Lead News

The former boss of the Co-op collected almost £2m before her sudden departure last month despite a difficult year when the retailer was pushed into the red by a damaging cyber hack. Shirine Khoury-Haq’s total annual pay package amounted to £1.9m in 2025, including a £165,000 “rewarding growth” bonus that was approved by the mutual’s board despite falling sales and ...

The government has asked its new employment rights watchdog to reduce the regulatory burden on business, it has emerged, a request that worker advocates said risks turning the agency into “a dead duck”. The Fair Work Agency (FWA), which is being launched on Tuesday, is a cornerstone of Labour’s Employment Rights Act. It will bring together several existing labour enforcement ...

A number of ministers concerned about Shabana Mahmood’s immigration changes are working behind the scenes with backbenchers to secure more exemptions, the Guardian has learned. Keir Starmer is consulting on the proposed changes, which would make it harder to achieve settled status in the UK, and is under pressure from within his own party to say the measures should not ...

The UK will seek an even deeper partnership with the EU because of the instability wreaked by Donald Trump’s war with Iran, Keir Starmer has said, adding that the moment called for a more ambitious deal with Brussels to strengthen trade and defence. His comments came as the US president again said he was considering pulling the US out of ...

Lord Mandelson is to be asked to hand over messages from his personal phone as part of the disclosure of documents related to his appointment as UK ambassador to the US, the BBC understands. The Cabinet Office is preparing to publish thousands of files after he was sacked from the role, including messages between Lord Mandelson and Labour ministers and ...

Keir Starmer has promised a “fight” with social media firms amid efforts to limit children’s use of mobile phones, tablets and TVs, as new official guidance recommends children under five spend no more than an hour a day on screens. The guidance, developed by a panel led by the children’s commissioner, Rachel de Souza and children’s health expert Prof Russell ...

Ministers are facing pressure to appoint a former Conservative cabinet minister as the new chair of the media regulator Ofcom, as he battles for the job against a Labour peer. The job of running the regulator has become a key post in public life, as concern over online content has grown rapidly, alongside the rise of more politically partisan broadcasting. ...

Muhammed Shahed Rahman, Special correspondent : After a month of fasting abroad, Muslims in various cities in the United Kingdom celebrated Eid with due dignity. Muslims in various cities in the United Kingdom prayed in mosques and open spaces in various parks on the holy day of Eid al-Fitr. The UK’s largest Eid al-Fitr congregational prayer began at 7am at ...

Labour MPs opposed to the government’s immigration reforms are threatening to expose the party’s divisions by forcing a symbolic vote in Parliament unless ministers back down. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood plans to double the length of time that it will take for migrants to gain indefinite leave to remain (ILR) – or permanent residency – in the UK in most ...

Angela Rayner has warned government proposals to make it harder for migrants already in the UK to settle permanently are “un-British” and a “breach of trust”. Ministers want to double the time it takes most migrant workers to qualify for permanent residence from five years to 10 years, while in the case of refugees it could take 20 years. Rayner’s ...