Brexit agreement, while restoring the UK to the status of sovereign coastal state, granted continued access to our waters to EU vessels to catch far more fish in our waters than they catch in their own.” Sir Keir Starmer has pursued a policy of ‘resetting’ relations with the EU (Benjamin Cremel/PA) More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreWhen one of Nigel Farage’s long-term and loyal allies suggests that Keir Starmer’s party is being “nasty” by publishing videos of migrant raids, alarm bells should be ringing in Labour HQ.Gawain Towler has carefully nurtured the messaging around Farage’s inflammatory, hardline, anti-migrant rhetoric for many years through Ukip, the Brexit Party and until recently with Reform. And yet even he was horrified by what he saw from Labour this week.That was before the home secretary announced that asylum seekers on small boats would not be allowed UK citizenship in almost any circumstances. As Labour MP Stella Creasy noted, that meant even Paddington Bear would be denied.Towler is not alone in calling out the nastiness. Even before this new wave of anti-migrant policies was properly unleashed in November Labour peer Ann Mallalieu was warning Starmer that he was turning them into the “nasty party”.The “nasty party” phrase was infamously coined by Theresa May in 2002, when she was assessing why the Conservatives had lost the previous two elections so badly. Nobody liked the Conservatives then, but it seems that Starmer’s Labour government risks becoming equally unlikable.Keir Starmer is getting tough on migrants More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreWatch live as UK defence secretary John Healey holds a press conference on Ukraine on Wednesday, 12 February, after the US appeared to rule out sending troops to peacekeep any ceasefire.Mr Healey’s US counterpart, Pete Hegseth has said NATO membership for Ukraine is unrealistic and suggested that the way forward for the country was to abandon hopes of a return to its pre-2014 borders and prepare for a negotiated settlement with Russia.Hegseth made the comments during the first trip to NATO and the Ukraine Defense Contact Group by a member of the new Trump administration. Allies have been waiting to hear how much continued military and financial support Washington intends to provide to Ukraine’s government.What they heard was that Donald Trump is intent on getting Europe to assume the majority of the financial and military responsibilities for the defense of Ukraine — to include a possible peacekeeping force that would not include U.S. troops — and that Hegseth said should not have Article Five protections if those troops end up in contact with Russian forces.Sir Keir Starmer has reiterated that Britain must put Ukraine in “the strongest possible position.”He told MPs the government’s commitment to backing Kyiv matters “just as much as it mattered at the beginning of this conflict” amid uncertainty over the future of the war. More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreHeathrow airport has announced a multibillion-pound investment to expand two of its terminals as it prepares its proposal for a new runway, saying “the UK risks losing its status as a global trading hub” if the airport does not grow.In a speech on Wednesday, chief executive Thomas Woldbye unveiled funding for upgrades and expansion, including construction of the runway – something he said is expected to bring “tangible benefits” this year. The upgrades will also include boosting the capacity of Terminals 2 and 5, reconfiguring the layout of the airfield, and improving bus and coach connections.Rachel Reeves last month threw her backing behind the £20bn infrastructure project in an attempt to kickstart growth in the UK. The chancellor hopes the project – which the government aims to complete by 2035 – will boost growth in Britain, as the economy teeters on the brink of recession. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves launched spending plans as part of the October Budget (Ian Forsyth/PA) More