Politics

@BenGelblum With Britain's police budgets set to lose £700m a year, amid rising crime, and yet more cuts planned for border forces, parliament today heard of the tragic consequences of less money to fight a growing drug-fuelled gang crime epidemic. Knife crime is not being driven by minors and teenagers. It is being driven by organised criminals exploiting children, arming our young people and fighting turf wars over a £12bn drugs market, Tottenham David Lammy told the House of Commons,...

Feisty Emily Thornberry stood in at PMQs today, for Jeremy Corbyn, with David Lidington standing in for the PM as she in China. Thornberry said that the DUP and Tories were a “coalition of cavemen” because of their opposition to lower the voting age to 16, which all other main parties support. A concern for the Conservative Party is that 16-18 year-olds might be less likely to vote for their party. As the lively debate continued Thornberry said there was...

Journalists were left “laughing uproariously” after Angela Merkel poked fun at May’s poor attempt to negotiate a post-Brexit deal. She said that she felt trapped in a loop with May since the Brexit vote back in 2016. Merkel made her comments in a “secret” press briefing, during the World Economic forum in Davos. The ‘secret” details were leaked by Robert Peston, who said Theresa May repeatedly asked Ms Merkel to “make me an offer.” Ms Merkel said that when she...

Benefits cuts and freezes has resulted in the poorest households in the UK being forced to skip meals because they can't afford to put food on the table. Damning new research by the End Hunger UK coalition of charities has revealed rising food prices and austerity are driving "hidden hunger" in Britain, with a third of the UK’s poorest households skipping meals because they cannot afford to buy food. More than half of adults across all income groups, ages and household sizes...

Every single disabled person receiving Personal Independence Payments (PIP) is to have their claim reviewed, the Department for Work and Pensions has admitted in an embarrassing climbdown set to cost the tax payer an estimated £3.7billion. A total of 1.6 million claimants of the main disability benefit will have their benefits reviewed after a court verdict found that people with mental health conditions were being discriminated against unfairly. The Government have confirmed that 220,000 people with mental health conditions will...

Following a brief rallying call from her frontbenchers, Theresa May is now odds-on to resign in 2018. The beleaguered PM enjoyed momentary support from colleagues last week, but she has come under fire today from her own side as one of her MPs said the “window is closing” on her leadership and her former chief of staff laid into the government’s lack of purpose. A string of Conservatives voiced fresh criticism, casting further doubts on the stability of the prime minister’s...

The Labour leader pledged to confiscate luxury properties that have been left vacant for substantial length of time. He told BBC’s Andrew Marr show: “We would give local authorities the power to take over deliberately left vacant properties. “When you have in the middle a lot of housing stress, you get some luxury, glossy, glistening block built, sold off plan to long distance overseas investors who may buy and sell it before it’s even built…well hang on. Let’s look at...

A tempest was brewing in Shakespeare's home town yesterday when residents held a protest outside the office of under-fire MP Nadhim Zahawi demanding answers about him attending the scandal-hit Presidents Club dinner. The 50-year-old Tory MP, who represents Stratford-upon-Avon, Warks., has not been seen in his constituency since it emerged he was a guest at the sleazy charity bash. On Sunday more than 30 constituents held a demonstration outside his office - which is just 300ft from Shakespeare's grave at...

The UK has witnessed a remarkable rise in crime as police officer numbers hit a record low, according to new figures. Overall crime is up by 14 per cent in the year to September, with a surge in knife and gun attacks recorded. Robbery is up by 29 per cent, vehicle theft by 18 per cent and domestic burglary is up by 32 per cent. The figures have been revealed as the number of police officers fell to 121,929, the...