Politics

Philip Hammond claimed there are "no unemployed people" on this morning's Andrew Marr Show. The Chancellor made a TV appearance ahead of the Budget on Wednesday, which has been dubbed a make-or-break moment for the embattled front bencher. Hammond made the statement as he painted a rosy picture of an economy bouncing back from the long downturn, despite new global figures showing that the UK is now bottom of the growth league among major economies in Europe and North America. He asked "where are...

Scottish Labour have announced their new leader -Richard Leonard – a big victory for the left of the party, which will be seen as Jeremy Corbyn shoring up his hold on the party. The candidate of the left immediately called for unity after a hotly fought and bitter Scottish Labour leadership campaign. Centrist Labour figures such as Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham had given their support to rival candidate Scottish Labour leadership Anas Sarwar, as had most of Scottish Labour’s MSPs...

The Labour Party has removed a candidate for a safe council seat in next year's Bradford Council elections after an outcry over antisemitic posts on social media. Nasreen Khan was a former Respect party activist who had joined the Labour Party and was on the shortlist for a Labour council seat despite a series of comments she made in 2012 on a video posted on Facebook called "The Palestine you need to know." The prospective councillor posted: “It’s such a shame...

Britain is set to pay a long-standing debt of £450 million to Iran to help free imprisoned mum Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. According to new reports Boris Johnson and Philip Hammond have authorised government lawyers to settle the 38 year-long dispute over a tank deal. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been locked up since April 2016 on trumped up propaganda charges. Her sentence was extended after the Foreign Secretary made a colossal blunder over her intentions while in the country. According to exclusive reports Iranian hardliners have told...

Theresa May's husband has become embroiled in the Paradise Papers tax haven scandal with the revelation of emails between his company and Appleby, the offshore law firm at the heart of the tax avoidance leaks. Private Eye have seen correspondence between Capital Group where Philip May works and Appleby, whose stolen "Paradise Papers" documents have unearthed how the world's elite squirrel away investments in offshore tax havens, depriving countries of tax revenue that would pay for policing, hospitals, schools, defence,...

Prominent wildlife photographer Richard Bowler says the government's vote to reject the inclusion of animal sentience in the European Union Withdrawal Bill is a vote to say animals can no longer feel pain or emotions. The move to reject sentience in the bill has been largely under-reported in the mainstream media despite Michael Gove facing criticism over his high animal welfare pledge. Eighty per cent of current animal welfare legislation comes from the EU, but after March 2019, European law will no longer apply...

Parliament today heard the full horror of the Tories’ flagship policy that has left many families looking at the prospect of going hungry for weeks as Christmas approaches. The roll out of Ian Duncan Smith’s brainchild - the Universal Credit welfare overhaul has been criticised by MP’s from all quarters, as well as charities and housing associations whose tenants have been left unable to pay their rent for weeks. Opposition MP’s today called for the six week wait their constituents...

Helen Goodman made a heartfelt plea for families on Universal Credit this festive period, saying it's not so much a merry Christmas as a Victorian Christmas that even Scrooge didn't think of. Almost a quarter of her constituents in Bishop Auckland will be affected by the changes in December which will leave many people with a six week gap in payments. In her words "this is not a wait it is a cut, and many would say over Christmas it is the...

A Goldman Sachs banker has likened the UK under Jeremy Corbyn to "Cuba without the sunshine" in a nervy attack on the Labour leader at the Super Investor private-equity conference in Amsterdam. Fat cat Bobby Vedral warned the apparent chaos in Theresa May’s government has raised the risk of Mr Corbyn, who has been vocal about taxing the rich, taking over as Prime Minister. According to reports in the Financial Times Vedral, who also tipped Marine Le Pen to win the...