Sitemap - 2025 - The Lead
“Playing Russian roulette with my life”: What really happens to sickle cell patients in hospital
Labour has opened the door to ending child poverty, now they must walk through it
The Lead Untangles: Flexible working rights
Did Your Party's conference do enough to turn the tide of its disastrous beginnings?
Notes from the North: Arena talk, local government reorganisation, and a rare apology
The Lead Digest: Nigeria's art scene, NHS nightmares and a dispatch from the States
A weakened jury system is a gift to the far right
Final chance to get 30% off an annual subscription to The Lead
What it means to be wealthy in 2025
The Lead Untangles: Is the mansion tax fair?
Reform Watch: Failing councils, far right beliefs and Farage's schoolboy racism
The Lead Digest: Wicked, Techno and the Orbanisation of the far right
The Lead's budget verdict: technocratic tweaks to a broken system
New asylum policies making homeless refugees “targets for the far right”
The Lead in Conversation: "Kids are in poverty because adults are in poverty"
"It's the Hunger Games": SEND children are being failed in mainstream schools
The Lead Untangles: Is there a simple solution to the homelessness crisis?
Reform Watch: Racism, racism and more racism
The Lead Digest: Dating, transport and new Vince Gilligan
The new asylum laws represent a fundamental downgrading of the rights of vulnerable people
The North is watching and waiting for Rachel Reeves to act on child poverty
The Lead Untangles: Our BBC - what does the future hold?
The Lead Digest: Hitler’s DNA, a shipping forecast for bins and Acid Patriotism
Notes from the North: Maternity theatres close in Blackpool, Greens in Calderdale speak out
My award-winning journalism gives a voice to those ignored by the mainstream
Reform Watch: Legal threats, council tax hikes and social media blunders
The BBC is under attack. Democracy could very well be next
Support award-winning independent journalism. Subscribe to The Lead today for less than £3 a month
Every number is a life: The child poverty crisis in stats
The Lead Untangles: What's on the table at COP30?
Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: progressive politics can still triumph
Notes from the North: SEND crisis comes to County Hall's front door
The Lead Digest: Flags, books and road to nowhere
Reform Watch: bus lanes, back tracks and more racism
Nigel Farage’s big tent is full of holes: We deconstruct the Reform leader's latest speech
The Lead in conversation: Inside the Incel movement and what it tells us about modern Britain
Bots, AI memes and Reform councillors: How foreign Facebook pages are hijacking UK patriotism
The Lead Untangles: What’s the solution to the asylum accommodation crisis?
Notes from the North: The far-right haunt Southport and Reform UK bangs down a legal threat
The Lead Digest: Lily Allen, the Celebrity Traitors and the paradox of ghosting
Reform Watch: Pochin controversy, Kent chaos and a loss in Caerphilly
Millionaires 'leaving the UK' is a false narrative - it's time to introduce a wealth tax
Lucy Powell is a beacon of hope, but Labour still faces a crisis
London is getting homeless families out of hotels – but the crisis is far from over
The Lead Untangles: The politicisation of net-zero
Courage is needed to ensure grooming gangs inquiry stays the course
Reform Watch: AI deepfakes, US lobbying and a meltdown in Kent
The Lead Digest: Alliance Defending Freedom, ketamine and levelling up (finally)
The colour of poverty: Black and brown children are at the sharp end of the crisis
We’re in an STI crisis. Once again, Black women are being left behind
The Lead Untangles: The rise of the young NEETs
The Lead Digest: Riyadh Comedy Festival and Shabana Mahmood
Reform Watch: Crypto donations, council tax hikes and 'unconscionable' plans to close care homes
The family courts are complicit in abuse - and the government looks away
Notes from the North: Bodycare collapse latest and the tale of Toad Hall
Child poverty is a failure of the state and the economy it claims to safeguard
13 Labour MPs have joined our call for Council Tax Reform
“Left for dead” on Snowdon by white hiking group: Rural racism is not a myth
The Lead Untangles: Is the Conservative Party finished?
Black History Month is more important than ever – but it is being hollowed out
The Lead Digest: Whether clubbing is dead and Taylor Swift
Reform Watch: Raising council tax in Kent and deputy leader in employment legal dispute
Special report: hope, despair, and the deadly journey to Britain
Can Corbyn and Sultana's Your Party move on from its troubled beginnings?
The Lead Untangles: The Reform leader’s Russian influence scandal
At Labour conference, Reform was the real story
The Lead Digest: The Caerphilly by-election and the myth of the 'woke' right
Our Labour Party Conference Notebook: A Keir induced vibe shift?
Plugging the gap: Nine bold ideas for Rachel Reeves' Autumn budget (part 2)
The Lead Untangles: Digital ID cards
Plugging the gap: Nine bold ideas for Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget (part 1)
It's crucial Starmer's 'Pride in Place' funds reach communities in need
Rachel Reeves has a John Lewis problem
The Lead Digest: The fracturing of Your Party and re-asserting anti-racist norms
Strategic C-sections and a birthday lottery: The hidden cost of free childcare hours
The Lead Untangles: The rising cost of childcare
Britain must push back against America's rising tide of fascism
America’s darkness is swallowing Britain
The Lead is leaving X for good
On the streets of St Helens, would Reform win?
The Lead North wins national journalism award
The Lead Untangles: Digital Services Tax and why it exists
Why the race for Labour’s next number two matters
There is an epidemic of violence against women – what will it cost to fix it?
The Lead Untangles: Operation Raise The Colours
Angela Rayner is not some kind of Monopoly Board empress. Don't sack her for a mistake
Becoming our own spies: The rise and rise of surveillance culture
Petition: Ban Elon Musk from the UK
From Brighton to Leicester: Where do people go for a good night out these days?
The Lead Untangles: What has the ECHR ever done for us?
Making Tax Digital plans will penalise vulnerable and low-paid workers
Britain once saved my grandfather. Would it save him now?
The fight to save Scotland's crumbling mountain paths
The Lead Untangles: Surging costs in weight loss jabs
Live facial recognition has no place at Notting Hill Carnival
The leopard versus the Home Office
Arts Council grant shutdown leaves creatives in limbo – and stunts UK innovation
Level the playing field: Why are there still so few Black referees?
The Lead Untangles: Why Britain isn’t built for the heat
Why is the right-wing media so desperate for a hot-riot summer?
What Farage isn’t telling you about crime...with The Bunker podcast
Inside live music’s summer of boom and bust
Why we chose to spotlight stop-and-search this week
The Lead Untangles: The right to protest and the laws it does not supersede
A landlord should never be the homelessness minister
Stop the boats, wreck the state
The Lead in Conversation: The dehumanising reality of police stop-and-search
Exclusive: Watch the powerful new film tackling the trauma of stop-and-search
Why Norfolk is the frontline of the UK's battle with climate change
The Lead Untangles: Online Safety Act and a real change in our digital lives
Nigel Farage: Tough on crime, soft on facts
The Lead Untangles: The UK's falling birth rate
Until Labour is prepared to fight, the far‑right will keep taking ground
It's time for sensible conversation about anti-Black racism
How Bristol put a lid on temporary accommodation costs amid homelessness crisis
The Lead Untangles: The crisis in care
From Afghanistan to Kent – why Britain desperately needs an immigration reality-check
Misogyny in schools is an epidemic – robust sex education will help the next generation fight back
The Lead North shortlisted in national journalism awards
"We're expected to do the impossible": Why are so many teachers quitting?
The Lead Untangles: Will reform of SEND provision just be a cost-cutting measure?
Higher Education is in financial crisis – and a closure could ruin a northern town
A crucial safety net for Britain's homeowners is facing the scrap heap
The growing disease of child poverty in the UK and Labour's big lever they can pull to halt it
A year of Labour in power - the report card, part II
The Lead Untangles: Labour's 10-year health plan
A year of Labour in power - the report card, part I
Labour must look for solutions away from cruel welfare reforms. Council tax reform is just one way.
London unveils a new statue in memory of forgotten historical Black woman
SEND Crisis: Councils push children with poor mental health back into mainstream schools
The Lead Untangles: The benefit changes which caused Labour MPs to revolt
Inside the Labour welfare rebellion – who is fighting back?
The Lead in Conversation: Inside the reforms needed to Britain's coroner service
Windrush Day is bittersweet as legacy of Theresa May's hostile environment lingers
Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Windrush Film Festival
Failing the dead: How medical ignorance is killing Britain’s coroner service
The Lead Untangles: What is a freeport and why are they so politically attractive?
The grooming gangs inquiry must confront our dehumanisation of working class girls
"This is as free as this country gets": The Jamaican literary festival born out of jeopardy
The Lead Untangles: Peaceful protest into riots in Ballymena
Spending Review: This government means business on the housing crisis
Manchester is winning awards for its smoke-free agenda but toxic air still plagues the city
Uriah Rennie: The Premier League’s first and last Black referee
"They threw the wheelchair in a skip": Police violence is spreading fear in disabled communities
Don't be fooled by Nigel Farage's promise to help families have more children
The housing ultimatum: Out-of-area placements are hurting London’s homeless families
Acutely unsafe: Social housing tenants are still waiting to see what better means
The Lead Untangles: Why police may tell you a suspect is white
We need more Black farmers to help tackle the UK food crisis
School children are being punished for speech delay
Five years since George Floyd – we are going backwards on race
The Lead Untangles: The so-called “banter ban"
How we revealed the First Reform UK pub has ‘long history of supporting neo-Nazi music gigs’
'First responder' charities call for investigation into devastating foreign aid cuts
Starmer’s Brexit reset marks a welcome return to political honesty
Inaccessibility, inequality and poverty: What's really disabling the nation?
Unpicking Starmer's dog whistle politics on immigration
The UK-EU reset summit: Adjust your expectations now
The Lead Untangles: What might the Brexit reset summit mean for Britain
I was the 'perfect immigrant' – Labour's new plan still treats me like a stranger
The ‘rural culture war’ is a myth
Keir Starmer needs to realise he will never win the argument on immigration
Labour's immigration clampdown is a generational betrayal
"They’re just waiting for her to die": How austerity turns mental health patients into prisoners
The Lead in conversation: how austerity jails the mentally ill
Schools are still hiding the violent truth of the British Empire
The Lead Untangles: Accusations of two-tier taxation over India trade deal
When We Ruled: "History is written by the hungry"
Hidden Histories: These are the Black women we should learn about in school
They fought for a fairer Britain. Now we must tax for one
Labour have been given a reminder of what the left is actually for
Labour’s election hammering isn’t a cue to drift right – it’s a reminder of what the left is for
Black mothers are still more likely to die in childbirth – this is not a case of "bad apples"
“We're left in the dark”: The ‘invisible’ children with Long Covid left without care
Don't be distracted by Conservative culture wars. They're trying to make us forget
The Lead Untangles: A pensions crisis that threatens to derail young futures
“We will not disappear”: Trans+ voices rise after Supreme Court blow
Librarians face censorship over LGBTQIA+ books - now is the time for allyship
Kemi Bedenoch's plan to scrap hate incidents dishonours Stephen Lawrence
A message to readers + spring discount
The Lead's best bits of 2025 so far
The Lead Untangles: The weaponising of council finances by Reform
“We have all the potential in the world, right here, in Scunthorpe.”
Transphobia is not feminism, it’s a dangerous distraction
The community at the heart of Scunthorpe’s British Steel saga
Why are children still being diagnosed with personality disorders?
Unions are the frontline for Labour’s battle against Reform
The Lead Untangles: The rise of homeschooling
Unions are the frontline for Labour’s battle against Reform
Inside the Reform circus at British Steel in Scunthorpe
I’d like to ask the flighty millionaires: where is your sense of civic duty?
We won’t solve the social care crisis unless we start valuing caring professions
As water bills soar, activists fight to keep Britain’s rivers clean
Trump tariffs must not be a signal to climb deeper into his pocket
The Lead Untangles: The case for a wealth tax
It's time to cut Donald Trump loose - before he takes the UK down with him
The social housing tenants left traumatised by decades of neglect
The Lead in Conversation: Conspiracy, council tax and the common law courts
Kemi Badenoch's net-zero denial is a dangerous gamble
Fuel poverty in Britain has not peaked – and online disinformation is making it worse
Labour’s fixation on getting people back to work is short-sighted and misses the bigger picture
Spring Statement - a view from the North: Taking the hardest hit and delaying inevitable bad news
The Lead Untangles: The Spring Statement
Council tax is broken - it’s time to fix it
I spent 18 years on benefits – the welfare system needs an overhaul
Time to stop indulging kleptocrats: The UK and EU must step up as America steps back
"I left and never went back": The rural towns that offer no way up
People with ME have been neglected by the government and society for too long
Austerity isn’t pruning; it’s scorched earth.
The Lead Untangles: Welfare cuts, PIP and plans more popular with the Tories than Labour
Labour can slice it however they want, but more cuts is more austerity
Birth trauma: How maternity care is failing women
Demonising disabled people is not a moral duty
The Lead in conversation: "Everyone in society has a part to play in raising children"
How to break free from the myth of the 'perfect mother'
Northern rail made more than half a million in "unlawful" fare evasion prosecutions
Exhibition: Migration and dissent go on, with you
The Windrush education scandal: the lesser-known legacy of systemic racism still hurting generations
The Lead Untangles: Why Labour are getting involved in Manchester United's gaudy new ground
Keir Starmer’s cruel civil service blitz is a cynical gift to the right
A suspended Reform MP, malaise and discontent on the English seaside
It was inevitable that Reform UK would fracture
Malcolm X: Unpicking an enduring legacy from a Black British perspective
The Black refugee wrongly imprisoned for 13 years – now the fight for compensation
Labour’s proposed disability benefit cuts are nothing short of terrifying, say campaigners
The far-right poses its biggest political threat since World War II. The government must act.
The Lead Untangles: Changes to the 'feudal' leasehold system and whether they go far enough
"Lost generation" of home-educated children facing uncertain future
Nigel Farage has exposed his true feelings in wake of the Trump-Zelenskyy White House row
Disabled mutual aid - our resistance against social neglect
International aid cuts create a void where evil flourishes
The Lead UK in Conversation at Convention of the North: A Northern political agenda
Optimism cuts through the gloom at Convention of the North
The Lead Untangles: Apple users lose ADP in the UK sparking security vs privacy row
The Prime Minister must not forget the energy crisis raging in homes
Inside the Common Law Court conspiracy theory that led to attempted kidnap and ignoring council tax
Britain must not hitch to the Trump bandwagon on Ukraine
The Lead Untangles: As many as 100,000 Ukrainian refugees face uncertainty in visa extension bids
Gen Z shunning digital payments for cash to understand emotional cost of spending
Sharing internet should not be as scary as it sounds
A former MP is on the hunt for a new home for his collection of five decades of Private Eye
Keir Starmer is a war-time Prime Minister. This changes everything.
Hit by the household benefit cap: Forcing people to live on less than they need
Immigration is not the number one priority for voters and the country. Labour must remember this.
The Lead Untangles: Paternity Leave in the UK, is it on its knees and what needs to change?
Chicken river pollution claims float Nando's way as celebs pile behind open letter
Pride in Britain? Nigel Farage's attack on education exposes his agenda
Woman diagnosed with HIV at 22 urges public to get tested
Channel 4's Go Back To Where You Came From shows the lack of empathy in Britain right now
The unequal burden of the toxic air we breathe
The Lead Untangles: USAID, where the funding was going and what comes next
The Lead UK in conversation: the shared ownership crisis
'Cowboy operator' RMG in crosshairs as thousands left frustrated at service charges
It’s time for Labour to take back control as Reform surges
Lingering stigma and barriers: UK at risk of missing goal to end HIV transmission by 2030
Labour's employment reforms could harm sick workers. Join our campaign for Safer Sick Pay now.
Five reasons to be optimistic after five years of Brexit
Toxic assets: Housing association homes and shared ownership
Teesworks: £560m of public money spent and issues of 'governance and transparency' remain
The government is moving in the right direction - but how can we all fight street homelessness?
Toxic assets: Housing association homes and shared ownership
The intolerable crisis of angry young men
How women are being recruited and radicalised by the far-right
The permanent migraine of Donald Trump
Donald Trump's inauguration speech: Six themes which emerged
Gaza ceasefire - a cautious welcome for now and where Britain is in all this
Tide may be turning on Brexit, it’s not too late for Labour to lead
What the facts actually say about the far-right’s ‘grooming gangs’ obsession
Ignore the 'market mayhem', a lifeline for renters is being activated
Life near the 'intensely nauseating' landfill quarry making people flee their homes
Meta’s new 'fact-free' era should worry us all
How Andrew McIntyre hijacked the death of three young girls in Southport to spread far-right hatred
Young people in the UK have waited long enough, their plight can not become a tool of the far-right