Politics

A defiant Humza Yousaf has told Sky News he will not resign as Scotland’s first minister. Pressure has been building on the SNP leader after he tore up the power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens – prompting a no-confidence motion in his leadership and a threatened knife-edge vote. However, Mr Yousaf, on a visit to

Call it the Rishi Sunak reset week or, to borrow from The Spectator’s Katy Balls, the shore-up Sunak week – the prime minister will be going into this weekend feeling the past few days have been a job well done.  He has got his flagship Rwanda bill through parliament and is promising a “regular rhythm”

The Scottish Greens will not support Scotland’s first minister in a confidence vote next week after they were sacked as government ministers earlier today. The Green’s leader, Patrick Harvie, is expected to make the announcement at 5.30pm. His party was forced out of government by SNP leader Humza Yousaf, who said the power-sharing pact had

The SNP and Scottish Greens power-sharing deal has formally ended following a row over a climbdown on climate targets, Sky News understands. It comes after First Minister Humza Yousaf summoned a meeting of his Cabinet – usually held on a Tuesday – this morning following speculation over the future of the Holyrood deal, first struck

MPs have voted in favour of the government’s Renters’ Reform Bill – despite it including an indefinite delay to the end of no-fault evictions. A debate on the legislation ran throughout Wednesday afternoon, including around a new clause from the government which would hold off outlawing Section 21s until a review of the courts system

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has said he wants the new NATO target for defence spending to increase from the current 2% of gross domestic product to 2.5%. Mr Shapps said it would make a “real difference” if the countries signed up to the military alliance met his proposed target. He told Kay Burley on Sky

Rishi Sunak is to increase UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030 as he warns European allies that the continent is at a “turning point” in the face of the growing threats from Russia, Iran and China.  Speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the UK prime minister said he planned to steadily

The government’s Rwanda bill will finally become law after the Lords decided there would be no further amendments in a late-night session. For weeks, peers have been pushing back on the scheme – which seeks to deport asylum seekers arriving in the UK via small boats to the African nation – and trying to get

The prime minister has said the first deportation flights to Rwanda will leave “in 10 to 12 weeks”, hours before MPs are due to vote on his emergency legislation. Rishi Sunak added that the government has “an airfield on standby and booked commercial charter planes”. “No ifs, not buts, these flights are going to Rwanda,”

Rishi Sunak is undertaking a week-long blitz of activity and announcements at home and abroad in a bid to convince a sceptical party he has the ideas and drive to continue as prime minister. After weeks of criticism about an empty legislative agenda, an inability to set the agenda, and divisions in the Tory Party

An MP facing allegations of misusing campaign funds has quit the Conservative Party and says he won’t stand at the next general election. Claims surfaced earlier this week in The Times that Mark Menzies had used political donations to cover medical expenses and pay off “bad people” who had reportedly locked him in a flat

Liz Truss has acknowledged she and her government lost the confidence of financial markets following the mini-budget of October 2022 – but has refused to apologise to homeowners for higher interest rates. Talking to Sky News, the former prime minister blamed her downfall on the Bank of England, primarily governor Andrew Bailey. However, she said

A powersharing agreement between the SNP and the Greens at Holyrood is under threat after the Scottish government ditched a key climate change target. The Scottish Green Party has said a vote on the deal, to be held at a forthcoming extraordinary general meeting (EGM), would be binding. The date of the assembly and the

The Conservatives were warned ex-Tory MP Mark Menzies’s alleged misuse of party funds may have constituted fraud but the whistleblower was told there was no duty to report it Mr Menzies, the MP for Fylde in Lancashire, gave up the Tory whip in the wake of reports in The Times that he misused party funds.

Nicola Sturgeon has described her personal situation as “incredibly difficult” after her husband was charged in connection with the embezzlement of SNP funds. Peter Murrell, who was chief executive of the party until March 2023, was rearrested on Thursday amid a long-running Police Scotland investigation into the SNP’s finances, dubbed Operation Branchform. The 59-year-old remained

Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell has been charged by police after he was arrested amid an investigation into the SNP’s funding and finances. Police said he has been charged in connection with the embezzlement of funds from the party. The former SNP chief executive, 59, was questioned by detectives after being taken into Police Scotland

Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell, who is a former SNP chief executive, has been re-arrested amid a police investigation into the party’s funding and finances. It comes more than a year after Mr Murrell was first arrested and released without charge, which saw the couple’s home searched by police and a blue forensics tent erected

An MP has lost the Conservative Party whip while newspaper claims about alleged misuse of campaign funds are investigated. Mark Menzies, the MP for Fylde, disputes the allegations reported by The Times but the Conservative Party is looking into the claims. A spokesperson for Chief Whip Simon Hart said: “Following a call with the Chief

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said that “better times are ahead” but that the fundamentals of the UK economy are “very strong”. Speaking to Sky News in Washington, Mr Hunt pointed to price rise data from today showing a drop in the rate of inflation as well as the latest jobs figures and IMF economic growth

It has been two years since Boris Johnson first proposed sending asylum seekers arriving in the UK to be sent to Rwanda to have their claims processed. Since then the government has spent £240m trying to get the scheme off the ground, argued – and lost – its case to send migrants to Kigali in