Ministers say move will combat growing concerns about ‘privacy and dignity’ in gender-neutral facilities New restaurants, offices, schools and hospitals in England will be required to have separate male and female toilets, in a move ministers say will combat growing concerns about “privacy and dignity” in gender-neutral facilities. The law […]

Foreign Press Association decries move under new law based on claim network is a threat to national security Israeli authorities shut down the local offices of Al Jazeera on Sunday, hours after a government vote to use new laws to close the satellite news network’s operations in the country. Critics […]

About 52,000 people are eligible under the scheme, but a government spokesperson said Kigali would accept ‘thousands’ Rwanda has admitted it cannot guarantee how many people it will take from the UK under Rishi Sunak’s deportation scheme. The east African country did not give assurances that the estimated 52,000 asylum […]

Running as a ‘pseudo-independent’ in a region in which Labour faced its own hurdles was not enough to keep Tory mayor in office After a nail-biting finale, Andy Street has become the most high-profile victim of tanking Tory support in May’s elections. With the Conservatives shedding seats across the country […]

Britain has turned out in force to vote for change. Whenever the Tories go to the country, we will be ready to provide it Rishi Sunak might have been too scared to put his name on the ballot this week, but voters sent him a clear message in the local […]

Keir Starmer says the prime minister has no option but to call a general election Rishi Sunak was dealt a series of shattering blows last night as Labour won a knife-edge battle to seize the West Midlands mayoralty from the Conservatives and Sadiq Khan trounced his Tory rival in London […]

Devastating defeats give Tory MPs more reasons to fear what will befall them when the country delivers its verdict The mayoral elections demonstrated that there is a way to win for a Conservative. This is to make out that you have nothing to do with the Tories. Of the metro […]

Rob Ford was part of the BBC team analysing the local election results as they poured in over the past 48 hours. Here he tells how a dramatic set of results for the government unfolded The nervous wait for the first result was longer than usual, as counting centres wrestled […]

Spread of Tory losses leads former minister to say there’s ‘no such thing as a safe seat any more’ The Conservatives are facing one of their worst local election results in 40 years, with striking Labour gains across England and Wales in key battlegrounds they need to secure victory at […]

Tactical voting delivers only a near-victory for party in council election in the traditionally Conservative Berkshire stronghold In true-blue Berkshire, the skies were a prophetic grey on Friday as the Liberal Democrats were a whisker away from winning Wokingham. The district, where the veteran Tory MP John Redwood and the […]