Politics

Thursday’s local elections have been pencilled in as a day of peril for Rishi Sunak for so long, it’s hard to remember when Tory turbulence – and maybe even a leadership challenge – was not expected after 2 May. Most council seats up for election were last contested in 2021, the high watermark of Boris

Rishi Sunak has failed to rule out holding a general election in July, as speculation remains rife over the timing of the national vote. The prime minister has repeatedly said his “working assumption” is the election would take place in the second half of this year – with the law stating January 2025 is the

Migrants travelling to Ireland after arriving in the UK on small boats is a sign the Rwanda scheme is already working as a deterrent, Rishi Sunak has said.  Sky News’s Trevor Phillips asked the prime minister if migrants finding their way to Ireland was a sign the UK was “exporting the problem”. Ireland’s deputy prime

A defiant Humza Yousaf has told Sky News he will not resign as Scotland’s first minister. Pressure has been building on the SNP leader after he tore up the power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens – prompting a no-confidence motion in his leadership and a threatened knife-edge vote. However, Mr Yousaf, on a visit to

Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf is battling to save his job as he faces a knife-edge no-confidence vote. The SNP leader triggered a crisis at Holyrood after he dramatically brought the power sharing deal with the Scottish Greens to an end. Follow live updates in the Politics Hub The backlash has plunged Mr Yousaf’s future

Call it the Rishi Sunak reset week or, to borrow from The Spectator’s Katy Balls, the shore-up Sunak week – the prime minister will be going into this weekend feeling the past few days have been a job well done.  He has got his flagship Rwanda bill through parliament and is promising a “regular rhythm”

The Scottish Greens will not support Scotland’s first minister in a confidence vote next week after they were sacked as government ministers earlier today. The Green’s leader, Patrick Harvie, is expected to make the announcement at 5.30pm. His party was forced out of government by SNP leader Humza Yousaf, who said the power-sharing pact had

The SNP and Scottish Greens power-sharing deal has formally ended following a row over a climbdown on climate targets, Sky News understands. It comes after First Minister Humza Yousaf summoned a meeting of his Cabinet – usually held on a Tuesday – this morning following speculation over the future of the Holyrood deal, first struck

MPs have voted in favour of the government’s Renters’ Reform Bill – despite it including an indefinite delay to the end of no-fault evictions. A debate on the legislation ran throughout Wednesday afternoon, including around a new clause from the government which would hold off outlawing Section 21s until a review of the courts system

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has said he wants the new NATO target for defence spending to increase from the current 2% of gross domestic product to 2.5%. Mr Shapps said it would make a “real difference” if the countries signed up to the military alliance met his proposed target. He told Kay Burley on Sky

Rishi Sunak is to increase UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030 as he warns European allies that the continent is at a “turning point” in the face of the growing threats from Russia, Iran and China.  Speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the UK prime minister said he planned to steadily

It was shortly after midnight when peers in the House of Lords finally ended their long fight against the government’s Safety of Rwanda Bill. So in the end there was no need for sleeping bags or camp beds and dire threats made by government whips of votes at 3am or even later never materialised. It

Could flights to Rwanda bring about the change in fortunes this frustrated prime minister so desperately needs? The polls remain stubbornly unmoving, suggesting nothing Rishi Sunak has done so far has captured the public’s imagination, while the Labour Party, which has promised to junk the Rwanda policy altogether, appears to be on track for a

Rishi Sunak is undertaking a week-long blitz of activity and announcements at home and abroad in a bid to convince a sceptical party he has the ideas and drive to continue as prime minister. After weeks of criticism about an empty legislative agenda, an inability to set the agenda, and divisions in the Tory Party

An MP facing allegations of misusing campaign funds has quit the Conservative Party and says he won’t stand at the next general election. Claims surfaced earlier this week in The Times that Mark Menzies had used political donations to cover medical expenses and pay off “bad people” who had reportedly locked him in a flat

Rishi Sunak has revealed he will keep the two-child benefit cap if the Conservatives win the next election. The policy limits the benefits parents on Universal Credit can claim for their children. Writing in The Sun on Sunday, the prime minister said: “Working families do not see their incomes rise when they have more children.