USA News Hub

The Cabinet Office could take unprecedented action to prevent Boris Johnson’s unredacted diaries and WhatsApp messages being handed over to the official Covid inquiry, the Guardian had been told. Officials are preparing to issue a response to the inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, by 4pm on Tuesday. Sources said they were likely to resist her demand […]

NHS leaders have raised concerns about the delay to the long-awaited workforce plan, after the health secretary, Steve Barclay, refused to give a deadline for its publication and with rumours suggesting it is considered too costly. The plan, which was expected to be published on Tuesday, appears to have been delayed, according to the deputy […]

As your editorial on Labour’s plan for the NHS points out (23 May), health is largely determined by political choices. To restore the NHS, we could learn from its history. The independent contractor model of primary care has been an NHS success story and, arguably, its collapse is at the root of the service’s wider […]

Alastair Campbell inadvertently but accurately summed up everything that is wrong with politics in this country when he suggested that “arguing” could be the name for teaching politics in schools (Politics should be taught in primary schools, Alastair Campbell says, 25 May). Arguing is a sterile, counterproductive activity if it does not have a philosophical […]

Plans to disband specialist teams that deliver treatment courses for sex offenders have prompted fears public safety will be jeopardised. Under the Ministry of Justice proposals, which are being fiercely resisted internally, behaviour programmes for a wide variety of offenders would be delivered by staff who are not fully qualified probation officers. A probation worker […]

When John Lydon sang in 1976 that anarchy was coming to the UK, he wasn’t far wrong. Genuine anarchism (a noble political tradition) certainly didn’t descend on Britain in the wake of punk rock and Margaret Thatcher’s general election victory three years later. But since 1979, the consensus that the British state should empower individuals […]

More than 90 English primary schools – many of them in cities and towns – are to close or are at risk of closure because they are more than two-thirds empty, according to Guardian analysis of government data. A combination of falling birth rates and the urban exodus of young families in the face of […]

A modest wealth tax on the richest 350 families in the UK could raise more than £20bn a year – enough to fund the construction of 145,000 new affordable homes a year – according to research by fairer taxation campaigners. A 2% tax on assets above £10m held by all members of the Sunday Times […]

It was 12 December 2019; the first winter general election in Britain since 1923. Faiza Shaheen walked into Waltham Forest town hall in north-east London. The academic, economist, self-described inequality geek and Labour parliamentary candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green was about to find out if she had pulled off a feat so close to […]

The UK could break apart unless it is rebuilt as a “solidarity union” where every citizen’s rights to public services and financial security are protected, the first minister of Wales, has warned. Mark Drakeford said the social and political bonds that tie the different parts of the UK together have come under “sustained assault” from […]

Of all the factions and cliques in and around the modern Conservative party, none is grimmer than the small gang who think that Boris Johnson is the victim of conspiracies involving the fabled “blob”, and that the condition of their party – and, indeed, the country – would be a thousand times better if only […]

Slightly more than 30,000 muggings in England and Wales did not even result in a suspect being identified by police last year, research released by the Liberal Democrats has shown. Just 8% of all offences of robbery of personal property reported to the police last year saw someone being charged, the data from the House […]

The so-called equal pay generation of female workers born near the passing of the 1970 Equal Pay Act are unlikely to see the gap close during their working lives, a Labour analysis has shown. Research carried out for Anneliese Dodds, the shadow secretary of state for women and equalities, calculated that such is the slow […]

Naomi Eisenstadt remembers her excitement as she started as the first director of the government’s Sure Start unit in 1999. “I felt like Lyndon Johnson had run up and asked me to set up Head Start,” she says, referring to the US president’s key 1965 policy to fight the “war on poverty”. “For decades many […]

The UK government is working with supermarkets to voluntarily cap the price of basic food items in an effort to ease the cost of living squeeze, but insists it is not considering imposing price caps. With food and drink prices rising at the fastest pace in more than 40 years and no let-up in sight, […]

The excellent article by Gaby Hinsliff (The Tories should be proud of Britain’s migration numbers – and they have Boris Johnson to thank, 25 May) and your editorial (25 May) together encapsulate the necessary reframing of the tired numbers-driven immigration debate that has gone on unchallenged for decades. The bipartisan political and media-amplified consensus that […]

Labour’s shadow work and pension secretary has confirmed the party’s plans to block all new domestic oil and gas developments if it wins power, instead proposing to invest heavily in renewable sources such as wind, and also in nuclear power. Jonathan Ashworth said details would be announced soon when asked about a report in the […]

David Miliband has said that his support for the Iraq war was “one of the deepest regrets” from his time in politics. The former foreign secretary also said that the war and the period around it has subsequently caused “real damage” to western claims to stand up for core values of international order and justice. […]

The health secretary has admitted the government is not building 40 new hospitals by 2030, as long promised, but said the projects involved “a range of things” including new wings and refurbishments. Steve Barclay, who nonetheless sought to insist that this did not break the Conservatives’ manifesto promise for 40 new hospitals, also argued that […]

There was only ever an outside chance that the Conservatives would win the next general election after the tumultuous period that resulted in Rishi Sunak becoming prime minister last October. The events of the past week mean the prospect of a fifth Tory victory is now vanishingly small. Ironically, things started so well for the […]

It is almost a year to the day since it finally dawned on most Conservatives that Boris Johnson would ultimately have to go. And yet, a whole two prime ministers later, it’s almost as if he never left. This time last May, he was trying to bluster his way out of trouble following the publication […]

Companies that have paid hundreds of millions in fines and penalties, have defrauded Whitehall or have faced corruption investigations are among those making the most money from UK government outsourcing, the Observer can reveal. Observer analysis of data from UK regulators has found the Strategic Suppliers, the 40 private companies that play the biggest role […]

It looks as if there will be empty seats in the rows usually reserved for members of the press at the annual Conservative party conference in Manchester this autumn, with media organisations across the political spectrum refusing to pay recently imposed fees. No other British political party charges for press accreditation, but last year a […]

Suella Braverman has suffered a collapse in personal support among the public in the wake of rows over a speeding fine and her handling of immigration, a new poll for the Observer has revealed. With some Tories accusing the home secretary of positioning herself as a future leader, the latest Opinium poll found that her […]

The Royal Hall in Harrogate has a long and interesting history. Designed by Robert Beale and the great Frank Matcham, it opened on the site of the former Cheltenham Pump Room in 1903 as the Kursaal – a name inspired by the building on which it was based, the Ostend Kursaal in Belgium (a German […]