United Kingdom

    Theresa May has reportedly approached the Liberal Democrats for help in pushing legislation through Parliament. The Prime Minister's new chief of staff Gavin Barwell spoke to senior Lib Dem figures in a bid to secure potentially crucial support from the party's MPs on mutual priorities, The Times reported. The Conservatives and the Lib Dems broadly agree on some policies, such as mental health reforms. Mr Barwell was said to have spoke to his opposite number, Tim Farron's chief of staff Ben Williams, and at least one high-profile Lib Dem MP in the hope of securing Parliamentary votes. Departing leader Mr Farron has previously ruled out any Parliamentary pacts or coalitions, but that stance would not preclude discussions on supporting the Government on individual issues. A ...

    Theresa May phoned David Cameron to beg him to support her deal to govern alongside the Democratic Unionist Party, according to reports. The Prime Minister is said to have called her predecessor the day before the agreement with the Northern Irish party was publicly confirmed. It is thought to be the first time the two have spoken in months and comes after a year of Mrs May distancing herself from her predecessor’s policies. The Times reported that Mrs May was desperate for Mr Cameron’s backing after losing her majority in June's election. Following the call, Mr Cameron offered to tweet out his support for the controversial deal - which will prop up Mrs May in the Commons. On Monday at 12.05, he tweeted: Task facing PM, given the circs, is to deliver the most stable govt p...

    Plans to rescue the NHS are in chaos after a weakened Theresa May backed down from a fight with MPs likely to involve hospital closures, Labour has alleged. Legislation to allow local health chiefs to transform the delivery of care and, crucially, save many billions of pounds has been shelved after the Conservatives lost their Commons majority. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has admitted the legal shake-up cannot go ahead without a consensus and that it will not happen while the Government is fixated on Brexit. Two thirds of the 44 Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) propose closing a hospital, or moving treatment to a different site. The STPs have not been stopped in their tracks. Local health bodies will continue to create them, but without any legal underpinnin...

    Labour’s right wing has launched a new plan to rein in Jeremy Corbyn’s power despite his growing standing within the party following the general election result, The Independent can reveal. The battle plan, issued to activists just a week after Labour overturned Theresa May’s majority, would water down Mr Corbyn’s influence on the party’s powerful executive by drafting in extra members likely to be hostile to him. The manoeuvre is the latest sign of the continuing guerrilla warfare taking place behind the scenes in Labour, with Mr Corbyn’s own supporters undertaking a counteroffensive to try and cement the left’s grip on the party. The competing plans set the scene for a major showdown at this year’s annual conference in Brighton, where the struggle for the heart of the pa...

    A placard at an anti-austerity march in London on Saturday. Theresa May is facing a chorus of Tory demands for a radical overhaul of state funding for public services as cabinet ministers and senior Conservative MPs back higher pay for millions of NHS workers, more cash for schools and a national debate on student debt. The prime minister’s waning authority was highlighted as her health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and education secretary Justine Greening lobbied for an easing of austerity and senior Conservative MPs insisted public services would be in growing peril without an urgent loosening of the purse strings. Separately, Damian Green, the de facto deputy prime minister and a May loyalist, hinted at a wider rethink when he said there might need to be a national debate abo...

    The victim of an acid attack in London has said that if it happened to a white person, it’d be all over the news. Jameel Muhktar and his cousin Resham Khan were left with life-changing injuries when a man threw acid through their car window as they sat in traffic in Newham, London. Muhktar spoke out about the incident for the first time yesterday in an interview with Channel 4 News, calling the attack a hate crime. I honestly feel that if this was a white person that got attacked by an Asian person he’d be caught within 24 hours. It’d be all over the news, there’d be a national manhunt, Muhktar told Channel 4 News yesterday. I believe it’s something to do with Islamophobia. I’ve never seen this guy in my life. I don’t have any problems with anybody. My cousin is 21, she’s ...

    Theresa May’s absolutist stance on Britain leaving the jurisdiction of the European court of justice has hamstrung David Davis in negotiations with Brussels, according to the Brexit secretary’s former chief of staff. James Chapman, who worked for George Osborne before serving as Davis’s chief of staff until shortly before the election, said May’s insistence that the ECJ must not have oversight once Britain leaves the EU, revealed in her party conference speech last year, had made the negotiators’ task more difficult. She’s taken some absolutist positions on particular issues – I’m thinking of the European court of justice, he told the BBC’s Week in Westminster. She’s set a red line effectively for a conference speech that hamstrung these negotiations in my view, said Chapm...

    Theresa May has secured a majority for her Queen's Speech in her first Commons test of the new Parliament. The House voted 323 to 309 to support the Government's legislative agenda for the next two years, with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) giving the Conservatives their backing following the confidence and supply deal struck earlier this week. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn faced a rebellion as 49 Labour MPs defied the party leadership to back an amendment by former shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna on Brexit. Related news: Flailing Theresa May secretly agrees triple u-turn on plan to scrap public sector pay cap Shadow ministers Andy Slaughter, Catherine West and Ruth Cadbury were sacked by the Labour leader after rebelling on the vote, while Daniel Zeichner reveal...

    Jeremy Corbyn has sacked several of his front bench team after they defied his orders not to back a soft Brexit in the Commons. Thursday afternoon’s debate on the Queen’s speech opened up fresh divisions in the Labour Party, as three shadow ministers were sacked and at least one more resigned after they joined 49 MPs in supporting a rebel amendment calling for Britain to stay in the single market and customs union. Shadow ministers Andy Slaughter, Ruth Cadbury and Catherine West were fired after defying the leadership to vote for an amendment calling to Britain to remain in the single market and the customs union. A fourth frontbencher, shadow transport minister Daniel Zeichner, quit voluntarily after supporting the amendment. In all, 49 Labour MPs voted for the amendment ...

    Theresa May The Government’s austerity policy descended into chaos Wednesday as Downing Street suggested it was ready to abandon a 1 per cent cap on public sector pay rises, only to insist hours later that the cap remained in place. The U-turn on a U-turn was blamed on the ongoing war between Theresa May and Philip Hammond, after the Treasury reportedly demanded a retraction of the announcement. It led to speculation that the Chancellor had been intending to claim credit for the policy change at his next budget. Three Cabinet ministers appeared to have been briefed that the pay cap was coming to an end as they openly talked about the need to consider lifting it, and Sir Oliver Letwin, the influential backbench MP, even went into detail about how taxes would have to be incr...