Politics

A union boss has said Sir Keir Starmer must “cosy up to working class people” to be effective in Opposition against the Conservative government. Speaking to Sky News’ chief political correspondent Jon Craig ahead of Labour’s party conference, RMT chief Mick Lynch said Sir Keir must “show a way that he identifies with the struggles

Labour will attempt to fight back against the chancellor’s Trussonomics tax giveaways by unveiling rival plans to boost economic growth at its conference in Liverpool. The four-day conference will begin with a tribute to the Queen by party leader Sir Keir Starmer and the national anthem, a move that will be criticised by left-wingers. Deputy

It may have been billed a mini-budget, but what Kwasi Kwarteng announced on Friday was massive. A package of tax cuts on a scale not seen for half a century, paid for through borrowing at increasingly expensive rates in the hope that it will deliver better growth. This is an administration that promised “shock and

Councils are calling on the new prime minister to honour her promise to put £13 billion into social care, as government plans to scrap the newly introduced national insurance levy were confirmed. Ahead of today’s mini-budget, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng said the tax hike – introduced in April to pay for social care and tackle the

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has announced that April’s National Insurance hike is to be reversed from 6 November. The 1.25 percentage point increase was introduced under former chancellor Rishi Sunak, but during the Tory leadership race Liz Truss pledged to change it. Mr Kwarteng made the announcement ahead of a “mini-budget” on Friday. Politics hub: Health

Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats are part of a desperate attempt to justify his “catastrophic” failure in Ukraine, Liz Truss has said. In her first speech on the world stage as prime minister, Ms Truss accused the Russian president of “sabre rattling” after he said that his country would use “all the means at our disposal”

Liz Truss is putting the public finances on a “unsustainable path” with her plans to slash taxes while capping energy bills, a leading economic think tank has warned. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has calculated that the combination of higher spending and tax cuts means government borrowing is expected to hit £100bn a year

When Liz Truss was vying to be the Conservative Party leader and our next prime minister, some of her colleagues worried that, as the anointed choice of Prime Minister Johnson, she was going to be the Boris Johnson continuity candidate. On the economy, they could not have been more wrong. Since becoming the prime minister

Liz Truss has said she is prepared to be unpopular with her tax policy as she believes it will ultimately benefit the British economy. Talking to Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby in New York, the prime minister defended any tax changes her government will make at the end of the week and said she

The much-vaunted post-Brexit trade deal between the UK and US could be years away, Liz Truss admitted as she landed in the US before her first official bilateral meeting with President Joe Biden. The prime minister, en route to the United Nations General Assembly, told reporters on Tuesday: “There aren’t currently any negotiations taking place

The government is considering introducing a fixed discount for businesses on the amount they are charged per kilowatt hour for energy as part of its plans to tackle soaring prices, reports suggest. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy did not deny the policy was on the table ahead of the government’s mini budget,

An investigation into whether Sir Keir Starmer broke COVID rules cost Durham Police over £100,000, a Freedom of Information request has revealed. The Labour leader faced accusations after being pictured drinking a beer in an MP’s office in April 2021, with the incident being dubbed “beergate” by the press. He and his team were later

Train drivers will resume strike action next month in a long-running dispute over pay. A planned walkout by the Aslef union on 15 September was called off as a mark of respect following the death of the Queen. But now, drivers at 12 train firms will go ahead with industrial action on 1 October and

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney has expressed “cautious optimism” talks between the UK and Brussels to resolve the dispute over post-Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland will restart within weeks. Private conversations he and the country’s prime minister Micheal Martin had had with Liz Truss’s recently installed administration indicated there was an opportunity for a “new

An official Chinese delegation has been barred from attending the Queen’s lying in state. House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle will prevent access to Westminster Hall because of sanctions imposed by Beijing against a group of MPs and peers, a parliamentary source told the PA news agency. It came as crowds continued to pay

After the death of the Queen was announced last Thursday, MPs and peers stepped away from Parliament to observe a period of mourning for the monarch. But when they return to work in Westminster next week after the state funeral, they will have to hit the ground running with a busy in-tray of events and