House byline
Politics correspondent
Margaret Hale is a house byline for InfoHandle’s Politics desk.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant told The Independent that amendments due Monday would stop veterans facing repeated Troubles prosecutions while preserving paths for new evidence.
Ulster Unionist leader Jon Burrows called for a cross-party appeal to calm the Garvaghy Road blockade as police pursue a large-scale inquiry into protests that stopped an Orange Order march in Portadown.
Andy Burnham promised a further 20% business-rates cut for pubs and clubs from April 2027, but Treasury officials say eligibility caps for large arenas will land in John Healey’s Budget.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch used her Birmingham conference speech to promise inheritance-tax relief on family homes and pitch the party as the defender of earned income.
Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge told Conservatives in Birmingham a British iron-dome-style system would modernise UK air defences as Kemi Badenoch said Labour of leaving bases and cities exposed to drones.
Downing Street is preparing to match Israeli closures by expelling diplomats from London, a step diplomats say would mark a postwar low in ties tied to Britain’s West Bank settlement trade ban.
Hampshire Police detained a dozen people after anti-migration protesters confronted officers at a Gosport marina where 149 people rescued mid-Channel were brought ashore, while French authorities reported two deaths and severe burns on the crossing itself.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has asked for a judicial review of search warrants Thames Valley Police used at Sandringham and Royal Lodge the day before his arrest on misconduct charges linked to Epstein files.
MPs return to a crowded Commons order paper with pensions triple-lock legislation and pre-Budget gilt hearings as long bond yields ease from last week's peaks.
A rare western Channel crossing drew RNLI lifeboats, Hampshire Police and anti-migration demonstrators to the Hampshire coast as French trackers shadowed the vessel from Normandy.
An upper tribunal judge ruled the Home Office unlawfully applied its unsafe-journeys policy to two families, leaving an estimated 250 people in Gaza still waiting on biometric rules the visa centre cannot meet.
The first 700 inmates left custody on Thursday under an overcrowding plan, and support groups say victims were given little notice before partners jailed for violence became eligible to return home.
Justice Secretary Alex Norris abandoned plans to expand judge-only Crown Court hearings for mid-level offences, telling MPs he heard the legal profession’s anger and will pursue backlog reforms without shrinking jury rights.
Justice Secretary Alex Norris has scrapped plans for a Crown Court bench division that would have tried many either-way offences without juries, leaving 80,829 outstanding cases and faster magistrates reforms as the government's backlog strategy.
Justice Secretary Alex Norris abandoned plans to expand judge-only trials in the Crown Court after a backlash from barristers and MPs, but kept separate measures that would push thousands more cases through magistrates’ courts.
Ofwat asked water companies to model ten-year public ownership costs after Burnham pledged to lift the ban on taking utilities into state hands.
French authorities shut roughly 400 secondary schools for Friday as lycée protests over timetables and classroom conditions escalated into clashes that left dozens of headteachers injured and nearly 3,000 teenagers detained since the unrest began.
Treasury officials prepared for the OBR's pre-measures forecasts as Rachel Reeves cleared the November Budget runway amid talk of a £30 billion fiscal gap.
Foreign Office listings hit eight vessels and 23 people, including officials linked to civilian torture and the militarisation of Ukrainian children.
The first wave of Labour’s new early-release programme freed about 700 prisoners in England and Wales on Thursday as jails operated at 98.2 percent of capacity, with ministers insisting strict tagging and geographic curbs will limit risks.
The Home Office confirmed the cross-Channel pilot that swapped removals for legal arrivals has stopped taking new cases as the one-year agreement expired, after French ministers made clear Paris would not extend the politically fragile scheme.
The Metropolitan Police sent its Operation Northleigh file to prosecutors nine years after the fire, naming 54 people and 20 firms for possible corporate manslaughter and fraud offences.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham told BBC Radio 4 that staying outside the EU, joining a customs union, re-entering the single market, or full membership are all on the table before a delayed UK–EU summit.
The Office for National Statistics confirmed 0.3% Q2 growth and reported a wider goods trade deficit as import volumes picked up.
In his first Labour leader’s conference speech, the prime minister will unveil a publicly owned GB Grid body to speed connections and press ministers on social care funding choices.
Wales revalued once and a third of homes jumped bands; Westminster froze England's list and rewrote the law so ministers never have to try again.
Andy Burnham told Labour’s Liverpool conference the earnings link in the pension triple lock will be scrapped in 2030, with savings redirected toward a national care service he says cannot wait another parliament.
Argentina’s president gave London two weeks to stop the Sea Lion oil project or face international arbitration, reopening sovereignty tensions four decades after the 1982 war.
Trade unions on the Clyde and at Portsmouth counted shop-floor heads after John Healey’s £6 billion warship pledge, demanding contract notices before the October budget rather than another conference standing ovation.
The chancellor told Labour delegates his 28 October budget will prioritize debt control even as he promised £6 billion for shipyards, a Rolls-Royce factory package, and revived union learning funds.
Heidi Alexander confirmed Avanti West Coast will enter public ownership on 7 March 2027 when its contract ends, with Andy Burnham saying passengers—not shareholders—will come first on the West Coast Main Line.
French maritime police said a heavily laden inflatable overturned in calm seas off Pas-de-Calais, killing a 10-year-old boy and two women as survivors were taken to Calais.
Senedd members opened scrutiny of Dŵr Cymru penalty powers on Monday as Ofwat's evidence deadline passed for Welsh water performance data tied to storm overflow reductions.
Deputy leader Lucy Powell opened Labour's Liverpool conference on Sunday while Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden defended cutting the wait for guaranteed jobs for young health-benefit claimants to three months.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has put a £210 million high streets and regeneration package at the centre of Labour's conference week, split between derelict buildings and community takeovers of pubs and shops — but the money still has to pass the spending and allocation machinery.
Angela Rayner has told The Times that extending settlement waits to 10 and 15 years shifts the goalposts for workers already in the UK, putting her at odds with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood before Labour’s Liverpool conference.
Glasgow City Council pauses dismiss-and-rehire for about 23,000 non-teaching staff after Scottish Government intervention, with equal pay talks due to resume next week.
Garvaghy Road residents will ask the High Court on Saturday to block the Parades Commission determination that permits a restricted Drumcree parade on Sunday, with the hearing listed for 11am and the march due to start at 8am under a 35-person cap.
Downing Street says it will not call an early general election, but Labour figures are treating the Holborn and St Pancras by-election to replace Sir Keir Starmer as a dress rehearsal, with a YouGov projection putting Labour 162 seats down and the 28 October Budget tightening the arithmetic in the same fortnight.
Provisional Home Office figures show 781 migrants arrived in small boats on Wednesday, the highest single-day total in 2026, lifting the year-to-date count to 18,565 despite a 42 percent drop from 2025; Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood ordered an urgent Border Security Command review after two boats landed undetected near Folkestone and Samphire Hoe this week.
Downing Street coolly received Tony Blair Institute calls to put EU re-entry at the centre of the ten-year plan, steering reporters toward a UK-EU summit while the report pitches SAFE, a North Sea energy partnership, and a UK-EU industrial council.
Keir Starmer told the UN Britain will host Chagos follow-on talks in London this October, even as Donald Trump blasted the Diego Garcia lease plan and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham echoed U.S. skepticism at a New York fringe event.
Hampshire police arrested six people after anti-migrant demonstrators clashed with officers when a Channel small boat was diverted from Gosport to Dover, following a 33-hour crossing that refused French rescue help.
Keir Starmer told aides Ukraine military aid and a UK-led AI safety verification pact head his UN General Assembly week, pairing FCDO relief pledges with AISI-backed model testing commitments before bilateral talks in New York.
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas tabled a Westminster Hall debate urging Defra and the Environment Agency to fund continuous River Mersey tidal bore and salinity monitoring after Liverpool planners cited missing baseline data in estuary flood models.
The SNP’s Westminster leader pressed Treasury ministers for a North Sea revenue floor inside the fiscal framework review, arguing Barnett swings should not drain Holyrood budgets when UK oil taxes spike ahead of a framework compliance vote.
Labour whips outlined a renters reform timetable that would end no-fault Section 21 notices in April 2027 after a Housing Committee report demanded stronger court capacity and a phased deposit reform.
Treasury officials briefed select committees on minor fiscal-rule flexibilities ahead of the autumn statement, stressing that debt-falling tests will still bind spending totals even if investment timelines slip.