UK politics

UK politics

The Greens are locked in an internal debate about how hard to challenge Andy Burnham in the Makerfield byelection, with some worried about allowing Reform UK to win and others wanting the party to go all out. While characterised by insiders as very civilised, the discussion has highlighted existing differences between Greens who believe concessions can be won from Labour through informal cooperation and others including some newer leftwing activists who argue it achieves little.

The government is determined to keep costs down for motorists paying more because of the war in Iran. That's why we've extended the 5p fuel duty cut twice, until September. While the chancellor will continue to monitor the situation, as the chancellor has set out, a rapid de-escalation in the Middle East remains the best way to keep pump prices low.

As many as one in six of the individuals and families who appeared on the 2024 ranking are missing from this year's edition, with the compiler warning that the figures lay bare the scale of Britain's wealth exodus. " Many foreign billionaires who have been living in the UK have... dropped out because they have moved away," Mr Watts said.

Thousands of households with large gardens, swimming pools and hot tubs could face significantly higher water bills under controversial new pricing trials being prepared by water companies across England. The schemes would introduce tiered charging systems under which customers pay progressively more as water consumption rises, with critics warning the plans amount to "social engineering" and a stealth tax on family living.

There is a particular kind of British cruelty that thrives on politeness. The 2018 Windrush scandal exposed this in full: rather than chaos or spectacle, it revealed a machinery of clinical decisions that stripped Black and brown people of their belonging with bureaucratic precision. It is now part of our national story, often spoken of in the abstract or invoked as a cautionary tale. But what can be obscured, in this telling, is the texture of the harm, the way complicated lives were reduced to paperwork.

Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan has denied Fianna Fáil is down and out ahead of two by-elections after his party colleague James Lawless said he would be "disappointed but not surprised" if the party lost both.