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• Some good news for Northern Ireland

  17-04-2025 18:24
  
  Plus, the Troubles cast a long shadow over education
  
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• Social care reforms in England risk being ‘doomed to failure’, MPs warn

  05-05-2025 01:01
  Cross-party committee calls on government to take urgent action to fix ‘broken’ model
  
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• Labour MPs press Starmer to rethink benefits cuts after local elections

  04-05-2025 19:00
  Removal of winter fuel allowance partly blamed for party’s setbacks at polls
  
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• The hard choice between growth, security and climate

  04-05-2025 17:00
  
  While the green agenda remains critical, it must be balanced with the other fundamental imperatives of our age
  
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• UK politics: New Reform mayor suggests 10% cut to council workforce – as it happened

  04-05-2025 16:03 via theguardian.com
  
  Andrea Jenkyns says she wants a ‘lean, mean local government’ and says she is ‘up for a fight’ with unionsLocal election results 2025Streeting says Reform could become Labour’s main rivalsThe Conservatives will come back from their poor results in the local elections but it will have to be a “slow and steady” effort, party leader Kemi Badenoch has said, PA reports.She told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I am sorry to all o
  
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• Labour promised trans people dignity. I am not sure it knows the meaning of the word | Nicky Bandini

  04-05-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The terror I felt after coming out as a trans woman was assuaged by the acceptance I encountered in the real world. Someone should let our policymakers knowTo be a transgender person in the UK over the past two weeks has been to wake up daily to discussions on how your life must be made smaller. The supreme court ruled on 16 April that references to a person’s sex in the Equality Act 2010 should be interpreted as referring only to “biological sex”. Since then, we have learned t
  
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• Partisan and ‘creepy’ interviews are threat to democracy, Nick Robinson says

  04-05-2025 15:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: BBC presenter warns ‘shared space for national debate’ at risk from platforms that fail to challenge leadersFawning and partisan podcasts that give politicians hours of unchallenged airtime pose a danger to democracy, Nick Robinson has said, as he warned that Britain must guard against going down the same polarised route as US media.The BBC presenter said a “nostalgia brigade” pining after confrontational television interviews, in which Brian Walden grilled Mar
  
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• Badenoch says more children, not immigration, will help with ageing population

  04-05-2025 14:50 via theguardian.com
  
  Conservative leader’s remarks to BBC suggest she may develop policies that encourage women to have more childrenPeople should be having more children rather than the UK relying on immigration to deal with an ageing population, Kemi Badenoch has suggested.The Conservative leader said the UK needed to answer the question of how we “make sure we can deal with [an] ageing society, people not having enough children”. Continue reading...
  
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• The English question now isn’t about Reform or party politics: it’s the rage that means we can’t talk to each other any more | John Harris

  04-05-2025 14:26 via theguardian.com
  
  My time in Lincolnshire highlighted our country’s most serious problem: the disconnection that means solutions can’t be reachedIt was unseasonably hot in Alford, Lincolnshire, and the early evening had brought a contented glow to the main street and residential avenues of this quiet market town. Colin Matthews, a genial former schoolteacher, was putting in another shift trying to convince people to give him another term as a local Conservative councillor and marvelling at the outbrea
  
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• Streeting says Reform are real threat and may become Labour’s main rivals

  04-05-2025 12:06 via theguardian.com
  Health secretary asks public to give government time as he calls Farage’s party a ‘serious opposition force’Wes Streeting has said Reform is a real threat and could replace the Conservatives as the main opposition party by the next election, as he urged the public to give Labour the “benefit of the doubt”.The health secretary said Nigel Farage’s party was being treated as a “serious opposition force” after Reform’s success in the local electi
  
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• No 10 backs Lucy Powell after her apology for grooming gangs remark

  04-05-2025 11:21 via theguardian.com
  
  Commons leader had appeared to suggest Reform commentator was using a political ‘dog whistle’No 10 has backed the cabinet minister Lucy Powell after she apologised for appearing to suggest it was a “dog whistle” issue to discuss grooming gangs.Powell, the leader of the House of Commons, faced calls from the Conservatives to resign after she made the remarks on Friday night. Continue reading...
  
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• UK counterterrorism police arrest Iranian nationals in raids across England

  04-05-2025 10:54
  
  Individuals were detained on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act in London, police says
  
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• Counterterrorism police arrest Iranian nationals in raids across England

  04-05-2025 10:54
  
  Five individuals were detained on suspicion of preparing terrorist act, police say
  
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• UK builds just 65 miles of motorway in 10 years

  04-05-2025 06:00
  Large proportion of additional capacity could be down to statistical anomaly, says transport expert
  
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• UK adds just 65 miles of motorway in 10 years

  04-05-2025 06:00
  
  Large proportion of additional capacity could be down to statistical anomaly, says transport expert
  
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• ‘These people are disposable’: how Russia is using online recruits for a campaign of sabotage in Europe

  04-05-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Moscow’s intelligence services have launched a new type of attack on the west, violent but piecemeal and hard to proveSerhiy was just about to board a coach bound for Germany when Polish security services detained him at the bus station in the city of Wrocław.In his backpack, the officers found firelighter cubes, a juice bottle filled with paraffin, a lighter, two pocket knives, a mini handsaw and a face mask. Later, when they searched the mobile phone of the 49-year-old Ukrainian ref
  
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• ‘Hoping for a lottery win’: Bedford residents prepare to make way for US theme park

  04-05-2025 06:00
  Local MP pledges to work with Universal to support homeowners impacted by multibillion-pound project
  
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• Unison chief tells staff at Reform-controlled councils to join union

  03-05-2025 23:47 via theguardian.com
  
  Nigel Farage warns employees working on diversity or climate change initiatives to seek ‘alternative careers’The head of the UK’s biggest union has urged staff at Reform UK-controlled councils to sign up after Nigel Farage warned workers to seek “alternative careers”.Farage said during a speech on Friday that he would advise council staff working on diversity or climate change initiatives to seek “alternative careers very, very quickly” after Reform UK t
  
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• Now Farage not Starmer is feeding public’s appetite for change

  03-05-2025 18:08 via theguardian.com
  The Reform UK leader has somehow dodged responsibility for the economic damage of Brexit and is winning over disaffected Labour votersThere was a time when any election campaign featuring the name Nigel Farage would have featured the word “Brexit” just as prominently.And yet, almost a decade after Farage orchestrated Britain’s great EU schism, and with the Reform leader emerging as a bigger political threat than ever, at this week’s local elections Brexit was not a word o
  
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• The great regenerator: how Nigel Farage keeps bouncing back

  03-05-2025 18:06
  
  Despite his friendship with Donald Trump and the fallout from Brexit, the Reform leader is thriving
  
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• Labour targets international students claiming asylum after election losses to Reform

  03-05-2025 17:29 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Ministers understood to be drafting white paper this month in move to reduce legal migrationMinisters will crack down on international students applying for asylum in the UK in a move designed to tackle migration figures, after a series of bruising losses to Reform in the local elections.An immigration white paper setting out the proposed reforms in mid-May will include measures to bring down the numbers of UK student visa holders who make asylum claims, the Guardian understands. Cont
  
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• Treasury threatens Defra with £4bn bill if Thames Water nationalised

  03-05-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Treasury threat an example of ‘scare tactics’ to help force through private sector deal, sources suggestWhitehall officials have been at loggerheads over the fate of Thames Water since the Treasury told the environment department that it would have to meet the cost of a multibillion pound temporary nationalisation.Britain’s biggest water company recently came within days of running out of money. Thames is in a desperate race to find a buyer willing to inject cash, wi
  
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• Becky Barnicoat on early signs of summer – cartoon

  03-05-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Continue reading...
  
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• Badenoch apologises for local election results as Reform warned there are ‘no simple answers’ – as it happened

  03-05-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  This live blog is now closed, you can read more on the local elections here:‘We can’t just talk to the right’: what will Labour do now?Headteachers are taking legal action against Ofsted, England’s schools watchdog, over fears that its new inspection regime is “even worse than before” and likely to harm the mental health of school leaders.The National Association of Head Teachers said it had lodged a claim for a judicial review against Ofsted “over the p
  
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• Labour and Tories hunt for a way to counter Farage’s Reform

  03-05-2025 13:58
  
  Insurgent party’s phenomenal success is threatening Britain’s political status quo
  
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• ‘We can’t just talk to the right’: what will Labour do now?

  03-05-2025 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Focus on Reform or reassure the left – Keir Starmer’s next move could define his premiershipIn a week of difficult local elections, there was a special guest in No 10 to give a pep talk to staff: Arsène Wenger, the former manager of Arsenal, beloved of the prime minister. Keir Starmer has sought his advice before, on the importance of building a team. And they have faced some common challenges, rebuilding their clubs and parties from low ebbs to extraordinary success.Now Starm
  
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• Labour alienated its core and failed to attract Reform voters. Now will Starmer change tack? | John McDonnell

  03-05-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  The local elections showed that voters feel betrayed. But in a party that brooks no dissent, that message isn’t getting throughJohn McDonnell was shadow chancellor for Labour from 2015 to 2020The response from Labour spokespeople so far to the loss of Runcorn and Helsby – and to the election results as a whole – has been especially tin-eared. There doesn’t seem to be any understanding of the deep-seated emotion in the reaction of Labour supporters to the party’s beh
  
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• Headteachers’ union takes legal action against Ofsted over inspection changes

  03-05-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  NAHT says changes are likely to harm school leaders’ mental health and it was not consulted adequately over the new grading systemHeadteachers are taking legal action against Ofsted, England’s schools watchdog, over fears that its new inspection regime is “even worse than before” and likely to harm the mental health of school leaders.The National Association of Head Teachers said it had lodged a claim for a judicial review against Ofsted “over the potential impact o
  
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• Does human rights law really stop the UK controlling migration? No – and Keir Starmer knows that | Jamie Burton

  03-05-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  It would be wrong for Labour to collude in the attack on the European convention. It’s fuelled by myths and false narrativesHere’s a recent quote from a Downing Street source: “We have to be able to say something on this that isn’t just defending the status quo.”The aide was discussing the European convention on human rights (ECHR), a postwar treaty to protect the freedoms of people in Europe, ratified by the UK in 1951. Although it was also central to Keir Starmer&
  
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• ‘Humiliated Tories’ and ‘angry Labour’: what the papers say about Reform’s local election rout

  03-05-2025 05:41 via theguardian.com
  Success of hard-right party is a ‘sobering day’ for Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch, UK papers report after a ‘populist wave sweeps England’UK politics live: latest news updatesSaturday papers in the UK were dominated by the Reform party’s victory at the polls, in which it gained an MP at Labour’s expense and won a string of local councils.A jubilant Nigel Farage said his hard-right populist party had now supplanted the Conservatives and pledged that Reform-run
  
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