Politics

Boris Johnson on Friday warned that “team world” was “5-1” down at half-time in the fight to tackle global warming, as he implored world leaders to act now on the eve of two global gatherings of world leaders. Speaking to journalists en route to the G20 in Rome, the prime minister acknowledged the scale of

The UK’s Brexit minister has threatened to retaliate in the escalating fishing row with France with “practical responses”. Lord Frost said he made clear to EU Brexit negotiator Maros Sefcovic if France carried through with threats to disrupt fisheries and hauliers next week the UK would react “accordingly”, in both physical and legal ways. The

Britain has begun preparations for a major clash with the EU by activating a key government committee to look at the fallout from suspending cooperation over Northern Ireland, Sky News has learnt. Ministers are holding discussions inside the key cabinet committee, which oversaw Brexit fallout preparations, about the repercussions of triggering Article 16, which allows

A man has been charged with malicious communications after Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner received threats and abuse. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said 36-year-old Benjamin Iliffe, from Cambridgeshire, will appear at Huntingdon Magistrates’ Court later on Thursday to face the charge. Iliffe, of Slade Way, Chatteris, has also been charged with possessing cannabis. It comes

Rishi Sunak will hit the airwaves to sell his budget later, after it was warned that the chancellor’s economic set piece will leave the poorest families “far worse off”. Having vowed to build “a stronger economy for the British people” after the coronavirus crisis in his address on Wednesday, Mr Sunak will face questions about

A Treasury minister has not joined the traditional pre-budget photo in Downing Street due to his agoraphobia, he has revealed. Simon Clarke, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, is a senior member of Chancellor Rishi Sunak‘s team and has helped prepare Wednesday’s budget and spending review. He would have been expected to line up outside

Rishi Sunak has claimed his budget will deliver a stronger economy “fit for a new age of optimism”. In comments released by the Treasury ahead of the chancellor’s address to MPs in the Commons on Wednesday, Mr Sunak said the budget will commence the “work of preparing for a new economy post-COVID”. “An economy of

Campaigners have expressed their anger after the government voted down an amendment to a bill that would put a legal duty on water companies to stop raw sewage from being dumped into waterways. They are calling for water companies to pay to restore England’s coastlines after pouring sewage into rivers and the sea. Last week,

Millions of nurses, teachers and members of the armed forces will receive a pay rise next April as Rishi Sunak unfreezes public sector pay in the budget. In his second pay giveaway in 24 hours, after announcing a rise in the national living wage, the chancellor confirmed he is ending a one-year COVID freeze imposed

The chancellor is set to increase the national living wage to £9.50 in Wednesday’s budget, Sky News has been told. It will rise from the current living wage of £8.91 per hour for those aged 23 and over, which the government says will give full-time workers an extra £1,000 a year. The national living wage

When Rishi Sunak stands up to deliver his budget and three-year spending review on Wednesday it will be his first real opportunity to set the tenor of his chancellorship unencumbered from the immediate crisis of COVID – although the fall-out of this pandemic will undoubtedly loom large. It will make a change for a chancellor

Rishi Sunak has refused to be drawn on the future of the eastern leg of HS2 just three days before announcing his spending plans in the autumn Budget later this week. Deflecting a question on the matter on Sky’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday, the chancellor also failed to confirm whether a new Northern Powerhouse Rail

The removal of dangerous cladding from high-risk buildings is unlikely to be complete until seven-and-a-half years after the Grenfell Tower tragedy, government data suggests. The timeframe has been projected from analysis of the latest monthly figures released by the recently renamed Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLHC). If work continues at the current

The man accused of murdering Conservative MP Sir David Amess has appeared at the Old Bailey. Ali Harbi Ali, 25, appeared in the Central Criminal Court for the first time on Friday by video-link from high security Belmarsh prison. Ali is accused of stabbing to death the Conservative MP for Southend West during a constituency

A former British spy who wrote a dossier on Donald Trump said he once spent hours with then home secretary Theresa May, briefing her on the Russia threat. Christopher Steele also revealed he had been asked by a UK official to review sensitive government documents on Russia just days before his dossier, which alleged collusion

The government will not change the six-month gap between second doses of the coronavirus vaccine and the booster jab unless the UK’s vaccine advisory body recommends it, a health minister has said. Care minister Gillian Keegan told Kay Burley on Sky News that ministers will “do whatever” the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI)