Max Kendix

2 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Max Kendix |Oliver Wright

Women will no longer face prosecution for having an abortion under a change in the law set to be passed by MPs next week. In the biggest overhaul of the rules around abortion in half a century, women would no longer be breaking the law if they terminated a pregnancy after 24 weeks or without approval from two doctors. The move, which has the private support of ministers, is set to be passed in a free vote on an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill when it returns to the Commons next week.

3 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Steven Swinford |Max Kendix |Aubrey Allegretti

Few figures in Reform UK were more evangelical about the prospects of Nigel Farage as a future prime minister than Zia Yusuf. “Not only will Nigel become prime minister, he will become prime minister with hundreds of MPs who are under no uncertain terms as to why they’re being elected,” the chairman of Reform UK said last year. That unswerving faith in Farage came to an abrupt end last night after Yusuf found himself embroiled in the latest in a series of brutal internal party rows.

3 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Patrick Maguire |Max Kendix

Two thirds of Labour MPs are opposed to the chancellor’s fiscal rules, and one in five favour tax rises over spending cuts, according to new polling. In a sign of significant discontent on the government benches before next week’s spending review, research suggests a clear majority of Sir Keir Starmer’s backbenchers favour a drastic reset of the government’s economic policy.

4 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Geraldine Scott |Oliver Wright |Max Kendix |Daniel Sanderson

Sir Keir Starmer is facing a revolt from Scottish MPs over welfare cuts amid concerns that Reform is poised to secure a breakthrough in a critical by-election next week. Senior Labour figures are braced for the party to finish third behind the SNP and Reform in the Holyrood by-election in Hamilton, Larkhall & Stonehouse. Government whips have been warned by Scottish MPs that they will not back reforms to disability benefits and wider welfare overhauls as a result.

4 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Steven Swinford |Oliver Wright |Max Kendix

This week could have been very different. On Thursday Sir Keir Starmer was due to be attending a prizegiving ceremony in Germany alongside the great and the good of the European Union. Meetings were arranged on the sidelines with Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, for discussions on illegal migration and Ukraine. On Tuesday all that changed.