Home Office plans to spend £2.2bn of foreign aid on asylum support June 7, 2025 The Home Office plans to spend about £2.2 billion of foreign aid to support asylum seekers this financial year, according to new figures. The amount of overseas development assistance (ODA) budgeted by the Home Office – which is largely used to cover accommodation costs such as hotels for asylum seekers – is slightly less than [...]
NHS app to save government £200m, internal analysis suggests June 7, 2025 The NHS app could save the government millions as it will become the default method of communication for patients seeking appointment reminders, screening invitations and test results. Millions more people will receive personal health information directly to their smartphones within the next three years in a move that is expected to save the health service [...]
DESNZ shedding nuclear ministers as spending review threatens net zero mission June 6, 2025 The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has lost two ministers in the span of a month in a blow to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband. Philip Hunt, nuclear minister, retired less than a year into his tenure, citing wanting to spend more time with his family. He was followed in short succession by [...]
Free Thinking: Is Nigel Farage the real prime minister? June 6, 2025 With everyone in Westminster dancing to Nigel Farage's tune, we have to ask: is the Reform UK leader the real prime minister?
Tory immigration policy: Kemi Badenoch unveils review into leaving ECHR June 6, 2025 Kemi Badenoch has used a major speech on immigration to announce a review into the UK leaving the European Court of Human Rights. In a speech at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in Westminster, the Conservative leader announced a “lawfare commission” whilst slamming “a legal culture that’s become more interested in political activism than [...]
Reform lost their businessman – what does this mean for the party? June 6, 2025 Barely a week ago, Zia Yusuf was hosting journalists in the City, trying to sell them on Reform’s crypto plan. But things quickly went awry for the Reform party chairman. On Wednesday, Yusuf publicly contradicted Reform MP Sarah Pochin’s call in Parliament for a burqa ban. On Thursday, he resigned. The chairman announced he was [...]
Labour exploring plans for ‘Britcard’ digital ID to curb illegal migration June 6, 2025 Labour is exploring a new national, universal digital ID card for every adult in the UK to tackle illegal migration. The ID is being tentatively branded as ‘Britcard’, and could be downloaded onto a smartphone in the shape of a “free verifier app”. Plans for the digital ID were laid out in detail by the [...]
Farage considered ‘more working class’ than Starmer, polling finds June 6, 2025 Reform leader Nigel Farage is seen by voters to have more solid working class credentials than Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, fresh polling by More in Common has found. 19 per cent see the Reform leader as a member of the working class. For Starmer, the number is 17 per cent. This follows Farage’s claim [...]
Calls to overhaul UK’s ‘outdated’ sanctions regime June 5, 2025 Experts are calling for an overhaul of the UK’s “outdated” sanctions regime, which is “ill-equipped” to face modern forms of crime and conflict. Former justice secretary Robert Buckland has argued for reforming the UK sanctions system to better suit modern threats, writing in a report by the Adam Smith Institute (ASI). The Sanctions and Anti-Money [...]
Reform in chaos as Zia Yusuf quits as Chair June 5, 2025 The chairman of Reform UK has quit his position, saying working to get the party elected was no longer “a good use of my time”. Zia Yusuf’s decision follows a row in which he described a question to the Prime Minister concerning a ban on burkas from his party’s newest MP as “dumb”. Announcing his [...]