Politics

Nicola Sturgeon has urged the SNP candidates vying to succeed her as first minister to “protect the ingredients of success” – telling Sky News the leadership contest so far has been “a less than edifying process”.  In a Beth Rigby interview due to air at 9pm on Sky News, Ms Sturgeon acknowledged the turmoil in

The DUP says its MPs will vote against a key aspect of Rishi Sunak’s Brexit deal when it is put to a crunch vote in parliament this week. In a statement, party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said while the Windsor Framework represented “significant progress” in addressing concerns with the Northern Ireland Protocol, it does not

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has said she is “encouraged” by “constructive” discussions with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) about the injunction that halted migrant flights to Rwanda. A government source said any change to the injunction “would remove a key barrier to getting flights off the ground”. The ECHR, which granted an injunction

The government “doesn’t relish” deporting migrants to Rwanda but is being “forced” to pursue the controversial policy because of the rise in Channel crossings, a cabinet minister has claimed. Oliver Dowden was asked by Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday if he is “comfortable” with the idea of sending children and families to the east African

There was only ever going to be one outcome as the SNP fought off the flames of crisis after crisis. This is the week the party changed forever. Peter Murrell has been in charge of the SNP since 1999 and arguably was pivotal in its strategy to become a political force in Scotland. But in

Junior doctors and the government are set to enter talks following a 72-hour-strike which saw more than 175,000 appointments reorganised. The British Medical Association (BMA), which represents the clinicians, has pledged they will announce new strike dates if the government makes a “substandard” offer. On Friday evening, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC)

The home secretary is set to travel to Rwanda this weekend as the government’s deal to send asylum seekers to the country remains mired in legal challenges. It is 11 months since the UK agreed the deal, which would see people who claimed asylum in Britain deported to the central African nation to have their

Teacher strikes will be paused for two weeks while education unions and the government hold “intensive” talks over pay, workload and conditions. Education Secretary Gillian Keegan will meet with representatives today – with discussions to continue over the weekend until Sunday. The National Education Union (NEU), National Association of Headteachers (NAHT), NASUWT The Teachers’ Union,

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has expanded free childcare for working parents in England to cover all children under five. The move could allow 60,000 more parents of young children to enter the workforce, according to the government’s independent forecaster. While the move has been welcomed by parents, there’s been criticism from the childcare sector, which is

TikTok will be banned from UK government phones amid security concerns around the Chinese-owned video app, Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden has announced. In a statement to parliament, Mr Dowden said there “could” be a risk to how government data and information is used by the app. He said that while TikTok use is “limited”,

The chancellor stuck to his path. No big bangs, this was a budget all about trying to prepare the groundwork for possible tax cuts in the autumn statement and the pre-election showstopper next year. Jeremy Hunt’s message was that after the mess of the past six months, the Conservative Party was back to sound management

Just six months ago, the economy was on the brink, with markets concerned that the UK would not be able to pay back its spiralling obligations. Debt costs were rising.   Yet fast forward to today, and Jeremy Hunt delivered another heavy spending budget – doling out £21bn a year, funded by yet more borrowing,

After the debacle of Liz Truss’s September mini-budget, with all its mega ramifications, and an autumn statement eight weeks later that performed an about-turn so big that the country’s tax burden hit a 70-year-high, Wednesday’s budget will be all about stability and sticking to the plan. “No big bangs in this budget,” is how one

Boris Johnson will be questioned by MPs next Wednesday as part of the partygate investigation into whether he misled parliament when he was prime minister. Mr Johnson has accepted the Privileges Committee’s invitation to give oral evidence to them from 2pm on 22 March, the committee said. The session will be held in public and

The UK, US and Australia will work together “keeping our oceans free” with a new generation of nuclear-powered attack submarines, Rishi Sunak has said. Mr Sunak met US President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in San Diego to announce the next stage of the Aukus partnership plan. The plan will deliver nuclear-powered

Support for Scottish independence has continued to slide in the country, according to an exclusive YouGov poll for Sky News, with 46% backing an exit from the UK compared to 54% who want to remain part of the union. Support is even lower when those who answered “don’t know” are included in the statistics –

Rishi Sunak has declined to offer his backing to the chairman of the BBC and stressed his appointment was made by his predecessor Boris Johnson. Richard Sharp has been dragged into the BBC row over Gary Lineker because of his close ties to government and the role he played when Boris Johnson was considering taking

The budget will “break down the barriers” to getting people back into work in the face of more than a million vacancies and a sluggish economy, the chancellor has told Sky News. With more than half a million people having disappeared from the UK workforce since the outbreak of COVID-19, tackling economic inactivity will be

Households on prepayment meters will no longer pay more for their energy than those on direct debits, the chancellor is expected to announce this week. The “prepayment meter penalty” will end in July, saving more than four million households around £45 a year at a cost of £200m. It will be managed through changes to

Britain’s prime minister may not – according to some sources – be particularly interested in defence, but the defence community will be very focused on him this week. Rishi Sunak is due to unveil an update of the UK’s defence and foreign policy on Monday – the same day as he meets with the US