Politics

Government plans to boost prison capacity could cost billions more than estimated and fall short by thousands of cell spaces, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has warned. The National Audit Office (NAO) said current plans to expand prisons are “insufficient to meet future demand”, with a projected shortage of 12,400 prison places by the end of 2027.

The Home Office spent a record £5.38bn over the last year on asylum – more than a third higher than the previous year. Figures released on Thursday showed spending on asylum rose by £1.43bn in the 2023/24 financial year to £5.38bn – 36% higher than in 2022/24 when £3.95bn was spent. The latest figure, covering

Instagram is releasing a feature that will let users easily reset their algorithms, as the government strengthens its regulation of online safety. With the new reset feature, users can clear their recommended content from Explore, Reels and their feed, potentially reducing the amount of harmful content they are exposed to. It’s all part of Meta’s

Non-crime hate incidents guidance needs to be urgently changed because officers are “not the thought police”, the shadow home secretary has said. Chris Philp told a major policing conference that the police should “apply common sense and not waste time and resources” investigating incidents unless there is “an imminent risk of criminality”. He said forces

Climate change, the crisis in the Middle East, the continuing war in Ukraine, combating global poverty. All of these are critical issues for Britain and beyond; all of them up for discussions at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro this week, and all of them very much in limbo as the world awaits the

The defence secretary has insisted Donald Trump is committed to NATO and is right to push other European nations to put more funding into the security alliance. John Healey dismissed suggestions the new US president will pull out of NATO, the military alliance consisting of 30 European countries and the US and Canada, after previous

👉 Listen to Electoral Dysfunction on your podcast app👈 Beth, Ruth and Harriet work out what Donald Trump’s second presidency will mean for the UK as they debrief after the American election. They heard from one of Theresa May’s advisers who had to deal with Trump when he was last in the White House and

UK and European leaders will collectively react to Donald Trump’s win as they meet to discuss security today – and it casts a very long shadow. As the enormity of the US result sinks in, Sir Keir Starmer will join a summit in Budapest hosted by the president-elect’s biggest cheerleader on the continent, Hungarian Prime

It wasn’t yet official, but Sir Keir Starmer was straight out of the blocks on Wednesday morning to congratulate Donald Trump on his imminent victory – as America reeled from an election that turned from being too close to call into an emphatic, definitive and quick win. The president-elect took the Electoral College, the popular

GB News has been fined £100,000 for breaking impartiality rules over a programme featuring Rishi Sunak, Ofcom has said. The regulator announced in May that the show called People’s Forum: The Prime Minister was found to have broken broadcasting rules. GB News chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos said the fine was a “direct attack on free

In the week that Donald Trump filed a legal case against the Labour Party for alleged “blatant election interference” – Beth, Ruth and Harriet ask whether we should turn a blind eye to the drama, or whether the former president actually has a point. Just how problematic is this for Sir Keir Starmer? Later, Beth

The proposed regulator for men’s football in England will no longer have to ensure decisions on club takeovers align with the government’s foreign and trade policy. The removal of the clause follows veiled threats by UEFA to ban English teams from European competitions after being concerned about potential prohibited government interference in football. Labour made

Firearms officers on trial over police shootings will not be named during criminal proceedings, the home secretary has announced. Yvette Cooper made the announcement after police marksman Martyn Blake was cleared by a jury on Monday of the murder of Chris Kaba in Streatham, south London, in September 2022. Mr Blake, 40, fired a single

The world “will not tolerate any more excuses on humanitarian assistance” from Israel on the situation in Gaza, the prime minister has said. Speaking following a meeting with US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, Sir Keir Starmer sought to make the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar a

Sir Keir Starmer will attend a meeting with US President Joe Biden and the French and German leaders in Berlin this weekend. In the meeting of the “Quad” nations, the leaders will discuss the “concerning developments” in the Middle East and the situation in Ukraine, Sir Keir’s spokesman said. The meeting has been organised to

Boris Johnson has denied mocking the public by questioning why they “so avidly craved” lockdown rules and obeyed them “like a religion”. In an interview with Sky News’ Wilfred Frost, the former prime minister said he “totally rejects” he was expressing disdain for people who did as they were told by his government during the

Elon Musk has lashed out at the UK after reports he had been snubbed by a government investment summit.  The tech billionaire hasn’t been invited to the summit next month after his posts on his X platform regarding the violent riots in the UK last month, according to a BBC report. In response, he made

A student who heckled Sir Keir Starmer during his speech at the Labour Party conference has told Sky News the prime minister would “not lift a finger” to help the people of Gaza amid the conflict with Israel. Daniel Riley, who is 18 and from Jersey, interrupted Sir Keir’s speech in Liverpool to shout about

Nurses have rejected the government’s offer of a 5.5% pay rise, the Royal College of Nursing has said. Two thirds of nursing staff voted against the current year’s pay award, with a record high 145,000 members of the union casting a vote. In a letter to Health Secretary Wes Streeting MP, RCN general secretary Professor

The Criminal Bar Association has warned the government against increasing sentencing powers for magistrates, saying the “knee-jerk reaction” would “simply make things worse” for overcrowded prisons. Reports over the weekend claimed the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) was looking at doubling the sentences that magistrates were allowed to impose from six months to a year, enabling