UK politics

UK politics

Disabled people are enduring average waits exceeding 100 days for crucial support applications designed to help them secure or maintain employment, a new report reveals. A leading disability equality charity has condemned the findings from the National Audit Office (NAO), describing the public spending watchdog's report as "laying bare the brutal reality for disabled people trying to get into and stay in work."

On a dreary Saturday morning, they stream in from all over London, hare along Kent's A-roads, pour off Suffolk and Surrey trains, to converge on this primary school. It's the largest venue the volunteers could hire and the corridors, the loos, even the little library with its impressive range of Julia Donaldsons, are all heaving with grownups. We cram into the assembly hall, where the crowd is declared as the biggest turnout in Green history.

Nearly 60,000 unauthorised migrants and convicted criminals have been removed or deported from the UK since Labour took office, the Home Office has said. The announcement came amid claims that the government was promoting harmful stereotypes by equating migration with criminality. Officials said the figure was the highest number in a decade. The department said 15,200 people who were in the UK illegally were removed since the 2024 election a 45% increase on the previous 19 months.

The Assembly further calls on the mayor to ensure that clear guidance is put in place so that transport workers who act in good faith to protect passengers are treated fairly and supported, not punished.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

Shabana Mahmood said a "very large number of people" arriving in the UK in an "unprecedented way" in recent years does "demand an answer" from the government. Ministers want to double the time it takes most migrant workers to qualify for permanent residence from five years to 10 years. But around 40 Labour MPs have raised concerns about the impact of the proposals on migrants already living here, describing the retrospective approach as "un-British" and "moving the goalposts".

Don't let the Labour party say one more word about splitting the vote, in the forthcoming byelection or at any other time. With proportional representation, no one would ever need to worry about splitting the vote again. No one would need to choose the lesser evil to keep the greater evil out of office. We could vote for the parties we actually wanted. But the Labour government won't hear of it. It insists we retain the unfair, ridiculous first-past-the-post system, then blames us for the likely results. This is not because proportional representation is unpopular far from it. Last year's British Social Attitudes survey showed that 36% of people want to keep the electoral system as it is, while 60% want to change it. But as we are not allowed to vote on how we should vote, the decision is left in the hands of the corrupt old system's beneficiaries.

She told Sky News: "I think the Prime Minister has a lot of questions to answer, and not just him, but his chief of staff, and all the people in No 10 who pushed this appointment. "I think it is a national embarrassment. There are many people who should have been given that job, or who should have been interviewed for that job, and they didn't get a chance."

I was absolutely delighted to welcome Uachtarán na hÉireann Catherine Connolly to Belfast today. She's here for a packed visit over the next couple of days, many community events. It was my honour as First Minister to welcome her to Stormont Castle. She is very much fulfilling her pledge that she made to be a president for all, to make her first official visit to the north. It was just great to have her here today. I believe that her whole campaign was about hope, about opportunity. It was about inclusion, it was about unity, it was about building for the future, and I think that we are going to enjoy a very good relationship with her throughout her tenure as Uachtarán na hÉireann.

Every society recognises that words and images, in certain contexts, do harm and that incitement to commit crime can be a criminal act. There is a spectrum of tolerance and enforcement. Repression of free speech is a symptom of tyranny, but all governments regulate it to some degree. The threshold for intervention is lower when children are involved. That is why the idea of banning under-16s from social media, already operational in Australia, is catching on elsewhere.

The initial ZEBRA-zero emission bus regional areas-scheme, touted proudly by Prime Minister Johnson's Government, committed to 4,000 British-built buses by the end of the last Parliament. The scheme delivered just 2,270 buses, of which about 46% were built abroad. There was a material and harmful chasm between political rhetoric and delivery for UK manufacturers Euan Stainbank MP (Falkirk, Labour)