Politics

Has the government just walked into a giant political elephant trap by attempting to reverse the Epping hotel ruling? Already on the back foot after a judge ordered the Bell Hotel to be emptied of asylum seekers, the Home Office is now being attacked for trying to appeal that decision. “The government isn’t listening to…

The foreign secretary has been issued a formal warning by the Environment Agency after reporting himself for fishing with the US vice-president without a licence. David Lammy reported himself to the agency after an “administrative oversight” meant he failed to get a rod licence while hosting JD Vance at his grace-and-favour retreat in Chevening, Kent,…

👉 Click here to listen to Electoral Dysfunction on your podcast app 👈 Can Britain afford both welfare and warfare? Beth Rigby takes us inside the row that could define Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership. From that huge Commons rebellion over welfare cuts to the looming pressure on defence spending, how can the government look after…

The UK government won’t find much in the latest dump of migration data to back up its claim that it is restoring order to a broken asylum system. In a competitive field, perhaps the most damaging stat is the rising number of small boat crossings – up 38% on 12 months previously and close to…

The number of asylum seekers housed in hotels has risen by 8% since Labour came to power, the latest government figures show. The Home Office data revealed there were 32,059 asylum seekers in hotels at the end of June – up from 29,585 in June 2024. However, the proportion of all asylum seekers staying in…

The shadow minister for safeguarding has written to the government demanding action on child sexual exploitation after being “alarmed” by a Sky News story revealing plans to exclude it from their Violence Against Women and Girls strategy. Last week, Sky News reported on a leaked Home Office document which stated that child sexual abuse and…

The Observer’s editor-in-chief has called for the BBC to be “put beyond the reach of politicians” – and has compared the fight for survival within television to the zombie fungus in The Last Of Us. Speaking to Sky News about his James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday, James Harding said…

TikTok and Instagram have been accused of targeting teenagers with suicide and self-harm content – at a higher rate than two years ago. The Molly Rose Foundation – set up by Ian Russell after his 14-year-old daughter took her own life after viewing harmful content on social media – commissioned analysis of hundreds of posts…

“It’s an interesting moment,” was how one government source described the High Court ruling that will force an Essex hotel to be emptied of asylum seekers within weeks. That may prove to be the understatement of the summer. For clues as to why, just take a glance at what the Home Office’s own lawyer told…

The UK government has dropped its demands to create a backdoor into Apple’s encryption, according to the US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard. In a post on X in the early hours of Tuesday, Ms Gabbard said the UK had withdrawn its demand to access global Apple users’ data if required. She wrote: “The UK has…