News

Original reporting and the latest political headlines from across the UK.

Our Articles

Mainstream Headlines

Filtering by:Tag: politics×Source: The Guardian Politics×Clear all

1200 headlines found — Page 9 of 100

The Guardian Politics16 Jun 2026

Tactical voting by Greens and Lib Dems could be key to Labour victory in Makerfield

Left-leaning voters more willing to back Andy Burnham than Restore supporters are to vote Reform UK politics live – latest updates Tactical voting could be fundamental to a Labour victory in Makerfield, with Green and Liberal Democrat supporters willing to back Andy Burnham to stop Reform from winning. Conversely, Reform’s main competitor for votes on the right is Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain party. Polling experts have said that current data suggests the size of their vote share is roughly s

PoliticsEnvironmentHousingRestoreRupert Lowe
The Guardian Politics16 Jun 2026

Who are the key figures around Andy Burnham and how could they fit in government?

With Burnham predicted to win Makerfield byelection, talk is turning to who would join him if he replaced Keir Starmer UK politics live – latest updates Andy Burnham looks on the brink of returning to Westminster this weekend if polls showing he is heading for victory in the Makerfield byelection are to be believed. It is now clear his intention is to seek to replace Keir Starmer as prime minister as early as possible. Talk in Westminster has turned to who could be part of setting the directio

Politics
The Guardian Politics16 Jun 2026

Makerfield voters are giving Burnham the benefit of the doubt. If he fails, the consequences will be grave | Owen Jones

Winning this byelection wouldn’t make Reform disappear. Would Burnham really have the courage needed to see them off in No 10? ‘Well, good,” says a middle-aged woman outside Boots about the prospect of millions of migrants being deported. “Because we want the country safe.” I point out that, even as immigration has risen sharply for the last two decades, by every measure – murder rates, or numbers of people admitted to hospitals because of knife attacks and assaults – violence has fallen steeply

PoliticsImmigrationCrimeHealthcareRemigration
The Guardian Politics16 Jun 2026

UK will have to ‘dial back’ military plans without more funding, says chief of defence

Rich Knighton tells Lords committee he is ‘most concerned’ about impact on day-to-day military activities Britain will have to “dial back” on military operations and exercises in the next few years if the Ministry of Defence (MoD) does not receive extra funding from Downing Street and the Treasury, the UK’s most senior military officer has said. Rich Knighton, the chief of the defence staff, told a Lords committee that he was “most concerned” about the budgets for day-to-day activities – in his

PoliticsEconomyDefence
The Guardian Politics16 Jun 2026

I spent an evening with fans of Lotus Eaters – the hit podcast shaping Britain’s new far-right culture | Oliver Haynes

At a sold-out show in its home town, Swindon, all the bombast and conviction driving this Restore-linked outlet was there to see If I asked you to name a popular politics podcast, what would you think of? Maybe The Rest Is Politics for centrist dads. Novara Media’s Downstream for young lefties, perhaps, or Triggernometry for conservatives. While these podcasts have achieved mainstream success and recognition, the contemporary media landscape also allows fringe political shows to gain huge audien

Politics
The Guardian Politics16 Jun 2026

‘Sadly, things are worse,’ says sister of MP Jo Cox 10 years after her murder

Kim Leadbeater, now an MP, and fellow politicians fear that ‘kinder, gentler politics’ after Cox’s death was an illusion Ten years on from Jo Cox’s murder, Kim Leadbeater fears that the consensus around “kinder, gentler politics” in the wake of her sister’s death was short-lived. “Sadly and regrettably, over the last decade things are worse,” she says. Cox, the Labour MP for Batley and Spen and mother of two young children, was murdered outside a library in West Yorkshire in June 2016 by an Engl

PoliticsCrime
The Guardian Politics16 Jun 2026

Anti-Burnham fake news on Makerfield Facebook accounts has surged, report finds – UK politics live

Nearly one in six pieces of news shared in local Facebook groups during the campaign is false, Social Market Foundation report finds Good morning. Andy Burnham seems to be on course to win the Makerfield byelection on Thursday. But, if he does win, it will be despite a huge increase in the amount of hostile, fake news about him circulating on local Facebook groups. This has been documented in a report out today by the Social Market Foundation thinktank that has important implications not just fo

Politics
The Guardian Politics16 Jun 2026

Mail on Sunday attacks Restore as split right creates headache for UK papers

Some titles that once backed the Tories now ‘flirting with Farage’ as they try to gauge where readers stand It was a Mail on Sunday headline with all the ferocity usually reserved for general elections, directed squarely at a political opponent. But in this case, the traditionally Conservative-supporting title was not targeting Labour. The party in its crosshairs was Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain, the vehemently rightwing outfit that regards Nigel Farage’s Reform UK as too weak on deporting migr

PoliticsReformRestoreRemigrationRupert Lowe
The Guardian Politics16 Jun 2026

Division in UK probably worse now than in run-up to Brexit, says Kim Leadbeater

Labour MP warns of voices fanning hatred on eve of 10th anniversary of the murder of her sister, the MP Jo Cox Political hatred and division in the UK is probably worse now than during the Brexit referendum, when Jo Cox was murdered, says Kim Leadbeater, Cox’s sister who is now also a Labour MP. Speaking to the Guardian’s Today in Focus podcast Leadbeater, who was elected to the same Yorkshire seat held by Cox in a 2021 byelection, said everyone in public life had a responsibility to try and eas

PoliticsDefenceCrime
The Guardian Politics16 Jun 2026

Labour MPs doubt EHRC guidance on court’s biological sex ruling is workable

Exclusive: Commons motion calls for code of practice to be blocked amid concerns over impact on transgender people A number of Labour MPs are increasingly doubtful that the guidance on how organisations should implement the supreme court ruling on sex as it applies in the Equality Act is workable in the real world, with some predicting it will unleash a wave of competing legal claims. A total of 135 MPs, 69 of them from Labour, have signed a Commons motion calling for the code of practice drafte

PoliticsDefenceReformCrime
The Guardian Politics16 Jun 2026

How the murder of my sister, Jo Cox, changed Britain – podcast

It’s a decade since the MP for Batley and Spen was killed by a far-right extremist. Her sister, Kim Leadbeater, who took over her parliamentary seat, explains what lessons are still to be learned Jo Cox was the Labour MP for Batley and Spen, the place she had grown up and had known her whole life. She was firmly pro-Europe, a passionate campaigner for social justice, and the mother of two young children, aged five and three. On 16 June 2016, at the height of a toxic Brexit campaign, she was murd

PoliticsReformCrime
The Guardian Politics15 Jun 2026

Starmer vows new sanctions on Russia and nuclear energy support for Ukraine

G7 told ‘we will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes’, with Russia’s finance networks and shadow fleet targeted Keir Starmer has vowed to “choke off” Russian revenue with further sanctions and to provide hundreds of millions of pounds worth of energy support for Ukraine, as he met world leaders in France for the G7. After a torrid political week at home, the British prime minister sought to put himself on the front foot on the international stage at the meeting of the group of seven, whic

Politics