Category: Politics

The Chancellor announced a £1.25bn U-turn today (Monday, June 9) which will see the payment worth up to £300 restored for the vast majority of pensioners. It will mean all OAPs with an income of under £35,000 will automatically receive the amount, after the payment was initially scrapped last year for all but the worst-off pensioners….

Confirmation of former Easington and Shotton member John Bailey standing down was delivered on Monday, as his councillor profile page was removed from Durham County Council’s website.  Reform UK won all three of the available seats within the East Durham ward during May’s ballot. Mr Bailey came top with 1,849 votes ahead of party colleagues…

Many said the decision was the right one, but questioned Rachel Reeves’ motivation and criticised the Government for cutting the handout in the first place. Ms Reeves announced on Monday (June 9) that the payment will be reinstated this winter for nine million OAPs, but not those with an income of more than £35,000 a…

Voters in Benfieldside will elect a new county councillor to represent the ward following the resignation of a Reform UK member.  The Durham County Council poll was called after Andrew Kilburn resigned for failing to declare that he was employed by the local authority. He was elected in May with 1,007 votes alongside fellow Reform…

We must see more investment in education, training and opportunities, not just a swinging of the axe in the hope that this will move people back into the jobs market. READ FIRST: “THESE CUTS GO AGAINST EVERYTHING I BELIEVE IN” In fact, I said as much to the Secretary of State in Parliament, and asked…

The seven Yarm Town Council members said they had quit immediately on Thursday night as “their positions have become increasingly unproductive”. They also said they had “lost a very good town clerk”, who herself resigned in May. The shock councillors’ resignations come days after one of their number apologised and retracted comments he made in…

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who gets more than his fair share of stick for his long-standing adherence to “net zero” goals, said yesterday that house-builders are to be forced to install solar panels and heat pumps in the “vast majority” of new homes. He said it is “just common sense”, and he is right, particularly…

Yesterday, it was the £15bn spending on transport infrastructure; today, it is the news that 500,000 more children are to get free school meals at a cost of £250m-a-year. It almost sounded as if the government had at last found a purpose to its being in office: Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said it was now…

North East MP Catherine McKinnell, the minister for school standards, was visiting Walbottle Academy in her Newcastle constituency on Thursday (June 5) after the government announced an expansion of the free school meals programme. Any child living in a home claiming universal credit will be eligible, a move the Department for Education claims will lift 100,000 children…

Middlesbrough announced they had ‘parted company’ with Carrick and two of his coaching staff – Jonathan Woodgate and Graeme Carrick – on Wednesday (June 4). The club finished 10th in the Championship and failed to meet their pre-season target of a spot in the play-offs, having to instead watch regional rivals Sunderland get back into…