UK

A former Labour councillor has been charged after a probe into the Westminster honeytrap scandal. Oliver Steadman, 28, has been charged with one count of blackmail and five counts of improper use of a public phone network.He will appear in court on 3 November. The former Labour councillor was arrested last June in a probe More

Nigel Farage has secured his first Labour defector as a borough councillor became the first to abandon Sir Keir Starmer’s party for Reform UK. In a significant shift, Mason Humberstone became the first Labour politician to jump ship to the insurgent right-wing party. His defection follows a series of Labour councillors joining the Green Party or switching to a pro-Gaza independent ticket. And it follows a slew of former and current Tory MPs and councillors joining Mr Farage’s ranks. Mason Humberstone has defected from Labour to Reform More

Donald Trump and his allies have done “the most to fan the flames of divisive, far-right politics around the world in recent years”, Sir Sadiq Khan has said. As the US president arrived in the UK for his historic second state visit, the London mayor attacked him for “scapegoating minorities, illegally deporting US citizens and deploying the military to the streets of diverse cities”. “These actions aren’t just inconsistent with Western values – they’re straight out of the autocrat’s playbook,” Sir Sadiq added. Sadiq Khan said Donald Trump has fanned the flames of the far-right More

Sir Keir Starmer is pinning his hopes of political revival on the long-awaited state visit by Donald Trump as the two leaders unveiled a multibillion-pound tech investment deal to kick off the historic two-day affair.The under-fire prime minister will be hoping to make progress on the international stage after coming through his worst fortnight since entering office. The past two weeks have seen the sacking of Peter Mandelson and the resignation of two of Sir Keir’s key allies, events that have prompted speculation that he may not remain in post until the next election.As President Trump touched down in the UK, the two leaders announced a “tech prosperity deal” that will see Britain and the US cooperate on AI, nuclear power, and quantum computing. As part of £31bn worth of backing from America’s top tech companies, Microsoft will make its largest ever investment in the UK, of £22bn.As a buoyant Mr Trump departed the White House, he made clear that he is open to helping Britain when it comes to trade, but reserved his praise for “my friend” King Charles, whom he described as an “elegant gentleman”.He told reporters: “They want to see if they can refine the trade deal … and I’m into helping them.”The president is known to be fond of the King, whom he has described as an ‘elegant gentleman’ More

Britain and the US have struck a tech deal that could bring billions of pounds of investment to the UK as President Donald Trump arrived for his second state visit.Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the agreement represented “a general step change” in Britain’s relationship with the US that would deliver “growth, security and opportunity up and down the country”.The “tech prosperity deal”, announced as Mr Trump arrived in the UK on Tuesday night, will see the UK and US co-operate in areas including artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and nuclear power.It comes alongside £31 billion of investment in Britain from America’s top technology companies, including 30 billion dollars (£22 billion) from Microsoft.Microsoft’s investment, the largest ever made by the company in the UK, will fund an expansion of Britain’s AI infrastructure, which Labour sees as a key part of its efforts to secure economic growth, and the construction of the country’s largest AI supercomputer.Brad Smith, vice chairman and president of the firm, said it had “many conversations” with the UK Government, including No 10, “every month”, adding that the investment would have been “inconceivable because of the regulatory climate” in previous years.“You don’t spend £22 billion unless you have confidence in where the country, the Government and the market are all going,” he said.“And this reflects that level of confidence.”Microsoft is backing tech firm Nscale to contribute towards developing a major data centre in the UK, which the company said would help build out Britain’s cloud and AI infrastructure.Asked how much electricity capacity would be required for the build-out and how this would be supplied, Mr Smith said: “We already have the contracts in place for the power that will be needed for the investments that we’re announcing here.”Officials said the investment enabled by the tech partnership could speed up development of new medicines and see collaboration on research in areas such as space exploration and defence.The Prime Minister said: “This tech prosperity deal marks a generational step change in our relationship with the US, shaping the futures of millions of people on both sides of the Atlantic, and delivering growth, security and opportunity up and down the country.”The build-up to Mr Trump’s second state visit has already seen London and Washington announce a deal on co-operating on building new nuclear power stations, and a £5 billion investment by Google in Britain’s AI sector.It also follows the agreement of an economic deal in May this year that covered a reduction in some tariffs imposed by Mr Trump in April, although plans to eliminate US tariffs on British steel have now been shelved.It emerged on the eve of Mr Trump’s visit that a proposed deal to secure the removal of the levy, which stands at 25%, has been put on ice.Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the US-UK tech deal was “a vote of confidence in Britain’s booming AI sector” that would “deliver good jobs, life-saving treatments and faster medical breakthroughs”.The deal was also praised by tech bosses, including Jensen Huang, founder of chip company Nvidia, which has agreed to deploy 120,000 advanced processors across the UK to help the British AI sector.Mr Huang said: “Today marks a historic chapter in US-United Kingdom technology collaboration.“We are at the Big Bang of the AI era – and the United Kingdom stands in a Goldilocks position, where world-class talent, research and industry converge.”Other investments announced alongside the tech deal include:– £1.5 billion from AI cloud computing company CoreWeave to expand data centre capacity and operations, including a partnership with UK firm DataVita– £1.4 billion from Salesforce, aimed at making its UK business an AI hub for Europe, part of a £4.4 billion investment over the next five years– More than £1 billion from UK-based AI Pathfinder to deliver additional compute capacity, starting in NorthamptonshireSalesforce chief executive Zahra Bahrololoumi said: “We’ll tap into the UK’s legacy of global AI breakthroughs and expertise to create an AI hub for Europe.“With new R&D teams and groundbreaking AI innovation, we’ll help create jobs right here in the UK.”ChatGPT developer OpenAI has also agreed to partner with Nscale to deploy its Stargate data centre project at a new AI growth zone in the north-east of England with sites in Blyth and Cobalt Park near Newcastle.The Government said Cobalt Park would see thousands of cutting-edge computer chips expected to be rolled out by NScale.The AI growth zone as a whole, with the new data centre in Blyth, will “increase its energy capacity to 1.1GW in the next six years – making it one of the biggest data centres in Europe and creating thousands of new jobs,” the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said.It will create potential for more than 5,000 jobs and £30 billion in private investment, according to officials.Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, said: “The UK has been a longstanding pioneer of AI, and is now home to world-class researchers, millions of ChatGPT users, and a government that quickly recognised the potential of this technology.“Stargate UK builds on this foundation to help accelerate scientific breakthroughs, improve productivity, and drive economic growth.”North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said: “Today’s announcement of an AI Growth Zone places the North East at the forefront of the next technology revolution and will lead to billions of pounds of new investment in our region, thousands of better jobs and new opportunities for local people.”Julia Lopez, shadow science secretary, said the Conservatives welcomed the announcement, adding: “But it comes against a backdrop of declining foreign direct investment into the UK. Under Labour, the number of FDI projects fell by 12% last year to the lowest level on record.”The potential of the UK’s “world-leading scientists, innovators and tech firms” is being “squandered”, Ms Lopez said, adding: “The loss of major pharmaceutical deals, including AstraZeneca’s decision to pause its planned £200 million investment in Cambridge, is a damning indictment of Labour’s failure to provide a stable and competitive business environment.”On Wednesday, pharmaceutical giant GSK announced plans to invest 30 billion dollars (£21.9 billion) in research and development as well as supply chain infrastructure in the United States over the next five years.The investment includes 1.2 billion dollars (£878.9 million) to build new biopharma factories and laboratories in the US, AI and digital technologies, the company confirmed. More

A former Reform UK MP is being investigated over claims that he used social media to “facilitate racial abuse”.James McMurdock, who suspended himself from the party over separate allegations about loans during the pandemic, is facing a probe by parliament’s standards commissioner. It comes after he allegedly started a so-called “N-tower” on social media, a way of spelling out the n-word without being subject to a platform’s content-moderation practices. James McMurdock is facing a standards probe More

Peter Mandelson did not have national security vetting before Sir Keir Starmer appointed him the UK’s ambassador to Washington, the foreign secretary has admitted.The shock revelation came as the prime minister was urged to apologise to the victims of the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and to “publish the Mandelson-Epstein files in full” as the government faced emergency questions on the ongoing scandal of Lord Mandelson’s links with the disgraced financier. Sir Keir was forced to sack the Labour grandee last week after the publication of emails that showed he had sent supportive messages even as Epstein faced jail for sex offences.The prime minister sacked Peter Mandelson last week but has faced questions about his judgement in appointing the peer More