UK

Angela Rayner has faced criticism this week for purchasing an £800,000 seaside apartment in Hove, which will be a third home for the deputy prime minister.Ms Rayner divides her time between a £350,000 home in her constituency near Manchester and her central London grace-and-favour flat at Admiralty House in Whitehall.Initially, the criticism centred around allegations of hypocrisy, as it comes as Ms Rayner, who is also the housing secretary, prepares to levy an extra 100 per cent council tax charge on second homes.The deputy prime minister said a scheme to speed up house building is helping to ‘turn the tide’ of the housing crisis (Peter Byrne/PA) More

The UK’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has been increasingly called into question in recent years amid growing concern over illegal migration. But the issue has come to a head in August as a result of outrage over the number of asylum seekers housed in hotels in Britain, with protests breaking out across the UK. Here, The Independent takes a look at what the ECHR is, why some people think we should quit and why others say leaving may bring more problems than it solves. What is the ECHR? The ECHR is an international human rights treaty between the 47 states that are members of the Council of Europe (CoE). Governments that are signed up to the ECHR have made a legal commitment to abide by certain standards of behaviour and to protect the basic rights and freedoms of people. It is aimed at protecting the rule of law and promoting democracy in European countries.The concept of the ECHR was devised during the Second World War in the early 1940s, and was developed to ensure that governments would never again be allowed to dehumanise and abuse people’s rights with impunity, and to help fulfil the promise of ‘never again’.After the ECHR came into force in 1953, the European Court of Human Rights was then set up to safeguard the ECHR. Judgments of the court legally bind countries to stand by its rulings. There is growing public anger over illegal migration More

Rachel Reeves should tax bank profits to recover taxpayer money spent on compensating losses from the Bank of England’s cash-printing drive, a think tank has said.Hiking a levy on the windfalls from major firms such as Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC and NatWest could raise up to £8 billion a year for public services, according to a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research.The think tank argues the UK is an international outlier in having its Treasury pay for central Bank losses on its bond-buying quantitative easing (QE) programme.After a period of making profits on this programme, the Bank of England is facing record losses, estimated to cost the taxpayer £22 billion a year, as interest rates have risen since 2021, it warned.This money is then partly being funnelled to bank shareholders due to a “flawed” policy design, boosting profits while millions across Britain continue to face cost-of-living pressures, the report says.It recommends the Treasury introduce a “QE reserves income levy”, similar to the 2.5 per cent deposit tax imposed on banks under Margaret Thatcher in 1981, to rebalance the existing set-up.Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey More

Asda’s chairman has urged Rachel Reeves to stop “taxing everything in some way, shape or form”.Allan Leighton advised the chancellor to invest in Britain if she wants to grow the economy, not launch a new tax raid in her upcoming budget later this year.Ms Reeves is grappling with the various options at her disposal to fill a £50bn hole in the public finances, while she attempts to stay within her self-imposed fiscal rules.Among the policies believed to be under consideration by the chancellor, the most headline-grabbing is a so-called “mansion tax”, which would hit the owners of high-value properties with capital gains tax when they sell their homes.A likely move will also see the Treasury extend the freeze on income tax thresholds. This means that as wages rise with inflation, over the years workers are dragged into higher tax bands and end up paying more.Asda’s chairman has urged Rachel Reeves to stop ‘taxing everything in some way, shape or form’ More

Nigel Farage’s plans for the mass deportation of asylum seekers are “beneath us as a nation”, the UK’s top bishop has said.Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell argued that the Reform UK leader’s radical proposals to “send them all back”, which would involve returning migrants to war, violence and persecution, go against “the British way”.He said it has been a longstanding tenet in the UK that “compassion and understanding” is what is provided to those in need, as he warned that this country “cannot simply close the door”.The archbishop’s remarks come days after Mr Farage said his party would remove 600,000 asylum seekers, including children, under the first parliament of a Reform government, should they win power.At a press conference in London on Tuesday, he also pledged to scale up detention capacity for asylum seekers to 24,000 and secure deals with countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea and Iran to return migrants to their countries.Nigel Farage’s plans for the mass deportation of asylum seekers are ‘beneath us as a nation’, the UK’s top bishop has said More

Chris Philphas been accused of courting Elon Musk after he responded to a social media post from the tech billionaire offering funding to bring private legal action relating to the grooming gangs scandal. The shadow home secretary replied to an X post in which Mr Muskannounced plans to “help fund legal actions against corrupt officials who aided and abetted the rape of Britain, per the official government inquiry”. He added: “Please reply below for consideration.”Responding, the shadow home secretary – who was a minister in the Home Office until last year – claimed to have “details of a senior police officer who deliberately covered up evidence of the rape and sexual assault of young girls by mainly Pakistani origin taxi drivers, with evidence of that”. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp More

Scotland’s First Minister has accused Elon Musk of spreading “misinformation” following an incident in Dundee where a girl was charged for alleged possession of offensive weapons.John Swinney said the world’s richest man was trying to “undermine” the social “cohesion” in Scottish communities, which he said was “totally and utterly unacceptable”.He condemned the “deliberate disinformation” he said was being used to “stoke up fear and alarm” around the country.Footage of a young girl apparently brandishing weapons has been widely shared on social media, with posts making claims about it gaining millions of views.Mr Musk – the billionaire owner of X, formerly Twitter – shared several posts on his site which made claims about the incident, including the migrant status of the people allegedly confronted.Far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who was previously sentenced for contempt of court, also shared posts making claims around the incident, some of which were shared by Mr Musk.The incident is understood to have taken place in St Ann Lane in the Lochee area of the city around 7.40pm on Saturday.Speaking to the PA news agency in Glasgow, Scotland’s First Minister said there was a limit to what he could say about the “misinformation” to avoid prejudicing the case.“But what is very important,” he said, “is that Police Scotland have issued a warning about deliberate misinformation that is being used to stoke up fear and alarm in our communities.“I am concerned about that and everybody should be concerned about that because we live in a fundamentally safer country today than we did 40 years ago.“That’s what all the recorded data told us earlier on this week – we’re living in a safer country than we did 40 years ago.“But people like Elon Musk, with the misinformation that has been stoked up about this case, are trying to undermine that sense of cohesion within our communities and it is totally and utterly unacceptable, and Police Scotland are absolutely right to call it out.”Chief superintendent Nicola Russell, who is responsible for Police Scotland’s Tayside division, issued a statement on Wednesday.She said: “We are aware of misinformation being shared on social media in relation to an incident where a Bulgarian couple were approached by youths in St Ann Lane, Dundee, on Saturday 23 August 2025.“A 12-year-old girl has been charged with being in possession of offensive weapons. She will be referred to the relevant authorities and our inquiries are ongoing.“We would like to thank the local community for their help with our investigation and would urge the public not to share misinformation about this incident or speculate on the circumstances.”Mr Musk has previously caught the ire of another first minister, with former SNP leader Humza Yousaf in January accusing him of trying to “inflame racial tensions”.The businessman, who was previously one of US President Donald Trump’s closest aids before a falling out, has consistently waded into Scottish and British politics and has clashed with Mr Yousaf on several occasions.The Tesla owner once branded Mr Yousaf “super racist” during one of their online arguments last year, daring the former first minister to sue him. More