United Kingdom

    Refugees arrive on the Scottish Isle of Bute. The Home Office has announced a policy that refugees applying to settle permanently in Britain face a safe return review after five years. Tens of thousands of refugees who apply to live permanently in Britain are to be required to undergo an official review to see if it is safe for them to be sent back home, under new Home Office instructions. The new policy of reviewing whether all refugees still require protection five years after they first obtained asylum in Britain was quietly slipped out on Thursday and it is believed to take immediate effect. The new instructions were foreshadowed by Theresa May in her notorious “chilling and bitter” 2015 Conservative party conference speech when, as home secretary, she made clear that ...

    George Osborne is set to earn £650,000 a year working just four days a month as an adviser for a US asset management fund. The former Chancellor is expected to be paid £162,500 a quarter for 12 days working as an “adviser on the global economy”, according to the parliamentary register of interests. It is almost nine times the £74,000-a-year salary he earns as a backbench MP. Mr Osborne said he had consulted the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments which vets new jobs taken by senior former ministers, on the appointment. He has already registered more than £780,000 in payments which he has received for 14 speeches which he has made since last September. They include five made in the United States, one in Dubai and one in Antwerp. Mr Osborne, who was sacked by Theresa...

    A bit of good news to brighten up your day – we could be getting an extra day off in June to mark the Queen’s 65th year on the throne. MPs will debate whether there should be an extra public holiday this summer to celebrate her Sapphire Jubilee, as there was in 2012 for her Diamond Jubilee. Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell said it would be a “missed opportunity” if the country didn’t celebrate the Queen’s achievement, and the public could spend the day throwing street parties and other events, the Evening Standard reported. (Alternatively, you could spend it drinking Pimm’s in a pub garden or doing whatever else you so please! You don't have to be a monarchist to appreciate a day off, after all.) If Rosindell's Queen's Sapphire Jubilee Bill passes, it will guarantee us a d...

    Millions of self-employed workers face a rise in their National Insurance rates, bringing them closer in line with conventional employees. The move will cost 60p a week to the average self-employed person and save the Government £145m by 2021-22, Philip Hammond said. The change will particularly hit partners in professional firms, such as accountants, surveyors and lawyers. Related: Will the Budget make you richer or poorer? Find out here The situation now People who work for themselves pay two types of National Insurance, a tax that funds benefits like the state pension and job seeker's allowance. For the 2017-18 tax year they pay Class 2 NI at £2.85 a week on profits between £6,025 and £8,164. If profits are above £8,164, these are subject to Class 4 NI at 9pc. Profits a...

    Jeremy Corbyn has insisted there is nothing missing, nothing hidden in his tax affairs as Labour rejected allegations he failed to declare £40,000 of income. The party said it was confident the details of Mr Corbyn's tax return were in order after the leader faced questions over his earnings. Details released on the Labour leader's website on Sunday said he earned £114,342 in 2015/16, on which he paid £35,298 in tax. The Labour leader said: Transparency invites scrutiny. I welcome it as should all those seeking highest office. My taxes fully paid, nothing missing, nothing hidden. Mr Corbyn's tax return showed he earned £77,019 from all employments, £36,045 from UK pensions and state benefits, £1,200 profit from self employment, and £78 in interest from UK bank and building...

    Theresa May is facing growing Brexit pressure on multiple fronts as Tories challenge her renegotiation stance and fresh questions about the impact on the economy arise. Senior Tory Eurosceptics have joined Labour and the Liberal Democrats in calling for extra reassurances for EU citizens in Britain through a Brexit committee report. Conservative rebels in the Lords will back opposition parties to inflict a second Brexit Bill defeat in as many weeks on Tuesday, this time over a vote on the final deal. Sinn Fein’s surge in the Northern Ireland elections on an anti-Brexit ticket could see Stormont become more critical about the EU split. And the expected sale of Vauxhall this week will see concerns over the 4,500 linked British jobs - and the UK car manufacturing sector as a ...

    The UK could walk away from the European Union in 2019 without paying a penny, the House of Lords has said, in a report bound to raise tensions with Brussels in the run-up to Brexit talks. The British government would have no legal obligation to either pay a €60bn (£52bn) Brexit bill mooted by the European commission or honour payments into the EU budget promised by the former prime minister David Cameron, according to analysis by the House of Lords EU financial affairs sub-committee. In a report published on Saturday, the committee argues that the British government would be on strong legal ground if it chose to leave the EU without paying anything, adding that Brussels would have no realistic chance of getting any money. The peers stress, however, that if the government ...

    A tiny, temporary committee of MPs set up explicitly to consider doubling the publicly funded income of the Royal Family took thirteen minutes to decide that, yes, the Royal Family should indeed have its income doubled. The Seventh Dedicated Legislation Committee was only established to consider raising the so-called Sovereign Grant from 15 per cent to 25 per cent of the Crown Estates income, in order to fund the estimated £360m upgrade to Buckingham Palace, and now it has done so, it will be disbanded. Only the Scottish National Party, via its representatives Tommy Sheppard and George Kerevan objected to the decision. Mr Sheppard said: "We cannot support this decision and this statutory instrument being passed in this way. “It is not a suggestion that Buckingham Palace is...

    to stop playing politics with Brexit and also condemn the Scottish National Party's record in government on education. In a speech at the Scottish Tory conference in Glasgow, the Prime Minister will say "politics is not a game" and accuse the SNP of neglecting schools because of its obsession with independence. But the First Minister has already hit back, claiming her attempts to reach a Brexit compromise have been met by a "brick wall of Tory intransigence". The latest clash between Mrs May and Ms Sturgeon comes as the First Minister is expected to announce plans for a second independence referendum when the Prime Minister triggers Article 50 for the UK to leave the EU later this month. Mrs May claims it is "very clear" that people in Scotland do not want another vote on ...

    A new documentary TV series starting tonight lifts the lid on life as a Muslim in Britain, after film makers had unprecedented access to Birmingham Central Mosque. The Channel 4 series Extremely British Muslims has spent a year following some of the 6,000 worshippers at one of the largest mosques in Europe. The cameras have captured their day-to-day lives to explore three themes – finding a partner, the identity crisis facing young Muslim men and the challenges faced by some British Muslims as they try to reconcile the rules of their faith with life in Britain. It also exposes the dealings of the Sharia Court, including following women who are trying to get a divorce. And it reveals that there is such demand from Muslims wanting to check the religion’s rules that the Mosqu...