Downing Street is reportedly considering reinstating the winter fuel allowance for thousands of pensioners after a backlash from voters at the local elections. The allowance could be changed so that more older people would be eligible for the payment, which currently has an income cap of £11,500.

Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist party snatched a critical parliamentary seat from the governing Labour Party.

Britain’s populist, anti-immigration party Reform UK has beaten Labour by a tiny margin in a by-election, dealing the government a mid-term setback and ruffling the country’s historically resilient two-party hegemony.