Publication

It is still in Britain’s interest to maintain good relations with an unpredictable America

The Independent has never been under any illusion about this American president. As our world affairs editor Sam Kiley writes, Donald Trump’s “infantile” folly in the Middle East has strengthened outlaw nations Russia and Iran, while “locking America...

Burnham blames Brexit for 'decade of low growth

● PM says EU departure was part of 'series of wrong turns' since the 1980s ● Badenoch says he is 'living in the past' and not "taking this job seriously ● Starmer quits as MP hours before his successor's first speech in Commons ● Government will...

Lionel Messi retires from international football: 'I have nothing left to give'

• Amy-Clare Martin: Why I began investigating the scandal of IPP terms that have toyed with people's lives

Tongue and Robinson each pick up five wickets as England bowl out Pakistan

Burnham hits back at Russian threats over UK drones in Ukraine

Andy Burnham has insisted Britain will support Ukraine “100 per cent” despite Russia’s threat of “consequences” for strikes made with British-built drones. Russia’s embassy to the UK said reports that Ukrainian forces had used unmanned aircraft made by...

The welfare state needs reform – but not by Farage’s hand

Launching Reform UK’s latest attempt to look like a party of government, rather than a gang of populist rabble-rousers, its Treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick shamelessly invoked the unimpeachable liberals John Stuart Mill and William...

Our burning world

£16.3bn estimated cost of damage in Europe 370,000,000 acres consumed by fire this year - a land mass larger than France, Spain and Germany combined 80 countries with major wildfires 900 football pitches - size of single fire in Peak District 46%...

Farage probe into £5m donation drags down Reform in polls

Reform UK is heading for third place in the polls and is being dragged down by its leader Nigel Farage, leading polling experts have said. Labour’s ‘Burnham bounce’ has already seen the party leapfrog Reform in a number of national polls. could see it...

'Tinderbox Britain': Burnham sends in army to fight fires

● PM pledges more helicopters to tackle crisis and vows to stick to 'net zero' ● 19 homes destroyed in 'apocalyptic' West Midlands blaze on hottest day ● Sale of disposable barbecues is temporaily banned by government ● Millions receive emergency...

'Terrifying': Train derails and slides down embankment

• 11 hurt - two seriously - as London to Sussex express jumps track • Passengers trapped as rear three carriages flip onto their side • Survivors describe confusion, panic - and rescue from field • Accident experts head to scene near Lewes as...

The Independent View Burnham must be brave in tackling burning Britain

Some like it hot! UK set for summer record

Running dry: Now three-quarters of England in drought

Howden reservoir in the Pennines looks empty and parched yesterday as alerts are issued for a fifth heatwave

Gaza peace plan in tatters as Israel rejects Trump proposal

A Palestinian girl shelters at a tent camp in Gaza City yesterday as peace plans for the battered enclave collapse

The climate crisis argument is over. We must now do something about it

Britain’s record-breaking summer of heatwaves could prove to be one of the coolest of future years. The hottest and driest summer in Britain is only part of the growing effects of the climate crisis being felt around the world. The Independent’s...

Britain’s debt to those Afghans who fought alongside our forces is due

As a matter of national honour, the British government must stop dragging its feet in protecting those who served alongside our troops in Afghanistan. As we report today, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has admitted in an internal review that Afghans who...

Tens of thousands hit by rail chaos after power failure

A systems outage in Manchester stranded dozens of trains and led to widespread cancellations and delays

Woman arrested after stabbing bystanders in London's West End

PM orders review of indefinite jail terms after our campaign

Fresh hope for thousands trapped by 'inhumane' imprisonment for public protection sentences after The Independent highlights open-ended punishment likened to psychological torture

Farage clashes with Restore leader over right-wing alliance

Infantino must resign with as much grace as he can muster

In sport as in so much of life, a sensible leader will quit while they’re winning, and a decade in charge of any major organisation is generally a good time to blow the final whistle. That would be true even when things are going well. In the case of...

Spain calls EU ‘selfish’ as migrant crisis deepens

The crisis sparked by a border breach in the Spanish exclave Ceuta deepened yesterday, as Spain accused EU countries of a “selfish” response. More than 60 people are now reported to have died after around 60,000 crossed from Morocco on Thursday. The...

Ceuta needs our help, not our hysteria

The chaotic scenes of tens of thousands of irregular migrants pouring into the Spanish territory of Ceuta, on the tip of the north coast of Africa, are simultaneously distressing and misleading. The distress derives not only from the sight of people...

The war in Iran is about to unleash a world of pain for the US president

If what Donald Trump said over the last few months about his unplanned and ill-starred war in Iran were to be believed, it would be over by now. Among other wonderful things, Iran would have undergone secular regime change, its nuclear capacity...

PM has grasped the nettle of social care - but the sting remains in paying for it

Inside frantic fight to save France from the flames

Race to contain wildfires before new heatwave

Now Healey doesn’t seem so keen to go into battle for defence spending

It is only six weeks or so since the then defence secretary, a widely-respected figure by the name of John Healey, told the not-so-widely-respected prime minister at the time, Sir Keir Starmer, that “you have been unable, and the Treasury has been...

No 10 North is far more than a symbolic gesture from the new PM

The outpost of the Office for the Prime Minister and Cabinet in Manchester has been derided as a gimmick – and there is an element of tokenism about it. However, it is a token of the right objective, which is to push power out of London. Andy Burnham...

EUROPE: THE WAY BACK Brexit wipes out UK Trump tariff benefit over EU

After US president hits dozens of countries with fresh export fees, British firms' advantage over European rivals 'evaporates overnight' - because of better terms negotiated by Brussels

Burnham puts early prisoner release scheme on hold

PM halts Labour's plan to ease prison crowding and promises no inmates will be let out until 'urgent review' - after outrage at prospect of freedom for two of young policeman's killers

PM pledges review as widow says PC killers' release is 'deplorable'

Andy Burnham will review the government’s looming early release scheme after a backlash over the potential freeing of two of PC Andrew Harper’s killers. The PM said he’ll make sure “everything has been looked at” before the policy, introduced under Sir...

Not just for America’s sake, Trump must stop dropping bombs

If all it took for the Iran war to be over, let alone “won”, was non-stop bombing by America, victory would long ago have been delivered to the White House. And yet, despite the dozens of times that Donald Trump has declared his campaign done and...

With the promise of a new politics, Burnham has made a fresh start

“We need to be better,” the new prime minister told the nation. Well, in at least a few respects, Andy Burnham has already done better. Without being unduly unkind to his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, even the now ex-prime minister might agree that...

Ailing Thames Water faces being put into a special administration regime

Incoming prime minister Andy Burnham is reportedly planning to put Thames Water into a special form of administration as he pledged to take greater “public control” of Britain's utilities. Britain’s biggest water firm – which has been left on the...

Miliband tipped to lead shake-up of Foreign Office

'Red Ed' expected to become foreign secretary and begin restoration of overseas aid as Andy Burnham plots first-day policy blitz including more oil and gas drilling in North Sea

World Cup isn't ours but Falklands are, says defiant No.10

Downing Street backs calls for Fifa probe into Argentina players who waved banner claiming sovereignty over islands, as Buenos Aires accuses British warship of illegal journey into it's waters

These are the final days in No 10 for Keir Starmer, a decent man

Sir Keir Starmer used his final appearance at the despatch box to claim that he is leaving the country in a better state than that in which he found it. It is also demonstrably and painfully the case that his unexpectedly brief premiership was a...

Tories wasted £10bn on useless pandemic PPE

Boris Johnson’s government wasted almost £10bn as it scrambled to buy tons of personal protective equipment that was eventually found to be unusable, the Covid inquiry has found. In the fifth report of her investigation, Heather Hallett criticised the...

Decades on, the grooming gang victims are still being failed

Shabir Ahmed is not only a dangerous convicted rapist and sex offender, he is also a depressing symbol of everything that went wrong during one of the worst such episodes in British history – the grooming gangs scandal. The fact that this man is no...

Lawrence Ostlere The death of Bazball and why cricket coach's reign had to end

Miami nice

Nick Clegg Brexit has left Britain less safe, less sovereign and poorer

Burnham: We didn't get it right on Gaza

Andy Burnham has indicated that under his leadership the Labour Party will adopt a tougher policy on Israel in relation to the Gaza Strip. The MP for Makerfield and primeminister-in-waiting published a short video on social media in which he apologised...

Trump tears up Iran ceasefire as bombing resumes

The US launched a fresh round of airstrikes against Iran on the orders of Donald Trump last night. The president had earlier threatened to carry out further attacks a month after promising peace talks. Mr Trump yesterday launched an extraordinary...

Farage by-election plan dismissed as 'desperate stunt'

Labour and Tories call reform leader's bluff and boycott his plans to trigger a 'people versus establishment' contest in his Clacton seat - as he faces two Commons ethics inquiries into donations

Starmer intervened to stop Fifa changing England kick-off

Sir Keir Starmer intervened to prevent Fifa bringing forward England’s kick-off time amid concerns the change could give World Cup co-hosts Mexico an unfair advantage. The prime minister acted after the Football Association said the proposed change –...

Farage’s future thrown into doubt

Speculation is mounting that Nigel Farage could quit as Reform UK leader – or even be forced out – after he was hit by fresh allegations of another personal financial scandal. Private concerns have been raised by Mr Farage’s allies that he is on...

Kinnock is right: greater integration with the EU is the best way forward

Neil Kinnock, who was one of the leading lights of the “No” campaign in the 1975 referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Community, made history by persuading the Labour Party of the opposite case when he became leader. Since then, he and...

Young homebuyers deserve a helping hand – but only if the UK can afford it

Whether consciously or otherwise, Andy Burnham is currently preparing to be prime minister by drawing some sharp distinctions with his soon-tobe immediate predecessor. Unlike Sir Keir Starmer, Mr Burnham is a more relaxed and direct communicator, more...

The people smuggler who proves Britain is less safe after Brexit

It is no disrespect – indeed, quite the opposite – to wonder why the BBC’s investigative reporter Sue Mitchell and her colleagues succeeded where the British state failed, having managed to track down and question one of Europe’s most prolific people...

Burnham’s allies issue first threat: hands off welfare

Even before he’s inside No 10, Starmer’s likely successor faces looming Labour revolt over spending as his own backers warn him not to cut benefits to fill £4.7bn defence plan black hole.

Wimbledon cheers legend Serena's gripping return

Burnham's north star to light up Labour

Andy Burnham promised a “new direction” for Britain and vowed to overhaul the political system as he sought to lift the spirits of Labour MPs in his first major speech since he became MP for Makerfield. During an address at the People’s History Museum...

Aid cuts exacerbate Boko Haram’s war on education

One of the most harrowing stories in The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project concerns the impact of child abduction in the northern wards of Nigeria. In areas covered by the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram, who are waging war on education...

Record heatwave must be ‘wake-up call’ for Britain

The record-breaking heatwave gripping the UK should act as a “wake-up call” to prepare for a Mediterranean climate, say experts. Hundreds of schools were forced to close and three NHS trusts declared critical incidents this week as temperature records...

Britain must rejoin single market within five years, says Major

Britain should rejoin the EU’s single market within the next five years, Sir John Major has said, as he issued a scathing critique of the impact of Brexit and those behind the decision to leave. In an interview with The Independent’s editor-inchief...

Thousands dead or missing after huge Venezuela earthquakes

Hundreds of people have died and more than 40,000 remain missing after two powerful earthquakes rocked Venezuela 39 seconds apart. Rescue teams were combing through rubble in Caracas yesterday in search of victims as fears grow that tens of thousands...

Hundreds of babies and mothers died or harmed at 'toxic' hospitals trust

Hundreds of babies and mothers died or were harmed due to systemic failures spanning more than a decade at hospitals in Nottingham, a damning 400-page inquiry into the NHS’s largest maternity scandal has found. More than 500 cases of potentially...

Betrayed by Brexit

Far from 'taking back control', Brexit has left Britain isolated, divid-ed and poorer. A new poll for The Independent suggests two-thirds of voters think leaving the EU failed to cut immigration. A decade of broken promises and revolving-door...

Regime change

● RegimeEmotional Starmer quits with 'good grace' two years after huge win ● Smiling Burnham sworn into Commons and takes Westminster selfie ● Streeting falls in behind rival to pave way for July Labour 'coronation change Inside Sean O'Grady Burnham...

Longest day sees expanded heat health warning

Starmer given 48 hours to resign or face 'humiliation'

Lord Falconer says PM has 'asbolutely no authority' and should step down Labour MPs give Sir Keir Tuesday morning deadline to announce departure Streeting allies hint at talks on deal with Burnham to become chancellor

'It's time to move on'

● Labour MPs seek meeting with Starmer to persuade him to step down ● Demands for 'coronation' of Andy Burnham after by-election triumph ● Blow to Reform UK as Farage 'disappointed' by comprehensive defeat ● Ex-Manchester mayor pledges 'new path for...

Lifetime in jail for child murder that shocked the nation

A teacher who sexually abused and murdered his adopted baby has been told he will die in jail for the crime that police said had “shocked the nation”. Jamie Varley, 37, was given a whole-life order for killing toddler Preston Davey, whom he adopted...

A win for Burnham doesn’t have to be a loss for the UK

It won’t be long until the voters of Makerfield will have collectively solved one political conundrum only to create another. If, as seems likely, they elect Andy Burnham to represent their constituency, voting Labour could also oust a sitting Labour...