UK News

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 ...

The government is set to introduce a bill in the Commons next week which will ban landlords from evicting tenants without a reason. Ministers are expected to bring the Renters’ Rights Bill for its first reading. The draft law, which will apply in England, will also give tenants the right to request a pet. A ban on no-fault evictions has ...

The political wing of the trade union movement has been elected to power for the first time in 14 years. So many delegates at next week’s Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Brighton will blend celebration with anticipation. But the Labour Party – set up by trade unions more than a century ago – now claims to be both the party ...

Labour is “getting it wrong” in “so many areas” and the Greens will “hold the new government to account”, the party’s co-leader Adrian Ramsay has told its conference in Manchester. In his first such speech since the Greens’ major advance in July’s general election, when it went from a single MP to four MPs, he said the party would challenge ...

The prison population in England and Wales has reached a record high, just days before the government’s temporary early release scheme comes into force. According to figures released by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on Friday, the number of inmates has risen by 1,159 since 2 August, the week when the UK riots began, and now stands at 88,521. This ...

Germany could make use of facilities funded by the UK to process some asylum seekers in Rwanda, the country’s migration agreements commissioner has suggested. Joachim Stamp, from the Free Democratic Party, which is a junior partner in the governing coalition, suggested accommodation originally intended for people deported from the UK could be utilised by Germany. However, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz ...