#UK politics

#UK politics

How long had you to go: months, weeks, hours? We all know bad news sells. Political reporters cannot handle prime ministers sleeping soundly at night. But the terminal gloom around Keir Starmer's position is absurd. Not a morning passes without rivals being declared, and not an evening without the BBC's Chris Mason dragged from his supper to stand in the cold. He just frowns and forecasts Armageddon.

When the billionaire chief executive of AI chipmaker Nvidia threw a party in central London for Donald Trump's state visit in September, the power imbalance between Silicon Valley and British politicians was vividly exposed. Jensen Huang hastened to the stage after meetings at Chequers and rallied his hundreds of guests to cheer on the power of AI. In front of a huge Nvidia logo, he urged the venture capitalists before him to herald a new industrial revolution,

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

"If you take a look at London, you have a mayor named Khan. He's a horrible mayor, Trump said in the interview at the White House. He's an incompetent mayor, but he's a horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor.' I think he's done a terrible job. London's a different place. I love London, the US President said, adding: And I hate to see it happen. My roots are in Europe, as you know."

As David Lammy prepares to attend a Council of Europe meeting in Strasbourg that will discuss legal changes to stop bogus asylum claims, the novelist Julian Barnes, the actor Adrian Lester and the comedian Aisling Bea have also signed a letter telling the prime minister: Any attempt at undermining universal protections is an affront to us all and a threat to the security of each and every one of us.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

Rail fares in England will not be increased in 2026, the government has announced, surprising passengers with the first fare freeze in 30 years. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will confirm a freeze on fares in this week's budget, a move designed to limit inflation, ease the cost of living and support economic growth. Reeves and the prime minister, Keir Starmer, are hoping that measures such as freezing train fares and a package of support for energy bills will help mitigate the political fallout of several expected tax increases.

Net migration has in fact been falling since before Labour came to power last July, and yet there has been no end of demand for ever tighter controls and no end of government acquiescence. New figures published this week by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), adjusting historical data for methodological changes, show that net migration was 944,000 for the year ending March 2023 about 40,000 higher than had previously been thought. The drop since then has also been steeper.

Asian markets closed out the week on a negative footing, as the tech-sector rout from Wall Street spilled across the globe. Meanwhile, a raft of concerning data points out of China saw weak retail sales, industrial production, and home price figures. This had a particular impact on tech-focused consumer firms such as Alibaba and JD.com. The weakness in both consumer and business indicators signalled a need to be cautious in the region.

Peter Mandelson, who was sacked as the UK's ambassador to Washington over his association with Jeffrey Epstein, was in contact with the pedophile financier as late as 2016, new emails have revealed. Mandelson was sacked in September over leaked emails in which he expressed his support for Epstein and urged him to fight for early release in 2008 while the disgraced financier was facing charges of soliciting sex from minors.

Local government minister Alison McGovern, on the morning media round for the government, said the BBC should say sorry to Mr Trump for the splicing together of clips of his speech which made it appear he had told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to "fight like hell", omitting a section about peaceful protest.