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The Guardian Politics22 May 2026

Ditched government projects lost taxpayer £6.6bn last year, watchdog says

Spending committee finds MoD most wasteful and also points to cancelled schemes such as Rwanda and Stonehenge Cancelled government projects such as the Rwanda deportation scheme and the road tunnel under Stonehenge are wasting billions of pounds of taxpayer money a year, parliament’s spending watchdog has found. About £6.6bn was written off by government departments last year alone – state spending that did not achieve its intended objectives or create any value for the taxpayer, the public acco

PoliticsEconomyImmigrationRemigration
The Guardian Politics21 May 2026

What is the updated EHRC code of practice about and how does it apply?

There is especial interest in latest revision by equalities watchdog as it includes guidance on single-sex spaces Single sex toilets must exclude transgender people, says EHRC Continue reading...

Reform
The Guardian Politics21 May 2026

Domestic abuse law fails to recognise danger of tech abuse, Lords committee told

Policy adviser Jen Reed says tech-facilitated abuse has become ‘increasingly prevalent’ and calls for its inclusion in Domestic Abuse Act The Domestic Abuse Act fails to fully recognise the danger of technology-facilitated abuse, such as location tracking or hidden stalkerware, a Lords select committee has heard. Tech abuse has become “increasingly prevalent” and “very commonplace now within a domestic abuse context,” said Jen Reed, the head of policy at University College London’s Gender and Te

PoliticsDefenceEducation
The Guardian Politics21 May 2026

Single sex toilets must exclude transgender people, says EHRC

Updated code of practice covering England, Wales and Scotland also relates to changing rooms and follows supreme court ruling Single-sex toilets and changing rooms in England, Wales and Scotland must exclude transgender men and women, according to a new code of practice from the equalities watchdog. But the long-awaited guidance also says that businesses and service providers have to offer practical alternatives such as gender-neutral toilets for people who do not wish to use services for their

ReformCrime
The Guardian Politics21 May 2026

Senior civil servants to get bonuses for first time to reward ‘doers, not talkers’

Senior staff will get 2.5% pay rise with bonuses for highest performers in plan to ‘rewire’ civil service Senior civil servants will get bonuses for exceptional performance for the first time under a new system that Darren Jones, the Cabinet Office minister, said would reward the “doers, not the talkers”. Jones, who is also chief secretary to the prime minister, said most civil servants would get a 3.5% pay rise, but senior staff would have a base increase of 2.5%, with 1% held back for bonuses

PoliticsDefence
The Guardian Politics21 May 2026

Prospect of Labour leadership race brings out different sides of rivals

Burnham and Streeting’s latest stances confound caricatures of left and right as party faces electoral bind The Labour party has seemed to inhabit three parallel worlds over the past fortnight. There is a prime minister celebrating good news on the economy and lower migration figures and breezily insisting he will fight the next election, but with his party intent on deposing him. Continue reading...

PoliticsEconomyImmigrationHousing
The Guardian Politics21 May 2026

Diplomat who abruptly left Washington embassy was honoured by the king

Charles conferred LVO after his US visit on James Roscoe who had been standing in for Peter Mandelson A top diplomat who abruptly left his post at the British embassy in Washington earlier this week after standing in as interim ambassador for Peter Mandelson has been honoured by King Charles. No reason has yet been given for James Roscoe’s departure. An investigation is now under way into the leak of discussions at a meeting of the UK’s national security council. Continue reading...

The Guardian Politics21 May 2026

The Guardian view on the Mountbatten-Windsor papers: they expose the collapse of Britain’s 'good chap' state | Editorial

New papers matter less for royal gossip than for what they reveal about the UK’s fragile constitutional culture of trust, prestige and informal power The most shocking revelation in files released on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s appointment as Britain’s trade envoy isn’t that he loves golf or prefers ballet over theatre. It is that no one asked the obvious question: how risky would it be for a headline-grabbing prince with no business experience to front the UK’s commercial diplomacy without for

The Guardian Politics21 May 2026

The Guardian view on Grenfell prosecutions: court dates cannot come soon enough | Editorial

Survivors are right to be angry at the nine years taken to reach this point. Those to blame for the fire must face justice Relief at this week’s news that police are sending files to the Crown Prosecution Service, recommending charges against 77 individuals and organisations for their roles in the Grenfell Tower fire, is mixed with grief and anger. On 14 June the disaster’s survivors and their supporters will gather for the ninth annual silent walk around the west London neighbourhood in which t

ReformCrime
The Guardian Politics21 May 2026

Jason White on the UK’s prime ministerial merry-go-round – cartoon

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The Guardian Politics21 May 2026

HS2 is the wildest white elephant in British history. Please put it out of its misery | Simon Jenkins

The government is in thrall to the sunk-cost fallacy. Scrap the project, and use the money for a renaissance in urban transit So it is official, as if that makes a difference. After a 15-month review by the new chief executive, the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, has revealed that HS2 will now cost up to £102.7bn and trains may not start until 2039. Alexander called the original design a “massively over-specced folly” and called the increase in time and costs “obscene”. Indeed it possibly

The Guardian Politics21 May 2026

Assisted dying bill could return after ballot of private members’ bills

One of two MPs who came in top five of vote could be persuaded to take on Kim Leadbeater’s bill in the Commons Assisted dying campaigners have a narrow path to revive the bill after two MPs who backed the change came in the top five of the new private member’s bill ballot. Supporters of Kim Leadbeater’s original private member’s bill, which ran out of time to be passed, have the chance to use the Parliament Act to bypass the Lords if they can persuade another MP to take it through the Commons a

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