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The Guardian Politics22 Mar 2026

James Cleverly disagrees with Nick Timothy about Islamic public prayer ceremony

Shadow justice secretary had called Trafalgar Square event an ‘act of domination’ James Cleverly has said he disagrees with his Conservative frontbench colleague Nick Timothy that public Muslim prayers are an act of domination, as another senior Tory called for the party to respect the right to worship. Kemi Badenoch has defended Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, after he posted images of mass prayer at a Ramadan event on Monday evening in Trafalgar Square, calling it “an act of domination”

DefenceReform
The Guardian Politics22 Mar 2026

Starmer adviser urges ministers to look at profits cap for energy and petrol firms

PM’s ‘cost of living champion’ calls for consideration of temporary measure to prevent profiteering from Iran war The government’s top cost of living adviser has called on ministers to explore a temporary cap on the profits of energy and petrol companies to prevent them from cashing in excessively on the war in the Middle East. Richard Walker – a Labour peer, the chair of Iceland supermarkets and the prime minister’s “cost of living champion” – said he had asked the government to examine limitin

EconomyDefence
The Guardian Politics22 Mar 2026

Iran not believed to have capability or intent to bomb Britain, says UK minister

Steve Reed says ‘UK is not going to be dragged into this war’ after Israeli warnings that Iranian missiles could hit Europe Middle East crisis live – latest updates Iran is not believed to have the capability or intent to hit the UK with its missiles, a cabinet minister has said, after Tehran aimed two at the UK-US airbase on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. One missile failed to reach the island, while another was shot down by a US warship, according to reports. It was the longest-range atta

PoliticsDefence
The Guardian Politics22 Mar 2026

How tacking centre left will help Labour win the next election | Andy Beckett

Tribalism and political ambiguity worked with a less fragmented electorate. The party must reconnect with its base – and be open to work with other progressives Led by a probably doomed prime minister, presiding over a struggling economy, exposed by an ongoing scandal, besieged by populist insurgents to its right and left, ambushed by a war that will bring higher inflation and public debt, and predicted to win just 75 seats at the next general election, according to the website Electoral Calcul

PoliticsEconomyDefenceReform
The Guardian Politics21 Mar 2026

Love Actually? Washington’s current relationship with Britain is more like Contempt Actually | Timothy Garton Ash

If the UK wants to regain serious respect in the world, it needs its European leg as well as its transatlantic one “A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend. And since bullies only respond to strength, from now onward, I will be prepared to be much stronger. And the president should be prepared for that.” Thus spoke Hugh Grant, playing the British prime minister confronting the US president in a famous scene in the romcom Love Actually. Real-life British prime minister Keir Starmer has atte

DefenceHousing
The Guardian Politics20 Mar 2026

UK ministers begin contingency planning amid fears for economic effects of Iran war

Britain authorises use of military bases to strike Iranian missile launchers that target shipping in strait of Hormuz • Middle East crisis – live updates Donald Trump has branded the UK and other Nato allies “cowards” but anger is growing among cabinet ministers that his war in Iran could jeopardise Britain’s fragile finances. Senior members of the government are in despair about the potential effects on the economy, with experts warning of higher energy prices and mortgage and borrowing costs.

PoliticsEconomyDefenceHousing
The Guardian Politics20 Mar 2026

Is it time for the UK to acknowledge the ‘rhetoric to reality gap’ on its military power?

Forces have been stripped back since the cold war but political stasis is dangerous in the face of growing global threats It will have been more than three weeks since the US and Israel first attacked Iran when the first British warship finally arrives off the coast of Cyprus, a belated defensive deployment that has highlighted the lack of military capacity available to the UK. Nominally, HMS Dragon was one of three destroyers available out of six. In reality the warship has had to be hauled out

PoliticsDefence
The Guardian Politics20 Mar 2026

Lowering speed limits among contingency plans to curb UK oil demand

International Energy Agency recommends emergency measures, including working from home, as Iran war hits fuel supply Lowering speed limits to minimise fuel consumption is among potential contingency plans being drawn up by the UK government as the crisis in the Middle East threatens global oil supplies. Sources stressed that there is no shortage of fuel in the UK, but said that officials in the Department for Transport were working with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) on

DefenceEnvironment
The Guardian Politics20 Mar 2026

‘We need to think much bigger’: trade minister calls for greater ambition in UK-EU reset

Exclusive: Chris Bryant says policy agreements are being done in bits and pieces but a greater vision is needed by both sides It was all smiles and warm handshakes when the two men in charge of renegotiating the UK’s relationship with the EU met in Brussels this week. Maroš Šefčovič and the UK minister for EU relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds, sharing a stage on the third floor of the vast European parliament building, were at pains to show the cross-Channel relationship was in a good place after y

PoliticsDefence
The Guardian Politics20 Mar 2026

House of Lords has ‘signed its own death warrant’ by stalling assisted dying bill, says MP

Kim Leadbeater joins protest against delaying of bill to allow assisted dying in the UK and says people are ‘extremely angry’ The House of Lords “signed its own death warrant” over its stalling of the UK assisted dying bill, the MP Kim Leadbeater said as she joined more than a dozen terminally ill and bereaved people in protest outside parliament. Marking the second anniversary of the death at Dignitas of the prominent assisted dying campaigner Paola Marra, Leadbeater, whose private member’s bil

PoliticsDefence
The Guardian Politics20 Mar 2026

Claimants drop lawsuit against Gerry Adams over IRA bombings

Three people were suing ex-Sinn Féin leader for liability over IRA bombings in UK which left them injured Three men who sued the former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams over three Irish Republican Army bombings in Britain have withdrawn their lawsuit, their lawyers told the high court in London. Adams, who became the president of Sinn Féin in 1983 when it was the IRA’s political wing, was for many years the best-known face of the movement seeking to end British rule in Northern Ireland. Continue re

PoliticsDefenceCrime
The Guardian Politics20 Mar 2026

There’s nothing sinister about Muslim prayers in Trafalgar Square. As a bishop, I reject the right’s attacks on worship | Arun Arora

At a time when Britain has never felt more divided, we should draw on Christian values to reject hate and focus on what unites us When you think about the unedifying political furore about the open iftar held in Trafalgar Square, try to bear in mind that every year on Remembrance Day – a stone’s throw from Trafalgar Square – the bishop of London leads a public Christian act of lamentation in the open air. It is an act of religious observance which happens in cities, towns and villages across the

PoliticsDefence