Uk Govt

UK deputy PM calls for safe, fair, and inclusive AI to benefit humanity

UK Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy on Friday emphasised the importance of having a safe, inclusive and equitable artificial intelligence available for everyone. Speaking at a session at the AI Impact Summit in the national capital, Lammy said that the world faces two parts with respect to Artificial Intelligence (AI). The choices the world faces are two paths -- one which sees AI take power and opportunity away from people and "sadly divides us"; and another one that sees AI used as a force for good to solve problems and uplift all of humanity, he said. The session was on 'Speaking Everyone's Language: The Key to Inclusive Al Opportunity' Lammy also mentioned certain projects related to AI, including the Asia AI Development Observatory that would be a new network to support responsible AI governance and other aspects. These projects as well as many new institutions and coalitions that are now emerging can help make sure that "we go down the right path. That is a path of a safe

India summit 'important moment' to unlock full benefits of AI: UK deputy PM

The UK's focus during the AI Impact Summit set to start in New Delhi on Monday will be on championing how artificial intelligence can supercharge growth, unlock new jobs, improve public services and deliver benefits for people around the globe, the British government has said. The UK delegation, led by Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy and AI Minister Kanishka Narayan, is keen to highlight how AI can improve everyday life in every corner of the world and make the case for AI as an engine of renewal that can help doctors diagnose faster, teachers personalise learning, councils deliver services in minutes and businesses create the next generation of good jobs. "This summit is an important moment in determining how we can work together with our international partners to unlock the full benefits and potential of AI, while baking in robust and fair safety standards that protect us all," said Lammy, in a pre-summit statement. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) sa

UK touts first mover edge as India FTA debate heats up in Commons

The UK government has highlighted its first mover advantage by signing a free trade agreement (FTA) with a rapidly growing Indian economy ahead of the European Union (EU), which it claimed had used Britain's deal as a "baseline". During a House of Commons debate on the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) earlier this week, the Opposition Conservatives insisted the deal with "one of the largest economies on the planet, which is growing approximately five times faster than the European Union" could have been better. "British businesses needed something with a really good kick in it to get this country growing. Instead of a vindaloo of a deal, the Prime Minister came back with a bag of soggy poppadoms," said Andrew Griffith, shadow business and trade secretary. Chris Bryant, minister of state in the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), responded on behalf of the Labour government to stress that CETA was a "momentous achievement" which goes "well beyond India'

Work 'no longer a route out of poverty' for millions in UK: Think tank

Resolution's warning, comes with the incumbent Labour government in turmoil

King Charles backs police probe into former Prince Andrew's Epstein links

Buckingham Palace said Monday that King Charles III will "support'' UK police assessing reports that the former Prince Andrew gave confidential information to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The statement came after police said they were examining reports that the former prince, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, sent trade reports to Epstein in 2010. Thames Valley Police, which serves areas west of London, including the ex-royal's former home in Windsor, launched the inquiry after news organisations reported on emails that suggest the then-prince sent Epstein reports from a 2010 tour of Southeast Asia he took as Britain's envoy for international trade.

UK PM Starmer under pressure as chief of staff quits over Mandelson row

Starmer's vulnerability was laid bare in the wake of McSweeney's departure, when two key Labour-linked groups suggested accountability shouldn't end with the chief of staff

UK PM Keir Starmer apologises to Epstein victims amid Mandelson row

Starmer said he regretted believing what he described as "lies" conveyed by Mandelson at the time of the appointment and acknowledged the public manner in which the matter unfolded

UK PM Keir Starmer takes 'China matters' message on first Beijing visit

"Like it or not, China matters to the UK," is the message British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is taking on his visit to Beijing on Wednesday, accompanied by a 60-strong business and cultural delegation. Downing Street said the visit, which will also cover Shanghai, reflects the UK's "clear-eyed and realistic" approach to China in terms of opportunities and challenges they pose by continuing to pursue cooperation while "maintaining guardrails" when it comes to the country's national security. The Labour Party government is keen to highlight its re-engagement with China with this first visit in eight years, coming close on the heels of a ministerial go-ahead for its controversial new "mega embassy" in London. "For years, our approach to China has been dogged by inconsistency blowing hot and cold, from Golden Age to Ice Age. But like it or not, China matters for the UK," Starmer said in a pre-visit statement. "As one of the world's biggest economic players, a strategic and consistent

UK proposes forcing Google to let publishers opt out of AI summaries

Britain's competition watchdog said Wednesday that Google should give news sites and content creators the choice to opt out of having their online content scraped to feed its AI overviews. It's part of a set of proposals from the Competition and Markets Authority aimed at loosening the US tech giant's stranglehold on the UK's online search market. The watchdog last year labelled Google a "strategic" player in online search advertising, using new digital powers to promote more competition by forcing changes to the company's business practices. The CMA's report noted that news publishers have suffered a drop in traffic since Google rolled out its AI Overviews - summaries that appear at the top of some search queries - because fewer users are clicking through to the original articles. The watchdog said Google should give publishers "meaningful choice" over how their content is used in AI-generated responses; be more transparent about the process; and properly cite content used in AI .

UK's Starmer heads to China seeking reset in ties amid US strains

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is heading to China, seeking a thaw in relations with Beijing at a time of strained ties with the United States. He's hoping for an economic boost to Britain, but risks the wrath of China hawks at home and of US President Donald Trump, who's already heaping tariffs and criticism on America's closest allies. Starmer is due to meet China's President Xi Jinping during the visit that starts Wednesday, the first by a UK leader since 2018. He is expected to be accompanied by UK Business Secretary Peter Kyle and dozens of corporate chiefs as Britain seeks Chinese technology and investment, alongside greater access to the world's second-largest economy for UK financial services, cars and Scotch whisky. "China is no longer just the world's factory; it is also becoming a global market," said Zhao Minghao, a professor in the Institute of International Studies at Shanghai's Fudan University. From golden era to big chill ----------------------------- Kerry Brow

Trump should apologise for remarks on Nato troops in Afghanistan: Starmer

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has signalled that US President Donald Trump should apologise for his false assertion that troops from non-US NATO countries avoided the front line during the Afghanistan war, describing Trump's remarks as "insulting" and "appalling." Trump said that he wasn't sure NATO would be there to support the United States if and when requested, provoking outrage and distress across the United Kingdom on Friday, regardless of individuals' political persuasion. "We've never needed them, we have never really asked anything of them," Trump said of non-US troops in an interview with Fox News in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday. "You know, they'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, or this or that, and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines." In October 2001, nearly a month after the September 11 attacks, the US led an international coalition in Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaida, which had used the country as its base, and the ...

Trump flips position to attack UK's Starmer over Chagos Islands deal

Diego Garcia, largest island in the Chagos archipelago, is a remote Indian Ocean island almost 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) from the coast of East Africa and is home to a US and UK military facility

UK govt mulls under-16 social media ban, app curbs to cut screen time

The UK may follow Australia in banning under-16s from social media as ministers seek public views on curbing screen time and harmful online features for children

UK brings new law to prioritise NHS training posts for homegrown doctors

The British government has tabled a new law to prioritise UK-trained medical graduates for specialty training posts in the National Health Service (NHS), a move set to impact Indians as the largest group of internationally trained medics employed in the state-funded system. Secretary of State for Health Wes Streeting tabled the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill in the House of Commons on Tuesday to address what he described as the catastrophic mismanagement of the previous Conservative government. Under the Labour government proposals, UK graduates will no longer be expected to compete with doctors from overseas for NHS training posts that lead to medical specialisations and expertise for new medics. British taxpayers spend 4 billion pounds training medics every year, so it makes little sense for many of them to then be left struggling to get speciality training places and fearing for their futures," said Streeting. The catastrophic mismanagement of the system by the previous

Why Keir Starmer should adopt peace as an strategic economic mission

Growth alone is not a moral mission. For Keir Starmer's government, making peace - not GDP - the organising principle could align values, stability and prosperity

UK Treasury chief Reeves set to raise taxes again in her second budget

Following weeks of speculation, Britain's unpopular Labour government will deliver its second budget later Wednesday since it returned to power in a landslide election victory in July 2024 after 14 years in opposition. Treasury chief Rachel Reeves, the first woman to hold the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer, is set to tell lawmakers that more tax-raising measures are necessary to plug a hole in the public finances. Reeves said much the same at her first budget a little more than a year ago. That budget, she had insisted, would be the one and only big tax-raising budget in this parliamentary term, which is due to run to 2029. Unfortunately for Reeves, the British economy, the world's sixth-largest, is not doing as well as she hoped, with many critics blaming her decision last year to slap taxes on business. Though there were signs that the economy was on the mend in the first half of the year when it was the fastest-growing among the Group of Seven leading industrial nations, it'

As Mittal shifts base, UK minister says tax hikes are driving wealthy out

Britain's Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle admitted that it is Labour's taxation regime that is causing the exodus of the super-rich

L N Mittal leaves UK ahead of proposed taxes on super-rich: Report

Indian-origin steel magnate Lakshmi N Mittal, until now based in Britain and a regular on the country's richest billionaires tally, has decided to quit the UK as the Labour Party-led government's feared tax shake-up for the super-rich nears, according to a UK media report on Sunday. Rajasthan-born Mittal is a resident in Switzerland for tax and will now spend much of his future in Dubai, according to the The Sunday Times'. The founder of ArcelorMittal steelworks is worth an estimated 15.4 billion pounds as per the 2025 Sunday Times Rich List', which ranked him the UK's eighth richest man. Now, the newspaper references sources close to the 75-year-old industrialist to claim he has become the latest billionaire to leave the UK ahead of a much-anticipated Budget by Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Wednesday. Mittal already has a mansion in Dubai and has now bought up tracts of an intriguing development on the nearby Naa Island in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the newspaper claims. The n

'Illegal immigration is tearing UK apart': Govt to unveil strict measures

UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced a major reset of Britain's asylum system, with temporary refugee status, a 20-year settlement route for illegal arrivals and wider enforcement powers

UK govt defends BBC amid Trump lawsuit threat, backs its role and integrity

Britain's government rallied to the defence of the BBC on Tuesday after allegations of bias from its critics and the threat of a lawsuit from US President Donald Trump over the way the broadcaster edited a speech he made after losing the 2020 presidential election Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the national broadcaster faces challenges, some of its own making, but is by far the most widely used and trusted source of news in the United Kingdom. With critics in media and politics demanding an overhaul of the BBC's funding and governance, Nandy said "the BBC as an institution is absolutely essential to this country". At a time when the lines are being dangerously blurred between facts and opinions, news and polemic, the BBC stands apart, she said in the House of Commons. A lawyer for Trump is demanding a retraction, apology and compensation from the broadcaster over the allegedly defamatory sequence in a documentary broadcast last year. Fallout from the documentary has already cla