A £100bn "citizens fund" should be created to spread the UK's wealth more evenly, the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable is proposing. He will tell the party's conference it could be built up through taxes on the richest and the sale of assets, such as the UK stake in Royal Bank of Scotland. Sir Vince will say it is a "disgrace" taxpayers are yet to be repaid for the RBS bail-out in the financial crisis.

London mayor Sadiq Khan has called for another referendum on Britain’s European Union membership, adding his backing to an idea known as a “People’s Vote.” Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29. But with Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plans still not accepted, some lawmakers, as well as union and business leaders are increasingly arguing for people to have a final say on any deal struck with Brussels.

A majority of Britons would now consider voting for a new centre-ground political movement amid soaring dismay at the state of the main parties, an exclusive poll has revealed. The exclusive research for The Independent found the number of those ready to back a new party has leapt in just four months after a summer in which Labour’s antisemitism crisis raged and the Tories tore themselves apart over Brexit.

Theresa May has come under fire for claiming to have secured the UK’s first post-Brexit trade deal as it is merely a “rollover” of an existing EU agreement. Critics said the announcement – to replicate a deal with six southern African nations – fell far short of boasts, before the referendum, of a new free trade area much larger than the EU. They also pointed out that it came amid doubts about whether the UK will be able to retain deals the EU has struck recently with Canada and Japan – which are far bigger economies.

A giant balloon of a bikini-clad Sadiq Khan has been flown in London as part of a campaign to oust the capital's mayor. Campaigners raised £58,182 for the 29ft-long blimp, which was launched in Parliament Square earlier. Mr Khan said people were "welcome" to look at the balloon but he did not think the swimwear suited him.

A small rise in the minimum wage in Britain’s main city regions would encourage employers to deploy workers more productively and help boost local economies by more than £1bn, says a thinktank. According to the study, by the Smith Institute, employers need the spur of a higher minimum wage to shake them out of a spiral of low productivity and low growth that depresses company revenues and has trapped about 2 million workers on the current minimum wage of £7.38 an hour...

European Union member states should prepare their airports and aviation sector for a no-deal Brexit, the European Commission reportedly told diplomats earlier in June. The warning was made during a June 12 meeting chaired by Filip Cornelis, the director of aviation at the Commission's transport department, Politico reported. It was attended by diplomats from the EU27 countries as well as representatives from their civil aviation authorities.

The British government is separating children from parents who have been taken into immigration detention – the practice that brought worldwide condemnation for the Trump administration. Scores of children – and possibly hundreds – are separated from a parent or carer in the UK every year, according to a charity that challenges immigration detention.

Austria’s chancellor has warned Britain against trying to divide EU countries to gain an advantage in Brexit talks. Speaking at the European Parliament as his country took over the European Council’s rotating presidency, Sebastian Kurz said Austria would “preserve the unity of the 27” in Brexit matters. Austria is taking the reins in setting the agenda at EU summits from now until next year – a crucial period for Brexit talks that...

Campaign groups and trade unions have organised a schedule of protests to follow Donald Trump on his visit to the UK next week, including a six metre angry baby balloon that will fly over Westminster from Parliament Square. Demonstrations begin next Thursday evening at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, and in Regent’s Park, London, near to where the protesters believe the president will have dinner, and then at the US ambassador’s residence, where they believe he will stay the night.

Exclusive: Government urged to make sharing intimate images without consent a sex crime as some victims put off seeking justice

Brexit Secretary David Davis has resigned from the UK government. His departure comes days after Theresa May secured the cabinet's backing for her Brexit plan despite claims from critics that it was "soft". Mr Davis was appointed to the post in 2016 and was responsible for negotiating the UK's EU withdrawal. Junior minister Steven Baker quit shortly after Mr Davis - as Mrs May prepares to face MPs and peers later.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t his long history of diplomatic gaffes that brought down the U.K. foreign secretary.

Boris Johnson has launched a scathing attack on Theresa May's Brexit strategy, saying the "dream is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt". In his letter resigning as foreign secretary, he said the prime minister was leading the UK into a "semi-Brexit" with the "status of a colony". His resignation came hours after Brexit Secretary David Davis quit the cabinet. Mrs May said she was "sorry - and a little surprised" by Mr Johnson's move after his apparent support on Friday.

White House officials made an embarrassing blunder after appearing to suggest that Scotland isn't part of the United Kingdom. A tweet from the official Oval Office account said: "Today, @ realDonaldTrump and @ FLOTUS had tea with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle before departing the U.K."

British Prime Minister Theresa May has warned there may be “no Brexit at all” because of lawmakers’ attempts to undermine her plan to leave the European Union. “My message to the country this weekend is simple: we need to keep our eyes on the prize,” May wrote in the Mail on Sunday newspaper. “If we don’t, we risk ending up with no Brexit at all.”

Donald Trump’s UK visit is causing “mayhem” for British police with security operations costing millions of pounds, MPs have said. Thousands of officers are being moved around the country to guard areas where the US president will make an appearance, as colleagues in their home forces have shifts extended and leave cancelled to cover their absence. Louise Haigh, Labour’s shadow policing minister, accused the government of providing “no guarantee that the additional costs required will be fully met”.

The beleaguered government of British Prime Minister Theresa May is proposing that the UK parliament should break for summer five days earlier than planned, in a move that has been criticized as a desperate attempt to ease the pressure on her leadership. Members of Parliament will vote on whether to start their summer recess five days early -- beginning this Thursday instead of next Tuesday. They would not return to work until September 4.

The government’s official and independent spending watchdog has confirmed that there will be no “Brexit dividend” for the UK, despite the claims of ministers. Theresa May said last month that the extra £20bn a year pledged to fund the health service would be partially paid for by UK money no longer being sent to the European Union. That claim was universally slammed by economists as grossly misleading, since the government’s own projections suggest Brexit is already weakening the public finances, rather than strengthening them and that any fiscal gains from zero EU payments will be wiped out by more feeble tax revenues.

Thousands of people have signed onto a petition calling on the U.K. government to ban former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon from entering the country.

Disproportionate British newspaper coverage of Ukip helped to increase support for the party, according to a new academic study, amid a growing debate on the role the media plays in boosting the popularity of anti-immigrant political parties. Political scientists at the University of Southampton investigated whether increased media coverage of Ukip...

The UK has agreed to work with the EU to try to block the impact of Donald Trump's new sanctions against Iran. Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, signed a joint statement with other EU foreign ministers to ensure European companies doing business with Iran will be protected. The ministers promised to introduce a "blocking statute" to ban European firms from abiding by the US sanctions, which were reimposed by Mr Trump on Monday.

“As Jeremy's agent I can confirm that he is on the Labour leadership ballot paper with 35 nominations.Thank you everyone.”

Nigel Farage and his senior adviser were caught up by the glamour of the Tea Party – to the fury of some in their own party. By Freddy Gray and Sebastian Payne. (June 27)

James Wharton, the new minister for the ‘northern powerhouse’, admits the government has yet to decide where the north actually is

The stomach's not for churning.

New charges against a member of the House of Lords claim he violated and tortured children—even inside the highest government offices. Why isn’t he being prosecuted?

Emergency mass surveillance laws rushed through Parliament last year have been ruled unlawful by the High Court

Over 247,000 attempts were made to visit X-rated websites from the UK Parliament’s computer network last year, with the numbers spiking during parliamentary recess in April, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed.

Interim leader defends election system amid claims it has been infiltrated by the hard left and Tories determined to upset process. By Patrick Wintour.

Frontrunner in Labour leadership contest will flesh out his policy plans this week as Neil Kinnock and Peter Mandelson line up together to warn of Corbyn victory

Up to 3.8 million workers will be affected by what government says is ‘outdated practice’ but unions say it is latest Tory assault on workers’ rights

As I have travelled around the country it has been exciting to see a new generation engage with politics, and older people re-engage. I don’t make personal attacks and do not respond to them. Instead we must debate policy and give people confidence that we can win. But in the coverage of my campaign so far, four misconceptions keep reappearing. I want to address them.