Political news

• Tory peer’s free speech group urged Vance to lobby UK government

  20-08-2026 20:59 via ft.com
  Free Speech Union called on vice-president to focus on censorship at time of Starmer visit to US last year
  
  Read more

• Zack Polanski remade the Greens — but at the risk of a backlash

  20-08-2026 11:01 via ft.com
  Controversial election of Eleanora Folan to governing council points to party’s electoral vulnerability
  
  Read more

• Working in Starmer’s Number 10 was ‘unbearable’, says Sue Gray

  20-08-2026 09:10 via ft.com
  Former chief of staff to previous PM describes onslaught of negative briefings and says Starmer ‘lacked vision’
  
  Read more

• Working in Keir Starmer’s No 10 ‘unbearable’, says Sue Gray

  20-08-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Former chief of staff tells of fears her conversations were being recorded and leaked to media by colleaguesKeir Starmer’s former chief of staff has lifted the lid on how “unbearable” it was working in No 10, revealing she feared her conversations were being recorded by colleagues seeking to leak her remarks to the media.Sue Gray, who was the most powerful adviser in Downing Street before her resignation in 2024, was highly critical of the working environment under Starmer, say
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Farage using Christianity ‘to stir anti-Muslim feeling’, says Rowan Williams

  20-08-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Former archbishop of Canterbury also has ‘awkward questions’ for activist Tommy Robinson on his claimed faithA former archbishop of Canterbury has accused Nigel Farage of misusing the UK’s Christianity “to channel anti-Muslim feeling” and said he also had “some awkward questions” for the far-right activist Tommy Robinson.Dr Rowan Williams, who was the archbishop of Canterbury for 10 years until 2012, said there was an “inevitable scepticism these d
  
  Read more

• From bone-dry to soaked to the bone, welcome to the age of climate whiplash | Aditya Chakrabortty

  20-08-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  This punishingly hot and dry summer will probably be followed by another wet winter. But it’s nothing compared with what Britain will endure in years to comeThis summer could be the hottest, driest and deadliest in English history. Successive heatwaves have so far claimed almost 3,000 lives. Nearly three-quarters of England and all of Wales is in drought, while key reservoirs are parched. Across this brown and stickily unpleasant land, from Grimsby down to St Ives, hosepipe bans are in for
  
  Read more

• UK internet age checks have boosted rogue adult sites, says Pornhub

  20-08-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Country’s most-visited porn website lobbies MPs for changes to flagship Online Safety Act
  
  Read more

• The growing cost to the UK of the nuclear deterrent

  20-08-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Senior military figures warn budget squeeze comes as the military is also under pressure to re-arm for conventional war
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Internet age checks have boosted rogue adult sites, says Pornhub

  20-08-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  UK’s biggest porn website lobbies MPs for changes to flagship Online Safety Act
  
  Read more

• Drill Andy drill? Burnham’s North Sea dilemma – podcast

  20-08-2026 04:00 via theguardian.com
  Helena Horton on why the government may decide to allow more oil and gas drilling in the North SeaThe government is considering whether to allow new oil and gas drilling at two sites in the North Sea, a move environmental activists warn will accelerate climate chaos. Helen Pidd speaks to reporter Helena Horton about the government’s dilemma – and what it tells us about Andy Burnham’s approach to the green energy transition Continue reading...
  
  Read more

Follow @political_UKnws on Twitter!