Month: July 2024

Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico’s Jack Blanchard are here with their guide to the day ahead in politics. They discuss how the prime minister is tackling his first full week, with the problems facing the new government reportedly outlined in a dossier drawn up by his chief of staff Sue Gray –

Relations between London and Edinburgh have been severely strained for years. The messy relationship soured dramatically in the Boris Johnson era, with public spats and name-calling. Scottish officials have long held the view that some Tory prime ministers felt it was beneath them to meaningfully engage with the first ministers of the devolved nations. UK

Emily Thornberry has been left out of Labour’s new government after more than eight years of serving in its shadow cabinet. The MP for Islington South and Finsbury was most recently Sir Keir Starmer’s shadow attorney general, having been his shadow international trade secretary for about 18 months after he won the leadership contest in

The government is expected to announce new plans to ease overcrowding in jails across England and Wales by the end of this week. Sky News understands one of the core proposals being considered is a lowering of the automatic release point, from the 50% mark in an inmate’s sentence to 40% or 43%. At the

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced mandatory housing targets and an end to the onshore wind ban to get “Britain building again”. The UK’s first ever female chancellor said Labour will create a new taskforce “to accelerate stalled housing sites in our country”. She promised her government would build 1.5 million homes over the next five

Inspectors have described the “worst conditions they have ever seen in immigration detention” inside a centre near Heathrow in west London. Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor was so concerned by what he found during the visit in February that he wrote to then Home Secretary James Cleverly but received no reply. The visit to

The new Labour cabinet has a record number of state-educated ministers.  Out of 25 cabinet members, just one went to private school and one to grammar, with the remainder – 92% – attending comprehensive school, according to analysis by The Sutton Trust. By comparison, in the cabinets of Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss just 19%

The Conservative Party has announced a reshuffle, as former ministers and returning MPs make the transition into becoming the shadow cabinet. Lord Cameron has resigned from Rishi Sunak’s frontbench, having been foreign secretary before Labour’s victory in Thursday’s election, and has now been replaced in the shadow role by his deputy Andrew Mitchell. Also, despite

Sir Keir Starmer has said his government will have a “different way of doing politics” as he toured the UK’s nations in his first week as prime minister. The UK’s new leader said it is “very important” for him to “reset relations” with Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. He kicked off his tour of the

Just days into his premiership, Sir Keir Starmer is heading to the US for a meeting with NATO leaders. We take a look at why he is taking the trip and what might happen when he is there. Why is the prime minister going to Washington? NATO – or the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation –