Britain

The BBC reports: Sir Keir Starmer is set to become the UK’s first Labour prime minister since 2010 after his party’s landslide general election victory. Labour is returning to power with a huge parliamentary majority of 174, following a collapse in support for the Conservatives. Sir Keir will be formally appointed by the King at Buckingham Palace later, replacing Tory …

The Associated Press reports: People throughout the United Kingdom will elect all 650 members of the House of Commons, one for each local constituency. There are no primaries or run-offs, just a single round of voting today, July 4. Britain uses a “first past the post” system of voting, which means that the candidate that finishes top in each constituency …

Reuters reports: Britain’s Conservative Party all-but conceded election defeat to Keir Starmer’s Labour on Wednesday, a day before polling stations even opened, and warned that the opposition party was on course for a record-breaking victory. Opinion polls show the centre-left Labour Party is set for a big win in Thursday’s vote that would end 14 years of Conservative government and …

Sky News reports: Nigel Farage says he is “dismayed” after a Reform UK campaigner was filmed saying the Army should “just shoot” migrants crossing the Channel. Party activist Andrew Parker was captured by an undercover Channel 4 reporter posing as a fellow canvasser in Clacton, Essex, where leader Mr Farage is a candidate. Mr Parker also used a racial slur …

Reuters reports: Britain’s Conservative Party said on Tuesday it had withdrawn support from two parliamentary candidates who are being investigated over alleged bets placed on the timing of next month’s national election. The escalating scandal, a blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in the run up to a July 4 vote his Conservatives are forecast to lose, has also embroiled …

CNN reports:  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge related to his alleged role in one of the largest US government breaches of classified material, as part of a deal with the Justice Department that will allow him to avoid imprisonment in the United States, according to newly filed federal court documents. Assange was …

Reuters reports: Three British opinion polls released late on Saturday presented a grim picture for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party, and one pollster warned that the party faced “electoral extinction” in July 4’s election. The polls come just over halfway through the election campaign, after a week in which both the Conservatives and Labour set out their manifestos, and …

Reuters reports: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned on Friday that a vote for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party would hand electoral victory to Labour, after a poll put the right-wing group ahead of Sunak’s Conservatives for the first time. Farage is one of Britain’s most recognisable politicians best known for his decades long – and eventually successful – crusade …

NBC News reports: Eighty years after Sir Winston Churchill helped mastermind the D-Day landings, a British prime minister was under fire Friday for leaving anniversary events early to return to the campaign trail of an election he looks likely to lose. Already embattled and unpopular, Rishi Sunak cut short his time in Normandy to fly back to London for a …

The New York Times reports: Nigel Farage, the pro-Brexit campaigner and serial disrupter of British politics, on Monday announced plans to run as a candidate in Britain’s general election next month, dealing a new setback to the prospects of the country’s embattled prime minister, Rishi Sunak. Mr. Farage last month said that he would not seek a parliamentary seat because …

Bloomberg News reports: Keir Starmer’s opposition Labour Party extended its poll lead over the Conservatives even as Rishi Sunak’s party unveiled a series of pledges intended to build momentum early in UK election campaigning, YouGov said. Labour was 27 points ahead of the Tories in the survey by YouGov, which was commissioned by Sky News and conducted from May 27 …

Reuters reports: Britain’s Conservative Party will introduce mandatory national service for 18-year-olds if it wins the national election on July 4, comprising military or community participation, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Sunday. Young adults will be able to choose between spending one weekend a month volunteering over the course of a year, or take up one of 30,000 spaces …

Politico Europe reports: Nigel Farage will not stand for Reform U.K. in Britain’s snap general election — because he’s more focused on Donald Trump. Writing on X, the leading Brexiteer — whose Reform Party wants to take votes from the Tories on the right — said he will “do my bit to help in the campaign, but it is not …

The Guardian reports: Rishi Sunak has called a surprise early election for 4 July in a contest that will see Keir Starmer try to take power for Labour after 14 years of Conservative-led government. The prime minister announced the election will be in the early summer in a high-risk move for the Conservative party as it trails 20 points behind …

The Guardian reports: The actor and rightwing activist Laurence Fox has been ordered to pay £90,000 each in damages to two people he libeled by referring to them as “paedophiles” on social media. A high court judge made the order in London on Thursday. Fox lost his high court libel battle in January, after Mrs Justice Collins Rice ruled that …

The Daily Mail reports: Filings published by Companies House today for ‘Prince Henry Charles Albert David Duke of Sussex’ record that his ‘New Country/State Usually Resident’ is now the USA. It was previously recorded as the United Kingdom. The change comes as pressure increases on US President Joe Biden’s government to release Harry’s visa records after campaigners seized on comments …

The Associated Press reports: The British government’s plan for a landmark smoking ban that aims to stop young people from ever smoking cleared its first hurdle in Parliament on Tuesday despite vocal opposition from within Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party. The bill, a key policy announced by Sunak last year, would make it illegal to sell tobacco products to …

The Daily Mail reports: Campaigners trying to force the release of Prince Harry’s U.S. visa records have submitted to a judge what they called ‘extraordinary’ comments by Joe Biden’s ambassador to the U.K. Ambassador Jane Hartley recently said that Harry would never be deported from the U.S. while Biden is president. The Heritage Foundation, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, is …

The Independent reports: A senior Conservative MP has apologised after revealing his involvement in a Westminster honeytrap sexting scandal, which targeted a minister and fellow MPs. William Wragg had leaked colleagues’ numbers to a man he had met on the gay app Grindr, after becoming scared over sending intimate pictures of himself to the user. Speaking to The Times, he …

Politico Europe reports: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party is on track to win fewer than 100 seats in the next election, with Labour likely to score a landslide victory, a new poll suggests. A seat-by-seat analysis based on a survey of 15,000 voters sees Sunak’s governing party winning in just 98 constituencies compared to Labour’s 468, the Sunday …