Former Labour minister Denis MacShane was “right” to step down from Parliament after being condemned for abusing expenses rules, the party's leader Ed Miliband said today.

Think-tanks seem to spend their time working on proposals on how to get the feckless working class back into jobs. Liberal do-gooders of the Tony Benn stripe wax lyrical about the joys of full employment, and how "work" will return dignity and meaning to empty lives. Right-wingers attack scroungers, and declare they will "crack down on the workshy", bringing to mind Himmler's "Operation Work Shy" of 1938, when persistent idlers were rounded up and put into concentration camps. They were identified by a black triangle sewn on to their shirts.

It is “absolutely ludicrous” for the UK to go to Brussels intending to veto the EU budget, Ken Clarke said today.

A typical low income family in 2020 is set to have an income 15 per cent lower than in 2008

Evidence that the arrest of more than 200 street gangs' leaders in the aftermath of the riots in August 2011 produced a spike in violence makes for depressing reading. With so many of the "elders" now behind bars, younger and wilder subordinates not only jostle, often brutally, for position, but the codes of behaviour enforced by the old leadership are relaxed.

Iain Duncan Smith was midway through a brief and unhappy spell as Conservative leader when he visited Glasgow's Easterhouse estate 10 years ago. Friends say the experience – witnessing generations locked into poverty, joblessness and addiction – was the defining moment of his political career. A year later he had been forced out of the leadership and could have become little more than a minor footnote in Tory history.

Labour today hit out at the “chaos and confusion” in the Government’s higher education policy in the wake of a report saying there was a £1 billion a year “black hole” at the heart of it.

Student numbers may have to be cut or loan repayments drastically increased after miscalculations. Tuition fees for which Nick Clegg sacrificed reputation may cost more than old system

Mervyn Barrett's team resign en masse after question marks are raised over funding

Cutting energy costs, assistance to some industries as well as slashing corporate and personal tax are essential if the UK is to boost economic growth, according to a new report published today by Civitas.

Drought and temperatures hot enough to stop corn having sex have not convinced Americans of human-caused climate change, as a new study shows that the US population are more skeptical of man's impact on global warming than they were ten years ago, despite scientific consensus on the matter.

The date 4 August 2014 has been marked down as the beginning of a huge programme of commemorative events to mark the centenary of the great war, David Cameron announced today.

Almost 1.2m low paid people could see the state handouts which top up their wages reduced unless they work longer hours, according to report published today.

Police arrested seven crew members involved in a ferry collision in Hong Kong that left 38 people dead and has raised questions about safety on one of the world’s busiest harbours.