NewsBite

Europe

Today

Angela Rayner is deputy prime minister of the UK.

How Angela Rayner became one of Britain’s most powerful women

She grew up in dire poverty caring for a sick mother on a council estate. But Angela Rayner’s drive to succeed propelled her to the top of the Labour Party.

  • Louise Carpenter
Nigel Farage’s ambition will only have been fortified by his modest parliamentary breakthrough and the 98 seats where Reform is currently in second place, almost all of them to Labour.

The fight for the UK right has begun

Surrendering to the Faragist path rather than taking it on and defeating it would herald the end of the centre right and a capitulation to unserious politics.

  • Robert Shrimsley
Rachel Reeves said she would make it her mission to boost growth.

Shares up as UK treasurer vows to ‘work hand-in-glove’ with business

The FTSE 250 touched its highest level since April 2022 as Sir Keir Starmer became prime minister, powered by a rally for home-building stocks and property companies.

  • Updated
  • Chris Price, Alex Singleton, Ben Riley-Smith and Szu Ping Chan
Sir Keir Starmer makes a speech outside Downing Street.

‘We will fight until you believe again’: Starmer vows to fix Britain

Keir Starmer has officially become the UK’s new prime minister after a landslide victory in the polls and says he will lead a government focused on public service.

  • Updated
  • Hans van Leeuwen

Yesterday

Labor Party leader Sir Keir Starmer takes charge at a 5am speech on Friday morning.

Starmer can help Britain redeem itself

With a towering majority, a well-disciplined team and a ruthless instinct for power, Keir Starmer can restore some of the respect the Tories destroyed.

  • Adrian Wooldridge
Advertisement
David Rowe’s comment on Britain’s general election result.

Keir Starmer can drive Britain to reform-led growth

Britain’s new PM must lock in growth quickly if he is to secure Labour’s huge win. With a planning system from hell and a 17,000-page tax code, there is plenty of scope for reform.

  • The AFR View
Keir Starmer UK Labour leader

Labour’s sweeping victory in Britain is terrible news for Peter Dutton

The UK general election was fought over problems that are familiar to many Australian voters, which is why the outcome looks bad for the Coalition.

  • Aaron Patrick
Keir Starmer - the new man in town.

Gaza backlash and other key lessons from UK’s election

Gaza has shaken up the left, populism is shaking up the right. Labour’s majority is less secure than it seems, but Keir Starmer’s dullness could be an asset.

  • Updated
  • Hans van Leeuwen
Former UK prime minister Liz Truss is in danger of losing her seat as counting continues.

Former PM Liz Truss loses her seat

Labour claims majority; Rishi Sunak calls Starmer to concede; the country’s shortest-serving leader loses her seat. How the day unfolded.

  • Updated
  • Andrew Hobbs and Lucy Slade

Knives out: Tory collapse sparks bitter blame game

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under fire after an exit poll shows the Conservative Party is set for the worst result in its history.

  • Updated
  • Lucy Fisher
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after acknowledging Labour had won the election.

The Conservatives imploded. Labour simply filled the vacuum

Labour’s landslide shares some parallels with Tony Blair’s 1997 win but those end with Keir Starmer’s small target strategy and threadbare policy.

  • Michael Turner
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and UK Labour leader Keir Starmer have swapped notes extensively.

Why Starmer’s victory in Britain should scare Albanese

The Australian prime minister now has an ideological bedfellow in the UK. But he also has something in common with the loser: incumbency.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
Marine Le Pen and her protégé Jordan Bardella at a rally in Paris.

Armed kidnapper, Nazi sympathiser: Meet France’s far-right candidates

The far-right’s National Rally party acknowledges a few “infected sheep” among its candidates as it stands on the threshold of power in France.

  • Diane Jeantet
Londoner Mat Morrison voted Labour for the first time in the UK election.

How London turned against the Tories

London might be the home of the professional and business elite but the UK election result effectively shut the Tories out of the English capital.

  • Mark Ludlow

The most expensive mistake in sports history

Mercedes’ decision to introduce a radical new design into Formula 1 may have cost the company $1 billion.

  • Jonathan Clegg and Joshua Robinson
Advertisement
Productivity growth in the EU’s big four economies has collapsed.

Why Europe is becoming poorer than America

Oversized governments in Britain and on the Continent have crushed productivity growth, allowing US incomes to grow twice as fast.

  • Ruchir Sharma
Putin said in Astana that Russia won’t declare a halt to fighting before Ukraine agrees to take “irreversible” steps demanded by Moscow, without specifying what those would be.

Putin says Trump ‘sincerely’ wants to end the war in Ukraine

President Vladimir Putin said Russia takes seriously statements by Donald Trump that he has proposals to end the war in Ukraine quickly.

  • Bloomberg News
The Aston Martin logo, featuring a union jack flag, is featured at the London Stock Exchange.

How to get rich from Keir Starmer in Number 10

With the British Labour party set for a huge victory in the polls, investors have plenty of reasons to be optimistic. This is where to look for the biggest profit.

  • Richard Evans
National Rally leader Marine Le Pen with Jordan Bardella, her party’s candidate to be French prime minister.

Le Pen set to fall short of French majority: polls

Two polls show that Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party will not secure an absolute majority in the second round of French elections.

  • James Regan

This Month

Labour leader Keir Starmer will probably have something to smile about.

Labour set for landslide win as UK votes

Britons began casting their ballots, as opinion polls suggest a Labour win of historic proportions. But the many tight three-way contests could still deliver a surprise.

  • Updated
  • Hans van Leeuwen

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/world/europe