Lead News

Everywhere you go in the party conference centre at Brighton you keep seeing the same number – 72. That’s how many MPs the Liberal Democrats now have – and they have been celebrating that fact all week. It’s a dramatic increase on the 15 MPs they had before the election and represents a record number of seats for the party. ...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has promised “a new era” in cross-border cooperation to tackle people smuggling gangs ahead of talks on Monday with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, part of his push to reset Britain’s relations with Europe. Starmer has put renewing ties with European leaders at the top of his diplomatic agenda since winning an election in July, ...

Uefa has warned ministers that England could be excluded from the European Championship it is co-hosting in 2028 over “concerns” that a planned independent football regulator could lead to “government interference” in the sport. A bill to establish a body to oversee the top five tiers of the men’s game in England was reintroduced in July. The UK government has said ...

Sir Keir Starmer may have broken parliamentary rules in failing to declare clothes bought for his wife by Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli. According to the Sunday Times, the donations also covered the cost of a personal shopper and alterations for Victoria, both before and after the general election. The prime minister reportedly approached parliamentary authorities on Tuesday to make ...

Tensions rise as Starmer and Biden prepare to hold talks about allowing Ukraine to use UK-made Storm Shadow missiles against targets across the border British diplomats of spying and withdrew their accreditation. Starmer has dismissed Putin’s warnings, saying the Russian president has it in his power to end the conflict.  

The prison population in England and Wales has dropped by 2,188 in a week following the mass early release of offenders to deal with overcrowding. There were some 88,521 prisoners as of 6 September – a record high with only 1.2% capacity left in the system. But as of Friday, the number had fallen to 86,333, according to new Ministry ...

Suella Braverman should not have publicly criticised the Met Police over its handling of pro-Palestinian marches, a watchdog has found. Writing in The Times in November, the former home secretary accused the force of bias in policing the protests. Ch Insp of Constabulary Andy Cooke has said she should have made the comments in private, if they were appropriate. In ...

The prime minister has told the BBC his new government is “going to have to be unpopular” as he defended his “tough” decision to cut winter fuel payments. Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg in his first major interview in Downing Street, Sir Keir Starmer said he was determined to deliver change but this meant having to “do the difficult ...

Sir Keir Starmer says he is “frustrated” at how long it is taking to deal with building safety and cladding, following the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s final report this week. Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the prime minister said he accepts it is his “duty”, and that his government “will accelerate the programme”, when questioned about the number of people ...

The government has faced criticism over this week’s approval of plans to pump treated wastewater into the River Thames in south-west London. The Teddington Direct River Abstraction (DRA) would see treated sewage pumped into the river above Teddington Lock through an underground pipeline from Mogden Sewage Treatment Works. Twickenham MP Munira Wilson said the Thames Water scheme could damage the ...