Politics

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor I have been away getting married and on my honeymoon, and hands up I didn’t want to keep up with the unraveling of UK politics. Without sounding like an egotist, our politicians don’t deserve a moment of my time, or anyone else’s for that matter. Perhaps in the new post-politics era we will realise we didn’t need politicians at all, they will become redundant like VHS, great at the time, but now even the charity...

Ex-shadow cabinet minister Owen Smith is favourite to become the next Labour leader, with odds slashed from 3/1 to 11/10 while Angela Eagle drops from 3/1 to 5/1. The Pontypridd MP, who quite Jeremy Corbyn's cabinet last month, said he could "heal" the party and "turn the page" on its internal strife, adding that Labour needs a "radical and credible" leader. An election timetable will be launched on Thursday with the contest expected to take two months, ready for the Labour Party conference on...

David Cameron let out a cheery hum after handing the reins to Theresa May in a press conference outside number 10 Downing Street. The PM formally announced that May would take over as PM following his final Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday. Clearly worn out by the events of the past few weeks and overjoyed to be standing down, he let out a gleeful hymn on returning to number 10, unaware that he was still mic'd up! Watch the hilarious video...

Theresa May is set to become the next Prime Minister of Britain after Andrea Leadsom quit the campaign. Leadsom became the third successive 'Leave' campaigner to leave the race for PM, leaving a Remainer to take the reigns. In a statement she noted that May has the support of more than 60 per cent of the party and will be able to provide the "strong and unifying" government we urgently need. Here's the video in full: Who won the referendum? One...

Despite the Government dismissing a record breaking petition, signed by over four million people, calling for a second referendum over the UK's exit from the EU, over 1,000 UK barristers have now signed a letter stating that the exit from the EU should be decided by parliament. Barristers argue that the referendum result is only advisory as it did not set a threshold for leaving EU. The second referendum petition argued that the margin of victory was too insignificant to trigger...

Something exciting happened on Tuesday night. Four politicians from four big parties (Green, Labour, SNP and Lib Dem), along with Amina Gichinga and John Harris, came together to start building a Progressive Alliance. There should be another general election in the next year. A Progressive Alliance could see Labour, SNP, Lib Dem, Green, Plaid Cymru, Sinn Féin and other parties agreeing not to contest each other in constituencies. The speakers were very clear - this is not about denying the referendum's democratic outcome. A Progressive Alliance is not about fighting Brexit. It's about...

Robin Cook preempted the findings of the Chilcot inquiry more than 13 years ago in his 2003 resignation speech. Tony Blair's first foreign secretary echoed many of the findings of the report released by Sir John Chilcot yesterday. Cook said he "cannot support a war without international agreement or domestic support" and went on to criticise the government for going in to battle without a second resolution from the UN Security Council and without exhausting all other options. He said...

Theresa May, favourite to become the UK's next Prime Minister, nodded off in David Cameron's statement on the Chilcot Enquiry. A video emerged of the front-runner for Conservative Party leadership falling asleep as current PM Cameron made his speech on the monumental report findings. The Chilcot report revealed the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted and that military action at that time was not a last resort. Watch the...

The official Twitter account for the Russian Embassy in the UK posted a picture reading "keep calm but I told you so" following the Chilcot report revelations. Russia stayed out of the Iraq War in 2003, stating that we could not ignore the fact that "substantial progress" had been made since chief weapons inspector Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed El Baradei first visited the country. Although Russia did have oil interests in Iraq and the country owed...