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David Cameron has vowed to crack down on "crazy" bonuses paid to civil servants as the new Government seeks to reduce the costs of the bloated public sector. Out of control hand-outs, which this year will be paid to three-quarters of senior civil servants, are to be restricted to high performers. Under the terms of Whitehall contracts signed by Labour ministers at the height of the recession, bonus payments can not be cancelled by the incoming Government. In future, however, windfalls across the public sector will be restricted to employees who have performed “exceptionally well,” with only the top 25...

Meanwhile, details have been emerging from Conservative sources about the new government's programme, including: There will be a "significant acceleration" of efforts to reduce the budget deficit - including £6bn of spending reductions this year. An emergency Budget will take place within 50 days Plans for five-year, fixed-term parliaments, meaning the next election would not take place until May 2015 The Lib Dems have agreed to drop plans for a "mansion tax" on properties costing more than £2m, while the Conservatives have ditched their pledge to raise the inheritance tax threshold to £1m The new administration will scrap part of...

New Great Britain PM, David Cameron, speaks for the first time to reporters...

LONDON – Conservative leader David Cameron became Britain's youngest prime minister in almost 200 years Tuesday after Gordon Brown stepped down and ended 13 years of Labour government. Cameron said he aims to form a full coalition government with the third-place Liberal Democrats after his Conservative Party won the most seats but did not get a majority in Britain national election last week. The 43-year-old leader said it would be "hard and difficult work" to govern as a coalition but added that Britain had serious economic issues to tackle. Cameron visited Buckingham Palace and was asked to form a government...

Tory leader David Cameron has entered Number 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister for the first time - and said: "This is going to be hard and difficult work." To view this content you need Flash and Javascript enabled in your browser. He told the waiting media: "On behalf of the whole country I would like to pay tribute to the outgoing Prime Minister for his long record of dedicated public service." And he added: "I aim to form a proper and full coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats." US President Barack Obama is thought to have already...

David Cameron is the new Prime Minister The Conservative leader has left Buckingham Palace amidst uncertainty about the shape of his coalition with the Lib Dems.

Gordon Brown has announced he is resigning as UK prime minister. Mr Brown is on his way to officially tender his resignation to the Queen, and recommend that Conservative leader David Cameron should succeed him. Speaking alongside his wife Sarah outside No 10 Downing Street, he said the job had been "a privilege" and wished his successor well. His decision comes as the Tories and Liberal Democrats are poised to agree a deal to form a government. Labour's attempts to negotiate a deal of their own with the Lib Dems, after last week's inconclusive election result, ended in failure on...

Sky Sources: Gordon Brown To Resign Tonight Huw Borland, Sky News Online Prime Minister Gordon Brown will resign tonight, according to Sky News political correspondent Joey Jones. Jones said: "He just wants to get this over with. It's presumably quite likely now that we will see David Cameron walking up Downing Street in the not-distant future." Mr Brown wants to move on to charity work and literature, Sky sources said. The revelations follow senior Liberal Democrat Vince Cable telling Sky a deal on forming a coalition government between his party and the Conservatives is "very, very close to being done".

Gordon Brown declared he would quit yesterday - even as he launched a jaw-dropping bid to keep Labour in office in a 'coalition of the losers'. Meanwhile the double-dealing Lib Dems were accused of holding Britain to ransom. In an effort to defy the verdict of the voters, the Prime Minister risked a constitutional crisis by unveiling a cynical plan to woo Nick Clegg and cling to power. He said he wanted to assemble a coalition government with the backing of the Lib Dems and then stand down in favour of another unelected Labour prime minister in the autumn. Mr...

LONDON -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he will resign by September

Gordon Brown has said he is stepping down as Labour Party leader - as his party opens formal talks with the Lib Dems about forming a government. Mr Brown, prime minister since 2007, said he hoped a successor as Labour leader would be in place by September.

DAVID CAMERON was deprived of a Commons majority by failing to secure the votes of just 16,000 people, according to an expert analysis of election results. The findings by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher reveal that the Tories came tantalisingly close to securing a clean victory at the polls. “Cameron came so near and yet so far,” write the directors of the elections centre at Plymouth University. “Just 16,000 extra votes for the Tories, distributed in the 19 constituencies in which the party came closest to winning, would have spared us a weekend of negotiation and speculation.” The Tories failed...

There is no real difference between the 'liberal democrats' of the UK (who, like every other party which tagged 'democrat' to their name ~100 years ago was doing so to differentiate themselves from the Totalitarian Left, like 'hey, it's OK, we're not like Lenin, even though we believe a lot of the same things'. Remember that context when you see 'democrat' in a party name), and the leftist Labor party, and they will together form a leftist government. They are acting now as if they might help the Conservatives into power: they will NOT. They benefit from acting as if...

The number of Muslims serving in the Parliament of the United Kingdom has doubled to eight in the closest elections in decades. The election also saw the first three Muslim women – all from the Labour Party - elected to the 650-member House of Commons. The women are: Yasmin Qureshi of Bolton South East in north-west England, Shabana Mahmood of Birmingham Ladywood in central England, Rushnara Ali won in Bethnal Green and Bow. In addition, the first Conservatives have gained their first two Muslim Ministers of Parliament. The possiblity of a third was dashed after Zahid Iqbal failed in overturning...

The Tory leader delivered a stinging attack on Labour’s “disgraceful and negative campaigning” as he addressed a crowd of 50 supporters outside a primary school in Newtown, Montgomeryshire. At the end of his 36-hour campaign push across the UK, Mr Cameron pledged that a Conservative government would “take everyone with us: the frail, the elderly, the vulnerable, poorest – we know they need protection.” Claims from Labour that the Conservatives were planning to take payments from pensioners, benefits from families were “simply not true”. He said: “They should be ashamed of the negative campaign they are fighting.” The Tories are...

ComRes for The Independent and ITV News put the Tories nine points ahead of their Labour and Lib Dem rivals - the biggest Conservative lead since March. It shows the Tories on 35%, up three points on the last ComRes poll yesterday, while Labour and Nick Clegg's Lib Dems both slipped two points to 26%. However, two other polls suggest support for the Lib Dems remains buoyant as the Sky News Leaders' Debate looms. The YouGov daily tracker poll for The Sun puts the Lib Dems back in the lead, having dropped to second place yesterday. It shows the Lib...