UK

Sir Keir Starmer has signed an agreement to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a scramble to prevent a further legal challenge after a last-minute injunction to halt the move failed on Thursday morning. The deal will see the UK give up sovereignty of the island territory to Mauritius and pay £101 million per year for 99 years to lease the US-UK military base on Diego Garcia back from the government.It could result in a total sum of £10bn carved out of the UK’s defence budget but the prime minister said the government had to “act now” because the Mauritians would likely win legal disputes against Britain.Sir Keir said the UK’s base in the Chagos Islands is “one of the most significant contributions that we make to our security relationship with the United States”.Keir Starmer said the UK had to hand the islands to Mauritius More

‘Migration will fall, that’s a promise’ Keir Starmer announces stricter immigration rulesDoctors are threatening strike action after the government announced they would receive a 4 per cent pay rise.The British Medical Association (BMA), the union representing doctors, said the pay rise does not go far enough in restoring historical pay freezes.The National Education Union (NEU), the largest union for teachers, meanwhile threatened to “register a dispute” with the government unless it fully funds the 4 per cent pay rise for teachers, part of which is currently due to be covered by existing school budgets.The pay increases, recommended by independent pay review bodies, are above the rate of inflation, which jumped to 3.5 per cent in April, up from 2.6 per cent in March and the highest since January 2024.But Professor Philip Banfield, the BMA’s chairman of council, warned it was already considering strike action, as the union believes the pay rise does not do enough to restore doctors’ pay after previous salary freezes.Elsewhere, most members of the armed forces will be given a 4.5 per cent pay rise; senior civil servants will get a 3.25 per cent pay rise; prison officers and managers are also set to get a 4 per cent pay rise; and judicial office holders, a group which includes judges, will also get a 4 per cent pay rise.Chagos Islands deal will cost the UK £3.4 billion, Says StarmerThe deal with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands will cost the UK £3.4 billion overall, Sir Keir Starmer said.Speaking as he signed a deal to hand over the islands, the Prime Minister said: “£101 million a year is the average cost. The net overall cost is therefore £3.4 billion overall. That’s over the 99 years.“The average £100 million per year is about the same, or slightly less than, the running cost of an aircraft carrier, minus the aircraft.“Now, given the significance of this facility, both the geography and the capability, you can see that as, again, measured against an aircraft carrier running costs that this is very good value for money.“I should also say that is very similar to arrangements made by other allies, the US and France in relation to the bases that they lease and make arrangements for as well.”He earlier told the audience at the handover that the base on Diego Garcia is essential for a range of UK defence matters, including anti-terror operations, telecommunications and its deep water port.( More

Sir Keir Starmer has been accused by an Israeli minister of “emboldening the forces of terror” that led to the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington DC.A gunman shot young diplomat couple Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim from close range after they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum, police said on Wednesday night. The suspect then walked into the building chanting ‘Free Palestine’ before he was apprehended by security and arrested.Israeli ministers have directed blame towards western political leaders, suggesting their recent condemnation of Israel’s aid blockade and resumed offensive in Gaza was partly to blame.Click here for the latest on the Washington DC shooting. Yaron Lischinsky, right, and his partner Sarah Milgrim were victims of Washington DC shooting More

The justice secretary has said that many sentencing reforms aimed at easing prison overcrowding have been accepted by the government, including chemical castration for sex offenders.Speaking in the House of Commons on Thursday (22 May), Shabana Mahmood said 20 prisons will pilot the scheme, which aims to reduce the risk of reoffending.“Of course, it is vital that this approach is taken alongside psychological interventions that target other causes of offending, power and control,” she said.It was one of 48 recommendations put forward by former justice secretary David Gauke to ensure there is space in prisons for the most dangerous offenders.She also accepted reforms to allow some criminals, including violent and sexual offenders, to be released at an earlier point in their sentence if they show good behaviour.“If they follow prison rules, they will earn an earlier release. If they do not, they will be locked up for longer,” she said, though stressed that terrorists and the most dangerous offenders will not be eligible.Ms Mahmood also announced that the government will scrap the use of short sentences of less than 12 months, and that the Probation Service will also receive a funding boost of up to £700m by 2028/29. More

Net migration to the UK almost halved last year, new figures have revealed, sparking concerns over a worker shortage in the UK.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said 948,000 people came to Britain in 2024, with 519,000 leaving in the year to December 2024.The 431,000 net migration figure is around half the 860,000 level seen a year earlier, driven by a fall in non-EU workers and students coming to the UK, and marks the largest fall on record. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced his immigration reform plans earlier this month More

Angela Rayner wanted cuts to the benefits migrants can claim as an alternative to Labour’s plans to cut the welfare budget for thousands of disabled people, a leaked memo suggests. In what appears to be a briefing war by sources in the Treasury against the deputy prime minister, the revelations show that Ms Rayner was at odds with Chancellor Rachel Reeves.The memo, which first appeared in the Daily Telegraph, shows that Ms Rayner wanted to restrict recently arrived legal migrants’ access to pensions and benefits, and reconsider whether they should pay more to access NHS services.Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner More

A top Romanian court on Thursday rejected as unfounded a request to annul the presidential election by the hard-right candidate who decisively lost the race to his pro-European Union opponent on Sunday.After deliberations on Thursday, Romania’s Constitutional Court unanimously rejected the annulment request, filed on Tuesday by George Simion, in which he alleged that foreign interference and coordinated manipulation affected the vote. Simion, the 38-year-old leader of the hard-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians had conceded defeat after losing in the runoff to Nicusor Dan, the Bucharest mayor who obtained 53.6% of the vote, a margin of more than 829,000 votes. More