32 h. ago I wish I'd been castrated years ago: Shocking words of a rapist who's had it done as TOM LEONARD reveals truth of Labour's plans for paedophiles

Even Labour governments nowadays want to pretend to be 'tough on crime' - when the opposite is true - but the Starmer administration will have its work cut out.

Events

65 h. ago Poll results: 'Keir Starmer is just copying Reform with his immigration crackdown'

Keir Starmer's tough new immigration crackdown has sparked fierce debate, with supporters praising his stance and critics accusing him of copying rival Reform. Here's what Mirror readers made of it all.

Politics

5 d. ago ANDREW PIERCE: Is a Tory grandee toying with a jump to Reform?

At the swish Westminster launch last week of Red Prince, the unauthorised biography of Sir Keir Starmer by Tory grandee Lord Ashcroft, there was a strong Reform turnout. So is he ready to jump ship?

Politics

5 d. ago Inside prisons crisis as Keir Starmer told to 'hold his nerve' on unpopular decision

Prime Minister Keir Starmer will soon face tough choices as his major sentencing review is expected to demand a complete overhaul of the prisons system

Events

5 d. ago A Labour lost in the weeds can’t rebuild this country. Starmer must regain his nerve | John Harris

Labour has good ideas and years left to change Britain. Why is it acting as if its time is almost up? Just under a week on from Keir Starmer’s latest pronouncements about immigration, plenty of people on his own side are still gripped by a queasy sense of fury and disappointment, and it shows no signs of fading away. His aides and allies will now try to gladden left-liberal hearts by emphasising gains from Monday’s UK-EU summit, and the prime minister’s remodelling of Brexit. But the acrid cloud hanging over Starmer will surely remain, and with good reason.Whatever the surrounding context – and whether or not he was consciously echoing Enoch Powell – his suggestion that Britain risked becoming an “island of strangers” still sounded like a horribly calculated provocation. The insistence that the government was set on closing “a squalid chapter for our politics, our economy, and our country” was even more brazen. So was the suggestion after years of “a one-nation experiment in open bo...

Politics

7 d. ago DAVE BURKE: I spent a wild week with Keir Starmer as he got tough on immigration in Albania

On Monday Keir Starmer launched a five-day mission to hammer home the message that Labour is getting tough on migration with a new strategy and a high-profile trip to Albania

Politics

7 d. ago So ends the Keirbot’s immigration week: literally everyone hates it. Possibly even him | Marina Hyde

Several strongly worded X posts, a bungled Albanian scheme and the ghost of Enoch Powell. Once again, he’s smashed itOn Friday morning, Keir Starmer was posting without compromise. “If you’re one of the smugglers putting people in small boats across the channel,” ran the prime minister’s communique on X, “we’re coming after you.” Imagine the fear that would have struck into the hearts of all those people smugglers who follow his account.Alternatively, you could consider the above as a performance for the benefit of people other than those to whom it appears to be addressed – which would certainly make it of a piece with Starmer’s entire shtick for “immigration week”. Because that really has been quite a performance – and one the critics are already calling unconvincing, excruciating and wooden. On several occasions the prime minister was outperformed by his lectern.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Starmer’s bid to send failed asylum seekers abroad — a year after Rwanda scheme scrapped

PM’s policy to create ‘return hubs’ in foreign countries faces immediate setback as Albania — where he made the announcement — refuses to agree deal

Events

8 d. ago Starmer in talks to send failed asylum seekers abroad — a year after Rwanda scheme scrapped

The prime minister made the announcement as he visited Albania as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration

Events

9 d. ago EU and UK at loggerheads over fishing rights and youth mobility

Tensions mount as EU diplomats seek common ground for wide-ranging reset in relations with BritainUK politics live – latest updatesEU member states have rejected UK positions on fishing and a youth mobility deal, as tensions mount before a much-anticipated summit between Keir Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen next week.Senior EU diplomats meeting on Wednesday expressed disappointment and frustration over the British positions on fishing rights and youth mobility to the European Commission, which is negotiating a wide-ranging reset in relations with the British government. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Keir Starmer is caught in yet another trap of his own making | Rafael Behr

The prime minister’s immigration approach follows a now-familiar pattern: letting fear of a difficult argument get in the way of policy that might workKeir Starmer is embattled but not threatened. It is a strange combination. He is not challenged by Kemi Badenoch, who is weak in parliament and irrelevant outside it. Nor is the prime minister in immediate peril from Reform, the Liberal Democrats or the Greens. They pose electoral challenges in the coming years but they can’t stop the government passing laws in the meantime. The Labour leader is not in danger from backbench rebellion. Dissenting MPs grow in number but not at the rate that presages regicide.Starmer has been dealt a tough hand in some ways. He inherited a rotten economy in a volatile world. But he also has advantages not enjoyed by many of his predecessors: a vast Commons majority, an obedient cabinet, a splintered opposition. His greatest problem isn’t a politician or party. It isn’t an industrial lobby or foreign powe...

Events

1 week ago EU chief says row over fishing rights is settled ahead of Starmer's Brexit 'reset' next week but Spain bids to reopen Gibraltar spat

Kaja Kallas said 'we are over the fish' ahead of a major summit in London next week where Sir Keir Starmer hopes to confirm UK firms will join a 150 billion euro joint defence fund.

Politics

1 week ago Keir Starmer's immigration crackdown: What are Labour's stricter new rules?

Sir Keir Starmer talked tough at today's Downing Street press conference, but what is he actually planning to do in practice?

Politics

1 week ago Keir Starmer to announce new measures to ‘tighten up’ immigration system – UK politics live

Prime minster to unveil immigration white paper that he claimes will be ‘clean break from past’What change in rules means for migrants and employersThe Conservatives have rejected suggestions that Keir Starmer is being tough on immigration. In a statement released overnight in response to the briefing about the white paper plans, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said:Keir Starmer pretends to be tough, but just weeks ago his MPs voted against our 10-year residency and economic contribution test for indefinite leave to remain. Now he says that immigrants who make no contribution should still be allowed to stay.He is trying to take steal credit for recent substantial reductions in visa numbers that resulted from Conservative reforms in April 2024.International recruitment is a lifeline for the homecare sector, enabling us to provide vital support to older and disabled people in their own homes. Care providers are already struggling to recruit within the UK. We are deeply concern...

Politics

1 week ago Half of people fear timing of assisted dying law alongside benefits cuts, poll shows

MPs due to vote on controversial legislation this week, but Labour prime minister Sir Keir Starmer is set to miss debate

Events

2 w. ago The art of dealing with Donald Trump? Don’t fight him alone | Jonathan Freedland

This week’s trade deal is a boost for Keir Starmer. But a lasting win will only come by joining forces with other nations to resist the US president’s entire destructive agendaDonald Trump wanted Thursday, like every day, to be all about him. He thought the news cycle would be dominated by his sealing of the first US trade deal since he blew a hole in the world economy with the dynamite of tariffs. He gathered his vice-president and several cabinet members in the Oval Office to announce the new agreement – with the UK, as it happens – only for the gaze of the world to be diverted. All eyes were on Rome, where Trump was upstaged by one of the few global players who can outdo him when it comes to putting on a show.Don’t think Trump is not simultaneously wondering how he can use that whole white-smoke thing – perhaps to signal his winning of a constitutionally prohibited third term in 2028 – and worrying that Leo XIV is a serious rival for the commodity he craves more than any other: a...

Politics

2 w. ago Keir Starmer's former Cabinet minister blasts PM's 'alarming' response to Reform UK's poll surge as she demands he rip up Labour's tax rules

Louise Haigh, who was transport secretary until she resigned in November amid a fraud row, blasted Sir Keir's 'alarming' response to last week's local election results.

Politics

2 w. ago Louise Haigh delivers blow to Keir Starmer with 'economic reset' demand to fight Farage

Former Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said she was 'alarmed' at Keir Starmer's response to last week's election results and called for an 'economic reset'

Economics

2 w. ago Even charities can't stand the stink of Starmer: ANDREW PIERCE

The voters in last week's local elections delivered a bloody nose to Sir Keir Starmer, and he's now been humiliated in his own political backyard.

Politics

3 w. ago Starmer plans to finally get tough on Channel crisis in bid to neuter Reform's appeal

Labour sources said the Prime Minister plans a series of interventions on the issue in the coming weeks.

Events