Author: MoorningTimes

After spending time and resources crisscrossing the Atlantic to cultivate the support of the Maga faithful, Liz Truss has finally got the prize she apparently craved: a photo with Donald Trump.Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister tweeted a photo on Sunday showing her in the company of the US president at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.“Right about everything,” Truss posted, tagging the president on X.Trump had yet to record the meeting on his own social media feeds, focusing instead on promoting the new documentary made by his wife, Melania. It is unclear how long the meeting between Truss and Trump lasted and…

Reform UK’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection must distance himself from “racist content” shared by members of his campaign team, the Labour party has said.In a letter to Matt Goodwin, Lucy Powell, Labour’s deputy leader, said an investigation by the Manchester Mill revealed five separate members who had campaigned with Goodwin had shared racist content online and had expressed support for far-right groups.Goodwin is hoping to become Reform UK’s ninth MP as he runs for the hotly contested seat in Manchester, where Labour’s 13,000-vote majority could be overturned by a Reform or Green candidate.The report, which referenced research…

If Keir Starmer wants to win back disillusioned voters deserting his party for the Liberal Democrats or the Greens, he could do worse than rediscover Labour’s longstanding moral commitment to international development.Since cutting the overseas aid budget to fund higher defence spending – losing the excellent Anneliese Dodds in the process – Labour has had little to say on the subject, aside from the fact that 0.3% of national income is the new normal.But despite the cuts, Foreign Office sources insist that behind the scenes there is a renewed commitment to winning the argument for “the impact and benefits of…

Cooper defends decision to proscribe Palestine Action despite ban being ruled unlawfulNow to some UK news … In a significant blow to the Home Office, the High Court ruled last week that the ban of Palestine Action under terrorism legislation was unlawful and “disproportionate”, with most of their activities having not reached the level, scale and persistence to be defined as terrorism.The high court said the then home secretary Yvette Cooper had not followed her own policies when bringing in the controversial ban last summer.When asked about her decision making, Cooper told Sky News: Well, I followed the clear advice…

When Greenwich and Kent universities said this month they would merge to save money, the heart of their financial difficulties could be found in the UK government’s crackdown on immigration.Tough restrictions on foreign students have sent the number of university applications from abroad plummeting, cutting lucrative tuition fees and leaving all universities facing the same squeeze.Companies are in a similar quandary: construction companies, health trusts and care homes are among those with recruitment worries, after new rules curtailed a longstanding reliance on foreign skilled workers.The latest official figures, released this week, documenting the number of visa applications to live and…

Union leaders and 25 Labour MPs have urged Keir Starmer to end a “narrow, factional agenda” within the Labour party.A letter signed by the MPs, by the leaders of several Labour-affiliated trade unions and by campaign groupings within the party, claimed the approach from the top was “increasingly unpopular with the public”.A number of serial Labour rebel MPs are among the signatories, including Clive Lewis and Brian Leishman, as well as senior figures such as John McDonnell.They suggested the approach by the party’s leadership could undermine the ability to win elections.The letter comes after Starmer has faced a turbulent few…

The co-founder of Palestine Action has said the ban on the group “massively backfired” and called for its proscription to be suspended after the high court found it to be unlawful.Three senior judges ruled on Friday that the ban was disproportionate and constituted very serious interference with the rights to protest and free speech.But the proscription order remains in place pending arguments from lawyers for the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, on why it should not be lifted, meaning the fate of more than 2,500 people remains in limbo.Huda Ammori, who co-founded Palestine Action in 2020 and brought the successful legal…

Palmerston, a rescue cat who became the chief mouser of the Foreign Office, has died in Bermuda.The cat, adopted from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, retired in 2020 after four years of service in Whitehall.In February 2025, a post on a popular social media account in Palmerston’s name said he had come out of retirement in order to start work “as feline relations consultant (semi-retired) to the new governor of Bermuda”.Announcing his death, a post on Palmerston’s X account read: “Palmerston, Diplocat extraordinaire, passed away peacefully on 12 February. “Palmy” was a special member of the government house team in…

Keir Starmer said there was an urgent need for a closer UK defence relationship with Europe, covering procurement and manufacturing, so that the UK would be at the centre of a stronger European defence setup.In a rare visit to the Munich Security Conference, the British prime minister told the audience, to applause, “we are 10 years on from Brexit. We are not the Britain of the Brexit years.”Starmer argued that the long-term threat posed by Russia and the need for Europe to take greater responsibility for its own defence required the UK to integrate more closely on defence procurement with…

Gordon Brown is a man who gets into the detail.In office, and since then, he has applied his forensic mind to the matters that concern him. Lately, he has been focused on the Epstein files.What he discovered shocked him. There was the immediate anger about the “extent of betrayal” by his former business secretary, Peter Mandelson, during the global financial crisis.But it was the “the abuse of women by male predators and their enablers – and Britain’s as yet unacknowledged role” that has left the deepest mark.He looked at flight records, examined the evidence and came to a conclusion: Andrew…