Lead News

In order to cut rising bills all UK households should receive a minimum amount of energy at rates subsidised by the government through North Sea taxes, a thinktank has suggested. Providing all homes with enough energy to heat two rooms, provide hot water and run key appliances such as a fridge and washing machine, at rates frozen at current levels, ...

Keir Starmer has arrived in Saudi Arabia to meet leaders in the Gulf region to discuss diplomatic efforts to support the ceasefire agreed between the US and Iran. The UK prime minister’s visit on Wednesday comes hours after a two-week ceasefire was agreed on Tuesday evening, cancelling a self-imposed deadline by the US president, Donald Trump, for Iran to surrender ...

A Dhaka court on Wednesday fixed 19 April for the hearing on charge framing against Tulip Rizwana Siddiq and former RAJUK assistant legal adviser Sardar Mosharraf Hossain in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) over alleged flat fraud in the capital’s Gulshan-2 area. Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Md Sabbir Faiz fixed the new date and transferred the ...

Reform UK has said it would deny new visas to people from countries seeking slavery reparations from Britain, if it formed the next government. Nigel Farage’s party said this would apply to any country developing a formal approach and the ban would cover all visa types, including ones for visitors and work. Britain transported an estimated three million African people ...

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 ...