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Voices

<p>How often have Labour politicians confronted Farage and his allies on the Tory right by pointing to the the daunting labour shortages in sectors from agriculture and vital care work to a construction industry charged with fulfilling Labour’s housebuilding goals? </p>
donald macintyre

How Labour fights back now against Reform

After a devastating blow in Runcorn and Helsby, Starmer and his party should be confronting the threat posed by Nigel Farage head on, writes Donald Macintyre – rather than running scared

<p>US treasury secretary Scott Bessent and Ukrainian first deputy prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko signing the deal on Wednesday</p>
Mark Almond

Trump gets his deal, but what does Zelensky get in return?

<p>M&S chief executive Stuart Machin (M&S/PA)</p>
James Moore

The M&S cyber attack is a wake-up call for all online retailers

<p>Ed Miliband, energy secretary</p>
John Rentoul

Is Ed Miliband, Labour’s green conscience, about to be dumped?

<p>‘People online have been blown away because it is, without a shred of a doubt, an amazing thing to do for your children’</p>
charlotte cripps

This might be the best parenting idea Meghan’s ever had

<p>House prices fell in April when compared to March and the annual growth rate slowed (PA)</p>
James Moore

Why are house prices still so ruinous?

<p>Tom Cruise recreating his infamous ‘sofa jump’ while being interviewed by Jay Leno</p>
dear vix

I’ve met the love of my life – is three weeks too soon to propose?

<p>Former prime minister Tony Blair</p>
Voices

Tony Blair has exposed the inconvenient facts about net zero

<p>This week, poet and artist Frieda Hughes reflects on how it took her six years to sew the hem of a party dress</p>
Frieda Hughes

It took me six years to complete a task I started before lockdown

<p>A growing number of women say their children were handed to abusive partners by family courts</p>
Charlotte Proudman

Abduction laws are failing abuse survivors and putting them in danger

<p>Five go to the polls: (from left) party leaders Carla Denyer (Greens co-leader), Ed Davey, Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage </p>
Andrew Grice

The most popular party leader in Britain isn’t who you think it is

<p>Almost everything Donald Trump has done in his first period in power has shocked, but much less of it comes as a surprise</p>
The Independent View

It’s time to make American democracy great again

<p>Experts are calling for a change in policy around mammograms</p>
emma clarke

Why shouldn’t men be allowed to perform mammograms?

<p>BP has revealed lower profits, but said it is making progress with its new growth strategy</p>
JAMES MOORE

BP is in a mess – and the climate is being asked to foot the bill

<p>Elon Musk’s Tesla reported a 71 per cent drop in quarterly profits</p>
James Moore

Tesla denies seeking a successor for Musk – but it ought to be

<p>The savings claimed by Elon Musk’s Doge arent’ what they’re cracked up to be</p>
James Moore

Musk can’t rely on Doge’s dodgy accounting at troubled Tesla

Littered with errors and inaccuracies, Doge’s savings are vastly overstated, writes James Moore. Elon Musk must hope he is better at finding efficiencies at Tesla than he has been for the United States

<p>Nigel Farage campaigning in the Runcorn by-election</p>
Voices

Sorry, Nigel – it isn’t easy bringing up a child with autism

<p>‘Miss Me?’ podcast host, Miquita Oliver, discussed how she went bankrupt aged 27</p>
Voices

What Miquita Oliver’s bankruptcy tells us about women and money

Explore news for you

More Voices

<p>Nigel Farage talks to the media after Sarah Pochin won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election </p>
Voices

Romping Reform shows two-party politics has been smashed to pieces

Voices

Romping Reform shows two-party politics has been smashed to pieces

Andrew Grice
<p>Nigel Farage talks to the media after Sarah Pochin won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election </p>
<p>Nigel Farage talks to the media after Sarah Pochin won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election</p>
The Independent View

After Runcorn, Labour now needs to prove itself to the electorate

<p>While Kemi Badenoch’s party will take years to recover from its own disfavour, Farage will conquer all in the meantime</p>
Voices

It was a bad night for Labour – but even worse for the Tories

<p>Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage with his party’s candidates on stage during a campaign event at Stafford Showground</p>
Voices

How the Brexit vote is still realigning British politics

<p>Your local election questions answered by John Rentoul</p>
UK Politics

Will Farage’s success endure? John Rentoul answers your questions

<p>Your local election questions answered by John Rentoul</p>
UK Politics

Will Farage’s success endure? John Rentoul answers your questions

<p>It’s not clear that Kemi Badenoch herself currently has any ideas to offer on climate</p>
Voices

Kemi Badenoch can’t rubbish net zero unless she has a plan to save us

<p>Is Britain's two-party system crumbling?</p>
UK Politics

Poll: Is Britain’s two-party system crumbling?

Most commented

Ukraine-Russia war latest: US steps back from peace talks

284 comments

Local elections: Live results map for every council and mayoral race

115 comments

Israeli firefighters winning 30-hour battle with Jerusalem wildfires - live updates

436 comments

Local election live: Reform wins spate of councils as Farage declares end for Tories

772 comments
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More Voices

<p>Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, with new Runcorn MP Sarah Pochin</p>
Voices

Why Farage won Runcorn

<p>US treasury secretary Scott Bessent and Ukrainian economy minister Yulia Svyrydenko pose after signing the deal</p>
The Independent View

The minerals deal is good news for Ukraine and for the United States

<p>Donald Trump addressing his ‘100 Days’ rally, as the US economy contracts for the first time in three years</p>
Voices

Donald Trump should have learnt the lessons of Brexit

<p>Readers are split over older homeowners’ role in the housing crisis</p>
Money

Readers split on how to tackle the UK’s housing divide

<p>Tony Blair said the debate on climate change had become ‘irrational’</p>
The Independent View

How Blair has changed the agenda for Labour on climate change

<p>Bezos was one of 10 prominent tech oligarchs parked at the front of the inauguration audience 101 days ago; a ‘Billionaires Row’, with a collective net worth comfortably in excess of a trillion dollars</p>
Voices

How tech bros have traded their principles away to keep in with Trump

<p>Readers are split over older homeowners’ role in the housing crisis</p>
Money

Readers split on how to tackle the UK’s housing divide

<p>Tony Blair said the debate on climate change had become ‘irrational’</p>
The Independent View

How Blair has changed the agenda for Labour on climate change

<p>Bezos was one of 10 prominent tech oligarchs parked at the front of the inauguration audience 101 days ago; a ‘Billionaires Row’, with a collective net worth comfortably in excess of a trillion dollars</p>
Voices

How tech bros have traded their principles away to keep in with Trump

<p>Now that Rachel Reeves realises that a US-UK trade deal is a second or third-order priority for Trump, she must know that her chances of avoiding more big tax rises in the autumn Budget are one step closer to zero</p>
Voices

Rachel Reeves has given up hoping for a trade deal with Donald Trump

Voices

Rachel Reeves has given up hoping for a trade deal with Donald Trump

John Rentoul
<p>Now that Rachel Reeves realises that a US-UK trade deal is a second or third-order priority for Trump, she must know that her chances of avoiding more big tax rises in the autumn Budget are one step closer to zero</p>
<p>To mark his first 100 days, the president took his victory lap at Macomb Community College, just north of Detroit</p>
Voices

I was at Trump’s 100 day rally – and was shocked by what I saw

<p>The BBC published a workplace culture report</p>
Voices

The BBC I know has a toxic culture – and freelancers are fodder for it

<p>Keir Starmer said he wants to deepen the UK’s relationship with Canada as he congratulated Mark Carney on his victory in the country’s election</p>
Voices

Trump has met his match in Mark Carney

<p>Mark Carney’s campaign rhetoric gave no quarter. Claiming victory, he insisted that the US ‘will never break us’</p>
Voices

Trump helped Carney his victory – now it’s make or break for Canada

<p>Mark Carney’s campaign rhetoric gave no quarter. Claiming victory, he insisted that the US ‘will never break us’</p>
Voices

Trump helped Carney his victory – now it’s make or break for Canada

<p>Poll: Does the UK’s sugar tax actually work?</p>
UK Politics

Poll: Does the UK’s sugar tax actually work?

<p>Children’s long-term education is being hindered by stuck schools </p>
Voices

How we’re going to raise standards in ‘stuck’ schools

<p>Britain’s attempts to control migration have had minimal obvious effect on the numbers making the dangerous journey across the Channel</p>
The Independent View

Britain tried to control migration and created the worst of all worlds

<p>School uniform can be pricey for parents (Jane Barlow/PA)</p>
Voices

Who’s to blame that school uniforms are absurdly expensive?

<p>BBC Panorama ‘The Truth About Baby Food Pouches’ reveals some products are dangerously high in sugar and low in vital nutrients </p>
Voices

The shocking truth about baby food pouches you need to know

<p>Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (Gareth Fuller/PA)</p>
Voices

Farage is on the brink of another election breakthrough. At what cost?

<p>Is it fair that baby boomers own most of the UK’s housing wealth?</p>
Money

Have your say: How can Britain’s housing divide be fixed?

<p>Do you still believe in the UK–US ‘special relationship’?</p>
UK Politics

‘A myth’: Independent readers reject the UK-US ‘special relationship’

<p>People are overwhelmingly in favour of action to combat climate change (Jim Horsfall/PA)</p>
Voices

If most of the world wants climate action, why is it slowing down?

<p></p>
Voices

How to tackle money stress

<p>‘As long as people are desperate, they will leave, and as long as they leave, they will die’</p>
Voices

We must face the truth: migration is not a crisis, it’s a symptom

Voices

We must face the truth: migration is not a crisis, it’s a symptom

Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa
<p>‘As long as people are desperate, they will leave, and as long as they leave, they will die’</p>
<p>Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky met with Donald Trump as they attended the funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican on Saturday</p>
The Independent View

Let us hope the Trump-Zelensky meeting leads to a better relationship

<p>Left to right: Cardinals Arthur Roche, Timothy Radcliffe and Vincent Nichols will vote in the conclave to choose a new pope</p>
Voices

Meet the British cardinals who will help choose the next Pope

<p>Rosamund Hall picks her favourite sparkling wines for spring</p>
Voices

The sun is out – it’s time for a springtime refresh of sparkling wine

<p>Subtle diplomacy: there are more effective ways to negotiate peace than by writing poems</p>
Errors & Omissions

Mea Culpa: Rhyme or reason

<p>Subtle diplomacy: there are more effective ways to negotiate peace than by writing poems</p>
Errors & Omissions

Mea Culpa: Rhyme or reason

<p>Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaking at a press conference in Dover on Thursday</p>
The Independent View

A protest vote is a democratic safety valve: but use it with care

<p>Sir Keir Starmer, centre, with his wife, Victoria, left, at the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome</p>
Voices

Pope’s funeral a chance for PM to seal the deal with European leaders

<p>Carpenders Park, where dozens of graves were desecrated earlier this month in what the council branded an ‘Islamophobic hate crime’, has been a place of sacred rest for both Christian and Muslim communities for decades</p>
Voices

My daughter’s grave was destroyed – but I don’t hate those who did it

<p>‘For all the talk of her being a breath of fresh air, Badenoch, a Brexit true-believer who genuinely, if preposterously, seems to believe that the party “talked right yet governed left” while in office, is just another comfort-zone Conservative’</p>
Voices

Under ‘Brexit Badenoch’, what is the future of the Tory party?

<p>Following the death of Pope Francis, Cardinal Robert Sarah from Guinea has emerged as a potential successor</p>
Voices

What will really decide who becomes the new Pope

<p>Pope Francis</p>
Voices

Pope Francis: pontiff who changed the Catholic Church and the world

<p>Nigel Farage has has distanced himself from the US president, saying the tariffs were ‘too much, too soon’ (Ben Birchall/PA)</p>
Voices

The ‘F-word’ that’s tearing Westminster apart

<p>Baroness Julia King has drawn attention to soaring global competition for AI researchers, stressing that the UK needs them to grow its economy</p>
Voices

AI is about to change our lives – Britain must not be left behind

<p>This week, Frieda Hughes basks in nature on her balcony</p>
Voices

Why I’m opening the garden I’ve been working on for 21 years

<p>Flowers and a sign are placed outside the Washington headquarters of the US Agency for International Development, or USAID, on 7 February 2025</p>
The Independent View

The world is facing a new, devastating frontier in the Aids epidemic

<p>The closure of USAID and other cuts has left the Aids community especially vulnerable</p>
Voices

I’m an HIV doctor – we should be very afraid of cuts to Aids funding

Voices

I’m an HIV doctor – we should be very afraid of cuts to Aids funding

Rageshri Dhairyawan
<p>The closure of USAID and other cuts has left the Aids community especially vulnerable</p>
<p>Rachel Reeves says trading with EU is more important than the US</p>
Voices

Reeves has backed the EU over Trump – and she’s right to

<p>Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is said to be ‘open’ to a youth mobility scheme with the EU on a ‘one in, one out’ basis</p>
Voices

Could Yvette Cooper’s ‘one in, one out’ EU youth mobility scheme work?

<p>Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, on a visit to the White House earlier this month</p>
Voices

It’s time MPs investigated the Jewish Chronicle’s secret ownership

<p>A new government plan could mean cheaper energy up north, and higher costs down south</p>
UK Politics

Readers divided over ‘postcode lottery’ energy pricing

<p>A new government plan could mean cheaper energy up north, and higher costs down south</p>
UK Politics

Readers divided over ‘postcode lottery’ energy pricing

<p>Do you still believe in the UK-US special relationship?</p>
Home News

Poll: Do you still believe in the UK–US special relationship?

<p>Chancellor Rachel Reeves</p>
Voices

When flag-waving Rachel Reeves went to Maga-land, cap in hand

<p>The Trump peace plan, now leaked, carries with it the unspoken but lethal notion that various tracts of Ukraine can be transferred to Kremlin control with few ill effects for the inhabitants</p>
The Independent View

Ukraine has a chance of defying the odds – but it depends on one thing

<p>Ed Miliband, energy secretary</p>
Voices

So will regional energy prices really spark poll tax-style riots?

<p>Yin and Gaz are contestants on the BBC’s Race Across the World – and separated after 31 years of marriage</p>
Voices

Would you go on Race Around the World with your ex? I would

<p>More and more schools are taking a strong stance against smartphones</p>
Home News

Addiction and bullying: Why readers want phones banned in classrooms

<p>Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey says damage caused by tariffs has to be taken seriously</p>
Voices

What we need from Andrew Bailey’s Bank of the bleedin’ obvious

<p>‘The many Tesla models sold in the UK, almost ubiquitous in some cases, are shipped in from China and Germany, but there’s no reason why these Muskmobiles couldn’t be sourced from his expanding operations in the USA’</p>
Voices

Does anyone really want a Chevrolet in downtown Doncaster?

<p>Former 999 call handler Issy Vine has started a petition demanding that rogue staff be kept out of the police</p>
Voices

A police colleague used a slur about a rape victim – and kept his job

<p>Céline Sciamma’s explosive 2014 film, ‘Girlhood’, follows a group of young women as they leave school and begin a tough new life in Paris</p>
Voices

Dear Vix: I feel like I’m losing my teenage daughter

<p>‘Research found that 70 per cent of people in Britain prefer national pricing, with 85 per cent believing zonal pricing is inherently unfair’</p>
Voices

Postcode pricing won’t reduce energy bills – and I should know

Voices

Postcode pricing won’t reduce energy bills – and I should know

Dale Vince
<p>‘Research found that 70 per cent of people in Britain prefer national pricing, with 85 per cent believing zonal pricing is inherently unfair’</p>
<p>Should your postcode decide your power bill? (Ben Whitley/PA) </p>
UK Politics

Poll: Should how much you pay for energy depend on where you live?

<p></p>
The Independent View

Rachel Reeves has been dealt a tough hand – she must hold her nerve

<p>Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves</p>
Voices

‘Security’ is a sound enough slogan – but can Labour deliver it?

<p>‘Without guidance, schools are left to fend for themselves in a crowded digital marketplace. An app store is not an accreditation system’</p>
Voices

Do you know what apps your child uses in school? You should…

<p>‘Without guidance, schools are left to fend for themselves in a crowded digital marketplace. An app store is not an accreditation system’</p>
Voices

Do you know what apps your child uses in school? You should…

<p>Donald Trump’s forays into economic policy have proven expensive</p>
The Independent View

It’s official – Donald Trump is bad for the world economy

<p>‘What Kisin and Braverman failed to recognise is that today’s multi-ethnic English identity is not so much a break with a thousand years of English identity, but a continuation of it’</p>
Voices

Why are politicians still fighting over who can be English?

<p>Should mobile phones be completely banned in school? (Alamy/PA)</p>
Home News

Tell us if smartphones should be banned in schools

Voices

Justin Welby: The Pope I knew supported me even at my lowest hour

<p>Keir Starmer speaks to children during a visit to St Michael’s Junior School in Bath following the rollout of 750 new free breakfast clubs across England</p>
Voices

Is Labour’s breakfast club rollout a poorly disguised bribe?

<p>Donald Trump nominated Jerome Powell to head the US Federal Reserve </p>
Voices

Could Trump, the ‘puerile president’, now sink the global economy?

<p>‘The Ukrainians have been attacking us from the very beginning, every passing day, maybe with two or three exceptions,’ Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at Antalya</p>
Voices

The ‘post-Western’ future is here – here’s what that looks like

<p>Rachel Reeves is seeking to strengthen trade relations with other countries</p>
Voices

It’ll take a miracle for the economy to grow under Rachel Reeves

<p>Donald Trump nominated Jerome Powell to head the US Federal Reserve </p>
Voices

Could Trump, the ‘puerile president’, now sink the global economy?

<p>‘The Ukrainians have been attacking us from the very beginning, every passing day, maybe with two or three exceptions,’ Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at Antalya</p>
Voices

The ‘post-Western’ future is here – here’s what that looks like

<p>Rachel Reeves is seeking to strengthen trade relations with other countries</p>
Voices

It’ll take a miracle for the economy to grow under Rachel Reeves

<p>The parent WhatsApp groups never stop – even in the Easter holidays </p>
Voices

Nothing is more toxic than a school parents’ WhatsApp group

<p>Readers have their say on Gen Z’s turn to Christianity</p>
Lifestyle

Readers have their say on Gen Z’s turn to Christianity

<p>‘I was privileged to personally view this tiny miracle, Charlotte’s chapbook, on her birthday’</p>
Voices

How a 200-year-old book instantly took me back to my childhood

<p>Pope Francis has died aged 88</p>
The Independent View

Pope Francis was the people’s pontiff. His successor must be too

<p>More than half of parents surveyed said they would support a complete ban on smartphones in schools </p>
Voices

Smartphones are ruining kid’s lives - and schools alone can’t fix this

<p>Rachel Reeves in Washington last year for a G20 meeting</p>
The Independent View

Rachel Reeves goes to Washington – and will need nerves of steel

<p>Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences cost the UK taxpayer £145m last year</p>
The Independent View

The high costs of an inhumane policy

<p>Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton gestures in a live Australian TV debate, as prime minister Anthony Albanese looks on</p>
Voices

Australia must choose between climate reality and Trump-style denial

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