Political news

• Without immigration, more specialist and new free schools will close

  12-12-2025 11:00 via ft.com
  Declining birth rates mean policymakers must make choices on which pupil places to cut
  
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• Starmer admits questions about his leadership are ‘rife’

  15-12-2025 18:32 via ft.com
  UK prime minister finishes 2025 with approval ratings at rock bottom and Labour languishing below 20 per cent in the polls
  
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• Business groups urge peers to pass UK employment rights bill

  15-12-2025 16:40 via ft.com
  Flagship legislation delayed after Tories and cross-benchers in the Lords joined forces to thwart proposals for unfair dismissal
  
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• Reform UK pledges to cut 68,500 civil service jobs

  15-12-2025 16:07 via ft.com
  Danny Kruger says Whitehall machine is ‘overstaffed and badly led’
  
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• Doctors to go ahead with pre-Christmas strikes in England

  15-12-2025 14:01 via ft.com
  British Medical Association rejects government offer and says five-day strike by junior doctors will start on Wednesday
  
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• UK to push for nudity-blocking software on devices to protect children

  15-12-2025 12:00 via ft.com
  Home Office expected to encourage companies to introduce controls
  
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• Government announces extra funding for safe housing for domestic abuse survivors – UK politics live

  15-12-2025 11:29 via theguardian.com
  As part of the violence against women and girls (VAWG) strategy councils will receive a further £19m Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, has issued a statement calling for the immediate release of Jimmy Lai after the media tycoon and pro-democracy campaigner was convicted in Hong Kong of national security and sedition offences.Rishi Sunak is giving evidence to the Covid inquiry this morning. The inquiry has moved on to the module looking at the economic response to the pandemic, and Suna
  
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• Covid-19 inquiry live: Rishi Sunak to face questions on goverment’s pandemic response

  15-12-2025 11:25 via theguardian.com
  Former chancellor and prime minister will answer questions on the economic impact of the pandemic You can watch the broadcast of today’s hearing in this feed, which is also attached to the top of the blog. We are expecting Sunak to appear in about ten minutes or so:The Covid inquiry, which, according to the IFS, is likely to end up costing in excess of £200m, got under way in 2022 and its final report is not expected until 2027. Continue reading...
  
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• Unpopularity fears and low expertise hamper Labour’s position on defence

  15-12-2025 10:30 via ft.com
  A lack of foreign policy expertise in government means we’re unlikely to see increased military spending any time soon
  
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• Welcome to the twilight zone where Nigel Farage can be accused of racism yet still lead the polls | Nesrine Malik

  15-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  After weeks of allegations of schoolboy racism, the Reform leader is doubling down. And our political establishment is allowing itJust as I was starting to write this column, an email alert popped up on my screen. “Punters back Nigel for prime minister after Keir Starmer,” it read, placing the Reform leader second in the odds market after Wes Streeting. What a weird, dissonant duality this is. Nigel Farage is in his fourth week of revelations about alleged racist behaviour at school,
  
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• Labour’s re-election hopes rest on the private sector

  15-12-2025 06:00 via ft.com
  Public services will only show improvement with money and expertise that comes from outside government
  
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• Afghan data breach victims take first step in suing UK Ministry of Defence

  15-12-2025 06:00 via ft.com
  Law firm Barings is representing 1,000 claimants who say they fear reprisals from the Taliban after their names were leaked
  
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• UK Treasury drawing up new rules to police cryptocurrency markets

  15-12-2025 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Rachel Reeves wants to protect consumers by bringing digital money and assets into the ‘regulatory perimeter’Cryptocurrencies will be regulated in a similar way to other financial products under legislation coming into force in 2027.The Treasury is drawing up rules that will require crypto companies to meet a set of standards overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Continue reading...
  
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• UK plans curb on freeholders blocking broadband cabling in flats

  15-12-2025 01:01 via ft.com
  Building owners would no longer be able to ‘unreasonably refuse’ upgrade requests from leaseholders
  
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• UK can ‘lead the world’ on crypto, says City minister

  15-12-2025 01:01 via ft.com
  Britain’s new regulatory regime will take effect in the second half of 2027
  
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• Conservatives would end 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars

  14-12-2025 23:00 via theguardian.com
  Party would also abolish zero-emission vehicle mandate, cutting legal requirement on carmakers to sell EVsThe Conservatives have announced proposals to end the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars and cut the legal requirement on car manufacturers to sell electric vehicles.A Conservative government would abolish the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, ending the legal requirement for manufacturers to sell a fixed rising percentage of zero-emission vehicles each year – 80% of new cars an
  
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• Home Office urged to be transparent about deaths of asylum seekers in its care

  14-12-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Campaigners call for quarterly data to be published in line with other departments instead of FoI routeHuman rights and refugee campaigners are calling on the Home Office to be transparent about the numbers of asylum seekers who die in its care by publishing quarterly data as other government departments do.The only way to obtain data about asylum seeker deaths is via freedom of information (FoI) requests to the Home Office, which officials do not always comply with. However, the NHS produces re
  
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• Ghanaian students at UK universities face deportation amid funding crisis

  14-12-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Group asks Keir Starmer for help to persuade Ghanaian government to pay backlog of tuition fees and living allowancesStudents from Ghana at UK universities say they are in danger of being deported after being stranded by their own government without promised scholarships or tuition fee payments.The group representing more than 100 doctoral students has petitioned Downing Street and Keir Starmer asking for help to persuade the Ghanaian government to pay the backlog of tuition fees and living allo
  
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• Security stepped up in UK’s Jewish communities after Bondi beach shooting

  14-12-2025 15:50 via theguardian.com
  Police increase patrols around synagogues and other venues as tens of thousands celebrate HanukahBondi beach shooting – live updatesBritish police forces are stepping up security in Jewish communities after the antisemitic terror attack that left 12 people dead on Bondi beach in Australia.The Metropolitan police said they were increasing their presence around synagogues and other venues in London, where tens of thousands of Jews are celebrating Hanukah. Continue reading...
  
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• How many more times will the Bank of England rescue Rachel Reeves? | Richard Partington

  14-12-2025 12:58 via theguardian.com
  The City expects a cut in interest rates on Thursday but the economic prospects for 2026 complicate the pictureIn the economic gloom of Labour’s first year in power, Rachel Reeves has had a reliable shred of comfort to cling to: five times since the general election, the Bank of England has cut interest rates.This week, in all likelihood, the chancellor will get a sixth to shout about, as Threadneedle Street prepares to reduce borrowing costs in an early Christmas present that will be seiz
  
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• Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson and ... Liz Truss? Inside the former PM’s audition for Maga

  14-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Her delivery might be stilted – but Truss’ new YouTube show has grand ambitions: a ‘Trump revolution’ in Britain with the help of an influential US conservative ecosystemLiz Truss, Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, began the first edition of her YouTube show with a vow to unmask “the evil-doers” attempting to bring down Britain, the US and Europe. She would, she explained, reveal how an “international network of leftists work to subvert de
  
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• Starmer risks losing ally at top of Britain’s biggest union

  14-12-2025 06:00 via ft.com
  Leftwing challenger Andrea Egan is running against Unison general secretary Christina McAnea in leadership ballot
  
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• Keir Starmer risks losing ally at top of Britain’s biggest union

  14-12-2025 06:00 via ft.com
  Leftwing challenger Andrea Egan is running against Unison general secretary Christina McAnea in a leadership ballot
  
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• All police forces to get specialist sexual offence teams, Mahmood pledges

  13-12-2025 23:30 via bbc.com
  It is part of a long-delayed plan aimed at halving violence against women and girlswithin a decade.
  
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• Labour is procrastinating over policy as UK’s economy goes backwards | Phillip Inman

  13-12-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  New business rates regime that is poised to hit pubs and hotels is latest example of hasty decision-makingThere is a heavy cloud hanging over Labour’s Christmas celebrations.The most recent figures show the economy is going backwards and worse, the slide is prompting recession talk in the corridors of City banks. Continue reading...
  
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• 2025 was a crazy year in politics. But 2026 could be wild

  13-12-2025 17:00 via bbc.com
  Reform’s rise, Labour’s woes and Trump’s presence have changed our politics.What will the next 12 months bring?
  
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• Who is Al Carns? Former Marine and Labour minister with sights on leadership

  13-12-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Ex-special forces colonel, who is sounding alarm on Russia, has risen swiftly to role of armed forces ministerA former special forces colonel, government minister Al Carns was this week on manouevres warning that the UK needs to be preparing for war with Russia.“The shadow of war is knocking on Europe’s door once more. That’s the reality. We’ve got to be prepared to deter it,” he said, in comments that go beyond previous warnings by his boss, the defence secretary,
  
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• Will Farage's Trumpian strategy work against him? He has good reason to believe it won't | Samuel Earle

  13-12-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  The Reform leader bit back over allegations of racial abuse and revealed his strategy: the best form of defence is dragging everyone else into the mireAs the allegations of Nigel Farage’s racist and antisemitic school bullying multiplied, it was hard to keep up with his shifting array of responses. At times, in his evasiveness and discomfort, he has looked like that most un-Farage of things: a nervous politician, anxious not to say the wrong word.Last week, however, he angrily returned to
  
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• No 10 says it backs pubs as landlords bar Labour MPs in tax protest

  13-12-2025 11:09 via bbc.com
  The government says it delivered a £4.3bn support package for pubs and restaurants in the Budget.
  
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• ‘Who’s it going to be next time?’: ECHR rethink is ‘moral retreat’, say rights experts

  13-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  As 27 European countries urge changes to laws forged after second world war, human rights chief says politicians are playing into hands of populistsThe battle had been brewing for months. But this week it came to a head in a flurry of meetings, calls and one heady statement. Twenty-seven European countries urged a rethink of the human rights laws forged after the second world war, describing them as an impediment when it came to addressing migration.Amnesty International has called it “a m
  
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