Remembering big moments of 2025

From VE Day commemorations to a sporting success story and political intrigue to turmoil at the BBC, we round up the events from the first half of the past year

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Cowboy Carter, having missed out on the prize four times previously.

Runcorn and Helsby MP Mike Amesbury was given a 10-week prison sentence for punching a man in the street but had his prison sentence suspended for two years following an appeal. He resigned as an MP in March.

MARCH

European leaders arrived in London for a defence summit on Ukraine during which the Prime Minister pledged to "develop a coalition of the willing". Sir Keir Starmer had welcomed Volodymyr Zelensky to Downing Street the previous day in the wake of President Donald Trump's unprecedented public clash with the Ukrainian president in the White House's Oval Office.

Rachel Reeves used her spring statement to announce a series of public spending cuts in order to balance the books without raising taxes.

The number of children living in poverty in the UK reached a record high of almost 4.5 million. The figure was the highest since comparable records for the UK began in 2002/03, and had risen from an estimated 4.33 million in the year to March 2023.