Critics say Foreign Office figures send ‘global message about the role the country wants to play on international stage’
Labour’s foreign aid cuts mean reductions of as much as 90% in the bilateral support the UK will give to some African countries, Foreign Office figures show.
The department’s annual report includes a long-awaited breakdown of how the reduction in the aid budget will affect individual countries for the next three years.
Continue reading...Outgoing prime minister opens third reading debate on the Hillsborough law bill
In response to a question from Alec Shelbrooke (Con), Campbell said he was “totally unaware” not just of the wording of the Tory opposition day motion planned for tomorrow (see 1.04pm), but of the topic that it was going to cover. In a bid to convince MPs that this was not a lie, he said that he was standing at the despatch box and that MPs knew the importance of a minister “telling the absolute truth when they stand here”.
In the Commons, Alan Campbell, the leader of the house, has just announced there will be a change in parliamentary business tomorrow. Wednesday was set aside for an opposition day debate – a debate on a motion tabled by the Tories. Instead, there will be a general debate on the situation in Iran. There will also be a vote on the regulations banning support for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The government has a majority of more than 150 and it could not trust its MPs to vote the right way on that motion [delaying the recess], and it could not bear the idea of a new prime minister facing any scrutiny before September.
A prime minister, let me remind us all, who has been chosen by a coronation not a contest, with no known platform, almost no known policies, and no idea of his priorities or indeed his cabinet team.
Continue reading...Archie Law, 15, sailed his own vessel to save men in distress, beating lifeboat service to the scene
A 15-year-old boy rescued two men who had fallen from an inflatable toy boat off the Isle of Skye by sailing his own vessel to save them, beating the lifeboat service to the scene.
Archie Law beat a volunteer crew of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) to the rescue on Saturday evening after the UK coastguard received reports of two males in difficulty in the water off Broadford Bay around 9pm.
Continue reading...MP Melanie Ward calls on Charity Commission to look into 32 organisations she says have given at least £28m
Thirty-two charities in England and Wales have donated at least £28m to Israeli settlements that are illegal under international law, an MP has said.
Labour’s Melanie Ward said that if gift aid were claimed against the donations in the usual way, it would mean taxpayers had subsidised illegal settlements to the tune of £5.6m, a situation she described as deplorable. The foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced on Tuesday that the Charity Commission has been tasked with investigating UK charities’ links to settlements.
Continue reading...Homelessness charity distances itself after Osbourne says she plans to attend far-right ‘unite the kingdom’ march
The homelessness charity Centrepoint has confirmed it will cut ties with its celebrity ambassador Sharon Osbourne after she expressed support for a far-right rally being organised by Tommy Robinson.
The charity, of which the Prince of Wales is patron, has been forced to distance itself from comments made by Osbourne. The TV personality indicated this week that she would be attending an event organised in London by Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
Continue reading...Watchdog finds allegations against City of Sanctuary UK were misleading after complaint from Tory MP
A refugee charity subjected to vicious social media attacks over a migrant welcome project in schools has been cleared of wrongdoing after watchdogs found allegations it encouraged pupils to send Valentine’s Day cards to asylum seekers were misleading and false.
City of Sanctuary UK came under fire last year after rumours spread online that under its schools programme, children were being “forced” to write heart-shaped welcome cards to adult migrants, including cards addressed to “my fiance”.
Continue reading...Charles announced as patron of Community Security Trust hours after attack on another Jewish charity’s ambulances
King Charles has been made patron of a charity that protects Jewish communities in the wake of the firebomb attack on ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity in north London.
The Community Security Trust (CST), which provides protection to Jewish communities, said Charles’s acceptance of the position highlighted his support for the “fight against antisemitism”.
Continue reading...Animal Aid says reclassification of research facilities as key infrastructure could catch even most peaceful action
A charity has filed a legal challenge over a “chilling” change in the law that restricts protest outside animal testing facilities in England and Wales by reclassifying them as “key national infrastructure”.
Animal Aid says last month’s amendment to the Public Order Act could capture even the most peaceful, non‑disruptive advocacy. It claims the change is unlawful because it goes beyond parliament’s intention at the time the act was passed.
Continue reading...Charities Aid Foundation says giving no longer a ‘deeply embedded cultural norm’ amid rising cost of living
Britain is rapidly losing the charity habit, with public donations to good causes plummeting by more than £1.4bn last year and millions of people saying they can no longer afford – or do not want – to give, according to an analysis.
The Charities Aid Foundation (Caf) said in its annual report that, while the British remained generous at heart, society was witnessing a big transformation in attitudes towards charitable giving. Just half of people gave to charity in 2025, down from 61% a decade earlier.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Project Giving Back, set up in 2022 to help charities exhibit show gardens, says this year will be its last
Chelsea flower show is looking for new charity sponsors after the mystery philanthropic couple who have spent more than £23m on show gardens end their support.
Project Giving Back was set up by two anonymous donors in 2022, and since then it has paid for 63 gardens at the most prestigious horticultural event in the world, held each summer at the Royal Hospital gardens in south-west London.
Continue reading...Tenisha Warner reveals identity as she starts two initiatives to support children on behalf of late actor and singer
The widow of actor and singer Malcolm-Jamal Warner has announced the launch of two philanthropic organizations in his honor, paying tribute to her late husband in social media posts that identified her for the first time.
On Friday, the day before the eighth anniversary of their wedding, Tenisha Warner published a photo on Instagram of her and her Grammy-winning husband holding hands and laughing together on the day they got married. Some accompanying text explained that the doctor of psychology and her daughter had started the Warner Family Foundation as a young artists’ scholarship program as well as River & Ember, which is dedicated to helping deepen bonds between parents and children.
Continue reading...Duke of Sussex ‘absolutely committed’ to supporting children and young people in Lesotho and Botswana
Prince Harry is considering establishing a new charity after a dispute that led to him leaving Sentebale, a spokesperson has said.
It comes after the Duke of Sussex was criticised by the Charity Commission for allowing a row with the chair of Sentebale, which he co-founded in 2006, to “play out publicly”.
Continue reading...Watchdog says all parties, including trustees, patrons and chair Sophie Chandauka, should not have had row in public
The Charity Commission has criticised Prince Harry for allowing a row with the chair of his African charity to “play out publicly”, as the watchdog cleared him of racism.
The prince was engaged in a public war of words earlier this year with the chair of the Sentebale charity, Dr Sophie Chandauka, after his resignation as a patron.
Continue reading...Minister points to ‘sexist’ practice of country relying on women to provide services so government did not have to
Labour MP Jess Phillips has said the UK has got “fat” from the free labour of women for decades.
The minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls said the country has relied on women providing charity, adding it was a “fundamentally sexist” practice that meant the government was less willing to provide the service itself.
Continue reading...Charity Commission criticised for endorsing transfer of about £5.7m to high school in illegal village of Susya
Two UK charities have transferred millions of pounds to an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank with the endorsement of the charities regulator, the Guardian can reveal.
Documents show that the Kasner Charitable Trust (KCT), via a conduit charity, UK Toremet, has donated approximately £5.7m to the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva high school in Susya, in the Israeli-occupied territory.
Continue reading...Agreement between government and voluntary sector aims to reset relations after erosion of trust under Tories
The right to engage in political activity and protest peacefully is to be enshrined in a new agreement between the government and UK charities and campaigners aimed in part at ending years of damaging “culture wars”.
The agreement is intended to reset relations between government and the voluntary sector after years of mutual distrust during which Conservative ministers limited public rights to protest, froze out campaigners, and targeted “woke” charities.
Continue reading...No 10 has offered significant concessions to the rebels, estimated to cost around £3bn a year, amid fears over Tuesday’s vote
Stephen Kinnock, the care minister, was the government voice on the airwaves this morning. Here are the main points he made about the welfare bill U-turn.
Kinnock rejected claims that the U-turn was a sign of weakness. When it was put to him on the Today programme that this move, coming after the U-turns on winter fuel payments and a national inquiry into grooming gangs, showed that if Keir Starmer was pushed, he would give in, Kinnock replied:
I think if you talk to people out there in the country, they respond very positively to politicians listening, engaging, recognising that you don’t get everything right from day one every time, and making the adjustments and the changes that are needed.
And this prime minister will always put the country first. He puts country before party, and he does the right thing for the country.
He defended having a “staggered” approach to changing benefit rules. Asked about the Tory claim that the government was creating a “two-tier benefits system” (see 8.30am), he replied:
Whenever you bring forward change to a complex system, you always have to decide between do you make the change for everybody that’s in that system, in one big move, or do you do it in a more staggered way? What’s clear from the announcement today is that it’s going to be a more staggered process.
He declined to say how much the U-turn would cost. He told Times Radio:
The full details around what we are laying out, what I’ve summarised really today, is going to be laid out in parliament, and then the chancellor will set out the budget in the autumn the whole of the fiscal position and this will be an important part of that.
He said he was now confident that the UC and Pip bill will pass its second reading on Tuesday.
All of the MPs I’ve spoken to who signed the reasoned amendment – MPs from across the party, not just on the left – are sticking to their position because we understand that we are answerable to our constituents.
If the government doesn’t pull the bill, doesn’t consult properly with disabled people and come back to MPs with a serious proposal that protects the dignity of disabled people, I will vote against and I will be far from the only one.
Continue reading...Milla Magee, the reigning Miss England, left over claims she had been used as window dressing
Their mantra is “beauty with a purpose”. But the organisers of the Miss World pageant have been accused of something altogether uglier: being “vindictive and very bitter” towards a contestant who left over claims she had been used as window dressing.
The reigning Miss England, Milla Magee, said she agreed to take part in the 2025 Miss World pageant because she believed it would be a platform to promote her campaign to have CPR included in the school curriculum. But she said the reality was very different.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Survey commissioned by children’s charities shows UK voters want to see families prioritised
Charities and a Labour-aligned pressure group are ramping up calls on Keir Starmer to scrap the two-child limit on benefits, as polling shows support for action on youth poverty remains high, and is equally solid among Labour voters tempted by Reform.
As discussions continue in government ahead of the forthcoming child poverty strategy, a survey commissioned by a coalition of charities suggests voters want to see families prioritised.
Continue reading...Charity set to reduce its workforce by more than a fifth this year amid mounting financial pressures
Scope expects to cut more than a fifth of its staff this year amid mounting financial pressures, with about a third of those affected to be disabled employees.
The disability charity announced a consultation last week over plans to place 124 of its 326 corporate roles at risk of redundancy, a move likely to result in about 70 job losses in the summer.
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