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The Guardian Politics16 Mar 2026

UK will not be drawn into wider war in Middle East, says Keir Starmer

PM’s comments come as he announces support for households reliant on heating oil amid surging costs UK politics live – latest updates The UK will not be drawn into the wider war in the Middle East, Keir Starmer has said, as he announced that households reliant on heating oil to warm their homes would receive £53m of government support to help with their bills. After costs surged following the outbreak of the Iran conflict, lower-income households will get targeted support, while heating oil su

PoliticsDefenceHousing
The Guardian Politics16 Mar 2026

What's worth more: Churchill or a woke badger? Welcome to Britain's banknote culture war | Jonn Elledge

Self-appointed patriots are up in arms about a plan to replace historical figures with cute wildlife. The Bank of England shouldn’t duck this debate One day soon we may finally have an answer to a question that has stumped philosophers through the ages: which is worth more, a beaver or a robin? We might be able to place actual monetary values on barn owls or stags, too. Any one of them could even be considered worth more than Winston Churchill. That’s because the Bank of England has announced th

Defence
The Guardian Politics16 Mar 2026

Minister plays down Trump’s Nato threat, arguing US alliance strong enough to ‘outlast’ current issues – UK politics live

Pat McFadden says Trump running a ‘transactional presidency’ and that ‘our job is to navigate this’ Good morning. Keir Starmer is holding a press conference in Downing Street this morning. As Kiran Stacey reports, the PM’s main intention will be to announce support for people most hit by rising energy prices, particularly householders reliant on heating oil. The measures are expected to be worth tens of millions of pounds. But, inevitably, most of the focus likely to be on how Starmer responds t

PoliticsDefenceHousing
The Guardian Politics16 Mar 2026

UK not obliged to support every demand of ‘transactional’ US president, minister says

Donald Trump has threatened Nato allies over failure to send ships to protect strait of Hormuz, but Pat McFadden says UK relation with US remain strong Middle East crisis live Donald Trump is a “very transactional” president, whose repeated demands on Iran must be seen in this context, one of Keir Starmer’s most senior ministers has said in an unusually blunt UK assessment of relations between the countries. Asked about the US president’s threats of some sort of retaliation against allies who

Defence
The Guardian Politics16 Mar 2026

Plans to cut NHS international workforce appear overambitious, say MPs

Health service in England has saved more than £14bn hiring from overseas, report says, as doubt is cast on aim to reduce international recruitment to 10% Ministers’ plans to cut the international workforce within NHS England appear overambitious, MPs have said, as a report reveals the health service saved more than £14bn by recruiting doctors, nurses and midwives from overseas. Many of the countries recruited from were struggling with staff shortages, and the UK had a moral duty to offer support

PoliticsHealthcare
The Guardian Politics16 Mar 2026

Inquiry launched into HMRC anti-fraud scheme that wrongly cut child benefits

Flawed Home Office travel records identified thousands of parents suspected of claiming while living abroad The UK’s public spending watchdog has launched an investigation into a controversial government anti-fraud scheme that resulted in thousands of families being wrongly stripped of their child benefit payments. The National Audit Office (NAO) will examine how HM Revenue and Customs designed and implemented a scheme that used flawed Home Office travel records to identify parents suspected of

Housing
The Guardian Politics16 Mar 2026

More than 100 Labour MPs call on PM to stop assisted dying bill being blocked

Letter sent to Starmer claims ‘small number of peers have been using procedural tactics’ to stymie its progress More than 100 Labour MPs have called on Keir Starmer to stop the House of Lords from blocking the assisted dying bill and give it more time to return to the Commons, with the legislation now certain to fall owing to lack of time. The private member’s bill, sponsored by Labour’s Kim Leadbeater, will fall when the parliamentary session comes to an end in May because peers have used multi

Politics
The Guardian Politics15 Mar 2026

UK plans to send minesweeping drones to help reopen strait of Hormuz

Government reluctant to dispatch ships amid concerns complying with Trump’s demands could escalate Iran crisis Ministers are drawing up plans to send minesweeping drones to the strait of Hormuz amid concerns in Whitehall that complying with Donald Trump’s demand to send ships could escalate the crisis. The government is considering dispatching aerial minesweepers to help clear the vital waterway of mines in an attempt to allow the flow of oil exports to resume. However, officials said that sendi

The Guardian Politics15 Mar 2026

Decriminalising abortion: how could the House of Lords amend the legislation?

After MPs voted last year to change the law in England and Wales, members of the Lords will now put forward proposed amendments MPs voted last year to end the criminalisation of women who terminate pregnancies outside the legal framework. It was hailed as the biggest step forward for reproductive rights in England and Wales in six decades. On Wednesday evening, abortion law will again come under the parliamentary spotlight when members of the House of Lords put forward their proposed amendments

PoliticsDefenceCrime
The Guardian Politics15 Mar 2026

Vulnerable women in England still being arrested over suspected illegal abortions

Nottinghamshire and Met police made arrests in past year, despite MPs voting to decriminalise in England and Wales Vulnerable women in England are still being arrested and facing police investigations over suspected illegal pregnancy terminations, despite parliament backing changes to the law to decriminalise abortion. Responding to a freedom of information request, Nottinghamshire police and the Metropolitan police confirmed they had arrested women suspected of illegal terminations between June

PoliticsCrime
The Guardian Politics15 Mar 2026

UK complicit in desecration of international law in Gaza, says Corbyn-led tribunal

Unofficial body co-chaired by ex-Labour leader says Britain failed to meet its duty to seek to prevent a genocide The Labour government has been complicit in crimes committed by Israel in Gaza and in the desecration of international law, according to an unoffical tribunal on Gaza chaired by the former party leader Jeremy Corbyn and two specialists in international law. The tribunal’s findings to be published on Monday are likely to be cited in May’s local elections, in which Labour faces a rearg

PoliticsCrime
The Guardian Politics15 Mar 2026

Row over university fees shows UK’s ‘reset’ with EU may not be so simple

Ministers go to Brussels for talks amid tuition fees standoff, 10 years after Britons voted to leave EU This week is “Brexit reset” week for the British government, as ministers engage in a flurry of activity intended to highlight their determination to forge closer ties with Brussels 10 years after the country first voted to leave the EU. On Monday, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister in charge of negotiating the government’s reset with the EU, will arrive in Brussels for a meeting

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