75 m. ago Jess Phillips says Labour rebels should not be surprised by the action taken against them – UK politics live

Home Office minister defends Keir Starmer’s decision to remove whip from four MPs and says Labour must ‘act as a team’Good morning. Chief whips tends to be quite secretive, and when four Labour MPs had the whip suspended yesterday, there was no detailed, public explanation as to why they were being punished for rebelling when so many other backbenchers, who have also voted against the party, have not been singled out. As Eleni Courea and Jessica Elgot report in our overnight story, we were just told they were regular rebels.But the best explanation came from the Labour party source who told Geri Scott from the Times that the four MPs – Rachael Maskell, Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman and Chris Hinchliff – were being punished for “persistent knobheadery”.I don’t think that the discipline that has been meted out over the last 24 hours is linked to [the welfare bill] because many more people voted against the government than these four people.I actually don’t know because I’m not pa...

Politics

11 h. ago Reform tells energy firms it would scrap their clean power subsidies

Richard Tice has written to firms giving them ‘formal notice’ that Reform would tear up contracts designed to boost green energy investment.

Events

13 h. ago UK green energy groups warned they would lose subsidies under a Reform government

Deputy leader Richard Tice says rightwing populist party will reassess ‘all net zero commitments’ due to high costs

Events

18 h. ago Will Nigel Farage’s attempt to copy and paste Trump’s policies work in the UK? | Samuel Earle

The Reform leader is trying to import Doge’s cuts to spending and ‘DEI’. It’s clear what he gets out of it – not so much the British voterA popular maxim on the American right is that politics is downstream from culture. In the UK, it increasingly feels like politics is simply downstream from the US. With Reform UK ascendant in the polls, Nigel Farage – officially MP for Clacton, unofficially Donald Trump’s emissary to the UK – is setting the terms of the national conversation, and he is importing them directly from across the pond.Over the past few months, Reform has sought to launch “Doge” initiatives (referencing Elon Musk’s department of government efficiency), waged war on DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) employment schemes, and called for the UK government to embrace crypto and create a bitcoin digital reserve at the Bank of England, following Trump’s lead. It seems the Brexiteers were right: Britain doesn’t make anything any more – not even its own bogeymen.Samuel Earle ...

Politics

42 h. ago Voices: Is it time to give up on the NHS, our national religion?

The former health secretary Sajid Javid says we should charge £20 for GP appointments and replace the health service with a Dutch-style social insurance system – just as Wes Streeting warns the doctors that they are paving the way for Nigel Farage to do just that, writes John Rentoul

Politics

43 h. ago Reeves to reform UK bank ringfence rules in financial services overhaul

Chancellor announces ‘Leeds reforms’ to try and drum up more investment

Economics

47 h. ago Data shows immigration status of universal credit claimants for first time

Universal credit is a payment to help with living costs and is available for people on low incomes or those who are out of work or cannot work.

Politics

48 h. ago Labour slides further behind Reform in poll after disastrous spell for Keir Starmer with fears Brits are about to be hammered by tax hikes

The gap has widened again as speculation grows that Rachel Reeves will use the Budget to increase taxes for millions of Britons.

Events

61 h. ago Reform defector left Tories after mayoral candidate selection row involving Theresa May’s husband

Exclusive: A prospective Tory candidate for a mayoral race next year has switched to Reform after he was not added to a shortlist following an interview with Sir Philip May

Politics

68 h. ago Reform council complains Labour is being TOO TOUGH on migrant workers warning clampdown on care sector could see vital staff 'going home'

Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran has written to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper about a new law cutting the number of care worker visas.

Events

3 d. ago Reform UK’s ‘Doge’ unit battles councils for access to sensitive data

Senior lawyers and data handlers at some councils have so far blocked access to restricted information

Events

4 d. ago ‘An enormous scar’: the battle over solar farms and pylons as Reform UK takes aim at net zero

In the fourth part of a series, we look at how climate orthodoxy is coming under fire in LincolnshireAn unjust transition?: Teeside divided over net zeroIt breaks my heart’: how a refinery closure is hitting jobs and politics‘They feel betrayed’: how Reform is targeting manufacturing heartlandsIn early summer the wide open fields of Lincolnshire seem to expand beneath even larger clear blue skies. Travel north through the breadbasket of Britain towards the North Sea, from Grantham to Grimsby, and farming gives way to factories, refineries and the Humber docks. Each sector tells a story of Britain’s industrial decline: the demise of heavy industry on the banks of the Humber, the closure of coal power plants, fishing fleets decimated by the cod wars of the 1970s and 80s.Lincolnshire is at the heart of the government’s plan for the greatest economic step-change since the Industrial Revolution: a green re-industrialisation to help galvanise the country’s net zero agenda, create jobs and...

Events

4 d. ago Reform wants to cut council diversity roles. The problem is there are already barely any

Exclusive: Party talks up sums that can be saved by cutting DEI jobs, but there are only a handful of such roles across the 10 councils it runsCouncils run by Reform UK have an average of fewer than 0.5 diversity and equality roles each, it has emerged, calling into question the party’s stated aim to save significant sums of money by cutting such jobs.According to freedom of information requests, across the 10 Reform-run English councils there was a combined 4.56 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs connected to equality and diversity, not including roles required by law such as those for inclusion in education, including for pupils with disabilities. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago ZIA YUSUF: No money for potholes... but plenty for migrants' Big Macs

If you want to know why Britain feels broken, why the public no longer trusts government at any level, look no further than the scandal uncovered by Reform UK's DOGE unit.

Events

4 d. ago Nigel Farage 'set to snub Liz Truss' if she tries to jump ship to Reform UK

Nigel Farage is set to snub any attempt by Liz 'The Lettuce' Truss if she tries to jump ship from the Tories and join the ranks of his Reform UK party, political sources say.

Politics

4 d. ago Reform UK leader moans about Eurostar skipping Kent stations without mentioning why

The cross-channel train service used to stop at both Ashford International and Ebbsfleet International stations in Kent - but company bosses have a good reason why they stopped

Politics

4 d. ago West Lothian community groups could see fees for venue surge under new rules

Bathgate, along almost 30 other venues could be taken under direct council control as it battles to reach projected £1m savings from the running costs of community centres across the county.

Politics

5 d. ago Reform warns it wouldn't take Liz Truss or Suella Braverman if they decided to leave the Tories amid concerns they would damage the party's image

One well-placed insider claimed Mrs Braverman was 'not a team player', adding: 'Her record shows she is just too disruptive.'

Events

5 d. ago Reform warns it wouldn't take Liz Truss or Suella Braverman if they decided to leave the Tories amid concerns they would damage the party's image

One well-placed insider claimed Mrs Braverman was 'not a team player', adding: 'Her record shows she is just too disruptive.'

Events

5 d. ago Tory defectors ‘were never Conservatives to begin with’, Badenoch claims

Sir Jake Berry is the latest in a string of Tory defectors to have joined Reform UK.

Politics