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British cabinet minister Steve Reed ​said on Sunday that there was no ‌assessment that backed claims Iran is planning to strike Europe with ballistic missiles, or that it even has ​the capacity to do so. On Saturday, the ​Israel Defence Forces posted on social media that ⁠Iran has missiles "that can reach London, Paris ​or Berlin". "There is no assessment to substantiate what's being ​said," British Housing Secretary Reed told the BBC. "I'm not aware of any assessment at all that they are even ​trying to target Europe, let alone that they ​could if they tried."

Britain has failed white working-class boys, who remain the worst-performing group in England’s schools, Lord Sewell will tell Sir Keir Starmer this week. The Tory peer, the author of a report on race and ethnic disparities, will say the group is still stuck at the bottom of the class after successive governments ignored his warnings. In 2021, after the Black Lives Matter movement, Lord Sewell was asked by Boris Johnson to chair an inquiry by 10 commissioners, all but one of whom were from ethnic minorities. Their 250-page report said the biggest drivers of disparities were not race but class,...

A communal iftar in the heart of London has ignited a fierce political row in the United Kingdom. On March 16 afternoon, around 3,000 Muslims gathered at Trafalgar Square for the annual “Open Iftar”, an event held since 2019 to mark the breaking of the Ramadan fast. Hundreds of attendees, including London Mayor Sadiq Khan, joined the call to prayer, kneeling at Trafalgar Square. Khan hailed the gathering as a reflection of London’s inclusive ethos, saying the city “celebrates and champions our diversity”. What began as a symbolic display of unity quickly spiralled into controversy. Conservative MP and UK’s shadow...

Iran fired two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia but did not hit the US-U.K. military base in the Indian Ocean, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing multiple US officials. One of the missiles failed in flight, while a US warship fired an SM-3 interceptor at the other, although it could not be determined if the interception succeeded, the newspaper says. The Journal does not specify when the missiles were fired.

Britain’s border security chief has quit after failing to bring down the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats. The Home Office confirmed Martin Hewitt will leave his post as border security commander at the end of March after just 18 months in the job. The Prime Minister appointed Mr Hewitt, a former senior Metropolitan Police officer, shortly after Labour won the general election. He was tasked him with curbing the rising number of small boats landing on British shores from France. But since he took on the roll in September 2024, crossings have surged, with almost...

DONALD Trump has slammed the UK’s “very late response” after Starmer agreed to let the US use British bases to strike Iranian sites targeting a key shipping route. The US President said the UK “should have acted a lot faster” in allowing America to use British bases after accusing NATO allies of cowardice over the deepening Strait of Hormuz crisis. Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump said: “It’s been a very late response from the UK. “I’m surprised because the relationship is so good, but this has never happened before. “They were really, pretty much our first ally,...

"The British Isles are declared to be in a state of blockade,” announced Napoleon Bonaparte, and elaborated: “All commerce and all correspondence with the British Isles are forbidden.” It was 1806, and what would be known as the Berlin Decree aimed to strangle the British economy. The bold scheme seemed economically logical and militarily practical, but it ended up a grand flop. Britain’s economy, coastline, and navy all proved too big for the plan, which also underestimated the kingdom’s link to America and access to the high seas. In fact, Napoleon’s blockade backfired. Europe, it turned out, needed British exports...

Serbia has sharply condemned Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, for what it described as “unacceptable interference in internal affairs,” after she criticized the Balkan country’s military cooperation with Israel. The diplomatic dispute follows Albanese’s visit to Belgrade this week, during which she accused Serbian authorities of collaborating “without shame” with Israel, claiming Serbia is among its strongest allies and that Serbian weapons are being used in Gaza. “We consider the statements made by the United Nations Special Rapporteur, Mrs. Albanese, to be unbalanced and activist in nature, and as such inappropriate to the mandate she...

Trump’s former national security advisor has slammed European leaders’ inaction on the war in Iran as a “mistake” that invites the US president to halt support for Ukraine against Russia’s full-scale invasion. Europe’s stance on the Iran war risks US President Donald Trump walking away from the conflict in Ukraine, his former national security advisor, John Bolton, has said, criticising the EU’s reaction to the situation in the Middle East. In an interview with Euronews, Bolton, who also previously served as the US’s ambassador to the UN, branded the Iran conflict as “Europe’s war.” “Europe is just as much, if...

The central principle of democracy is that power is vested in the people and expressed by their elected representatives. We expect that governments will seek to align themselves with the views and opinions of the people, while protecting the views and opinions of minorities. Yet Britain is currently demonstrating a different phenomenon: at times, and under the right circumstances, governments are seeking to align themselves with the views and opinions of minorities while failing to protect the views and opinions of the people. Take this Labour Government, which at present appears to be in a blind panic. With local elections...

LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) - Leading ⁠nations ⁠in Europe ⁠said in a joint statement ​with Japan on Thursday they would ‌take steps to stabilise ‌energy markets and were ⁠ready ⁠to join "appropriate efforts" to ensure safe passage ​through the Strait of Hormuz. The statement from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the ​Netherlands and Japan, condemned attacks by ⁠Iran and ⁠called on it ⁠to ​halt its actions immediately. It also said ​they would ⁠work with certain energy producing nations to increase output and stabilise markets. "We express our readiness ⁠to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe ⁠passage through the Strait," the...

UK lawmakers vote to decriminalize abortion up to birth in England, WalesThe new measure would keep the 24-weeka abortion limit for doctors but remove criminal penalties for women who carry out abortions themselves at any stage, including late-term procedures. The House of Lords has confirmed the decriminalization of abortion in England and Wales, allowing women to kill their unborn children themselves up until birth.The House of Lords voted to back the plans to decriminalize abortion for mothers up to birth, approved by the House of Commons last summer.On Wednesday, peers in the House of Lords rejected an amendment brought by...

A migrant who ripped off a 19-year-old woman's jeans in the woods and told her to moan like she enjoyed it last year avoided previous deportation to "protect his right to a family life", it has been reported. -snip The Home Office issued a deportation order in 2023, but it has been revealed that Oladele successfully challenged that order, enabling him to go on to rape the North Wales teenager last year. -snip The Home Office issued his deportation order on January 10, 2023. However, Oladele - who moved to the UK from Italy when he was 11 - submitted...

Britain’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, attended the final talks between the US and Iran and judged that the offer made by Tehran on its nuclear programme was significant enough to prevent a rush to war, the Guardian can reveal. Powell thought progress had been made in Geneva in late February and that the deal proposed by Iran was “surprising”, according to sources. Two days after the talks ended, and after a date had been agreed for a further round of technical talks in Vienna, the US and Israel launched the attack on Iran.

“Even Tommy Robinson – I can hardly believe I'm saying this – has said today that if the shadow justice secretary had made these hateful comments two years ago, the Conservative Party would have kicked him out. Tommy Robinson isn't some sort of moral signpost. He was pointing out how much their party has changed. They're more inclined to his views, and he's right about that.”

More than 260 small boat migrants entered Britain today at the start of several days of good weather in the English Channel. At least 56 migrants arrived in the Dover harbour on a Border Force vessel just after 10am, GB News can reveal. Three other migrant boats made the illegal crossing in the hours that followed. Just after 3pm, the Border Force vessel Typhoon unloaded another 82 at the migrant processing centre in Dover, taking the total for the day to 261. It takes the total number of illegal arrivals so far this year to 3,718. Several more days of...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer – buttoned-up, lawyerly, reserved – is not a man prone to effusiveness. But when he sat next to US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office last February, he began to speak like his host. “This is really special,” said Starmer, as he brandished a letter from King Charles III inviting Trump for a second state visit to Britain. “This has never happened before. This is unprecedented… This is truly historic – an unprecedented second state visit.” Starmer’s uncharacteristic gushing showed how his government planned to handle the US president in his second term: play...

Unlike the Kurds in 1991, the Iranians of 2026 will have a genuine chance to wrest their freedom because of five key reasons: 1. Iran’s army, navy, and — most importantly — air force have mostly been destroyed. (And whatever’s left will be blown to bits over the next few days.) 2. We have complete air supremacy over Iran and aren’t impeded by UN regulations that would prevent us from using it to blow Iranian planes, helicopters, and drones out of the sky, should they target protesters. 3. Instead of pushing Saddam’s army out of Kuwait, President Trump focused on...

European countries have pushed back against Donald Trump’s decision to ease some US sanctions on Russian oil amid Iran’s blockade of the strait of Hormuz, insisting the international community should maintain pressure on Moscow over its war against Ukraine. The UK has joined Germany, France and Norway in rejecting the move, with the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, decrying what she said was Russia and Iran’s attempt to “hijack the global economy”. Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, described Washington’s move to temporarily waive sanctions on Russian oil stranded at sea as “wrong”, as the Trump administration attempted to counter a surge...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer to meet and find common ground, after the US president's repeated criticism of the UK prime minister. In an exclusive interview with the BBC after talks with Sir Keir, the Ukrainian president said that while he would not tell Trump what to do, the pair should meet to "re-load the relationship". A war ignited by US and Israeli strikes on Iran has spilled into a diplomatic row after Trump's reprimanding of the Nato allies and Starmer's supposed lack of military action. Zelensky warned against division among western leaders...