Know where you stand

Republicans currently hold narrow majorities in both the House and the Senate, and the midterm elections take place on 3 November 2026. Final polls put Democrats ahead on the national ballot, and some projections have them winning the House. The Senate looks closer. Congress sets US spending and can check the president's tariffs, war powers and foreign policy, all of which affect the UK, including its trade deal, NATO and Iran-related military bases. A YouGov survey found most Britons prefer Democrats, while Reform voters lean Republican.

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Many English universities already make contextual offers, typically one to two grades below standard requirements, to applicants from lower-attaining state schools or deprived areas. There is no national rule, and Oxford and Cambridge use contextual data to prioritise interviews rather than to lower grade requirements. In July 2026 Universities UK, UCAS and the Sutton Trust issued guidance to make criteria more consistent from the 2027 cycle, and critics have since questioned its rationale.

The Commons has no fixed leave allowance for MPs. Parliament sets its own recess dates each session, and the 2026-27 calendar includes a summer recess from 16 July to 1 September, a conference recess, and a Christmas break from 17 December to 5 January. The Commons sits about 150 days a year. Recesses are not formal holidays: MPs use them for constituency work, surgeries and ministerial duties.

No public inquiry into energy bills currently exists. Ofgem's price cap for a typical household is £1,723 a year from October to December 2026, up 4% on the previous quarter and about 52% below the 2022 peak. Parliamentary committees have examined energy costs, including a Commons committee inquiry begun in 2025 and a 2025 Public Accounts Committee report. The October 2026 Budget promised a cost-control framework for policy costs on bills and the removal of the gas standing charge. Wholesale gas prices remain high amid the Middle East conflict.

The UK standard VAT rate is 20% on most goods whether bought in a shop or online, and the 28 October 2026 Budget left the rates unchanged. Instead, the Budget will make online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay collect VAT on UK sellers above £90,000 of sales from October 2027, with the money going towards business rates relief for high street businesses. Retail groups and think tanks have also floated a separate online sales tax, and a split VAT rate by sales channel would be a much bigger change.

Official figures show overall crime in England and Wales is broadly flat: the Crime Survey estimated about 9.7 million headline incidents in the year to June 2026, with no significant change on the year before. Police-recorded knife crime fell 6% in that period, while fraud rose 11% and recorded robbery rose 10%, partly because of better recording of business robberies. The Global Peace Index 2026 ranked the UK 39th, down from 35th. A 2026 King's College London study found the public widely believes crime is rising even where long-term data show falls.

Labour has ended power-sharing deals with the Greens in 11 English councils, including Sheffield, Warwick and Lewes, while deals continue in six others where Green groups met its conditions. The decision, taken by Labour's National Executive Committee in early November 2026, followed the Greens' October conference adopting a motion that Zionism be treated like any other form of racism. Labour says it cannot work with any party backing the policy. The Greens call it top-down interference that risks disrupting local services.

Fireworks sold to the public in the UK can legally be up to 120 decibels, under product safety rules that apply UK-wide. A government consultation that closed on 7 October 2026 proposed lowering the limit to 110dB, which would remove about a third of consumer products. It also asked about 100dB and 90dB, and no decision has been published. Councils currently have limited powers over firework noise, and ministers have said they have no plans to ban public sales.