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National Television Awards 2026 Winners, Performances And Everything You Might Have Missed

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National Television Awards 2026 Winners, Performances And Everything You Might Have Missed

This year’s National Television Awards gave us laughs, tears, surprises and plenty of A-list red carpet moments.

Held at London’s O2 Arena on Tuesday night, the awards show celebrated some of the biggest accomplishments in the world of TV from the past year, with winners including Alan Carr, Sir David Attenborough and Vicky McClure.

But as we all know, an awards show like the NTAs is rarely just about the winners.

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From the red carpet to on-stage antics and backstage drama, here’s everything you might have missed from this year’s ceremony…

Let’s start on the red carpet, where Katie Price went all out around 24 hours after undergoing her most recent cosmetic surgery

David Fisher/Shutterstock

Katie was joined on the red carpet by her eldest daughter Princess Andre, who certainly lived up to her name in this elaborate ensemble

David Fisher/Shutterstock

The red carpet was also the site of a reunion between this year’s Traitors cast

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Speaking of reunions, we’re even more excited for season seven after seeing this iconic trio back together

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As we all know by now, Big Brother host AJ Odudu never misses when there’s a red carpet involved

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Amanda Holden opted for something a bit daring on the NTAs red carpet

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While Tulisa seized the opportunity to make a bold statement about her past scandals

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Reality TV stars Pete Wicks and Olivia Attwood shared a sneaky kiss as they made their way into the event

Jeff Spicer via Getty Images for The NTA’s

Sir David Attenborough beat some stiff competition to be named Best Presenter over Ant and Dec, Alison Hammond, Stacey Solomon and Claudia Winkleman (producer Mark Brownlow accepted the award on behalf of the national treasure)

David Fisher/Shutterstock

Vicky McClure was very excited about coming out on top in the all-female Drama Performance category

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Jeremy Clarkson dedicated his win to British agriculturalists, claiming his victory represented ‘a vote for farmers’…

…then immediately took a pop at the Baftas backstage, claiming: ‘If you have won a Bafta you’ve made a shit programme. If you win [an NTA], the people like you’

David Fisher/Shutterstock

Lia Toby via Getty Images for The NTA’s

This Morning kicked off a new winning streak, picking up the Daytime win for the second year running

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And the show’s former host Holly Willoughby made a rare return to ITV to present the prestigious Authored Documentary prize to Our Girls: The Southport Families

Stuart C. Wilson via Getty Images for The NTA’s

Alan Carr had a big night, and was clearly taken aback to be announced as the surprise recipient of the Special Recognition title

In fact, in a very sweet moment, the whole thing moved him to tears

Lia Toby via Getty Images for The NTA’s

He was introduced by an impromptu performance that saw Amanda Holden, Paloma Faith and some Celebrity Traitors stars singing I Know Him So Well

While we’re on the subject of Celebrity Traitors, it beat the regular show (as well as Race Across The World and two different iterations of I’m A Celebrity) to be crowned Best Reality Competition

Stuart C. Wilson via Getty Images for The NTA’s

The top winner of the night, though, was Emmerdale, winning both Best Serial Drama and Best Serial Drama Performance for long-serving cast member Jeff Hordley, better known to viewers as Cain Dingle

David Fisher/Shutterstock

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Politics Home Article | How data will unlock growth through AI in the UK economy

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How data will unlock growth through AI in the UK economy
How data will unlock growth through AI in the UK economy

Malin Holmberg, CEO



Malin Holmberg, CEO
| Experian UK & Ireland

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The UK has a significant opportunity to turn artificial intelligence into a source of long-term economic growth. Generative AI could improve productivity, accelerate innovation, strengthen public services and help businesses of every size make faster, smarter decisions.

Research by Experian and techUK has estimated that GenAI could add between £30 billion and £120 billion annually to the UK economy over the next decade.

The debate often focuses on visible infrastructure: compute capacity, data centres, chips and energy. These are important, but they are not enough. The real engine of AI-led growth will be data: its quality, availability, governance and relevance to the problems organisations are trying to solve.

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AI systems are only as useful as the information that supports them. Poor data can produce unreliable outputs, biased decisions and weak adoption. High-quality, well-governed data can help organisations understand customers, identify risk, prevent fraud, personalise services, improve forecasting and deploy capital more effectively. In financial services, that can mean better affordability assessments, stronger fraud protection and wider inclusion. In the public sector, it can mean earlier intervention and more targeted support. Across the economy, it can mean significant growth and productivity gains that reach beyond technology teams into everyday operations.

This is why data should be treated as part of the UK’s economic infrastructure. Just as roads, energy networks and broadband enable growth, trusted data enables better decisions. Government, regulators and industry should work together to create the conditions for responsible data use: consistent standards, secure digital identity, clear accountability, explainability, auditability and appropriate human oversight.

Businesses also need to close the confidence gap around AI. Leaders may recognise its potential, but employees need practical training, clear policies and permission to experiment safely. Responsible adoption will depend on bringing people with us, not simply imposing new tools on top of old ways of working.

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The prize is not abstract. AI grounded in trusted data can help small businesses access finance, consumers receive more personalised support, lenders manage risk, and organisations reduce friction in the services people use every day. It can also help regional economies develop new skills and capabilities, as partnerships between businesses and universities connect practical engineering, analytics and governance expertise.

When I met the minister for artificial intelligence, Kanishka Narayan, recently, I was encouraged by the government’s determination to balance innovation with safety. Experian believes that both can be achieved through building on trusted data.

Much of the national AI debate has focused on how the UK will deliver sovereign compute capacity, chips and data centres. While those areas matter, infrastructure alone will not lead to more effective public services, higher growth, better lending, stronger fraud prevention, and increased business productivity. Organisations need data that is accurate, user-friendly and responsibly governed to ensure there is clear accountability for AI-supported decisions.

The UK should be ambitious about AI, but ambition must be matched by trust. If we want AI to unlock growth, we must start with the foundations: better data, stronger governance and a clear focus on outcomes for people, businesses and society. Compute may power the machine, but data will determine whether AI delivers value. Getting that right is how the UK can turn technological promise into lasting economic progress.

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Katie Price And Daughter Princess Andre Walk NTAs Red Carpet Together

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National Television Awards 2026 Winners, Performances And Everything You Might Have Missed

Katie Price went all out when she attended this year’s National Television Awards, just 24 hours after undergoing cosmetic surgery.

On Tuesday night, the former glamour model and reality star was pictured arriving at the event sporting a bold look consisting of heavy makeup, slicked-back black hair, embroidered shorts, a white shirt and some towering heels.

Speaking to her Instagram followers ahead of the NTAs, she admitted: “It’s the National TV Awards today – but what did Price do yesterday?

“I went to Brussels, because one of my boobs was still slightly bigger than the other, so they put a new implant in, and while they were there, I said, ‘oh go on, just put a bit more in both of them’.”

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A closer look at Katie Price’s red carpet outfit at the 2026 NTAs
A closer look at Katie Price’s red carpet outfit at the 2026 NTAs

David Fisher/Shutterstock

“So, this is me,” she continued, revealing that she was still healing from the op. “And at the same time, where my face was hollow here, as you get older and lose weight, he put filler in for me, obviously while [I was] asleep. He does it under the muscle right into the bone.

“I think the swelling has dropped, so I look like a hamster, and it’s sore.”

Katie also teased that she was “honoured” to have someone different doing her makeup, which was later revealed to be the MUA Made By Mitchell.

The former Celebrity Big Brother winner enthused: “I’m so lucky. The person is absolutely iconic and at the same time, so excited to do my makeup. We’re going to see how good this person is, because he’s got to cover all this up.

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“Originally, I did have a glam squad, but they’ve passed on doing my glam for the NTAs because I wouldn’t want to wear the outfits that they wanted me to. They wanted me to do something different.

“But the outfit I’ve chosen myself is still different, because I don’t like to follow what everyone else follows. But for the look that I want, I think the outfit is perfect.”

Princess Andre and her mum Katie Price at the 2026 NTAs
Princess Andre and her mum Katie Price at the 2026 NTAs

David Fisher/Shutterstock

She also walked the red carpet with her eldest daughter, Princess Andre, who also pulled out all the stops in a layered, light blue dress with plenty of tulle.

Katie explained that she’d picked Princess’ dress for her, after her daughter admitted she wanted to “look different” and get out of her usual “comfort zone”.

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“I said, Princess, ‘go completely different’,” Katie recalled. “Everyone will be in sexy dresses, the usual sequinned ones, cut-out ones.

“We all know you can dress sexy, so trust me, at the end of the day, it’s a red carpet, so go out of your comfort zone and be different. The dress that Princess is wearing, I said, ‘look, if you get slagged off for it, you get slagged off for it, but you’ll look different, you’ll look like a princess, you are a princess, and the fact that you’re out of your comfort zone… blame it on me’.”

“I don’t care what anyone says about my outfit because I love it,” she added.

This marks Katie’s first public appearance since it was reported she’d split from her husband of around eight months, Lee Andrews.

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Katie is yet to address the split publicly, claiming on her YouTube channel: “I know a lot of you are listening for the Lee updates, and when I am ready I will of course share with you guys first.”

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Are We Giving Children Smartphones Too Soon?

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Helen Ness-Gifford is headteacher at Pipers Corner School

Something rather strange has happened to childhood.

It is 2026, and we have never been more conscious of keeping children safe. We strap toddlers into increasingly sophisticated car seats, watch babies sleeping through cameras and have transformed safeguarding in our schools.

And yet a few years later, we put a smartphone into those same small hands.

We carefully control the physical world children encounter, while giving them access to a digital one of almost unimaginable scale – often long before they have the maturity to make sense of everything they will find there.

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Except even that doesn’t quite describe what has changed. Our children aren’t simply accessing the online world. The online world is accessing them.

Algorithms seek their attention; strangers can enter their bedrooms without opening a door; and other people’s opinions, lifestyles and judgements follow them home from school.

After more than 30 years in education, I don’t believe the fundamental needs of children have changed. But the world in which they are growing up has – and we should not assume that will leave children unchanged.

We are seeing significant concern about anxiety and other mental health difficulties among young people. It would be too simplistic to blame smartphones alone, but equally foolish to ignore growing evidence associating aspects of online life with anxiety, disrupted sleep, social comparison and poorer wellbeing.

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Four years ago, I was sitting around our dinner table with my daughter, now 26, and her friends when they told me they thought theirs might be the last generation for whom “likes” had never really mattered.

One had a 16-year-old sister whose adolescence, they felt, was fundamentally different. Social media wasn’t something she used alongside her life; increasingly, it was where part of that life was lived.

That conversation has stayed with me.

Growing up has always involved working out who you are. But today’s young people are doing that in a culture where everyone can broadcast an opinion – and algorithms determine which opinions they will hear most loudly.

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We also need to talk about addiction. Not every child who loves their phone is addicted, but compulsive patterns of use are real. I am not sure parents always realise quite what their children are being asked to resist. We ask developing brains to exercise self-control against sophisticated systems designed to capture their attention and learn how to retain it.

And every hour captured displaces something else: sleep, reading, conversation, physical activity, family life, even boredom.

We see this particularly clearly on school trips. My school, Pipers Corner, has always been phone-free during the school day, and more recently we have extended this to trips. Without phones competing for attention, pupils engage more, notice where they are and, perhaps most strikingly, seem to enjoy themselves more. They talk to people they might not otherwise have spoken to.

Helen Ness-Gifford is headteacher at Pipers Corner School
Helen Ness-Gifford is headteacher at Pipers Corner School

Previous generations had plenty of “screen time”. Families sat around a television together. Children saw things they didn’t understand, but an adult might explain, challenge or simply say, “That’s nonsense.” The screen became a conversation.

Yet a smartphone in a bedroom is different: private, portable and personalised. Children can encounter things they don’t understand privately and repeatedly, with nobody else even knowing that a conversation needs to happen.

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So, I welcome new restrictions such as overnight social media curfews and turning off addictive features that keep children scrolling into the night – but perhaps not for the obvious reason.

I don’t believe regulation alone will solve this. Some of the world’s most powerful technology companies have built hugely successful businesses around capturing and monetising human attention, including children’s.

What I welcome is the message regulation sends to parents: we have learned something about risk.

When I was a child, I was allowed to sit on my mother’s lap in the passenger seat of my father’s car. My parents weren’t reckless. It was simply normal. Then our understanding of the risk changed, regulation followed and eventually parental behaviour changed too.

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I wonder whether we are approaching a similar moment with smartphones.

Restrictions give parents permission to pause and to say “not yet”. But ultimately restriction isn’t enough, because children must eventually navigate the digital world independently.

I tell parents of 11-year-olds that their daughters will drive one day. They will learn the rules, develop judgement and eventually drive perfectly safely.

Nobody suggests we should therefore hand them the car keys at 11.

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We protect children, then teach them, then gradually allow greater freedom as their judgement develops. Why should the digital world be different?

Our job is not to tell young people what to think about technology, but to teach them how to think about it.

Government can help create safer roads. Technology companies should be required to build safer vehicles. But parents and schools still have to teach children to drive.

And perhaps we need to be brave enough not to hand over the keys quite so soon.

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Helen Ness-Gifford is Headmistress at Pipers Corner School in High Wycombe.

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Reform Civil War Resumes As Senior Member Quits Party

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Reform 'Suspends Senior Figure' After He Slams Zia Yusuf

A senior Reform UK figure has quit as the party’s simmering civil war re-ignited.

Tim Montgomerie, who defected from the Tories last year, said Nigel Farage needs to “get a grip” as he singled out Zia Yusuf for criticism.

He said the party leader needs to bring his home affairs spokesman “under control” if he is to re-assert his authority.

Montgomerie was suspended by Reform last month in the wake of comments he made about Yusuf on a podcast.

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He said “Nigel has fallen out of love with Zia” and called for Yusuf to be more of a “team player”.

Montgomerie had initially planned to appeal his suspension, insisting that he had only been making “constructive criticism” of Reform in an attempt to make the party more electable.

But after talks with Reform chief whip Lee Anderson on Tuesday, he decided to quit.

He told the BBC: “I think they wanted me back in the party but meekly, and I wasn’t prepared to do that.”

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Montgomerie added: “Nigel needs to get a grip, he needs to lead the party.

“The one thing he’s been brilliant at is policing the right and stopping [far-right activist] Tommy Robinson joining.

“But for the sake of his legacy and the sake of decency he needs to sort it out, and bring people like Zia [Yusuf] under control.”

He said Reform was now “at a junction” and must decide what type of party it wants to be.

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“They haven’t replaced the Conservatives which was plan A,” he said.

“I fear a battle of attrition between the two parties which will helps no one. The real danger now on the fight for political turf is that they go after sectional interests.

“Does Reform want to be a party of government or does it want to stand at the edge and just change the debate?”

A Reform UK spokesman said: “We wish Tim the best for the future and thank him for his support.”

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Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

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National Television Awards 2026 Winners: Full List Of NTAs Recipients This Year

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National Television Awards 2026 Winners: Full List Of NTAs Recipients This Year

The National Television Awards took place on Tuesday night, recognising some of the biggest achievements in telly over the past 12 months.

It was a big night for Alan Carr, who accepted the award for Best Reality Competition on behalf of The Celebrity Traitors (beating the regular Traitors in the process) as well as celebrating a surprise win in the Special Recognition category.

Emmerdale also scooped two prizes, including an acting win for Woolpack regular Jeff Hordley, who has played Cain Dingle for more than 25 years.

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Meanwhile, Sir David Attenborough pipped Claudia Winkleman, Alison Hammond, Stacey Solomon and regular winners Ant and Dec to the Best Presenter prize, and Michael McIntyre’s Big Show scooped the coveted Bruce Forsyth Entertainment Award for the second year running.

Vicky McClure also picked up her first ever NTA, beating an all-female shortlist in the Best Drama Performance category for her performance in the ITV drama Trigger Point.

Check out the full list of winners – including Strictly Come Dancing, This Morning, Gogglebox and Call The Midwife – as chosen by the voting public below…

New Drama

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Returning Drama

Drama Performance

Vicky McClure (Trigger Point)

Comedy

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Serial Drama

Serial Drama Performance

The Bruce Forsyth Entertainment Award

Michael McIntyre’s Big Show

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TV Presenter

Sir David Attenborough (Secret Garden)

Factual Entertainment

Reality Competition

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Reality Docuseries

Quiz Show

Authored Documentary

Our Girls: The Southport Families

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Daytime

Special Recognition

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Trump Sparks Outrage For ‘Disgusting’ Rant About 9/11 Hero

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Trump Sparks Outrage For 'Disgusting' Rant About 9/11 Hero

Donald Trump has been widely lambasted on social media after ranting about a revered hero of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and complaining about the man’s fame.

“They were sure they were going to die. Then suddenly, a rescuer appeared. They call him the man in the red bandana. Have you heard that term? The man in the red bandana has become more famous than me. I don’t like it. Very unhappy, but he’s become much more famous than me,” Trump said during a Steele Across America event at the White House.

Welles Crowther, a 24-year-old equities trader and volunteer firefighter, was the “man in the red bandana.” He had been working on the 108th floor of the South Tower when United Airlines Flight 175 struck. Although Crowther died when the building collapsed, he is known to have rescued 18 people, leading many to safety from the 78th floor.

His heroics came to light in a 2002 New York Times article, where survivors recounted being saved by the “man in the red bandana.”

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“Then, a man with a red bandana covering his nose and mouth suddenly appeared from the wreckage and smoke. He spoke in a calm voice and guided them to a stairway, leading them to safety. The man in the red bandana made three trips to the sky lobby, saving as many people as he could, until the burning building collapsed,” part of Crowther’s memorial page on the 9/11 Memorial website reads.

The memorial page further details that when Crowther’s mother read the story in The New York Times, she knew it had to be her son, as he had carried a red handkerchief since he was a child.

Trump posthumously awarded Crowther the Presidential Medal of Freedom during the ceremony.

Critics on social media quickly jumped on Trump’s remarks about Crowther being “more famous” than him.

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Some criticised the president for being unable to not make every event about him in some way while others urged people not to let Trump’s remarks distract from Crowther’s heroic actions.

See more reactions to Trump’s remarks here:

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Stefany Shaheen, daughter of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, wins New Hampshire House primary

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Stefany Shaheen, daughter of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, wins New Hampshire House primary

The Shaheen political dynasty lives on in New Hampshire.

Stefany Shaheen, the eldest daughter of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), won Tuesday’s hotly contested Democratic primary for the state’s 1st District, defeating Maura Sullivan and a host of other rivals despite facing attacks that she was leaning on her well-known surname.

The seat, left open by Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas when he opted to run for Senate, is considered to be fairly competitive for the general election — former Vice President Kamala Harris won it by just two points in 2024.

Shaheen attempted to create distance from her mother throughout her campaign, rebuking the deal the senator helped broker to end last fall’s government shutdown and leaning into her public service in Portsmouth and medical-research advocacy on the trail.

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Still, her family name helped her build an early polling lead and bank financial support.

Nearly $740,000 raised by Shaheen’s campaign came from donors who had previously given to her mother — 39 percent of total itemized campaign dollars, according to a POLITICO analysis. One of those donors told POLITICO the senator reached out last fall seeking their support for her daughter.

Sullivan, Shaheen’s main rival, attempted to weaponize the scion’s family ties in a year where the Democratic base has repeatedly spurned candidates with a perceived connection to the establishment.

The primary grew acrimonious in its closing weeks as Shaheen and Sullivan tangled over campaign donations and aired attack ads as polls showed a tightening race. The contest also underwent a rapid winnowing toward the end as two candidates dropped out; one, progressive Christian Urrutia, endorsed Shaheen.

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Britain should not pay a penny in slavery reparations

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Britain should not pay a penny in slavery reparations

The pressure on British taxpayers to start coughing up money to fund reparations for the historic enslavement of Africans by some of their ancestors is mounting. In February, the African Union adopted a resolution proposed by its champion for reparations and Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama, which identifies slavery as a crime against humanity. In March, the UN General Assembly passed Ghana’s resolution describing transatlantic chattel slavery as ‘the gravest crime against humanity’ and calling for reparations as ‘a concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs’. While 123 states supported it, only three (Argentina, Israel and the US) opposed it, and 52 (including the UK) abstained.

This week, Jamaica has formally petitioned King Charles III, urging him to request legal advice from the judicial committee of the Privy Council – the final court of appeal – on whether Britain is obliged to provide a remedy for slavery and its enduring consequences. At this November’s gathering of Commonwealth leaders in Antigua and Barbuda, the former prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, has declared it ‘inconceivable’ that the issue of reparations won’t be at the heart of it.

Those pressing Britain from without have allies within. In March 2023, Labour MP Clive Lewis – supported by colleagues Nadia Whittome and Dawn Butler – called for the UK government to enter into ‘meaningful negotiations’ with Caribbean countries about reparations. The following month, Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy demanded that then prime minister Rishi Sunak apologise ‘for our country’s role in slavery and colonialism’. And, since 2023, the Irish billionaire Denis O’Brien has been funding a parliamentary lobbying campaign for slavery reparations based in Lewis’s office.

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Even David Lammy, until last year Britain’s foreign secretary, has expressed sympathy. Speaking as a backbench MP in June 2018, he said:

‘The Caribbean nations have been united in wanting to put the issue of reparations back on the table… It is important that this country hears and listens… Let us consider: what do reparations look like for those Caribbean nations? How do we make that work?’

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Then, as shadow justice secretary in 2020: ‘The starting point is truth and reconciliation… we’re no longer in a society where we question notions like white privilege.’ Lammy said that ‘we have to discuss power and reckoning and repairing – and that to some extent is obviously financial’.

But the case for Britain paying reparations is historically and morally ludicrous. It depends on a cartoonishly simplistic – even racist – tale of whites exploiting blacks. Yet, as indicated by the subtitle of Martin Plaut’s 2025 book, Unbroken Chains: A 5,000-year History of African Enslavement, Africans had been busy enslaving other Africans for centuries before European traders first appeared off the coast of west Africa in the mid-1400s. Those they didn’t consume in human sacrifices, Africans sold first to the Romans and then to the Arabs. And when the Portuguese, Spanish and British came in search of African slaves, they didn’t have to venture inland to hunt them down. They simply waited on the coast for African slave-traders to bring them. Those African traders included the ancestors of many Ghanaians, among them – according to Alistair Parker’s recent History Reclaimed article – President Mahama himself.

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It’s reckoned that Europeans transported 12.75million Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas. Of these, about a quarter were taken by the British. Caricom (an organisation of Caribbean states) and the African Union are keen to broadcast such figures. Others they’re keen to bury – in particular, the nine million Africans taken to the Mediterranean and the 12million transported to the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and west of India. Those Africans were first enslaved by other Africans and then sold to Arabs.

Let’s do what reparations advocates don’t do: be fair and put British involvement in proportion. In 1804, there were an estimated 45million chattel slaves around the world, of which the British share in the West Indies was just over one per cent. Of a total of at least 41million African slaves bought and transported across the Atlantic, the Sahara and the Indian Ocean, British merchants bought just under eight per cent, whereas Arabs were responsible for 37 per cent. But the original enslavers and traders of almost 100 per cent were other Africans. In the 1850s, the Fulani people of what is now northern Nigeria ran vast plantations employing four million slaves at any one time – more than the total transported to the Americas by the British in over 140 years.

What’s more, unlike any African nation, the British repented of their involvement in slave-trading and slavery, and in the early 1800s were among the first peoples in the history of the world to abolish them. They then used their imperial dominance to suppress the slave trade, not least in Africa itself. The Beninese historian, Abiola Félix Iroko, has written that, ‘When the slave trade was abolished [by the British], Africans were against abolition’. Indeed, according to Plaut, many of them are still against it. Today, the trade and the institution are alive and well in Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Sudan and Libya.

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That the African Union is pressing for British reparations for slavery is not only ludicrous – it’s outrageous, too. What’s more, it could cripple the Commonwealth, plunging it into rancorous disputes about the past and spooking private philanthropists otherwise keen to fund educational and environmental projects for the future. China, Russia and Iran would look on with glee.

The only reason Caribbean nations aren’t pressing their reparations case upon the Africans and Arabs is that they know they’d get short shrift. The British, however, look ripe for plucking, since our progressive elites have long loved to wallow in exaggerated guilt. Such indulgent virtue-signalling is about to get very expensive, costing us all. It needs to stop.

Nigel Biggar is a Conservative peer, Regius Professor emeritus of moral theology at the University of Oxford and author of Reparations: Slavery and the Tyranny of Imaginary Guilt (Swift, 2025).

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Republicans are hoping ‘Trump-a-palooza’ isn’t only about Trump

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Republicans are hoping ‘Trump-a-palooza’ isn’t only about Trump

President Donald Trump will be at the center of this week’s GOP midterm convention. Many of his fellow Republicans are hoping he doesn’t make it all about him.

The parade of lawmakers, candidates, donors and party officials now headed to Dallas for the two-day spectacle are counting on Trump to make a compelling pitch on the national stage before voters hit the polls.

According to interviews with dozens of Republicans, they are largely hoping for a two-pronged approach aimed at getting the president’s committed supporters off the sidelines: a focus on what they call Democrats’ extreme positions and the accomplishments of the Republican Congress — most of which are now more than a year old.

“Communism vs. common sense,” Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) said in an interview, calling the event a “scene-setter” that should stay laser-focused on “what’s on the line” for voters in the election.

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Republicans have reasons to be wary. Trump’s approval ratings are at record lows for his time in office, and many swing-district GOP lawmakers are torn between running from an unpopular president and alienating his base of committed supporters.

There is little evidence Trump is content to let rank-and-file Republicans run away from him. The first pair of national midterm ads funded by his cash-rich political operation put Trump at the very center.

One ad begins with businessman Dana White extolling Trump as “the toughest, most resilient person that I’ve ever met.”

The other is more up congressional Republicans’ alley, with a Trump voiceover running through a litany of tax cuts included in last year’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

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Even if not all agree Trump is the party’s best spokesperson at this point, they are eager to see a new effort to promote the tax cuts, which were enacted in July 2025, and want to see them touted anew in Dallas.

“It’s incredibly important that we highlight what we’ve accomplished,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) said in an interview. “That’s the perfect venue for that.”

“It’s a great opportunity for us to brag about what the Republican Party has done the last year and a half,” added Rep. Craig Goldman (R-Texas). “So certainly talking about the One Big Beautiful Bill.”

While Van Orden and Goldman are attending the convention, which kicks off Wednesday and ends Thursday, many other lawmakers and candidates are staying back in their districts. Some of those Republicans said they have scheduling conflicts or simply want to campaign back home.

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But there are also qualms about Trump’s obsession with priorities that many of them consider off-message ahead of the midterms — such as pressuring Congress to take up the GOP elections bill known as the SAVE America Act.

As GOP lawmakers begged Trump to get serious about tackling the high cost of living, the president has instead openly scoffed at “affordability” as an issue concocted by Democrats to hurt Republicans.

He refused for months to help pass a major legislative package over the summer designed to help lower housing costs, and his trade wars and ongoing conflict with Iran have contributed to persistent inflation. A recent import deal designed to address rising beef prices came at the cost of upsetting American cattlemen.

Speaker Mike Johnson brushed off a question last week about the risk of having candidates show up at a Trump-focused event given his disapproval ratings.

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“It was the president’s idea, which is why he’s getting credit for it, and it’s rightfully so,” Johnson said. “I think it’s going to be an extraordinary opportunity for us to get a couple of nights on national television to talk about our extraordinary record of achievement.”

Other Republicans said the president was well positioned to send a message of “promises made, promises kept.”

“Politics 101 is just telling folks what you’re going to do, and then come to Washington and do it, and then go back and tell them what you did,” said Rep. Mark Harris (R-N.C.). “When you look at President Trump’s agenda, securing the border, we’ve done that. That he wanted to make the tax cuts permanent, we’ve done that.”

“Peace through strength — and I think we have moved in that direction,” he added. “Obviously, we got detoured to this journey over in Iran.”

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If there is one consensus message Republicans want the convention oriented around, it’s the choice between the legislative record Trump will be touting and a Democratic Party that they argue has moved way too far to the left — especially as progressive candidates, some of them democratic socialists, continue to win key primaries.

Rep. Brian Jack (R-Ga.), a deputy chair of the House GOP campaign arm, said “you’re going to see on full display each night a contrast that we’ve never seen before in politics.”

“You’ve got Republicans that are campaigning on commonsense ideas. You’ve got Democrats that are being drawn to the absolute most extreme left of their party,” he said. “So I expect each night to see that on full display.”

RNC national press secretary Natalie Baldassarre also said in a statement that the event would “put front and center Democrats’ desire to abolish police and prisons, raise costs, and strip away our freedoms,” while also promoting “Republicans’ historic achievements.”

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“The Democratic Party has taken a turn for the worse recently,” added Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), who is in a competitive race and not attending the convention. “America needs to be quite aware of that as they make their decision here in November.”

LaLota is just one of scores of Republican members who are choosing not to travel to the convention — which has a price tag of $25,000 and up for lawmakers attending — but who have an interest in how the event goes off and what impression it gives voters.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) called the midterm convention — the first held since Democrats did them in the late 1970s and early 1980s — “an interesting concept” and said he would be paying close attention to the size of the television audience. But he said he would be back in his safe red district campaigning.

“I’m going to look forward to listening to it on the radio as I’m driving down the road, going from one spot in my district to another,” he said.

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Jordain Carney and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

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Supreme Court rejects bid to revive Missouri’s pro-GOP redistricting before midterms

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Supreme Court rejects bid to revive Missouri’s pro-GOP redistricting before midterms

A ruling from the Supreme Court on Tuesday means Missouri voters will likely go to the polls this fall under the same congressional map used two years ago, not one Republican state lawmakers adopted to try to pick up an additional House seat for the GOP.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh turned down a Republican-backed emergency appeal that sought to block a Missouri Supreme Court ruling last week restoring earlier district lines and ordering voters to weigh in on the redistricting plan in November for use in future elections.

Kavanaugh issued the ruling because he handles urgent matters arising in the 8th Circuit, which includes Missouri. Kavanaugh issued no explanation of his decision, nor did he indicate that he referred the matter to the full court, as is customary in significant cases. Missouri officials could ask another justice for relief, but such requests are almost never granted.

The justices rarely disturb state courts’ decisions about matters like the referendum petitions in Missouri that sought to put the redistricting before voters for approval.

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However, lawyers for Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins warned the Supreme Court that the state faced “disaster” and “unprecedented chaos” in part because primaries already took place under the new lines last month.

Democrats argued any last-minute chaos to Missouri’s election administration was intentionally created by Hoskins, pointing to Republican leaders in the state arguing that delaying the decision on the redistricting referendum would benefit Republicans.

President Donald Trump denounced the state supreme court ruling last week.

“The Election Process, as usual, is being disturbed in America!” he wrotein a post on Truth Social. “Missouri must be able to use the map that was in effect just a couple of months ago, in the Primary. This is a Dark Day for “Justice” in Missouri!”

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