UK politics

UK politics

James Evans has been removed from the shadow cabinet and had the whip withdrawn making him an independent, Tory Senedd leader Darren Millar has said. Millar said he did so on Tuesday morning "after being informed by James that he was continuing to engage with Reform representatives about the possibility of defecting to the party in spite of his personal assurances on Friday that he had rejected an approach they initiated last week".

This is causing a lot of angst among north-western MPs, a lot of whom are facing a challenge from Reform UK at the next election and need their constituents to be able to feel the effect of the investment the government is putting in.

Over recent decades ordinary homeowners have increasingly been charged high and escalating amounts of ground rent, leaving them in financial distress and often unable to sell or re-mortgage their homes. Labour made a promise to leaseholders that we would fix this injustice, but ministers are currently subjected to furious lobbying from wealthy investors trying to water this manifesto commitment down.

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.

The UK government has delayed publication of its long-promised digital roadmap, a plan it says could eventually help save up to £45 billion of taxpayers' money by modernizing creaking public sector IT. Speaking to MPs last week, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) permanent secretary Emran Mian said the Government Digital and AI Roadmap - meant to improve data sharing across government - was due by the end of last year, but had hit stumbling blocks.

He said performance indicators for senior officials would be set by ministers and those civil servants not meeting expectations would be shown the door. Instead of the sideways shimmy to another team or department if you fail to perform, I'm afraid you will be sacked, he said, adding that the doers, not the talkers would be in line for promotion.

"embarrassing and potentially catastrophic"

An Arab human rights non-governmental organisation (NGO) has filed a request for United Kingdom sanctions to be lodged against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over incitement to violence and genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. British law firm Deighton Pierce Glynn filed the request on Tuesday with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on behalf of the Arab Organisation for Human Rights UK (AOHR UK), seeking targeted financial and travel sanctions against the Israeli leader.

The culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, intends to ask the UK's media and competition watchdogs to examine the proposed 500m takeover of the Telegraph titles by the owner of the Daily Mail. Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) agreed a deal in November to buy the titles, in a move that will create a right-leaning publishing powerhouse. Nandy said on Tuesday she was minded to task Ofcom with looking at the impact on media plurality of bringing the Daily

Donald Trump's attempt to ransom us over the sovereignty of a Nato ally is an act of economic thuggery that cannot go unanswered. The prime minister's strategy of appeasement has failed. We must show the White House that the UK will not be bullied into submission while our industries are targeted and our sovereign allies are threatened. The government must immediately cancel the 3bn Trump tax' on our NHS.

I'm all for Trump taking out enemies of the West. Maduro, the Iranian regime. But if he falls out with his own allies and leaves America isolated, that, that would be a very bad place to be.

Sir Keir Starmer will hold an emergency press conference on Britain's response to Donald Trump's latest tariff threats, after warning the US president in a Sunday night phone call that the move was wrong. Trump announced on Saturday that the UK would be among eight countries charged a 10 per cent tariff on any and all goods sent to the US from February 1, increased to 25 per cent from June 1, until a deal is reached for Washington to purchase Greenland from Denmark.

West Midlands Police said it had classified the match as high risk based on current intelligence and previous incidents, including violent clashes and hate crime offences that occurred during the 2024 UEFA Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam. Based on our professional judgement, we believe this measure will help mitigate risks to public safety, the police force said at the time.

Less than six months ago, the US and the EU agreed a deal that was supposed to stabilise transatlantic trade and provide certainty to businesses and consumers. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen came away from President Trump's golf course in Scotland with tariffs of 15% on everything the EU sells to the US - far better than the 30% America had threatened. Along the way, Brussels also prepared a package of tariffs that would come into force if it was unable to reach an agreement with the US.