Politics

A vote on Rishi Sunak’s emergency Rwanda bill should not be seen as a matter of confidence in his leadership, a government minister has said. Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris told Sky News he believed “all Conservatives” would vote for the bill when it is put to the Commons next week – despite it not

Rwanda has not received any additional funding for the new treaty it has signed to revive the UK government’s asylum plan, the home secretary has said. James Cleverly told a press conference in the Rwandan capital of Kigali: “Let me make it clear. The Rwandan government has not asked for and we have not provided

Police are hunting a man accused of spraying antisemitic graffiti on an MP’s office building. Feryal Clark’s constituency office in Hertford Road, Enfield, north London, was vandalised just after 11pm on 21 November, the Metropolitan Police said. A CCTV image of the suspect, with his hood up and wearing a blue face mask, was published

Rwanda may be getting more than the £140m it has already been paid under the controversial deportation deal, despite no flights taking off, MPs have been told. Sir Matthew Rycroft, the top civil servant at the Home Office, hinted more money would be spent but repeatedly refused to disclose the sum – saying ministers had

The UK’s largest nursing union is calling for the government to reopen pay negotiations after an offer was made to consultant doctors, in a move that has angered other health unions. The Royal College of Nursing – RCN – has suggested new strikes are “more likely in the future” as a result of yesterday’s announcement.

James Cleverly will announce he is still reviewing measures to reduce legal migration on Monday, as the government fights to convince its own backbenchers it can exercise control over UK borders. Next month Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will then set out the results of the review alongside details of the new treaty with Rwanda and

Boris Johnson has heaped further pressure on Rishi Sunak over the UK’s “all-time high” net migration figures, as he suggested “demographic change” had led to “race riots” in Dublin. The former prime minister criticised net migration numbers released this week as “way too big” and suggested imposing a minimum income of £40,000 for those who

The UK achieving herd immunity from COVID was a “clearly ridiculous goal of policy” and “very dangerous”, England’s chief medical officer has told the public inquiry into the pandemic. Giving evidence for a second day on Wednesday, Professor Sir Chris Whitty said 80% of the population would have had to have contracted coronavirus to achieve

The government’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda is “probably dead” after it was ruled unlawful this week by the Supreme Court, one of its former justices has said. The court confirmed its “unanimous” decision on Wednesday after 18 months of legal battles, saying those sent to the country would be at “real risk”

The government’s Rwanda plan, devised to tackle illegal migration, has been dismissed by the Supreme Court, ending over 18 months of legal battles in the UK. Lord Reed announced the “unanimous” judgment from the court’s justices on Wednesday, saying those sent to the country would be at “real risk” of being returned home, whether their

There have been 16 housing ministers in the last 13 years of Conservative rule – seven of those in the last two years alone. With Lee Rowley taking over the housing brief after the prime minister’s latest reshuffle, on the Sky News Daily we’ll be exploring why there has been so many, and if any

Monday brought us the marmalade dropper reshuffle with the return of former prime minister David Cameron. But when it comes to the fate of Rishi Sunak’s government with voters, Wednesday could well prove a much more consequential moment. Politics Hub: Braverman launches scathing attack on PM Because tomorrow the Supreme Court will rule on whether

Highly-confusing and complex coronavirus laws were difficult to understand for the police and the public, Dame Priti Patel has told the COVID inquiry. The former home secretary said the creation of such laws during the pandemic was “suboptimal”, and the inquiry into the crisis also heard officers were given as little as 16 minutes’ warning

The former head of the civil service, Lord Mark Sedwill, will give evidence to the COVID Inquiry today, after claims surfaced that he wanted people to hold “chicken pox parties” to promote herd immunity at the start of the pandemic. The ex-cabinet secretary made a surprise exit from Whitehall in September 2020 amid reports of

Boris Johnson said he would rather “let the bodies pile high” than impose another lockdown in September 2020, according to one of his most veteran aides – despite the former prime minister denying making the remark several times. Edward Udny-Lister made the revelation to the COVID inquiry today. It backs up reports in The Daily

Tougher sentences for the country’s most serious offenders and a crackdown on grooming have taken centre stage in the first King’s Speech in decades. The King struck a personal note when he began his speech – the first by a king in over 70 years – by acknowledging the “legacy of service and devotion to

This is King Charles’s first King’s Speech as monarch. This matters to him, not only because he knows the world will be looking to see if he does something differently (he won’t – continuity matters), nor because it could be an opportunity to say something about his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in a new

Rishi Sunak has said the UK’s AI safety summit will “tip the balance in favour of humanity” after governments reached a “landmark agreement” with tech companies to test their models before their release. The prime minister said while the event at Bletchley Park was “only the beginning of the conversation”, it showed there was a

Boris Johnson asked his most senior scientific advisers if blowing a “special hair dryer” up your nose could kill COVID, according to Dominic Cummings. Mr Cummings’s full evidence statement to the COVID inquiry has been revealed, following his blockbuster in-person grilling on Tuesday. In the document, which runs for more than 100 pages, Mr Johnson‘s

There is a danger on days like today of focusing on dazzling but smaller-scale revelations that have come out of today’s evidence at the COVID inquiry hearings.  This includes the eye-opening WhatsApps appearing on the courtroom screens, the biblical language about the cabinet and prime minister, the misogynist comments about officials, a prime minister on