Boris Johnson has said delaying or scrapping the northern leg of HS2 would be “betraying the north of the country and the whole agenda of levelling up”. The ex-prime minister’s intervention on the eve of the party’s conference comes as Sky News understands the government is set to scrap or delay the Birmingham to Manchester
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Grant Shapps has hinted at a change to plans for HS2, as the northern section of the rail project looks set to be scrapped. Sky News understands the high-speed line planned between Birmingham and Manchester will be binned by the prime minister due to concerns over the cost of the much delayed project. And it
The Home Office has been ordered to stop work converting a former military base into an accommodation site for asylum seekers, over concerns planning conditions have been breached. West Lindsey District Council has issued the government with an enforcement notice and stop notice in regards to RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire. It means work must cease
GB News breached impartiality rules after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was interviewed by fellow Tory MPs Esther McVey and Philip Davies, Ofcom has found. An episode of Saturday Morning With Esther And Phil featured a pre-recorded interview that focused on the government’s approach to economic and fiscal policies ahead of the budget, which was announced four
Proposals to scrap a target for patients to see a specialist within two weeks if they are suspected of having cancer are being considered by NHS England. Instead, there has been a consultation on the new “faster diagnosis standard” which proposes that patients who have been urgently referred should have cancer ruled out or receive
The UK and Turkey will work together to “disrupt and dismantle” people smuggling gangs under a new deal announced today. A new operational “centre of excellence” will be established by the Turkish National Police as part of the agreement and both countries will also share intelligence. Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said he was unable to
The government has announced a “task force” to root out dodgy lawyers after reports that false asylum claims are being submitted for a fee. The Home Office said the unit would bring together regulatory bodies, law enforcement teams and other government departments to act against solicitors and barristers found to be deceiving the courts. The
What now? This week’s trio of parliamentary by-elections are bound to be the biggest sampling of voter opinion in an election for Westminster this side of the next general election. That election is most likely more than a year away. November 2024 is currently the favoured date, although the prime minister could run all the
Boris Johnson and Liz Truss both received £18,660 as severance payments after they stood down as prime minister, annual accounts have shown. Both leaders quit amid mounting pressure from their own MPs, but were still entitled to the payout – with Mr Johnson having served just over three years in the job and Ms Truss
Boris Johnson has called for NATO to set out a clear timetable for Ukraine to join the alliance – and claimed some member nations still want to negotiate a peace deal with Vladimir Putin. The former prime minister made the intervention following the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, earlier in the week. At the meeting,
The government has “no strategy” to tackle the threat from China and has left the UK “severely handicapped” due to its “short-termist approach”, a new report has claimed. The Intelligence and Security Committee has published its work on the threat the country poses, saying China has managed to “successfully penetrate every sector of the UK’s
A Cabinet minister has suggested the BBC presenter who has been suspended for allegedly paying for sexually explicit images of a teenager should only be named once a “full” investigation has taken place. Justice Secretary Alex Chalk agreed there was a “public interest” in the broadcaster being named but said it would not be appropriate
The Home Office will today launch an appeal after a court ruled its policy to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda was unlawful. The government wants to send tens of thousands of migrants more than 4,000 miles away to Rwanda as part of a £120m deal agreed with the government in Kigali last year. Politics live:
The UK’s special forces are the focus of an inquiry into allegations of unlawful activity in Afghanistan, the defence secretary has confirmed. An independent inquiry, commissioned by Ben Wallace last December, is set to focus on alleged illegal activity by British armed forces in the war-torn nation between 2010 and 2013. The probe will also
Campaigners and asylum seekers have won a Court of Appeal challenge over the government’s planned Rwanda deportation scheme. Three judges have overturned a High Court ruling that previously said the east African nation could be considered a “safe third country” for migrants to be sent to. It is the latest court verdict in a long-running
With the Bank of England trying to bring down inflation, interest rates have been raised to 5% – the highest level since April 2008. The government is now urging people to “hold their nerve”, as Rishi Sunak put it. But Britain may be headed for another “summer of discontent”, with one Treasury minister unable to
Disgraced Scottish MP Margaret Ferrier has urged her constituents not to trigger a by-election in a last-ditch attempt to avoid losing her job. The former SNP MP, who is now an independent, was convicted of putting people at risk after travelling by train to a debate at Westminster while suffering from coronavirus in 2020. She
Boris Johnson has dramatically made a double retreat from all-out verbal war with Rishi Sunak over the damning report which concluded he lied to MPs over partygate. First, he has ordered his closest allies in the Commons not to vote against the privileges committee report that proposed a 90-day suspension if he had still been
In the end, it was excoriating, damning and unanimous: Boris Johnson was found not only to have deliberately misled the House of Commons over events in Number 10 during COVID lockdowns, but had attacked the fabric of our democracy itself by seeking to undermine the committee and investigation. The conclusion of the 14-month privileges committee
A defiant Boris Johnson vowed “I’ll be back” as he called on the Tories to deliver on Brexit and the promises of the 2019 manifesto. The former prime minister hinted at a political comeback on the day he formally resigned as an MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. In a message in the Daily Express
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