Politics

BREAKING: Shocking details of the scandal behind the urgent review of 10,000 criminal cases possibly tainted by faulty or manipulated forensic data have been aired in an emergency parliamentary debate. Westminster heard how the Government had been warned that “murders and rapists will go free” because of their policy of privatising forensic services. Judges’ adoption and fostering decisions have relied on questionable forensic data too. “What assurance can the minister give that children haven’t been removed under false forensic evidence?”...

British citizens who fear immigrants and thought they threatened their values and way of life were more likely to have voted Brexit And the results, partly driven by narcissism, were regardless of their age, gender or level of education. The research, published in Frontiers in Psychology, identified 'collective narcissism' as a new voting variable. Scientists from the UK, Poland and Portugal measured the effect of xenophobia on voting behaviour, and found that it was strongly related to voting in favour...

Caroline Lucas says the government has been "backpedalling" since they voted to reject the inclusion of animal sentience in the European Union Withdrawal Bill. Environment Secretary Michael Gove has hit out at social media for "corrupting and distorting" political reporting since the vote last week, but according to Green MP Lucas it is an attempt to backpeddle on the initial Commons vote. "What I was told in the chamber was that they had no need to take any account of my...

News International CEO Rebekah Brooks told Ken Clarke that she was running the government with David Cameron just days after a dodgy deal helped the Tories win the 2010 General Election. Clarke, who served as Cameron’s Justice Secretary, said Cameron may have done “some sort of deal” with The Sun’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, to gain support ahead of the 2010 general election. In a meeting shortly after a victory, in which the Tories secured a majority in parliament, Clarke was told by Brooks that...

The government's move to recognise animal sentience in UK law after Brexit has been welcomed by welfare groups. Concerns were raised last week after the government voted to reject the inclusion of animal sentience in the European Union Withdrawal Bill. Prominent wildlife photographer Richard Bowler described the move as a "vote to say animals can no longer feel pain or emotions", adding that it "beggars belief that in this day and age the government no longer recognises animals as sentient beings". But following...

Shocking new analysis by the Resolution Foundation has revealed pay in real terms won’t be back to 2007 level until 2025. According to the research average annual pay peaked in the autumn of 2007 at £31,644 (in 2016 prices). Once inflation is taken into account, average pay will not be back at those levels until the start of 2025 - some 17 years since the financial crash struck. The Resolution Foundation's report, Freshly Squeezed, warns that Britain is on course for the...

The global trade in wild birds has plunged by about 90 percent since the EU banned imports 12 years ago after a parrot died in Britain - from bird flu. The illegal trade has been implicated as one of the main culprits in the spread of the killer disease and has brought several species to the brink of extinction. The number traded annually has now fallen from about 1.3 million to 130,000, according to new research. They are trapped and...

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has described today's Budget as "a ‘nothing has changed’ Budget from an out-of-touch Government". The scathing critique follows Jeremy Corbyn's response in parliament that Philip Hammond's speech was acknowledgement of a "record failure" on behalf of the Conservative government, with economic growth revised down, productivity growth revised down, business investment revised down and people’s incomes revised down. McDonnell says Hammond has "completely failed" to recognise the scale of the emergency in our public services, adding that the Budget has...

Philip Hammond put aside more money for Brexit than the NHS in the 2017 Budget in a reversal of the promises outlined during the referendum campaign. The Chancellor said £3 billion would be spent on Brexit planning, while just £2.8 billion will go to the NHS. In a deeply ironic twist the NHS now has just £350 million to see it through the winter, rather than the £350 million a week it was promised by the Leave campaign. Earlier this month NHS...