Britain

Narayan, a Labour politician from Wales, was appointed minister for AI and online safety in September 2025 under Burnham's predecessor Keir Starmer

Andy Burnham succeeded Keir Starmer as UK prime minister after winning the Labour leadership. Here's a look at his political journey, rise to power and the challenges ahead

Kanishka Narayan had previously served as Minister for AI and Online Safety since September 2025 under former Prime Minister Keir Starmer

Andy Burnham begins his first full day as UK prime minister on Tuesday, after entering 10 Downing Street on a wave of enthusiasm and a mountain of challenges ahead. The pressing issues look familiar. They were the same ones his predecessor, Keir Starmer, faced: a sluggish economy, a cost-of-living crisis, overstretched public services, and foreign policy that includes wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and managing relations with US President Donald Trump. Burnham became prime minister after spending most of the past decade running Greater Manchester as mayor of a northwest England region with 3 million residents, before winning his ticket back to Parliament in a special election last month. Leading a national government delivering services for 70 million people is a monumentally larger task with problems on a larger scale. These are some of the main issues confronting Burnham: Boosting the economy and decentralising ...

A ship caught fire early Monday in the Strait of Hormuz near the coastline of Oman, the British military said. The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center issued a warning about the fire, saying it was unclear what sparked the blaze. The US military has been encouraging ships to use a route near Oman to transit the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has responded with attacks targeting those vessels, insisting it must have control over the crucial waterway through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded once passed in peacetime. The United States began a new round of airstrikes early Monday targeting Iran after announcing the death of another American service member, and Iran fired missiles toward Jordan that risked widening the conflict into neighboring Israel. Step by step, the US and Iran have inched closer to all-out war as last month's interim deal meant to permanently end the fighting has crumbled and shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has largely

At the end of the first day of the party's leadership contest to replace Keir Starmer, 322 of 403 Labour members of Parliament voted for Burnham

Nominations open Thursday in a Labour Party election to replace Keir Starmer as Britain's prime minister, a contest in which there is expected to be just one candidate. Former Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham will be collecting signatures from Labour lawmakers, and needs at least 80 to run a target he's likely to well exceed. Other potential contenders have all ruled themselves out. Former Defence Minister Al Carns, who had been pondering a run, confirmed late Wednesday that he will not challenge Burnham. "I'd hoped a leadership contest would give us the opportunity for a proper debate," Carns said in a statement. "But months of internal Labour politics isn't what the country needs right now. We've got to get on with the job. Andy Burnham's earned this and he's got my full backing." Nominations remain open until July 16. Burnham is highly likely to be announced as the new Labour leader the following day, and to become prime minister after a meeting with King Charles III on Ju

The frontrunner for Britain's top job has pledged to deliver 'good growth in every postcode', but decades of regional inequality and weak productivity will make that promise difficult to fulfil

Keir Starmer has spoken of his decision to resign as Labour Party leader and British Prime Minister as an "intensely personal" one, which he took with his wife and children at a family weekend away. In his first interview since his Downing Street statement that fired the starting gun for a leadership election, Starmer told the BBC on Friday evening that he would complete his current term as a central London member of Parliament. But, while on the backbenches of Parliament, the 63-year-old politician plans on "keeping his mouth shut" to allow his successor widely expected to be former Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to get on with the job. "I grappled with what was the best thing to do for me, for the country, for the government," said Starmer. "In the end it became an intensely personal decision. And that's why it was a decision taken ultimately when (my wife) Vic and I were away with the kids," he said. The weekend before June 22, when he announced his resignation on the

Theresa May promised industrial renewal, Johnson championed levelling up and Starmer pledged national renewal. Andy Burnham argues growth will remain elusive unless power moves beyond Westminster

Britain's government said it will open safe, legal routes for eligible refugees, while also changing human rights laws to make it easier to deport people who are in the country illegally. The new routes will allow community groups, universities and employers to sponsor refugees to come to the UK. Authorities said the plan was inspired by a similar "community sponsorship" programme in Canada that has settled some 400,000 people in the country since 1979. "I will open new legal routes for genuine refugees, while closing loopholes that have been too often abused," Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said Friday. At the same time, Mahmood said, a new immigration law will seek to prevent "abuse" of human rights laws and crack down on "vexatious claims." It will tighten the definition of family so that it is restricted to immediate family members only. Critics have said the European Convention on Human Rights is often cited to prevent the deportation of people who have no right to stay in the

Most of northwest Europe is critically unprepared for a world in which heatwaves are the norm, not an exception

When Starmer led Labour into the election in 2024, he was facing down the party's traditional rivals in the Conservatives

Dutiful rather than dynamic, Keir Starmer was elected Britain's prime minister to be a safe pair of hands who would end years of political chaos under the Conservatives. His term is ending less than two years later after missteps, party infighting and one colossal error of judgment that indirectly ensnared him in the scandals surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, a man he had never met and whose sexual crimes he was not complicit in. On Monday, Starmer said in an emotional statement that he is stepping down as leader of the governing Labour Party, though he will remain caretaker primer minister until a new Labour leader is chosen in coming weeks. "The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election," he said. "I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace." Starmer's selling point was "no more soap opera politics," said Rob Ford, a political science professor at the Universit

Under mounting pressure from within the governing Labour Party, PM Keir Starmer said he would step down and ensure an orderly transition, with a successor expected to be in place by September

Simon Boyd's firm makes prefabricated steel structures on the south coast of England and ships them to customers as far away as Ghana and Barbados. Mike Hawes represents Britain's carmakers as the head of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. The business leaders were on different sides of the debate when Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016. But 10 years later they are both frustrated by Brexit. A decade ago, backers promised that Brexit would be the key to a bright new future where, freed from the edicts of EU bureaucrats, Britain would regain control of its laws and its borders and the economy would boom. But the reality failed to live up to the hype as Britain struggled to adjust to life without unfettered access to the 27-nation free trade bloc and its market of 450 million people. Economic growth is anemic, taxes are high, public services are creaking and successive governments have been unable to stem the flow of migrants who wash up on the English ...

According to the report, the pressure on Starmer has intensified in recent months and escalated sharply after Labour Party rival Andy Burnham won a parliamentary seat on Friday

An Indian man who admitted smuggling migrants from the UK to France in the back of trucks has been jailed for more than five years by a court in south-east England. Jaskirat Singh, 25, was prosecuted by the UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) over his role in facilitating the illegal movement of non-British nationals between December 2024 and March 2026. Earlier this month, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to facilitate illegal immigration. Singh, who was sentenced by the Canterbury Crown Court on Thursday, is believed to have earned around 185,000 pounds through the illegal operations. "The plot was exposed when 11 Indian nationals were found hiding in the trailer of a lorry stopped at Dover in December 2024. The information they provided, along with four other Indians found in a separate lorry travelling to France in January 2025, led authorities to Singh and his address in Wolverhampton," the CPS said. The CPS said an Immigration Enforcement-led investigation uncovered extensiv

Emergency services rushed to the scene of a collision between two trains north of London on Friday afternoon that killed at least one person. A passenger reported that he was thrown forward by the impact then saw fellow travellers with broken bones and bloody injuries. Both trains were traveling south to London St Pancras station when they collided outside the town of Bedford around 5:15 pm (local time), according to information on rail tracking websites. Emergency services deployed a number of resources to the scene, including an air ambulance and hazardous incident team from the East of England Ambulance Service. "We know that a number of people have been injured and one person has very sadly died," police said in a statement. "A major incident has been declared, and officers are continuing to respond at the scene alongside colleagues from Bedfordshire Police and the local Fire and Rescue and Ambulance Services." Peter Knapp said he was a passenger in the rear train when the ..

Prime Minister Keir Starmer says Britain will ban under-16s from using a range of social media apps. Starmer says he will fight back if technology companies resist. He says he is "not prepared to compromise on the safety and happiness of our children." The move makes the UK part of a growing global movement to tighten online safety for children. Australia, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia have introduced legislation or announced age-based restrictions or requirements for children's access to social media.