Category: Politics

Bridget Phillipson failed to squash rumours of rifts between Cabinet colleagues over Rachel Reeves’s looming tax hikes and spending cuts. The Education Secretary admitted “there are lots of conversations happening right now across Government”. Several senior ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, Transport Secretary Louise Haigh and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood are understood to…

More than 60,000 migrants will be granted asylum and allowed to stay in Britain after Sir Keir Starmer scrapped the Rwanda scheme, experts have revealed. Based on grant rates in the year to June, the Refugee Council predicted that as many as 62,801 people could be recognised as refugees. This is primarily down to the…

‘No questions over Mary Lou McDonald’s leadership’ Michelle O’Neill has said there are “no questions” over her party president’s leadership of Sinn Féin. On Tuesday, Mary Lou McDonald defended Sinn Féin’s decision not to reveal that former Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile had been suspended for sending inappropriate texts to a teenage boy when he stepped…

A federal grand jury unsealed an indictment against two Sudanese brothers Wednesday, charging them with running “Anonymous Sudan,” one of the most prolific cyberattack-for-hire gangs of all time and allegedly behind tens of thousands of attacks.  Federal prosecutors accused Ahmed Salah Yousif Omer, 22, and Alaa Salah Yusuuf Omer, 27, of carrying out 35,000 denial-of-service…

A £15m funding pot to allow primary schools to deliver hundreds of nursery places has been launched. It forms the first stage of the government’s plan to open an additional 3,000 nurseries in England through “upgrading space” in primary schools, as Labour stated in its manifesto. Schools can apply for up to £150,000 to help…

Labour has said all along pensioners in need will still receive the winter fuel payment because more can sign up to pension credit. But now we know that can’t be true. The Government aren’t processing one in five claims within 50 working days, and that’s before the expected surge in applications for this winter. That…

Cabinet ministers are writing to the prime minister in an urgent attempt to soften some of the spending cuts being demanded ahead of the budget.  The main measures for the budget have to be decided by the end of Wednesday and sent to the Office for Budget Responsibility before the Treasury shuts up for the…

PA Media Conservative leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick has said he would reduce benefits spending in order to enable cuts to income tax. In a speech, the former minister said unemployed claimants should face tougher sanctions if they refuse to take up suitable job offers. He also vowed to tackle “misuse” of the sickness benefits system,…

Reuters Jimmy Lai arriving in court in 2023 Securing the release of pro-democracy activist and British citizen Jimmy Lai from a Hong Kong prison is a “priority” for the government, Sir Keir Starmer has said. During Prime Minister’s Questions, Conservative leader Rishi Sunak asked if Lai’s imprisonment was a breach of the 1984 treaty transferring…