Jill Lawless reporter the Associated Press posed photo at AP Europe in London, Friday, Jan. 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

JILL LAWLESS

Associated Press

London correspondent covering politics and more.
FILE - Britain's then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunk, right, and Labour Party leader Keir Starmer pass through the Peer's Lobby to attend the State Opening of Parliament, at the Palace of Westminster in London, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. King Charles III will officially open the new session of Parliament on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, donning his ceremonial robes and the crown of state to deliver a speech laying out the legislative program of the U.K.’s first left-leaning government in 14 years. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, Pool, File)
UK’s new government announces legislation for ‘national renewal’ as Parliament opens with royal pomp
Britain’s new Labour Party government has set out its plans for “national renewal,” saying it will calm the country’s febrile politics and ease its cost-of-living crisis.
 
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, right, and First Minister of Wales Vaughan Gething walk through the Senedd as part of a two-day tour of the four nations of the United Kingdom in Cardiff, Wales, Monday, July 8, 2024.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant, Pool)
Welsh leader Vaughan Gething resigns after allies desert him over campaign donation scandal
The leader of the Welsh government says he will resign amid a campaign donation scandal. First Minister Vaughan Gething said Tuesday that “I have this morning taken the difficult decision to begin the process of stepping down as leader of the Welsh Labour Party and, as a result, First Minister.”
 
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer listens to Member of the House of Lords George Robertson, right, during a joint meeting with Britain's Defence Secretary John Healey (unseen) at 10 Downing Street, in London, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. Former NATO leader George Robertson will lead a review of Britain’s military strategy to counter what he calls the “deadly quartet” of China, Iran, Russia and North Korea. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the strategic defense review on Tuesday, July 16, 2024 as one of his first major acts after taking office on July 5. Starmer who leads a center-left Labour Party government, has promised to end the shrinking of the U.K.’s military seen during 14 years of Conservative Party rule. (Benjamin Cremel/Pool photo via AP)
Ex-NATO chief George Robertson to lead a UK defense review, says China among ‘deadly’ challenges
Former NATO leader George Robertson will lead a review of Britain’s military strategy. He says it is needed to counter what he calls the “deadly quartet” of China, Iran, Russia and North Korea.
 
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, left, meets with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington, D.C, during his visit to the United States to attend the NATO 75th anniversary summit, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool Photo via AP)
In international debut, new UK PM Starmer offers strong support for Ukraine at NATO summit
Newly elected British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has made his maiden appearance on the international stage with a strong signal of support for Ukraine and a pat on the back from President Joe Biden.
 
In this image taken from video lawmakers gather in the House of Commons, London, Tuesday July 9, 2024, as Parliament returned. Hundreds of newly elected lawmakers are gathering in Britain's Parliament after the election that brought a Labour government to power. Among the 650 members of the House of Commons, 335 are arriving for the first time. (House of Commons/UK Parliament via AP)
Hundreds of new UK lawmakers are sworn in as Parliament returns after a dramatic election
Hundreds of newly elected lawmakers are gathering in Britain’s Parliament after the election that brought a Labour government to power. Among the 650 members of the House of Commons, 335 are arriving for the first time.
 
FILE - French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, left, and French President Emmanuel Macron attend a "national tribute" ceremony to late French politician and admiral, Philippe de Gaulle, son of General de Gaulle, in Paris, Wednesday, March 20, 2024. French President Emmanual Macron refused the resignation Monday July 8, 2024 of the country's prime minister, asking him on Monday to remain temporarily as the head of the government after chaotic election results left the government in limbo. ( Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP, File)
Elections in Europe, Iran show authoritarian march may have slowed, not halted
At first glance, elections in France and Britain were a triumph for leftists and reformers over authoritarians and the right.
 
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech, following his first cabinet meeting as Prime Minister, in London, Saturday, July 6, 2024. Britain’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer has appointed a Cabinet of Labour Party lawmakers and a few outside experts as he tries to tackle priorities including boosting a sluggish economy, building more homes and fixing the creaking state-funded health service.(Claudia Greco, Pool Photo via AP)
New UK Prime Minister Starmer says controversial Rwanda deportation plan is ‘dead and buried’
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says a controversial Conservative policy to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda is “dead and buried.” Starmer said Saturday that the plan was done before it started.
 
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech, following his first cabinet meeting as Prime Minister, in London, Saturday, July 6, 2024. Britain’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer has appointed a Cabinet of Labour Party lawmakers and a few outside experts as he tries to tackle priorities including boosting a sluggish economy, building more homes and fixing the creaking state-funded health service.(Claudia Greco, Pool Photo via AP)
A NATO summit and mending EU relations are among first tasks for new UK leader Keir Starmer
New British Prime Minister Keir Starmer doesn’t get to take a breather. After a draining six-week election campaign, the center-left politician must get straight to work assembling his government, tackling a mountain of domestic problems and putting his stamp on the U.K.’s relations with the rest of
 
Britain's Labour Party Prime Minister Keir Starmer makes speech outside 10 Downing Street in London, Friday, July 5, 2024. Labour leader Keir Starmer won the general election on July 4, and was appointed Prime Minster by King Charles III at Buckingham Palace, after the party won a landslide victory. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
He’s derided as dull but Keir Starmer becomes UK prime minister with a sensational victory
For someone often derided as dull, Keir Starmer has delivered a sensational election result. Starmer has led Britain’s Labour Party to a landslide election victory, and on Friday officially became prime minister.
 
Britain's King Charles III, right, shakes hands with Keir Starmer where he invited the Labour Party leader to become prime minister and to form a new government, following the landslide general election victory for the Labour Party, in London, Friday, July 5, 2024. (Yui Mok, Pool Photo via AP)
New UK prime minister Keir Starmer vows to heal wounds of distrust after Labour landslide
 
Britain's Labour Party leader Keir Starmer gives a thumbs up to his supporters after he was elected for the Holborn and St Pancras constituency, in London, Friday, July 5, 2024. Britain's Labour Party appears to be headed for a huge majority in the 2024 UK election, an exit poll suggested. The poll released moments after voting closed indicated that Labour leader Keir Starmer will be the country's next prime minister.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Britain’s Labour Party has won enough seats to have a majority in the UK Parliament
An exit poll and partial returns indicate that Britain’s Labour Party is headed for a landslide victory in a parliamentary election, as voters punish the governing Conservatives after 14 years of economic and political upheaval.
 
FILE - A general view of the Houses of Parliament at sunrise in London, Friday, Oct. 21, 2022. From red wall to king's speech, UK elections have a vocabulary all their own. (AP Photo/David Cliff, File)
From red wall to King’s Speech, UK elections have a vocabulary all their own. Here’s what to know
Elections in the United Kingdom have a distinct vocabulary that draws on traditions of parliamentary democracy as well as the lexicon of U.S. politics and modern political spin. Voters go to the polls on Thursday.
 
FILE - A woman holds her voting card as she arrives to vote in London in local elections, Thursday, May 2, 2024. U.K. voters are set to cast ballots in a national election on July 4, passing judgment on 14 years of Conservative rule. They are widely expected to do something they have not done since 2005 — elect a Labour Party government. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
In the UK election campaign’s final hours, Sunak battles to the end as Labour’s Starmer eyes victory
Voters in the United Kingdom are set to cast ballots in a national election on Thursday, passing judgment on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s 20 months in office, and the four Conservative prime ministers before him.
 
Fisherman Stan Rennie is pictured by the boat yard in Hartlepool, England, Thursday June. 27, 2024. As British voters prepare to choose a new government on Thursday, Hartlepool’s statistics still tell a sobering story. Compared the country as a whole, it has higher unemployment, lower pay, shorter life expectancy, more drug deaths and worse crime rates. (AP Photo/Scott Heppell)
In a proud and troubled UK town, voters wonder whether their election choice will make a difference
A lot of politicians have promised change to voters in Hartlepool, a wind-whipped port town in northeast England. For decades, Labour Party representatives said they would fight for working people, even as well-paid industrial jobs disappeared.
 
Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage speaks at a meeting while on the general election campaign trail, in Boston, England, Thursday June 27, 2024. (Paul Marriott/PA via AP)
Nigel Farage criticizes racist remarks by Reform UK worker. But he later called it a ‘stitch-up’
Anti-immigration British politician Nigel Farage has condemned a worker for his Reform UK party who suggested migrants crossing the English Channel in boats should be used for “target practice.”
 
Once an investigative journalist, then an activist, and later a lawmaker, Yehor Soboliev speaks during an interview with Associated Press in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 3, 2024. In all of these roles, he sought to expose corruption in business and government as a way to defend Ukraine's budding democracy. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)
Takeaways from AP’s report on Ukraine’s battle to defend its democracy in wartime
Ukraine has spent years trying to build a Western-style democracy, although not without some bumps along the way. Shedding bad habits from the Soviet past are crucial to to Ukraine’s goal of joining the European Union and NATO.
 
Once an investigative journalist, then an activist, and later a lawmaker, Yehor Soboliev speaks during an interview with Associated Press in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 3, 2024. In all of these roles, he sought to expose corruption in business and government as a way to defend Ukraine's budding democracy. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)
Ukraine spent years trying to build a Western-style democracy. Then Russia invaded the country
Ukraine’s battle to repel Russia is a fight for the country’s survival as a Western-facing democracy. To survive, it has felt compelled to temporarily suspend or restrict some democratic ideals.
 
FILE - Leader of the British Labour Party Keir Starmer gestures as he arrives to make his keynote speech at the annual party conference in Brighton, England, on Sept. 29, 2021. The Labour Party hopes that is just what Britain wants and needs after 14 turbulent years of Conservative rule. Starmer, the center-left party's 61-year-old leader, is the current favorite to win the country's July 4 election. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)
Who is Keir Starmer, the Labour leader favored to win Britain’s July 4 election?
Critics say British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer is dutiful, managerial and a bit dull. The 61-year-old Labour leader is the favorite to win the country’s July 4 election.
 
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, left, take part for the BBC's Prime Ministerial Debate, in Nottingham, England, Wednesday June 26, 2024. (Phil Noble/Pool via AP)
UK’s Sunak and Starmer struggle to be heard as a noisy protest mars their final election debate
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour Party leader Keir Starmer struggled to get their messages across as protesters drowned out the early stages of their final televised debate of the U.K. election campaign.
 
FILE - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pauses as he makes a statement to media gathered outside the High Court in London, on Dec. 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
Who is Julian Assange, the polarizing founder of the secret-spilling website WikiLeaks?
Before he emerged as an eccentric internet publisher of state secrets, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange experienced an itinerant childhood and attended dozens of schools, becoming a computer hacker as a teenager.
 
Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey, attends the General Election campaign at the center for adults with learning disabilities in Carshalton, London, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Britain’s rollercoaster-riding Liberal Democrat leader embraces stunts to gain election attention
 
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrives at the Ukraine peace summit in Obbürgen, Switzerland, Saturday, June 15, 2024. Switzerland is hosting scores of world leaders this weekend to try to map out the first steps toward peace in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
Britain’s July 4 election is fast approaching. Rishi Sunak is running out of time to change the tune
With less than three weeks to go until Britain’s election day, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is running out of time to change the tune.
 
Prince William, and Kate Princess of Wales on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with their children Prince George, left, Prince Louis, front centre, and Princess Charlotte wave to the crowds after the Trooping the Color ceremony, in London, Saturday, June 15, 2024. Trooping the Color is the King's Birthday Parade and one of the nation's most impressive and iconic annual events attended by almost every member of the Royal Family. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
UK royals unite on palace balcony, with Kate back at her first public event since cancer diagnosis
Britain has put on a display of birthday pageantry for King Charles III with a military parade that marked the Princess of Wales’ first appearance at a public event since her cancer diagnosis early this year.
 
FILE - Alan Bates, former sub-postmaster and founder, Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, is photographed, in London, Feb. 27, 2024. Alan Bates is among more than 1,000 people, including artist Tracey Emin, actress Imelda Staunton and Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon, recognized Friday June 14, 2024 on the King’s Birthday Honors list, released to mark the British monarch’s official birthday. (Lucy North/PA via AP, File)
A campaigner who took on the UK Post Office joins Tracey Emin, Imelda Staunton on royal honors list
A former post office branch manager who campaigned to expose a vast miscarriage of justice has been given a knighthood by King Charles III.
 
This undated handout photo provided by Kensington Palace shows Kate, Princess of Wales, earlier this week in Windsor, England. The Princess of Wales says she is “making good progress” in her cancer treatment and will attend the royal Trooping the Color ceremony on Saturday June 15, 2024, Kate’s first public appearance since her diagnosis. (Matt Porteous/Kensington Palace via AP)
Princess of Wales says she’s making ‘good progress’ in cancer treatment, will attend a public event
The Princess of Wales says she is “making good progress” in her cancer treatment and will attend Saturday’s royal Trooping the Color ceremony, Kate’s first public appearance since her diagnosis.
 
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer arrives on board his election battle bus at a campaign event in Halesowen county of West Midlands, England, Thursday, June 13, 2024, after unveiling Labour's manifesto in Manchester for the forthcoming General Election on July 4. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)
UK Labour leader Keir Starmer says he’ll end the era of ‘gestures and gimmicks’ if he wins power
The left-of-center politician aiming to become Britain’s prime minister in three weeks’ time is promising to lead a government that’s both “pro-business and pro-worker” and restore stability after years of economic and political turmoil.
 
Green Party co-leaders Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer pose with supporters at their General Election Manifesto launch - Real Hope, Real Change, at Sussex County Cricket Ground in Hove, England, Wednesday, June 12, 2024. In the build-up to the UK general election on July 4. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
The UK Green Party struggles to be heard in an election where climate change is on the back burner
There’s lots of talk of change in Britain’s election campaign, but little talk about climate change. The U.K.’s July 4 vote to choose a new government is focused on the sluggish economy, high cost of living and creaking health care system.
 
Britain's Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader, Rishi Sunak, delivers a speech to launch the Conservatives' general election manifesto in Silverstone, England, on Tuesday June 11, 2024, in the build-up to the UK general election on July 4. (Benjamin Cremel, Pool Photo via AP)
UK’s glum Conservatives try to shift the mood with a promise of tax cuts as polling day nears
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has urged voters to throw him a lifeline in the U.K.'s July 4 election, promising to cut taxes and reduce immigration if his Conservative Party is reelected.
 
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak lays a wreath during a commemorative ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the World War II D-Day" Allied landings in Normandy, at the World War II British Normandy Memorial of Ver-sur-Mer, Thursday, June 6, 2024. Normandy is hosting various events to officially commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings that took place on June 6, 1944. (Ludovic Marin/Pool via AP)
Rishi Sunak apologizes for skipping a D-Day ceremony to return to the election campaign trail
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has apologized for leaving D-Day commemorations in France early to fly home for an election campaign television interview. Sunak was not alongside leaders including U.S.
 
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak attends a commemorative ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the World War II D-Day" Allied landings in Normandy, at the World War II British Normandy Memorial of Ver-sur-Mer, Thursday, June 6, 2024. Normandy is hosting various events to officially commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings that took place on June 6, 1944. (Ludovic Marin/Pool via AP)
Here’s what happened this week in the UK election, from the return of Farage to tussles over tax
Britain’s July 4 election is less than a month away. The campaign has already produced drama and disputes, even before the parties unveil their manifestos with detailed lists of promises in the coming days.
 
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