Lead News

Former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell has said the position of top civil servant is “massively underpaid”. He is involved in the recruitment process for the £200,000-a-year role, following Simon Case’s decision to step down on health grounds. Lord O’Donnell, who held the post between 2005 and 2011, told the BBC the “incredibly demanding job” should have a higher salary. The ...

The government has pledged nearly £22bn for projects to capture and store carbon emissions from energy, industry and hydrogen production. It said the funding for two “carbon capture clusters” on Merseyside and Teesside, promised over the next 25 years, would create thousands of jobs, attract private investment and help the UK meet climate goals. Sir Keir Starmer, who is to ...

The UK is about to stop producing any electricity from burning coal – ending its 142-year reliance on the fossil fuel. The country’s last coal power station, at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, finishes operations on Monday after running since 1967. This marks a major milestone in the country’s ambitions to reduce its contribution to climate change. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel producing ...

The former Labour MP Rosie Duffield has said Keir Starmer has “a problem with women” and that the government was “more interested in greed and power” than making changes to the country. In a broadside at Starmer’s leadership, Duffield told the BBC she was Labour “in my heart and soul” but said the scandal over senior party figures’ acceptance of ...

Boris Johnson was part of a last-minute attempt to discourage the Duke of Sussex from leaving his royal life in the UK, according to the former prime minister’s soon-to-be-published memoir. Johnson delivered what he calls a “manly pep talk” to Prince Harry on the sidelines of a UK-Africa investment summit in London in January 2020, according to Unleashed, the memoir ...

“Boris Johnson was such a numpty, have we got another numpty now?” asked Tal, a business analyst, after the end of the Labour party conference on Wednesday. His question summed up the mood of the voters More in Common spoke to in a focus group in Hendon, a seat Labour won in July by just 15 votes. The group had ...

British police called on Thursday for anyone with allegations against former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed to come forward and said it would look to prosecute others after multiple women accused the late billionaire of sexual abuse and rape. A BBC documentary aired last week said Al Fayed had sexually abused female staff at his London department store Harrods and ...

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will meet British Prime Minister Keir Starmer next week, a commission spokesperson said on Thursday, as he continues a charm offensive to reset ties between the UK and the European Union. “There will be a meeting between the President and Prime Minister Starmer next week,” said the spokesperson, without providing further details. Starmer ...

Britain must prepare for more pylons and more prisons to deliver “national renewal”, Sir Keir Starmer has said. Sir Keir used his first conference speech as Prime Minister to tell the British public would have to accept “trade-offs” as he prepared to take on the “massive challenges the Tories ignored”. Addressing the party faithful in Liverpool, Sir Keir said: “So ...

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has set out plans to crackdown on crime as she said the government would attempt to halve knife offences in a decade. In a speech to Labour conference, Cooper said police would be given new powers to tackle anti-social behaviour, off-road bikes and shoplifting. The government would also pass a new law to ban the sale ...