UK politics

UK politics

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

Private providers of child social care in England will be pushed out of the system if they are found to be profiteering, the children's minister has said. Josh MacAlister, who is in charge of overhauling the care system for children, also called for a fostering equivalent of the Homes for Ukraine scheme to provide homes for tens of thousands of children.

It's not an ideal situation. We want low tax, low spend and we were always committed to that. It's just that national pressures that the government is not solving [such as] Send [special educational needs and disabilities] home-school transport. The people understand that taxes do have to go up now. I am dead against increasing taxes and I will do as much as I can to lower that bill and that burden.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

My reforms changed the welfare system to make work pay and brought workless households to an all-time low. But because of the post-Covid collapse in vetting and rise of health-related welfare claims, millions of workers could take home more from welfare than wages after tax. This is an outrageous state of affairs. The system must stop writing off thousands every day and incentives to work need to be restored to end this ruinous waste of human potential.

"Creating a modern, fair and dynamic labour market is central to this Government's plan for growth," she said. "We want to make it easier for employers to find the people they need, while ensuring that work pays and feels secure. "Through clear guidance, we are giving businesses the practical support they need to understand these changes and get things right first time. By improving fairness and security at work, we boost productivity, strengthen retention and support businesses to succeed."

On this page, you can find minutes of all Board meetings for the last five years. We aim to publish the minutes of meetings as soon as we can after they have been formally approved.

The disagreement is focused on the estimated 5.8 million people who took out a student loan between September 2012 and July 2023. For many of these graduates, everything they hand over from their salary is dwarfed by the interest that is slapped on their debt every month. What prompted the latest row is Reeves's decision to freeze the salary threshold forrepayments for plan 2 student loans for three years which means many graduates will now have to pay even more.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

A leading think tank has recommended a number of organisational changes to local governments in order to reinvigorate democracy across the country. A report from Re:State recommends a major change to the number of London boroughs, as well as electing an official opposition mayor. The report, informed by interviews with a host of senior political figures, proposes that the existing 32 boroughs be drastically cut to between 10 to 12 local authorities.