UK News

The British government on Friday won a court ruling that means asylum seekers will not have to be evicted from a hotel where a resident was charged with sexual assault, a decision that could ignite more protests and criticism from opponents. Immigration has now become the dominant political issue in Britain, eclipsing concerns over a faltering economy, as the country ...

The UK government did not do its own analysis of the cost of the biggest reorganisation of councils in England for decades, the BBC has learned. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said “a significant amount of money” could be saved by merging councils in 21 areas into single authorities. Rayner’s department, the ministry of local government, based its cost estimates ...

Sir Keir Starmer is replacing the top civil servant in his Downing Street office. Principal private secretary Nin Pandit runs the prime minister’s team at No 10 and has only been in the role for ten months. She is the third senior staff member the prime minister has appointed and later let go, after chief of staff Sue Gray left ...

The government is planning an overhaul of the asylum appeals system as it tries to cut the number of migrants staying in hotels while they await a ruling. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said she was taking practical steps to end unacceptable delays, with a new body, staffed by independent adjudicators, to be established. The government has been under increasing pressure ...

People convicted of crimes in England and Wales could find themselves barred from going to pubs, concerts and sports matches under changes to sentencing rules being planned by the government. The reforms would allow courts imposing non-custodial terms to have the power to hand out driving and travel bans too, and order offenders to remain in specific areas. Justice Secretary ...

Labour has lost almost 200,000 members in the past five years, according to the party’s latest annual accounts. The party’s membership has been steadily falling since Sir Keir Starmer became leader in April 2020, from a peak of 532,046 at the end of 2019. Despite the party’s landslide election victory last summer, it shed another 37,215 members over the course ...

More than half of the council areas with asylum seeker hotels are fully or partly controlled by Labour, according to BBC analysis of figures released by the government. On Tuesday, Conservative-controlled Epping Forest District Council won a temporary injunction in the courts to stop 140 asylum seekers living at the Bell Hotel in Epping. The ruling could hinder the government’s ...

Councils across England are poised to take legal action to remove asylum seekers from hotels in their areas. It follows the High Court granting a district council a temporary injunction to block asylum seekers from lodging at The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex. All 12 councils controlled by Reform UK will “do everything in their power to follow Epping’s lead”, ...

Sir Keir Starmer has called US President Donald Trump’s commitment to security guarantees for Ukraine a breakthrough, as he hailed the movement towards a meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin. The prime minister joined the leaders’ summit at the White House on Monday, having cut short his family holiday in Scotland. From what Sir Keir said overnight, it seems ...

MPs, members of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLAs), Scottish Parliament (MSPs) and Welsh Senedd (MSs) have urged the prime minister to “act now” and exert pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza. Parties joining in the SDLP-led letter include Sinn Féin, Alliance, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Green Party and People Before Profit. The letter calls for Parliament ...