Politics

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has written to the UK’s human rights watchdog asking for an investigation into the government’s plan to postpone some local elections next year. In a letter to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, Sir Ed said that nearly ten million people could see their democratic rights “ripped away”. It…

The chancellor’s spring budget will take place in March, the Treasury has announced. Rachel Reeves will deliver the budget, known as the “spring forecast”, on 3 March 2026. She has asked the independent budget watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), to “prepare an economic and fiscal forecast” for publication on the same day. The…

Puppy farms, trail hunting and snare traps are all set to be banned under animal welfare reforms being introduced by the government. Ministers have today unveiled the government’s Animal Welfare Strategy, which also takes aim at other measures seen as cruel, such as shock collars, as well as cages and crates for farm animals. But…

This is a story about a roundabout in Leicester. It’s not a particularly special roundabout. But it does tell us something about British politics. Belgrave Circle, in the north of the city, was opened in March 2015 on the site of an old railway station known locally as “The Gateway to Skegness”. Later that year,…

The chair of the Labour Party has insisted that Sir Keir Starmer will “absolutely” still be prime minister next Christmas, despite the party’s dire position in the polls. Speaking to Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Anna Turley acknowledged that “things are still hard” for Britons, but struck an optimistic tone about the year ahead….

Almost two in five victims of what the government defines as violence against women and girls are neither women nor girls, but adult men. The government describes violence against women and girls (VAWG) as a “national emergency” and one of their central promises has been that they would halve it within a decade. Today, 18…

Reports a female MSP had a secret recording device planted in her office by a member of her own staff are “completely and utterly unacceptable”, SNP leader John Swinney has said. Scottish parliament officials are investigating the alleged bugging incident by a man, which is said to have taken place in 2023 at Holyrood. The…

Sir Keir Starmer and other ministers will hold regular news conferences in a radical shakeup of government communications. The announcement on Thursday, shortly before parliament broke up for Christmas, was criticised by “furious” political journalists who raised concerns about transparency from a government that promised to raise standards. Former Tony Blair adviser Tim Allan, who…

Christian Turner is a mandarin’s mandarin. His appointment to the most glamorous posting in the UK diplomatic service is a victory for the Sir Humphreys over the politicians. After the disaster and humiliation of Peter Mandelson‘s demise over his links to Jeffrey Epstein, it always made sense to appoint a scandal-free career diplomat as his…

It is too late to investigate whether Nigel Farage broke election law on spending at the general election, Essex Police has said. The Reform UK leader had been referred to the police following claims by a former member of his campaign team that the campaign to get Mr Farage elected in Clacton last year overspent….