Politics

Margaret Thatcher died on 8 April 2013. But the UK’s longest-serving post-war prime minister still casts a long shadow over politics today, more than a decade later. Only last week the Labour Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer cited her example in support of his deregulation plans. “In the 1980s, the Thatcher government deregulated finance capital…,”

Health minister Andrew Gwynne has been sacked over comments posted on a WhatsApp group. Mr Gwynne reportedly made antisemitic comments and ‘joked’ about a pensioner constituent, saying he hoped she died before the next election, according to the Mail on Sunday. In the WhatsApp chat, which contained Labour councillors, party officials and at least one

Dafydd Elis-Thomas, the former leader of Plaid Cymru, has died at the age of 78. Lord Elis-Thomas also served as the Welsh government’s culture, sport and tourism minister from 2017 to 2021. He served as his party’s leader between 1984 and 1991 and as MP for Merioneth, later Meirionnydd Nant Conwy, from 1974 to 1992.

Keir Starmer was touring the UK National Nuclear Laboratory in Preston when the Bank of England halved its 2025 growth forecast, cut interest rates for the third time in six months, warned of an uptick in inflation and said the national insurance hike on employers would hit prices and jobs more than expected.  It was

The Labour MPs who have set up a pressure group to counter the threat of Reform UK have been warned they risked promoting factionalism. Baroness Harman, a former deputy leader of the Labour Party, said setting up the group was also “problematic” because it gave the impression that those involved did not believe the leadership

The Foreign Office has revoked the accreditation of a Russian diplomat after a British official was expelled from Moscow last year. A Foreign Office spokesperson said the Russian ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, had been summoned to a meeting with a senior British official to revoke the accreditation of the diplomat. “This is in

The government has been accused of “ignoring” the voices of people who lost family in the Grenfell Tower tragedy in its decision to demolish the building. Grenfell United, which represents some bereaved and survivors, criticised the government’s conduct as “disgraceful and unforgiveable”. The news was announced in a meeting attended by deputy prime minister Angela

The Conservative Party is pledging to tighten immigration rules after Reform topped a landmark poll for the first time earlier this week. In her first major policy announcement as Tory Party leader, Kemi Badenoch is pledging to double the amount of time an asylum seeker needs to have been in the UK before claiming indefinite

A former Labour frontbencher has urged the government to condemn Donald Trump’s “barbaric” plan for a US takeover of Gaza as “ethnic cleansing”, in a move that risks reigniting internal party splits over the Middle East conflict. Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, a former shadow mental health minister who ran to be deputy leader, said the government

The government will look to introduce tougher laws on unlicensed drivers as part of its forthcoming road safety strategy, Sky News understands. It comes after Sky News reported on the story of Harry Parker, who was just 14-years-old when he was hit and killed by a car on his way to his Swindon school in

The symbolism was plain to see. Five years on from Brexit, the British prime minister on Monday was brought back into the club for one night only, invited to an informal dinner with the EU’s 27 leaders to talk about resetting relations after a bumpy Brexit. The invite was sent out weeks ago, with the

Reform have topped a Sky News/YouGov poll for the first time as the party continues to shake up British politics. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has edged in front on 25%, with Labour pushed into second on 24% and the Tories on 21%. The YouGov poll, taken on Sunday and Monday, also puts the Lib Dems

The UK and the US have a “fair and balanced trading relationship”, Number 10 has said, after Donald Trump claimed the UK is “out of line”. The American president suggested he is ready to impose tariffs on both the UK and the EU after he announced 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, and

More people are crossing the English Channel in small boats on the weekend. Our data analysis shows last year 40% of the total number of arrivals happened on a Saturday or Sunday. We have been looking into possible reasons why many more people are arriving in small boats on the weekend, and the explanation might

The government has vowed to stop businesses recruiting foreign workers instead of training people already in the UK. Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper criticised the current “relaxed free market approach”, which she says has led net migration to quadruple over the past four years. “A big driver… has been

Chancellor Rachel Reeves this week confirmed government support for dozens of big projects to boost growth, on top of Labour’s existing promise to build 1.5 million new homes. Major planning system reforms are under way in a bid to meet targets, but among the challenges the government faces in delivery is who will build them.

Energy giant Shell is due to install a multi-billion pound gas platform in the North Sea this spring despite being blocked from drilling, Sky News understands. The Jackdaw field, which it is claimed could eventually power more than a million UK homes, has to get fresh approval from Downing Street to extract gas after a

AstraZeneca has cancelled plans for a £450m vaccine manufacturing plant in Liverpool, blaming a cut in funding from government. The investment, announced last year in the Tories’ spring budget, was dependent on a “mutual agreement” with the Treasury and third parties, it was said at the time. It will no longer go ahead because Labour

Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband will find the government’s support for a third Heathrow runway “uncomfortable” but he won’t cause any “disruption”, Harriet Harman has said. The Labour peer told Sky News political editor Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast Mr Miliband is a “green conscience” in the cabinet “but we’ve been here before”.

Former Labour prime ministers Gordon Brown and Sir Tony Blair have led tributes to “working class hero” Lord Prescott at his funeral. The great and the good of the Labour Party remembered the UK’s longest-serving deputy prime minister, who died in November aged 86 after a battle with Alzheimer’s. The funeral cortege included a Jaguar