8 h. ago Brits claiming Universal Credit without need to look for work soars by 1.5million since Labour came to power

The claimant total stood at a provisional 8.40million in December 2025 - up from 7.36million a year earlier, according to new Department for Work and Pensions data.

Economics

27 h. ago Unite or put the 'loony left' in government, warring Tories and Reform are told as poll shows Labour, Lib Dems and Greens could keep them from power

In a sign that voters could be beginning to tire of Reform, the party failed to rebound in a poll by YouGov despite high-profile defections designed to boost its credibility.

Politics

2 w. ago Revealed: How Scottish Labour hopes it can turn tables on SNP and snatch power in Holyrood election

Anas Sarwar is set to effectively launch his campaign to become first minister on Monday

Politics

2 w. ago Starmer says UK sheds ‘no tears’ at the end of Maduro regime in Venezuela

Labour prime minister backs transition of power after Donald Trump’s shock announcement the US has captured the country’s President

Politics

2 w. ago ‘We will grind you down’: how rogue peers became Labour’s toughest opponents

As Labour seeks abolition of hereditary peers, Tory-dominated House of Lords has inflicted near-record number of defeats on No 10‘We will grind you down’: how Labour reforms have changed the unwritten rules of play in the LordsDining in the House of Lords canteen just after Labour came to power, one Labour adviser found themselves sitting opposite two Tory peers.In particular, the pair were fuming about the forthcoming abolition of hereditary peers. Both agreed, the adviser said, that there should be a deliberate strategy to undermine the government on all its legislation, to slow down debate, and to push the new Lords leader, Angela Smith, to ask No 10 for concessions. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Channel crossings soared last year as more than 40,000 migrants arrived by small boat

The total number for 2025 was 13% higher than the year before. Nearly 65,000 migrants have now arrived in the country by small boat since Labour came to power in 2024

Events

2 w. ago Second highest number of small boat migrants arrived in UK last year: More than 41,000 crossed Channel in 2025

Keir Starmer is also less than 1,000 migrants away from an unwanted record - having the most people cross the Channel in his premiership after less than two years.

Events

3 w. ago Ed Miliband 'to spend billions on solar power' in scramble to meet Labour's pledge to cut energy bills

The Energy Secretary is expected to set out proposals next month to allocate up to £13billion over the next four years as part of the Government's warm homes plan.

Economics

3 w. ago Did 2025 mark the end of British parliamentary democracy as we know it? | Andy Beckett

The conventions and rituals that define the way we do politics rapidly eroded this year – setting the UK on a course into the unknownWas this the year that British democracy as we have known it began to turn into something else? Politicians, voters and journalists have made this claim before – when their side has been out of power for a long while, or when an elected government has been unusually dictatorial – and their warnings have usually been overstated. But this time the evidence of a fundamental shift away from a century-old status quo seems stronger.Familiar landmarks have disappeared: Labour and Tory dominance, two-party electoral contests, the decisive power of a big Westminster majority, the patience voters usually show towards a new government, the predictable pendulum swing between right and left, the red lines between mainstream and extreme politics and even the central role of parliament.Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Politics