Now US president-elect Donald Trump is making Europe pay for its own defence, Tim Leunig says countries like Switzerland and Ireland need to pick a side – and if they won’t join Nato, they should be made to help pay for it

As Chancellor Rachel Reeves pledges to cut down on “wasteful spending” within public services, weight management expert Margaret Miles-Bramwell OBE, founder and chair of Slimming World, is calling for a review of spending on unnecessary weight loss medication.

Last week saw the Government mark a key milestone on its mission of achieving clean power by 2030, with the publication of a national Clean Power Action Plan.

For over 30 years Jaswant Narwal has worked for the Crown Prosecution Service, prosecuting some of the nation’s most challenging and high-profile criminal cases. As part of our Women in Westminster series, PoliticsHome sat down with Narwal to learn more about why she believes in people-powered justice

Ministers are being urged to change the law to allow jurors to discuss their experiences with counsellors after a free therapy pilot scheme saw little take-up in the first month.

Vladimir Putin says Russia attacked Ukraine with a new medium-range missile “in response to the use of American and British long-range weapons on 21 November”.

Think back to early 2022. The emergency flights full of anti-tank weapons, the hastily drafted sanction regimes, the fruitless shuttle diplomacy. Ukraine stands as a reminder that it is best to form policy in response to a crisis before the crisis emerges.

In an occasional series, Professor Philip Cowley offers a political science lesson for The House’s readers. This week: scum

For five decades, Lord Lexden has been at the heart of Conservative politics. The party’s official historian tells Francis Elliott what lessons Kemi Badenoch should learn from the past and why she should resist the siren call of Nigel Farage

The Leader of the House of Commons wished the UK a cruelty-free Christmas last week, in response to a question raised in Parliament by Sarah Champion – just in time for the MP and Cruelty Free International to host their Christmas reception in the Churchill Room on Wednesday afternoon.

Following the success of our popular “Purr Minister competition” to find Parliament’s top cat, Battersea took our four key priorities for animal welfare, and three of our beloved canine residents, to the heart of Westminster at a reception kindly sponsored by our local MP, Marsha de Cordova.

Parks, pubs, sports clubs, libraries, allotments, community centres, local shops, youth clubs – these are the building blocks of a community.