Politics

The UK is now spending more of its aid budget at home than in poorer countries, development experts have said. That is because a large proportion of the pot – some £3bn – is being spent on housing refugees, mainly from Ukraine, according to the Centre for Global Development (CGD). The UK aid budget is

The UK’s Northern Ireland secretary has said he “will be calling an election” in the nation after a deadline to restore devolved government at Stormont passed at midnight. Yesterday, last-ditch efforts to restore the multi-party executive failed and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris had been expected to subsequently call an election today and announce the

Rishi Sunak has scrapped his pledge to charge people for missing GP appointments. During the summer Conservative leadership contest, Mr Sunak pledged to introduce a £10 fine. Sunak responds to criticism over ‘massive failure of leadership’ – latest updates The prime minister wants to deliver a stronger NHS and the “sentiment remains people should not

Northern Ireland is set to have a pre-Christmas Assembly election as the deadline to restore devolved government at Stormont has expired. The region has been in a political crisis for months with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) refusing to return to power-sharing since losing its status as the nation’s largest party to Sinn Fein in

Rishi Sunak is under growing pressure over his reappointment of Suella Braverman as home secretary after a former party chair claimed she had committed “multiple breaches” of the ministerial code. Ms Braverman resigned her post just over a week ago after using her personal email address to forward sensitive government documents, breaking the rules ministers

Britain’s year of political turmoil could cost the taxpayer up to £726,000 in severance payments to former ministers and whips, Sky News analysis of House of Commons library data has found. Since the beginning of the year, 79 government ministers and whips have either been sacked or have resigned. And 71 of them are likely

Rishi Sunak is reinstating the ban on fracking that Liz Truss controversially lifted. During Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, the new prime minister said he stands “by the manifesto” on fracking. The Conservative 2019 manifesto placed a moratorium on fracking in England following opposition from environmentalists and local communities. Mr Sunak‘s spokesman then explicitly confirmed

Rishi Sunak will make his debut at Prime Minister’s Questions at lunchtime, in what is shaping up to be the first big test of his leadership.  The new PM will face Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in the Commons – a day after culling almost a dozen Conservative ministers from the cabinet. Jacob Rees-Mogg has

Rishi Sunak has made his first speech as prime minister, saying he was chosen to take over to “fix” the mistakes made by Liz Truss. Speaking outside Number 10, the former chancellor praised his predecessor’s “restlessness” and her “noble aim” to improve economic growth in the UK. But, he added: “Some mistakes were made, not

Rishi Sunak will become the UK’s prime minister after meeting King Charles at Buckingham Palace this morning. At the start of the day, outgoing PM Liz Truss will hold her last cabinet meeting before she is expected to make a departing statement outside Number 10 at 10.15am. Ms Truss, who became the shortest-serving leader in

Rishi Sunak will become the UK’s next prime minister after Conservative leadership rival Penny Mordaunt dropped out of the race at the last minute. The former chancellor was selected by MPs to succeed Liz Truss as Tory leader and will enter Downing Street less than two months after he lost the last race. The extraordinary

Former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has said he is backing Boris Johnson to return as prime minister despite having previously called for him to resign in the summer. “I’m backing Boris. He got the big calls right, whether it was ordering more vaccines ahead of more waves of Covid, arming Ukraine early against the advice of

Rishi Sunak has announced his bid to become the next Conservative leader and prime minister, six weeks after Liz Truss beat him to the top job. The former chancellor has put himself forward for the second time in a matter of months after the extraordinary resignation of Ms Truss on Thursday, 44 days into her

Rishi Sunak has become the first to receive 100 public endorsements from Tory MPs – enough to meet the threshold for nominations in the leadership race. The news came before a source close to Boris Johnson claimed he had also reached the threshold to reach the ballot, although this has yet to be verified. The

Boris Johnson has arrived back in the UK as speculation mounts that the former prime minister will enter the Tory leadership race. Mr Johnson has been on holiday in the Dominican Republic but flew home after Liz Truss’s dramatic resignation on Thursday. The Conservative Party has a week to pick a new leader and prime

Boris Johnson has been pictured by Sky News making his way back to the UK. The former prime minister has been on holiday in the Dominican Republic but is set to return to London after telling an ally that he will run to lead the country again. He is flying back in economy alongside his

A cabinet minister has told Sky News they believe Boris Johnson could secure the 100 nominations he needs from Conservative MPs to progress in the Tory leadership race if he were to stand. Jacob Rees-Mogg became the first cabinet minister to publicly declare his backing for the former prime minister this morning, posting on social

The second Tory leadership race in just three months is underway following the extraordinary resignation of Liz Truss. The now-outgoing PM was forced from office after just 44 days following a seismic few weeks in Westminster that saw her tax-slashing mini-budget crash and burn. Ms Truss’s resignation, signalling the end of the shortest term by

Liz Truss has resigned as prime minister just 44 days after taking over from Boris Johnson. She will be the shortest-serving prime minister in history. In a statement read outside Downing Street, Ms Truss said: “I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability. “Families and businesses were worried about how

A Labour motion that would have forced a vote on a bill to ban fracking has been defeated amid farcical scenes in the House of Commons. Politicians have claimed Conservative MPs were being “manhandled” and bullied into voting with the government to oppose a ban, counter to what their party manifesto said in 2019. Tory