THE Australian Svengali Lynton Crosby, who has led right-of-centre election campaigns around the world and is credited with David Cameron’s unexpected Commons majority two years ago, has contrived to reduce the British general election battle to one simple but excluding question: “Who do you want to lead Britain, Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn? Personality rather than policy is the battleground.

Brexit puts at risk the Government’s cross-border promotion of tourism, which has been in place as part of the Good Friday agreement, and threatens the Common Travel Area with Britain.

A surge for sterling against the euro following the unexpected outcome of the UK election will boost Irish exporters, but investors say long-held worries about Britain exiting the EU will now swiftly take centre stage.

David Cameron “bears some responsibility” for the stream of refugees fleeing to Europe from Libya, Ed Miliband insisted as he dismissed Tory claims that he was playing politics with the tragedy in the Mediterranean.

British prime minister David Cameron has pledged to double the number of homes built for first-time buyers by the end of the next parliamentary term in a bid to tackle Britain’s housing shortage.

Plans to enshrine the coalition target of balancing the UK’s books by the middle of the next parliament in a new Charter for Budget Responsibility, have been published by the Treasury.

Ed Miliband, leader of Britain’s opposition Labour party, yesterday sought to rally support for his economic policy, five months before an election, by portraying his rivals’ planned spending cuts as “extreme” and driven by a heartless ideology.

Even if the suggestion that Chancellor Angela Merkel drew a line in the sand more than a good country mile short of the kind of concessions Prime Minister David Cameron imagined might be made to prevent Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union has been reinterpreted to soften that inevitable reality check from Berlin, there is a simple lesson for our Government in its difficulties over Irish Water in that weekend spat.

Angela Merkel has warned David Cameron that his drive to curb immigration within the European Union is pushing Britain towards exiting the EU, according to German news reports.

The edge of the union is an angry place to be. With less than 12 hours to go before Scotland decides its destiny — forever if it breaks away, for a generation if it decides to stay — it is clear that the fault lines exposed by the referendum will sear through this country for long after the ballots are counted.

The UK Independence Party has rejected as “nonsense” Tory criticism of the party using an Irish actor in a poster about the impact of immigration on British jobs.

Scotland will be given the power to issue its own bonds starting next year, British prime minister David Cameron’s government said as it steps up its campaign to keep the country in the UK.

A £3.21bn chunk of UK-taxpayer-backed Lloyds Banking Group has been sold by the British Government as it begins the process of returning the bank to private hands.

There is a “long, hard road ahead” for the British economy, the UK's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will admit today as he closes the Liberal Democrat conference.

Proposals to change the way MPs are elected were decisively rejected by voters in a referendum across the UK today.

The United Nations is drafting a resolution to impose a no-fly zone over Libya as the international community edges closer to military intervention in the North African country.

DAVID Cameron admitted he finds it “painful” to work with former IRA chief Martin McGuinness.

IMMIGRANTS entering Britain to marry or join their partner will soon be asked to take an English language test first, the British government announced yesterday.

BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron was facing a growing backlash from Tory MPs last night over his plans to make it more difficult for the opposition to force a general election if the new coalition government is defeated on a vote of confidence.

THE Government could acquire an 18% stake in AIB today as the deadline arrives for the payment of €280 million that is due.

DAVID Cameron hailed “a historic and seismic shift” in Britain’s political landscape yesterday as he launched the country’s first coalition government since the Second World War.

THE Conservative-Lib Dem coalition which has put Tory leader David Cameron into 10 Downing Street is the best general election outcome for the Irish economy, according to Davy stockbrokers.

Formal negotiations between Labour and the Liberal Democrats resumed in the House of Commons today, as the parties struggled to form a viable government five days after the UK general election.

David Cameron insisted today that it was “decision time” for the Liberal Democrats as power-sharing talks ran into their fifth day.

BRITAIN was weighing a beleaguered yet experienced incumbent against an untested but charismatic Conservative rival – along with a surprise upstart contender – in an election yesterday that was so close it could yield an uncertain outcome and prolonged political turmoil.

LIBERAL Democrat leader Nick Clegg yesterday said he was aiming to “secure the majority of support” from the British electorate and had not entered into talks with either the Tories or Labour.

Britain is facing public spending cuts on a scale unseen for a generation whoever wins the general election, an influential think-tank warned today as it accused the main parties of failing to come clean with voters.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today accused the Conservatives of planning to cut school funding and scrap NHS waiting list guarantees in order to fund tax breaks for millionaires.

Gordon Brown today warned that his “novice” rivals could not be trusted to run the economy as he vowed to fight “as though my life depended upon it” to secure the return of a Labour government.

EVERY general election is billed as the most crucial in the history of the nation.

The British Conservative Party have stretched their poll lead in the wake of British Chancellor Alistair Darling’s Budget package, a poll showed.

There was more worrying news for British Conservative party leader David Cameron tonight as two more polls suggested the UK is on course for a hung parliament.

OPPOSITION leader David Cameron declared himself ready to take power yesterday, in a rousing address to his Conservatives’ last annual conference before elections he is tipped to win.

Scotland Yard chiefs were today studying allegations of large-scale phone-hacking by the News of the World.

CONSERVATIVE leader David Cameron hailed the return of former chancellor Kenneth Clarke to his front bench team yesterday as senior figures dismissed suggestions that the move would be divisive.

Canada’s opposition parties signed an unprecedented agreement to topple the Conservative government in a no-confidence vote next week and form a coalition government less than two months after national elections.

The Conservatives’ lead over Labour has been dramatically cut as Gordon Brown continues to win plaudits for his handling of the economic crisis, according to an opinion poll.

FORMER EU trade chief Peter Mandelson was elevated to the House of Lords yesterday to allow him to re-join the government — and immediately faced new criticism over money.

IT is a sign of the times — and a tribute to the political deftness of Ireland’s man in London, David Cooney — that the embassy in Britain will hold its first reception at a Conservative party conference this autumn.

THE Conservative Party is in talks with the Ulster Unionists about joining forces to create a new political movement in Northern Ireland.

The British Conservative Party is in talks with the Ulster Unionists about joining forces to create a new political movement in the North, it was revealed today.

Ken Livingstone’s defeat in the race for London mayor put the seal today on a disastrous set of elections for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Ken Livingstone today welcomed support he has received from former adversaries Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell in his fight to retain the London mayoralty.