Politics

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...

The harsh austerity plan rolled out under consecutive Conservative governments has been linked to 120,000 deaths in Britain. According to a damning landmark study there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020. The study, published in BMJ Open today, identified that mortality rates in the UK had declined...

Sexist, misogynistic and with a list of sexual misconduct allegations that would make even Harvey Weinstein blush, Donald Trump has hardly been the face of feminism in his first year in office - But he has done one remarkable thing for US women. Emily's List, which helps elect pro-choice Democratic female candidates to office, recently announced that over 20,000 women have reached out to the organisation since Election Day about running for office. That compares to just 992 applicants in 2016. An additional 8,000 people...

The Centre of Brexit studies is set to visit the UK’s ten biggest Leave voting constituencies to find out their thoughts and feelings on the Brexit process nearly 18 months on from the landmark referendum. Researchers from Birmingham City University’s Centre for Brexit Studies will be spending three weeks on the road to visit a range of different communities across the country and find out their views on Brexit and how the government is carrying out the process of leaving the...

The Foreign Secretary finally gave the British mum detained in Iran an unreserved apology in parliament. - After the shadow foreign secretary demanded he say sorry for his colossal blunder in an urgent question in the House of Commons. Emily Thornberry also called on Boris Johnson to stop endangering Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe by finally admitting he had made an error. "Of course I apologise for the distress, for the suffering that has been caused by the impression I gave that I...

BREAKING: Parliament will get a meaningful vote on the terms of the final Brexit deal implementation, Brexit minister David Davis has told MPs, staving off a Tory rebellion in the Commons. David David has announced a government u-turn and succumbed to demands from MPs that parliament has a vote on the final Brexit deal. There will be a parliamentary bill before the country leaves the EU, which will debate the terms that the government has agreed, including any changes to UK laws over citizens’ rights, the final...