Politics

Chancellor Philip Hammond is being urged to use next week's Spring Statement to end the freeze on working-age benefits after a new report revealed some 200,000 Brits have been pushed into poverty due to the cutbacks. The freeze on DWP benefits is due to start its fourth year in a row from April 8 after MPs signed off the cost-cutting sanctions in a vote earlier this week. But social reform think tank the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has urged Hammond...

Karl Busch has missed about 75 per cent of Mid Devon council meetings over the past 18 months

Jeremy Hunt is reportedly holding secret breakfast meetings with ministers to woo MPs to back him to replace Prime Minister Theresa May. A senior Tory figure has told The Sun that Hunt has been asking senior ministers what jobs they want in his Cabinet in exchange for their backing in secret morning meetings. Despite Savid Javid being widely tipped to become the next PM troubles over knife crime and illegal migrants in the Channel could hand the keys to number 10 to...

A business owner had to fight back the tears after discussing the impact Brexit uncertainty will have on operations and the livelihood of her staff.  Speaking to BBC News Sue Wynn-Jones, a horticulturist who runs Crug Farm Plants in North Wales, said two-thirds of their business is in Europe and that a turbulent departure from the union could close the company.  As she begins to tell the reporter what impact the uncertainty is having on her business she had to...

Remember Tory arch Brexiteer and trouble-maker Mark Francois? Many accused the MP for Rayleigh and Wickford of racism when he reacted to Airbus CEO Tom Enders warning about the implications of a no-deal Brexit for the aerospace firm's UK operations by snapping: “Mr Enders’ intervention is a classic example of the sort of Teutonic arrogance, which is one of the reasons why many people voted to leave the European Union.” Today the MP was involved in another race row live...

The Conservative Party is under fire after it was revealed that the party illegally accepted over £1 million in funds from Brits who are actually based in tax havens in the run up to the last election. The Political Parties and Elections Act of 2009 made donations of over £7,500 from people not based in the UK for tax purposes against the law. An investigation in The Times newspaper has revealed people living in tax havens and their UK companies...

The Treasury Committee has warned that the UK must get a grip on money laundering and that is could even increase post-Brexit. The Committee concluded that efforts to fight money laundering in the UK is “highly fragmented.” at the moment. They urged the government not to ignore the seriousness of economic crime in a rush to secure new trade deal in the post-Brexit political environment. Committee chair Nicky Morgan said government should not "bow to buccaneering regulatory pressures” The Treasury...

Theresa May has said if her deal fails 'we may never leave' EU in an impassioned speech just weeks away from Brexit.  The Prime Minister said the Commons would face "a crucial choice" over "whether to back the Brexit deal or to reject it." She said: "Back it and the UK will leave the European Union. Reject it and no one knows what will happen." Talking in Grimsby she told an audience that now is the moment “to get this...

But admits Labour too slow in tackling anti-Semitism within its ranks