Lead News

More than half a million pounds has been spent since 2024 on using social media influencers to promote UK government campaigns on subjects ranging from the environment to welfare. The spending has included hiring 215 influencers since 2024, of which there were 126 in 2025 – an increase on the 89 hired in 2024 – and is seen as an ...

The government’s partial U-turn on what opponents dubbed the “farms tax” was a Christmas present for those who had campaigned against the imposition of 20% inheritance tax from next April. About half the farms that would have been affected will now be exempt. But given that minsters had defended the policy in the 14 months since last year’s Budget, the ...

Six immigration officers have been charged with offences after an investigation into alleged thefts from migrants and money laundering. Five of the officers are facing charges including conspiracy to steal and misconduct in public office, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Tuesday. All six have been charged with money laundering offences. Besmir Matera, 36, Lee-Ann Evanson, 42, John Bernthal, ...

A former Tory councillor has appeared in court charged with drugging and raping his former wife over a period of 13 years. Philip Young, 49, and five other men have been accused of more than 60 rapes and sexual offences against Joanne Young, 48. She can be named as the alleged victim because she has waived her right to anonymity, ...

The secretary for local government has written to all councils to warn that adopting a four-day week for staff puts them at risk of being declared a failing authority, according to reports. Twenty-five councils have discussed a four-day week policy and one, South Cambridgeshire district council, has already moved to the pattern. While councils are free to set their own ...

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has said nearly 10 million people could see their democratic right to vote “ripped away” if proposed delays to some local elections in England go ahead. Sir Ed has written to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission to ask if it will investigate what he called “the government’s cavalier approach to our elections”. Last ...

Labour has granted six areas in and around London the power to make larger council tax hikes after reducing their share of government funding. Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Wandsworth, Hammersmith and Fulham, City of London, and Windsor and Maidenhead will be allowed to raise rates by more than 5% for two years without local voters needing to sign off the ...

The government has ordered an independent review into foreign financial interference in UK politics in response to what it called the “shocking” case of Nathan Gill, the former leader of Reform UK in Wales. Gill was jailed in November, after admitting to taking bribes for pro-Russian interviews and speeches when he was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Announcing ...

The former health minister Andrew Gwynne has dismissed as “idle speculation” reports he could resign his seat as part of an Andy Burnham “coup” against Keir Starmer. Allies of Burnham were reported on Sunday to have identified a shortlist of seats to allow the Greater Manchester mayor to return to Westminster in the new year. One of these seats is ...

The US government’s claims that Europe faces “civilisational erasure” because of mass migration are an attempt to score political points against Muslims, the home secretary has suggested. Shabana Mahmood dismissed the idea that European civilisation and national identities were under threat because of migration and said the UK had managed the challenges of multiculturalism “very well”. Her comments are the ...