Politics

The resignation of Anneliese Dodds as international development minister “won’t make a difference” to Sir Keir Starmer, Harriet Harman has said.  The Labour peer told Beth Rigby on Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast that there is “such coherence” in the rest of the cabinet that her decision to quit will do little damage. Politics Live:

Anneliese Dodds has quit as international development minister over Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to slash the overseas aid budget to pay for an increase in defence spending.  Ms Dodds, who is also women and equalities minister and attends cabinet, said she was resigning from both posts “with great sadness” but would continue to support the

Donald Trump has questioned whether he ever called President Zelenskyy a “dictator”  - after he was invited by King Charles for an “unprecedented” second state visit to the UK. Sir Keir Starmer presented the US president with a copy of the invitation while the pair met in the Oval Office. The prime minister and his

A coalition of more than 100 charities has urged the government to reverse its decision to slash the foreign aid budget, warning it amounted to an attempt to “balance the books on the backs of the world’s most marginalised people”. The charities – which include Save the Children UK, Oxfam GB, and Christian Aid –

Former Labour MP Mike Amesbury will walk free after winning an appeal against his 10-week jail sentence for punching a man in the street. The sentence handed to him on Monday will now be suspended for two years. It means the Runcorn and Helsby MP will not be jailed, unless he commits any more crimes

The prime minister has refused to say whether further tax rises will be imposed in the spring statement. Sir Keir Starmer said the government was in the “early stages” of looking at whether tax rises or spending cuts were needed to meet Labour’s self-imposed fiscal rules. He would not say if Ms Reeves is looking

The CIA, NSA and multiple other US intelligence agencies have been asked to examine a reported request from the UK government for Apple to implement a backdoor in their encryption. Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence (DNI), announced the measures in a letter to two US politicians who had raised concerns about the

To Opposition MPs, she’s “Rachel from Accounts”. But as well as being accused of embellishing her CV, she’s now being challenged about her own accounts – her expenses claims. The chancellor has been accused of being involved in an “expenses scandal” when she worked at Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS). It’s claimed she spent hundreds

To Opposition MPs, she’s “Rachel from Accounts”. But as well as being accused of embellishing her CV, she’s now being challenged about her own accounts – her expenses claims. The chancellor has been accused of being involved in an “expenses scandal” when she worked at Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS). It’s claimed she spent hundreds

Farmers forced the prime minister to cut short a visit to a housing development as they drove tractors to the site in a protest against changes to inheritance tax. Sir Keir Starmer was in Buckinghamshire to announce more than 100 new towns could be built under the government’s plans for the “largest house building programme

Sir Keir Starmer says he has full confidence in Rachel Reeves after questions were raised about inaccuracies in her CV and her use of expenses in a previous job. The chancellor has been accused by former employees of being involved in an “expenses scandal” while working at Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) from 2006 to 2009,

Sir Keir Starmer says he has full confidence in Rachel Reeves after questions were raised about inaccuracies in her CV and her use of expenses in a previous job. The chancellor has been accused by former employees of being involved in an “expenses scandal” while working at Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) from 2006 to 2009,

Keir Starmer was touring the UK National Nuclear Laboratory in Preston when the Bank of England halved its 2025 growth forecast, cut interest rates for the third time in six months, warned of an uptick in inflation and said the national insurance hike on employers would hit prices and jobs more than expected.  It was

The Foreign Office has revoked the accreditation of a Russian diplomat after a British official was expelled from Moscow last year. A Foreign Office spokesperson said the Russian ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, had been summoned to a meeting with a senior British official to revoke the accreditation of the diplomat. “This is in

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has shrugged off being called a “snivelling cretin” by Elon Musk – and has vowed to continue “calling him out”. Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Sir Ed said he has been “in politics long enough to know that there are insults made”, adding that he is “sometimes

The government has vowed to stop businesses recruiting foreign workers instead of training people already in the UK. Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper criticised the current “relaxed free market approach”, which she says has led net migration to quadruple over the past four years. “A big driver… has been

Nigel Farage has compared Reform UK’s rise in the polls, with Donald Trump’s recent election victory in the US. At a rally held in Tory leader Kemi Badenoch’s constituency, four of Reform’s five MPs gave speeches. During the North West Essex rally, Mr Farage told Reform members the Conservative Party “should be bloody scared of

AstraZeneca has cancelled plans for a £450m vaccine manufacturing plant in Liverpool, blaming a cut in funding from government. The investment, announced last year in the Tories’ spring budget, was dependent on a “mutual agreement” with the Treasury and third parties, it was said at the time. It will no longer go ahead because Labour

Former Labour prime ministers Gordon Brown and Sir Tony Blair have led tributes to “working class hero” Lord Prescott at his funeral. The great and the good of the Labour Party remembered the UK’s longest-serving deputy prime minister, who died in November aged 86 after a battle with Alzheimer’s. The funeral cortege included a Jaguar