The horrors of poor maternal care are compounded by how little we Brits are told about the raw realities and risks of birth. Why was I taught more about plants' reproductive systems than my own? 

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Racial disparities in dementia treatment are killing Black and Asian people who die earlier as symptoms are missed and diagnosis comes too late.

Suella Braverman can rant all she likes: The anti-immigration blitz failed to save Conservative seats in the local elections, and won't work in the general election either.  Labour can now afford to go on the attack - rejecting the very premise of immigration as a threat, and focusing on what people really want: a hopeful, positive, inspiring vision for the future. 

With a steady 20-point lead, Labour should be comfortable turning down defectors who risk muddying the party's core values and contaminating it with Tory sleaze. “The effect is cumulative,” warns one MP. 

Keir Starmer's speech on Friday is further proof Labour would, actually, be an improvement over the Tories - but in its current form, the changes he proposed should only be the beginning of much deeper asylum reform. 

Our magazine's newsroom team has expanded yet again - with a Westminster Editor, a new Senior Editor and an Audience Engagement Editor, respectively. Grünewald moves over from The Independent's lobby team, Shadijanova held senior roles in gal-dem. Race has overseen a very rapid growth in followers and interactions since joining in March. 

Bailiffs serve influencer with British lawsuit at Bucharest compound - Despite women alleging multiple rapes, beatings, and lifelong psychiatric injuries, English law could cap compensation at sum worth than a single one of Tate's sports cars - Crowdfunder launched to support costly litigation as Crown Prosecution fails to act

Voting behaviour varied wildly from one place to the next, but there's one thing that was constant: the feeling that the sooner Rishi Sunak goes to the people, the better. Our National and North editors offer their view on the results. 

CCTV and motion sensors are becoming more common in primary and secondary schools - the aim is to improve behaviour, but the cost is a worrying slide towards privacy infringements. 

From answering machines in the 90s to the iconic WhatsApp voice notes of recent years, UK rappers have always used recorded messages to forge connection, intimacy and reveal their inner depths.

The government's legal obligations to disabled people's rights are patchy, allowing for years of violent political, rhetorical and bureaucratic abuse. There's a ready-made charter that can protect us - and it should be adapted into law. 

London Mayoral candidate Susan Hall vows to scrap ULEZ on day one. Under her rule, the capital’s green and public health credentials would be under grave threat.

It’s a measure of the gloom that has descended upon British conservatism that the passing of the Tories’ flagship Rwanda bill on the eve of St George’s Day barely raised a cheer from the right.

Panicked bluster and inaccurate generalities. We read the bizarre AI-generated rip-offs of Liz Truss’s new book - Ten Years to Save the West - so you don’t have to. 
 

The stench of rotting egg can be smelt for miles and is causing serious health problems. Local people want to know what's in the Bury dump, why those in charge have been allowed to break the law and the long-term implications. 

When we throw things ‘away’, what does that actually mean? In his highly acclaimed book Wasteland - which was published in paperback in April - journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis takes us on an eye-opening journey through the global waste industry.

1.4 million workers in the UK are living in a constant state of economic “double jeopardy”. Millennials are the most likely to find themselves in this situation - but precarity is not something we can afford to tolerate as a fact of life.

Pregnant people of colour are far more likely to experience abuse, trauma and death during and after childbirth. Even the doula sector is overwhelmingly white - but some professionals are pushing against the grain. 

Anthony Williams, a prominent voice in the campaign for Windrush justice, has died in Jamaica after losing faith in the government of the country he once served.

The inane attempt to prosecute people caring for their disabled loved ones - for unwittingly receiving slightly larger benefits, thanks to an admin glitch - is proof there is no hope for the Department. Once in power, Labour must close the DWP, restaff it top to bottom, and relaunch it under a new name. 

Wes Streeting pledged to implement Dr Cass' far-reaching recommendations wholesale. The policy he creates will depend on what he responds to - the report itself or the gender-critical spin on it. 

New newsletters and newspapers to be launched in Hyndburn, Altrincham & Sale and Warrington during the course of April and May expanding how The Lead covers the North of England

The UK Council for Psychotherapy was an early signatory of the professional ban on conversion therapy.  Last weekend, it withdrew from the professional memorandum against the practice - and has been working to legitimise a version of conversion therapy since late last year. 

As momentum builds toward a regional war and IDF discipline is showing signs of collapse, it's obvious that prolongation equals escalation. 

3,700 stately homes are being preserved for the nation - but the heritage of the people who actually built the country is being allowed to crumble. Applying for dedicated funding schemes requires expensive expertise, and one in eight applications is rejected. 

Britain’s boating community once moved according to the season; now, they are being forced from our rivers and canals by extortionate charges. 

A fast-track visa scheme was set up within weeks of Russia's invasion, allowing 74,000 Ukranians to come to Britain. But only 270 Palestinians from Gaza were welcomed in the UK since the war in Gaza began. A new campaign aims to change this before it's too late. 

The Mayor of Portland is taking the government to court for mooring the Bibby Stockholm in her town without permission. The government's reply is that the barge is actually on Crown land - all seabed 12 miles out from any British coast. We went to the opening hearing to find out more.  

Six Labour MPs have been trying for months to get on board the Bibby Stockholm to check the disturbing reports smuggled out by residents. Why are they being repeatedly denied? 

Most reflections in the public sphere this holiday weekend centre on the protagonist of the Easter story - on Jesus. But in 2024 Conservative Britain, Pontius Pilate appears to be the more emulated man. 

The UK is the first nation to be found in violation of the Convention on the Rights of People With Disabilities, mainly through its abysmal austerity policies. We went to the hearing to see what the Conservative government had to say for itself. 

Black Out nights don't exclude anyone, but create a rare environment where people of colour can enjoy art that speaks directly to their own experience, without feeling like a minority under a judgemental white gaze. A slew of opportunistic culture-war attacks by the Conservatives is putting these precious spaces at risk. 

Private ownership has been allowed to become synonymous with having the right to feel truly at home at all. A new generation of DIY influencers are bucking the trend, and are making renting - and social housing - appear fulfilling and desirable once again. 

Aristocrats like the Earl of Bathurst, who wants to charge the public for entry to the historically open park, retain control over a third of British land for one reason: because they agree to behave like stewards rather than landlords. The more entitled they act, the more this implicit social contract will fray. 

"We should have the National Audit Office in there. Hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been invested in the site which has been handed over to a third party who are making a fortune from it.”

The trailblazing MP was attacked by the Tories and silenced by the Speaker - but her own party has been keeping her in the cold for 11 long months, over hurtful remarks she has retracted long ago.

The annual Cheltenham Festival subjects thousands of local women to harassment and fear. Local authorities say sexual entertainment venues are to blame, but are they looking in the wrong direction?

The Churchill family, dodgy science, dodgier election leaflets, NIMBYs, anti-NIMBYs and Net Zero all converge on a plot "the size of Heathrow" earmarked for enough solar panels to power 300,000 homes. But who is paying for the lobbyist meant to turn Parliament against the project? 

From policing to prosecution, this was the British justice system at its most incompetent and culturally confused - trying to literally police conversation within the Black community. 

People aged 32-50 are part of the "lost generation" - woefully ill-prepared for later life, but unable to do much about it thanks to the cost of living crisis. 

The British-Nigerian historian, author and BAFTA-winning filmmaker on why younger generations are facing a unique convergence of challenges, and why they need more support to build the future of society. 

With 20% of fostering families leaving the system every year, why are Black and LGBTQ+ families still being deterred from becoming carers?

New data and testimonies suggest shocking levels of sanitary issues in Northern Ireland's few official Traveller sites. But even as the power-sharing government in Stormont returns to work, these communities appear to be no-one's priority. 

The dog whistles - and fog horns - about Muslims in Britain will only get louder as the general election approaches. The murkiness of what does and doesn't amount to Islamophobia is not helping.

Wayne Couzens - Sarah Everard's killer - was not "one bad apple", but a symptom of widespread rot. People of colour and other minoritised groups have been warning about police failings for decades. 

Landowners have turned thousands of natural landmarks into "access islands" - legal to roam in their own right, but impossible to get to without trespassing. 

The persistent denial of legal aid to Windrush compensation claimants is just the latest insult added to the injury -making tributes seem even more hollow. 

Artists are pushing sewage into the spotlight, closing the distance between politicians and pollution. Their work - from surfboards made of shit to the sewer transformed into a tropical paradise - reveals how nature, a vital source of inspiration, is being corrupted by greed and apathy.

After mass marine die-offs at Teesside Freeport, the government has been less than forthcoming about what really happened. Is it covering up for one disaster, or preparing for a future one? 

The government has decimated school support for kids with special educational needs - and now it's launched a crass attendance campaign that feels like a direct assault on the parenting skills of already struggling families. SEND parents are fighting back. 

The Chancellor's response to the recession news was as tone-deaf and as jarring as asking us to donate money to a public service he himself wouldn’t fund properly. Will Labour have the courage to be different? 

We hear a lot about the "boomerang generation": people who leave their parental home only to move back in. But care leavers like myself often don't have anywhere to boomerang to. Our support system needs to change. 

It seems official recession was newsworthy enough to dominate the national headlines for much of the week. Up here, you don't need headlines to see the devastation - you just need to step out of the door or look out the window.

Women in same-sex relationships report experiencing homophobia and a lack of support from the healthcare services during their partner's pregnancy - and postpartum.  

The decision to renounce a vitally needed and widely popular policy doesn't make any sense - electorally or economically. 

A national day, a monument, and now an Overground line. These are perfectly reasonable ways to celebrate the Windrush Generation. But in stark contrast to the Post Office fiasco, the Conservatives are dragging its feet in compensating the living victims of the Windrush scandal, and is showing every intention of dumping this on the next government. We can't allow this to happen. 

The new data on rising infant illness and mortality is shocking. It is the direct result of a decade of state services rollback - and as the mother of two young children, I’ve witnessed the effects first-hand. 
 

My dad discovered he had cancer in similar circumstances to King Charles. But unlike the King, he wasn’t diagnosed or commencing treatment within two weeks - it took months. He died within a year of his diagnosis. 

Don't speak. Don't take your eyes off the teacher. Just nod - or else. Britain's schools are starting to feel like dystopian nano-states that cherish performative obedience and quantifiable grades above all else. How come? And why are private schools exempt from the tough love meted out to working class kids? 

 For almost seven years, there has been little serious engagement between governing parties on the challenges facing Northern Ireland. Now they're heading back into Stormont, under an unprecedented Sinn Fein First Minister - but the long-term future remains uncertain and fragile.

The "Evil Plot" to replace Sunak with Badenoch won't win Tories the election - but so far, the roster of candidates for next Tory leader does suggest Starmer will face continuous far-right backlash, no matter how carefully he governs. He might as well go the whole nine yards. 

Centuries of Danish and Canadian colonialism and a sweeping ban on seal products have left Inuit societies reeling. Now, some are working to reclaim their culture - and to invite the world to experience it first-hand. 

The UK armed forces really are dangerously depleted - by the Tories own wanton cuts and piss-poor outsourcing, not by lack of patriotism. 

NHS funding cuts are exacerbating inequalities in IVF outcomes - with Black women starting fertility treatment later, experiencing lower rates of success, and even being excluded altogether due to inaccurate metrics. 

Despite its comfortable image, the seaside city faces a unique convergence of every single aspect of the national housing shortage  - and 10 new people present as homeless every single day.

Thirteen years on from the uncovering of a network of child sexual abusers in Rotherham and Rochdale, how are the towns dealing with their legacy of abuse, how do survivors live with their trauma, and what lessons have been learnt?

The parallels between the Post Office scandal and the Windrush scandal are clear. As the headlines die away, it’s all too easy for those in power to quietly revoke their promises. Windrush has shown us that public outrage can only ever be a starting point.

Experts are looking at Rishi Sunak’s apparent success in cutting down the asylum backlog - and they are sounding the alarm.

The rate of suicide for female nurses in the UK is  already 23% higher than for women in the general population - and it's still growing. Low staffing and the resultant overwork are among the suspected factors. 

Housing prices are pushing families out of London. Primary schools no longer have enough students to function and shut down. Secondary schools lose their local intake and follow suit. And local economies suffer. London is being hollowed out as a living city - at an ever-accelerating pace. 

A lot of South Africa's case against Israel hinges on the question of Israel's intentions - but genocides through history show premeditation is not a prerequisite. 

The scandal was long in the public eye, but feeling something is vastly different to merely knowing it, and narrative productions is how many of us connect to issues emotionally. This is why ongoing cuts to production budgets spell disaster. 

The new Channel 4 film is a well-rounded documentary on the planet's most famous misogynist—and it leaves you asking how to address his corrosive impact on young men and boys.  

Conservatives have brandished migration fears as key to retaining Labour strongholds they won in 2019. But recent polling and interviews paint a more complex picture on migration - and while many voters are back to pre-Brexit positions, many are also saying they won't bother to vote in 2024 at all. 

It’s hard to imagine any other setting in which the fate of more than 150 missing children is dismissed with a shrug by the state - but a system of forced MRI and X-ray tests to uncover mythical adults pretending to be kids gets passed into law. 

Dark as this year has been, be cheered by the thought this is likely the last Christmas we'll spend under a Conservative government, for a good long while. But this is a reason to get motivated - not complacent. 

This year, locals of the south-east London suburb made headlines for hitting back spectacularly against the far right - but their neighbourhood has a long and vaunted progressive history.

Documentary filmmaker Paul Sng speaks with The Lead's Leah Borromeo (also a documentary filmmaker) about his latest film "Tish" - an intimate and powerful portrait about photographer Tish Murtha and her social realist images of 1970s and 1980s Britain. 

Pittance meant to cover clothes, hygiene products - and transport. Home Office: Asylum seekers need to budget and plan their expenditure according to the income available, "like all people." 

The warnings were ignored, the concerns played down. And now a man has died. He will not be the last person to lose their life on the Home Office barge. 

From a minister who couldn't care less, to no minister at all, to a hastily appointed underling who'll be splitting the job with two other roles. Could the Tories show us any more contempt? 

Sleazy, extremist and far more visible on social media than on the streets of Blackpool, the dishonourable member will not be missed here.

His writing felt like a door swinging wide open, light pouring in and illuminating new ideas where other poets seemed to put up barriers. Zephaniah will live on not only in his own works—but in the works of so many creatives he mentored, supported and inspired. 

Rishi Sunak's speech - praising migrants who play by the rules while announcing rule changes to make more migration and asylum avenues illegal - belies a simple fact: rules and laws can, and should, be changed in the opposite direction too. 

When it comes to the housing crisis, our attention is drawn mainly to towns and cities. But the countryside is running out of affordable housing too, with young people and new families paying the price. 

Even when your think you've seen the bland self-interest under the former PM's bluster, you find there's lower still to go. 

When plans to house asylum seekers in a small-town hotel in Wales were reversed, anti-immigrant protesters celebrated. But the real story is that of a government failure more than a grassroots uprising - and a community left bitterly divided by the far right.

Lead Editor (North) and Senior Editor (North) join to launch new newsletters and coverage for The Lead in Blackpool, Bolton, Stoke-on-Trent and Teesside. And we'll have new printed editions too.

Most people in the UK get a warning if their family's medical history contains something they should watch out for. But if you've been adopted, you and your doctor are flying blind—and the NHS won't even refer you for genetic screening. This needs to change.

A record number of asylum seekers in the UK have become eligible for work permits after being strung out for over 12 months. But far from being a pull factor for economic migrants the policy is a shambles, NGOs say—as they call on the new Home Secretary to pull the plug. 

The UK is burning up its green credentials for one man's political gain. His fleeting appearance at COP28 is merely an affirmation of that. 

A glorified spreadsheet, a white elephant, or something more sinister? After years of courtship, the Palantir contract to handle data for the NHS is hardly a surprise - but to those who've been following the saga closely, it's still a shocker. 

The Tories are encouraging immigration with one hand and incite against migrants with another. It's time we stopped playing their game. 

Migration numbers have hit a record high. Why aren't Tories celebrating this as a win for Brexit? 

Half of young women prisoners harmed themselves last year—with an average of 30 incidents per woman per year, new figures suggest. Many of the women report receiving virtually no support for their mental health.

Eight-year waiting lists on the NHS. Seven-hour waits for ambulances. Slashes to the police force and jaw-dropping cuts to the education system. With Belfast government paralysed by Brexit fallout, the country is in deepening crisis - but Westminster just wants its money back.

A 'prostitute caution' requires no evidence, merely suspicion - but stays on your record for a 100 years and blocks you from finding other work. 

Suella Braverman is now the most likely successor to Rishi Sunak - and while she's not likely to win elections, she'll use her position to drag the Overton window ever further to the right. Labour mustn't let her. 

From scrappage schemes for older cars, to more walkable and bike-friendly cities - there's so much more the government should be doing to help people adapt. 

Far-right figures are leeching off the Gaza war—some masquerading as pro-Palestinian, some as pro-Israeli. Don't let them. 

I have first-hand experience of the risks Braverman's incendiary comments cause to homeless people. 

Sweeping changes to taxes on companies profiteering from wartime price hikes mirror demands pressed by the oil and gas lobby, documents reveal. 

Creativity, curiosity, self-esteem and social skills are essential for our well-being - but because they are not quantifiable, they are being left behind. 

The sooner the war stops, the more lives will be saved, the more paths to diplomacy will open, and the more chances Israelis will have to topple Netanyahu. A shared call for a ceasefire by both Starmer and Sunak would reverberate far beyond Westminster.

Johnson and his ilk have the slippery habit of failing up. This can't be allowed to happen this time. 

Apathy, reticence and Brexit have left the UK far behind the curve on prosecuting war crimes - making it perhaps the safest country in Western Europe for suspects to visit without fear of arrest. 

The Israel-Palestine conflict is not ending anytime soon. Here's how to stay involved, but still conserve energy for the long run.  

Brits can’t name a single Black British historical figure - with our flawed education system, that's hardly surprising.

This village drinks from a contaminated beck - but residents have been told connecting to the water grid will cost £150,000.

I didn't want to leave Leeds - but I felt I had no choice. More young people than ever feel the same.

From medics to mediators, social workers to journalists: here is how you can support the people doing life-saving work on the ground. 

Greta Thunberg and other protesters like her are being arrested, fined and threatened with jail. These intentionally aggressive tactics aim to bully us into silence.

Far from being insulated from the ups and downs of the real estate market, social and emergency housing has become tethered to it - and is facing an entirely new crisis of its own. 

Big pharmaceutical companies position themselves as saviours of humanity - but in truth, they siphon billions from richer governments while abandoning people in poorer countries.

From rescuing Brits and their families to mediating or imposing a ceasefire, there's much more the UK can and should do. 

Would Britain’s plan to relocate a number of asylum seekers to Rwanda be good for the African nation?

Exciting, exhilarating and FOMO-inducing even while you were there? Yes. Mind-numbingly predictable, regimented and dull? Why, also yes. 

Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick thinks we should have more kids to solve the care crisis. But the solution lies outside the traditional family box.

Amid a labour shortage, the government puts ideology before the economy.

With delays in the system rife, asylum seekers spend many months in forced idleness until their cases are decided. Here are three people's stories.

Forced poverty and fear of deportation make asylum seekers easy targets.

A hostile bureaucracy stops doctors and other key workers from contributing to the UK.

There are tens of thousands of people who, like me, have fled wars, oppression and violence, but who are now in limbo.

Suella Braverman likes to portray herself as tough on crime. But for all her rhetoric, it is clear there is a particular crime that the Home Secretary has no interest in tackling. 

Shakhtar Donetsk has become emblematic of Ukraine's determination to preserve as many vestiges of normal life as possible - including football. A new book delves into the history of the club. 

 “We can use this to get the discussion of mass deportations into general conversation and wake up some sheeple," gushed one activist on a far-right Telegram channel. Others, meanwhile, called on Suella Braverman and Rishi Sunak to also deport themselves. 

As Suella Braverman threatens to slam the door on victims of homophobia, a Freedom of Information request shows the Home Office has been holding at least 129 asylum seekers identifying as LGBTQI+ as recently as last year. Many report homophobic bullying from staff and fellow detainees - and indifference from authorities.  

Nearly 2,000 people died "during or after" contact with police in the UK since 1990. Charges brought against only 10 policemen. Only one was convicted. And the killings are just the tip of the iceberg of institutional racism. 

Workshops mixing politics and play, community and craft, are revitalising democratic participation in a more direct way than a distant parliament ever could. 

From pirate radio to Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage, journalist and rapper Franklyn Addo pens an extraordinary narrative of the history, present and future of grime music in his new book. 

Since Brexit, hundreds of thousands of Brits living abroad have struggled with everything from access to pensions to emigration. After years of feeling out of sight, out of mind, some are calling for a new approach: overseas constituencies. 

There’s no contradiction between being pro-new homes, and pro-rent control. If London is to tackle the housing crisis, it desperately needs both. 

In his new book, Ben Judah attempts to tell the inner stories of contemporary Europe as lived by the people who inhabit it - but can never seem to get close enough. 

Findings shared with The Lead show as many as 194 housing association properties being put up by auction houses in a single month. The real figures could be much higher. 

Exclusive analysis of NHS data shows 30% of sickness absence among midwives was for mental health reasons - the highest in the NHS. The profession is plagued by a vicious circle of understaffing and excessive workloads, and both veteran and newly qualified staff are dropping out. 

Digitising railway stations and removing staff will make them less accessible - not more.

Ghanian artist and poet Kwame Aidoo reports his impressions from the climate change Biennale that is bringing African voices into the heart of the architectural mainstream - despite obstruction from Italy's own government. 

Farage and Fox attacking celebrations of Black culture shows why they’re needed: we’re not remotely “postracial” yet. 

Training about racism and anti-racism should be a statutory part of the mandatory safety training that all teachers have to go through. 

We can't let cynical, negative framing of the annual Caribbean celebration take away from the beauty and brilliance of Carnival.

Just when momentum in the writer’s strike began to wane, actors joined the picket line. This unprecedented solidarity has re-energised the movement.

A new book by barrister Dr Sam Fowles unpacks how those we voted into government have nothing but contempt for the democratic system that got them there.

When Katharine Quarmby was visiting her parents in the Waveney Valley, she encountered a story about the murder of woman who was staked through the heart and buried at the edge of town.

As a new exhibition celebrating Fuji music opens in London, Bobo Omotayo explores the unsung legacy of Nigeria's indigenous music genre.  

We need to accept that humans are part of the rewilding process - and that we won't always tread carefully and "leave no trace". We are all part of the habitat.

A new Deaf-led initiative to design more inclusive buildings and address systemic inequities has launched this summer.