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The Guardian Politics12 Aug 2026

Just 20 of 6,600 Defra staff working on climate adaptation amid drought and wildfires

Exclusive: England ‘desperately unprepared’ for effects of crisis including water shortages and heatwaves UK heatwave live – latest updates Just 20 staff are working on climate adaptation within a key government department tasked with protecting the environment and maintaining food security, a freedom of information request has revealed. The officials make up 0.3% of staff within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Continue reading...

Environment
The Guardian Politics12 Aug 2026

UK heatwave live: Met Office issues extreme heat warning as government convenes emergency Cobra meeting

Parts of country face fifth heatwave of the summer with highs of 38C forecast this week We have some comments from the Liberal Democrats and Green party on the Cobra emergency meeting scheduled for later today. While welcoming the government’s announcement, the Lib Dem environment spokesperson Pippa Heylings said emergency meetings were not enough to put out fires or protect our communities, saying “we urgently need a national strategy to make the UK climate-ready”. Continue reading...

DefenceEnvironment
The Guardian Politics12 Aug 2026

Probation chief says he’s ‘not fully confident’ service will cope with early prisoner releases – UK politics live

Martin Jones expresses concern scheme will increase pressure on probation service as Burnham addresses controversy over PC Harper’s killers Good morning. Andy Burnham is chairing a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee this afternoon to discuss the heatwave and the climate crisis. About time too, some people will say. One of them is Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, who has been calling for this and who posted this on social media in response. Good. Now we need action. Tax f

PoliticsEconomyEnvironmentCrime
The Guardian Politics12 Aug 2026

Nigel Farage and Count Binface: a visual guide to their electoral careers

Farage was elected to EU parliament five times before becoming Clacton MP, while Binface has been less successful – so far Nigel Farage has been standing in British elections since 1994, when he narrowly beat Screaming Lord Sutch of the Monster Raving Loony party into fourth place in a Commons byelection. He was elected five times to the European parliament before achieving his goal of abolishing his seat. Finally, after 30 years of trying, he was elected to the Commons as member for Clacton in

PoliticsReform
The Guardian Politics12 Aug 2026

Paid police paternity leave to double after fathers reported being ‘ostracised’

Exclusive: Pay increases to two weeks in England and Wales after Guardian revealed officers ‘mocked’ for taking time off Paid paternity leave for police in England and Wales is to double, after the Guardian revealed last year that officers were “mocked and ostracised” for taking time off to spend with their babies. The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has increased the amount of paid parental and adoption leave for officers from one week to two across all forces, with fathers’ leave upped to be

HousingCrime
The Guardian Politics12 Aug 2026

Nigel Farage looks trapped and rattled - now the nationalist tide can be turned | Rafael Behr

There are more votes in tolerance and decency than in toxic division. It doesn’t take a great leap of political courage to fight back against Reform Nigel Farage can be confident of victory against a man posing as an ennobled space traveller with a dustbin on his head. At least, in Clacton he can. The refusal of major parties to contest this week’s byelection sets the bar low. But even if the competition were more serious than Count Binface, the Reform UK leader would be the favourite to win on

PoliticsDefenceReform
The Guardian Politics12 Aug 2026

UK heatwaves may have cost economy £4.4bn in lost output so far this year, analysis finds

Verdant thinktank says cost could top £25bn a year by 2030 and calls for maximum temperature for working and urban redesign to cool down cities Repeated debilitating heatwaves this summer are likely to have cost the UK economy more than £4bn in lost economic output by the end of July, new analysis shows. Green thinktank Verdant had suggested June’s unseasonally hot weather had an economic cost of £2.36bn. Updating its assessment to include last month’s high temperatures, it finds a £4.4bn hit to

EconomyEnvironment
The Guardian Politics12 Aug 2026

British man with dementia told to leave Sweden after losing migration case

Exclusive: Horace Mason, 74, who has lived in Sweden for 25 years, faces being deported after court ruling A 74-year-old British man who has been living in Sweden for 25 years who needs round-the-clock care for dementia has been given 10 days to leave the country after he lost a post-Brexit migration court case. The deportation order comes after a Swedish court ruling in July that the government’s drive to reduce immigration trumped the needs of a man in full-time care. Continue reading...

ImmigrationCrimeRemigration
The Guardian Politics12 Aug 2026

Could Clacton bin off Nigel Farage? – podcast

Farage has taken a high risk gamble by resigning and forcing a byelection in his constituency. Nosheen Iqbal heads to Clacton to find out how voters feel Clacton was once a seaside jewel on England’s east coast. But these days there’s another story that’s told about this town. Clacton is one of the poorest, oldest and whitest places in the UK. People here have a life expectancy that is 18 years lower than those living in wealthier parts of Essex. Almost half the working-age population doesn’t ha

PoliticsReform
The Guardian Politics11 Aug 2026

Richard Tice accused of ‘nasty tactics’ over legal threat to the Guardian

Reform deputy leader condemned for seeking disclosure of documents that could reveal reporter’s sources Richard Tice has been accused of using “nasty tactics” in an attempt to intimidate journalists and deflect attention from his own financial affairs after issuing a legal threat to the Guardian. In a letter sent from his lawyers, a Guardian correspondent was singled out for her reporting on a series of Tice’s financial transactions that were referred to the National Crime Agency. Continue read

ReformCrime
The Guardian Politics11 Aug 2026

How viable are plans to free up prison space in England and Wales?

The PM is proposing three ways of increasing jail capacity – but none offer a quick or straightforward solution Andy Burnham said on Monday he was “increasingly confident” that PC Andrew Harper’s killers would not be freed in the new year. Determined to ensure that Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, who were jailed for 13 years in 2020 for manslaughter, serve their full sentences, he has asked the justice secretary, Alex Norris, to examine three options for increasing prison capacity. Continue read

DefenceReformCrime
The Guardian Politics11 Aug 2026

Will Andy Burnham’s everyday fixes be enough to get the public on his side?

The prime minister’s money-saving policies are popular but they are yet to convince voters he can take on the big things It was last year that Martin Lewis, the money-saving guru, advised the government to find “100 small things that piss people off” and set about sorting them out. That approach has been adopted almost immediately by Andy Burnham since entering office, as he began his programme of “everyday fixes” to tackle problems that can be dealt with through minor policy tweaks. Continue r