Politics

Marginal gains, the science of extracting significant athletic advantage from numerous small changes, has long been a mantra in top-class sport. Numerous British competitors, from the velodrome to the track, have the medals to prove it. When it comes to economics, and more specifically to running an economy, this week has provided a lesson that…

Keir Starmer will sign a century-long partnership with Ukraine today, as the prime minister makes his first visit to the war-torn country in an effort to shore up support for Kyiv – just days ahead of the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House. Sir Keir said the 100-year agreement underpinned Britain’s “steadfast support”…

The education secretary has been accused of a U-turn after she decided to proceed with controversial free speech laws brought in by the Conservatives. Bridget Phillipson paused The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 last summer with a view to repealing what Whitehall sources at the time labelled a “hate speech charter”. The act,…

Police are investigating an alleged spiking incident in the Houses of Parliament last week. First reported to parliamentary authorities, the investigation has now been passed to the Metropolitan Police. A spokesperson for the Met said: “Police received reports of an alleged spiking at an establishment in the House of Commons, on Tuesday 7 January at…

Once again the fate of a group of islands in the Indian Ocean is focusing minds in Westminster. “There’s no point denying it’s a mess”, a backbench Labour MP tells me, as the latest twist in the Chagos deal unfolds. On a day when we expected the Mauritian government to rubber stamp the plans to…

Scottish ministers axed the universal winter fuel payment as a “direct consequence” of the UK government’s decision to stop the benefit, a court has heard. Advocate Joanna Cherry KC told the judge Lady Hood that it is her position the SNP administration’s decision stemmed from the policy adopted by their Westminster counterparts. The former SNP…

Former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams is in line for “a pay day from the taxpayer” as the government plans to remove a block on former Troubles internees getting compensation, a report has claimed. Currently, the law blocks him and others interned without trial in the 1970s from claiming compensation for unlawful detention. But the…

Anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq has resigned after controversy over links to her aunt’s ousted political movement in Bangladesh. The Hampstead and Highgate MP is probably best known for campaigning for the release of her constituent, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was detained in Iran for six years. Politics latest: Embattled City minister leaves government The mother-of-two also…

Tulip Siddiq has resigned as a Treasury minister after controversy over links to her aunt’s ousted political movement in Bangladesh. In a letter to Sir Keir Starmer, the Hampstead and Highgate MP said while she had “not breached the ministerial code”, continuing in her post would be “a distraction from the work of the government”….

The government is expected to announce the launch of a Women’s Justice Board to reduce the number of women in prisons as soon as next week. It is a progressive approach to sentencing that went largely under the radar when it was first announced by the justice secretary at Labour’s conference last year. The idea…