38 h. ago ‘No simple answers’ for Reform after local election success, senior Tory warns – UK politics live

Shadow chief treasury secretary Richard Fuller says Nigel Farage’s party must do more than just ‘point at problems’‘We can’t just talk to the right’: what will Labour do now?Labour MP Rachael Maskell has urged her party to scrap winter fuel and welfare policies that she said are pushing voters away, reports the PA news agency.The York Central MP told BBC Breakfast that Labour has “special responsibilities” to serve the needs of people.We’re not any other political party, we were created to serve the needs of people across working areas of our country so that people had a real voice of the kind of change that they wanted to see.I think it’s now time, if Labour are going to go further faster, to pick up that voice, to put our fingers on the pulse and to understand that that responsibility that the 1945 government set out putting that safety net in place at the welfare state is on our watch and is our responsibility.People went cold last winter and that’s not what a Labour government s...

Events

58 h. ago We fought and beat the government in the courts because every Briton has the right to protest | Akiko Hart

The appeal court verdict makes clear these anti-protest laws should never have existed. Labour must now reflect on what sort of democracy it wants us to beAkiko Hart is the director of the human rights organisation LibertyWhen we beat the Conservative government over its anti-democratic protest laws in court last year, we thought that would be the end of the story. Judges in the high court had made it very clear that laws that gave the police almost unlimited powers to crack down on any protest that caused “more than minor” disruption were unlawful. It ordered that the laws should be scrapped. We celebrated. Given that the incoming Labour government had voted down these very same laws a year earlier, we believed that protest would be taken out of the culture wars arena and put back into the sacred space of fundamental rights.Yet Labour dragged us back to court, in a misguided attempt to be seen to look tough on public order. And now today, on a day of much Labour soul-searching, we’...

Events

1 week ago Mountainhead: Steve Carell stars as billionaire in Succession creator Jesse Armstrong’s new film

Succession producer Jesse Armstrong wrote and directed the film, with filming starting in March

Politics

1 week ago Steve Carell’s character ‘excited for atrocities’ in new Jesse Armstrong film

The films first trailer saw a group of billionaire friends laughing and joking as international crises break out.

Politics

2 w. ago Britain needs houses, and Labour’s bold plan will address that. But it may require more migrants | Polly Toynbee

Ministers are ready to be relentless over planning reform. There is a skills gap though – and they must be brave enough to fill itAmid the shock of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) halving its growth forecast last month, one remarkable finding gets too little attention. It predicts housebuilding will rise to its highest level in 40 years, adding 0.2% growth or £6.8bn by 2029-30, potentially rising to more than 0.4% by 2034-35. The government has said that housing scores the biggest positive growth effect from a “zero-cost policy” the OBR has ever forecast.This is especially remarkable given that 2024 saw the fewest planning permissions granted for new homes for a decade, and the worst on record, according to the Home Builders Federation (HBF). Planning applications plummeted when the last government scrapped councils’ mandatory housing targets, but since Labour reimposed a national planning policy framework, applications in the works have risen by more than 160%.Polly Toyn...

Events

3 w. ago Senior Labour minister who previously called for monarchy to be scrapped announces change of heart

Lisa Nandy has publicly reversed her stance on the monarchy after previously voicing her desire to vote to abolish the institution.

Politics

3 w. ago Lisa Nandy says she has changed her mind about abolishing royal family

The minister had said during the 2020 Labour leadership campaign she would vote to scrap the monarchy if such a vote was held.

Politics

4 w. ago Labour scraps review into 'woke culture' in the Armed Forces

Last month, the Daily Mail revealed that diversity-hiring practices had contributed to a 30 per cent shortfall in pilots at the ranks of flight lieutenant and squadron leader in the RAF.

Events