Will Hazell

UK planning to evacuate Britons from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha as Iran strikes escalate British officials are discussing scenarios for a mass rescue, including land routes into Saudi Arabia, The i Paper understands

UK is working on plans to evacuate British nationals from the Gulf.

RAF planes could be used to fly UK citizens out of the region, while land routes from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar into Saudi Arabia are also being looked at, @theipaper.com understands inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Andrew must repay any misused taxpayer money, says Reeves Chancellor says she has never met the former Duke of York and it is 'probably for the best'

Exclusive @theipaper.com: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor must repay money if he is found to have misused taxpayers’ funds, Rachel Reeves has said inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Reeves also said she was glad she had never met Andrew, who was described by a minister yesterday as “rude, arrogant & entitled”

Starmer out, and Badenoch too? The crowd-sourced political predictions for 2026 The Wisdom of the Crowd proves strikingly effective at correctly guessing future events

Can a crowd of 1,100 people predict how UK politics will unfold in 2026? What about a forecaster who has consistently outperformed the 'Wisdom of the Crowd'? My @theipaper.com piece on @igmansfield.bsky.social's great prediction game inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Inside Farage's plans to put Reform on an 'election war footing' A senior Reform party source said that the goal is to have a 'plan for government by the end of this year, start of next year'

A senior Reform source said the party had already received more than 1,000 applications from supporters wanting to stand as parliamentary candidates (with each paying a £250 fee).

Farage set to unveil the first tranche of his prospective cabinet next week @theipaper.com inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Labour faces extinction in Wales – in a sign of what lies ahead for Starmer With voters angry, polls collapsing and Reform and Plaid surging, Wales's First Minister, Eluned Morgan, is fighting for her political life.

In Wales, Labour have the longest election winning streak anywhere in the world. But is that going to end in May, and how does it feel to be the Labour FM who may go down in history as losing Wales? My @theipaper.com interview with Eluned Morgan @prifweinidog.gov.wales inews.co.uk/news/politic...

‘The plane is nosediving’: Inside mortified Starmer’s doomsday week Allies believe the PM is hard as nails and will ride this latest storm out – and should

Labour MP: “The plane is nosediving.. the passengers have been told there is going to be an extended period of turbulence – except the passengers are not entirely confident the pilots are trained to navigate this weather, or that the pilots are in fact in the cockpit..” inews.co.uk/news/politic...

How cutting off Trump would spell disaster for UK's nuclear deterrent The Trident missile system is US-built, with Britain relying on America for scheduled maintenance

“We really couldn't contemplate a kind of clean break with the Americans... without massive damage”

For my latest @theipaper.com read, I looked at what diverging from Trump's America would really mean for the UK- for our nukes, intelligence, defence, diplomacy & trade inews.co.uk/news/politic...

£400,000 water CEO's 'staggering lack of self awareness' as he's urged to quit Minister expresses 'shock' at 'lack of accountability' after second supply failure in two months

The £400k-a-year chief executive of South East Water Dave Hinton is facing renewed calls to quit after his company was responsible for a second massive water supply failure in two months.

Our @theipaper.com story: inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Challenged on whether she is “talking London down” with her portrayals of a crime-infested capital, Reform’s Laila Cunningham told me: “If someone’s an alcoholic and you tell them ‘you’re an alcoholic’, you’re not talking them down” inews.co.uk/news/politic...

North Atlantic is new front line in UK's grey war with Putin's ghost fleet Starmer ally says Britain is ready to use 'hard power' against Russia, after shadow ship is seized

Nato allies are mindful of the escalation risk with Russia if further shadow fleet tankers are seized.

On the US capture of the Marinera, one (learned) diplomat said: “Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi” (“What is permitted to Jupiter is not permitted to an ox.”) inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Inside the left-wing plot to stop Farage entering No 10 Green, Lib Dem and Labour MPs are already planning how to unite progressive voters to defeat Reform in 2029

MPs in Labour, the Lib Dems & other centre-left parties believe voters lending their support to candidates who aren’t their 1st preference could be key to locking Farage out of No10.

A Lib Dem MP said work was already under way to marshal anti-Reform tactical voting inews.co.uk/news/politic...

The nightmare water disaster in a Kent town that could be coming to you The fact that a British town in 2025 could go without guaranteed clean water for approaching two weeks raises urgent questions about the state of our infrastructure

“It definitely could happen elsewhere.”

I have written a long read for @theipaper.com on the Tunbridge Wells water outage, including:

-Why it happened
-Why the risk of similar incidents is increasing
-What we can do to stop them

inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Anthony Hook, @libdems.org.uk opposition leader on KCC, said: “[Reform] have already descended into factions and infighting. Instead of running a council in desperate need of leadership, they are busy recreating Monty Python’s back catalogue. Next, we’ll have the Reformers Independent Group..”

Reform breakaway group forms on flagship Kent council Kent County Council is crucial to Reform's hopes for national power

Reform UK have been accused of a Monty Python-style farce on Kent County Council after two of their expelled councillors formed a rival “Independent Reformers Group”

Reform has lost 9 councillors (latest one today) - or 15% of its contingent - since May's local election inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Digital ID to be voluntary... unless you want a job (or benefits) Keir Starmer has relaunched the controversial policy, stressing its use for every day life

Keir Starmer insists that Digital ID will be “voluntary”. Unless, er, you want to have a job inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Speaking to @theipaper.com just before the leak emerged, KCC leader Linden Kemkaran said: “We’re giving the voters a very good idea of what we stand for. They’re seeing people like me running the council & doing a very good job and being competent, sensible, sane, and not doing crazy, wacky things"

What Reform's Kent nightmare means for Farage's dream of becoming PM Reform is hoping to prove it is fit for government by the way it runs local authorities

Reform's administration on Kent County Council has been rocked by a leaked video of a chaotic internal meeting, with four councillors suspended as a result.

I took a look for @theipaper.com on whether the infighting could hurt Nigel Farage's party nationally inews.co.uk/news/politic...

University tuition fees heading for £10,000 - as students face new hike every year Ministers are mulling plans for automatic tuition fee hikes each year linked to inflation, though no formal decisions have yet been made

Bridget Phillipson announced today that tuition fees will rise annually in line with inflation (although unis will need to meet quality standards to benefit after two years’ time).

@theipaper.com revealed that indexation was coming back in August

Our story from then: inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Starmer faces fight with Jeremy Corbyn over Prince Andrew's titles MPs, including Labour left-wingers Jeremy Corbyn and the Westminster leaders of the SNP and Plaid Cymru, want Parliament to pass legislation to formally remove Andrew’s titles

Starmer is facing a challenge from MPs on the Left to strip Prince Andrew of his dukedom.

MPs, including Labour left-wingers, Jeremy Corbyn and the Westminster leaders of the SNP and Plaid Cymru want Parliament to formally remove Andrew’s titles inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Starmer set to overturn police ban on Israeli football fans Ministers are racing to overturn a ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending Aston Villa’s Europa League match after police safety concerns sparked a political row

The Home Office is brokering extra police officers from forces outside the West Midlands so the ban on Israeli fans attending next month’s match at Aston Villa can be overturned inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Reform pledged to cut costs and taxes in local government with a 'Doge'-style approach, but instead their council taxes are rising

➡️ Read more: trib.al/4eTKWIn

Move is part of a wider pivot by Labour to sell net zero to voters by stressing the financial benefits, rather than just environmental arguments.

Salary sacrifice for solar is specifically seen as a way of helping to hit Starmer’s pledge to cut bills by £300 a year.

92 Labour MPs have backed it.

Salary sacrifice for rooftop solar panels in new tax-break scheme The policy may feature in the Government’s Warm Homes Plan, which is expected this month, The i Paper has been told

Exclusive @theipaper.com: Ministers are looking at introducing salary sacrifice schemes for rooftop solar panels as part of efforts to cut energy bills inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Reducing pension tax-free lump sum to £100k a 'high risk', Reeves warned Pensions minister Torsten Bell has previously called for the tax-free cash amount to be capped

Rachel Reeves has been warned that making changes in the Budget to the amount of cash people can withdraw tax-free from their pensions is a “high risk strategy” which would create a “political storm” inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Former head of MI6: Starmer is damaged by spy trial row - China is a threat to UK Sir Richard Dearlove, who led MI6 between 1999 and 2004, told The i Paper that China was indisputably a national security threat

The collapse of a case involving two men accused of spying for China is a “mess” which is “damaging” to Keir Starmer, an ex-head of MI6 has said.

Sir Richard Dearlove told @theipaper.com that if the Govt had “caved” to Chinese pressure then it was “absolutely outrageous” inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Jenrick is a picture of loyalty. But Tory insiders insist Badenoch should be worried The shadow Justice Secretary is a popular draw amid the struggles of the party leader

Jenrick is on his best behaviour in Manchester. But Tory insiders think he is playing a long game, knowing that any explicit show of disloyalty could fatally damage his reputation among the membership inews.co.uk/news/politic...

House sellers will be forced to list problems with their homes before sale The Government wants to speed up sales and cut costs of house buyers

House sellers will be forced to disclose problems with their homes before sale under plans by the Government to cut costs for buyers and speed up purchases inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Home Office could outright ban protests that risk ‘intimidation’ or ‘serious disruption’ The Home Secretary is considering giving police new powers to ban protests

The Home Office is looking at introducing outright bans on protests which risk intimidating minorities or threaten serious disruption, @theipaper.com understands inews.co.uk/news/politic...

‘It’s f**king serious’: Badenoch's last chance as Jenrick coronation threat looms Some Tories preparing for their conference are contemplating 'amalgamation' with Reform UK after a series of dire poll ratings

As Kemi Badenoch prepares for the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Tory MPs have warned she is “in the last chance saloon”.

Here’s our @theipaper.com weekend long read inews.co.uk/news/politic...