Lead News

Lucy Powell has been elected as Labour’s new deputy leader after a race triggered by Angela Rayner’s resignation last month. The Manchester Central MP defeated Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson by promising to give grassroots members a louder voice and push for a “course correction” in government. She was sacked from the cabinet in September and drew support from members who ...

Plaid Cymru have won the by-election in the Senedd seat of Caerphilly for the first time. The Welsh nationalist party secured 15,960 votes – and candidate Lindsay Whittle cried as the result was announced. Mr Whittle is 72 years old and had stood as a Plaid candidate 13 times since 1983. He will now hold the seat until the Senedd ...

King Charles III arrived in Rome on Wednesday for a state visit to the Vatican, where he will meet Pope Leo XIV and become the first British monarch in five centuries to pray publicly with a pontiff since the Church of England’s split from Rome. The visit comes amid renewed controversy surrounding the king’s brother, Prince Andrew, following new allegations ...

Two abuse survivors have quit their roles in the government’s inquiry into grooming gangs. Fiona Goddard and Ellie-Ann Reynolds resigned from the inquiry’s victims and survivor’s liaison panel on Monday in protest at how the government had handled the process. In her resignation letter, Ms Reynolds said she felt the inquiry had become “less about the truth and more about ...

Sir Tony Blair met with Jeffrey Epstein in Downing Street while still prime minister, following lobbying by Lord Peter Mandelson, the BBC has confirmed. A memo written by senior civil servant Matthew Rycroft, dated 14 May 2002, briefs Sir Tony about “super-rich” financial adviser Epstein ahead of a meeting scheduled at 17.00 GMT that day. The meeting was six years ...

King Charles’s coat of arms will feature on the front of all new passports from December, the Home Office has said. Natural landscapes from all four UK nations will also feature inside the updated documents, including Ben Nevis, the Lake District, Three Cliffs Bay and the Giant’s Causeway. It is the first full redesign of British passports in five years, ...

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday hailed the new Gaza ceasefire deal as “a moment of profound relief that will be felt all around the world”. “I am grateful for the tireless diplomatic efforts of Egypt, Qatar, Turkiye (Turkey) and the United States, supported by our regional partners, in securing this crucial first step,” he said in a statement. ...

Storm Amy has swept into the UK, bringing heavy rain and strong winds to large parts of the country. A gust of 96mph was recorded overnight in the Inner Hebrides. An amber wind warning remains in place for parts of northern Scotland and the Met Office is warning of power cuts and flying debris that could endanger life. A lower ...

Sir Keir Starmer has said pro-Palestinian protests planned for this weekend will cause “distress” and urged those thinking of taking part to “recognise and respect the grief of British Jews” after Thursday’s synagogue attack. “It is not a time to stoke tension and cause further pain,” the prime minister wrote in the Jewish News and the Jewish Chronicle. A leader ...

The British government vowed to redouble its efforts to tackle antisemitism on Friday as the Jewish community reeled from an attack at a Manchester synagogue that killed two people on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. The Israeli government has accused Britain of allowing rampant antisemitism to spread through British cities and on its university campuses in ...