Politics

Labour is the “party of change”, leader Sir Keir Starmer declared, after its victory in the by-election in Scotland. Michael Shanks’s win in Rutherglen and Hamilton West returned the seat to Labour after it was won by the SNP in 2019. Speaking after the win this morning, Sir Keir said: “We’ve changed. And because we’ve

Angela Rayner is set to become the UK’s deputy prime minister if Labour wins the next general election.  With Labour’s annual conference starting this weekend, here’s what you need to know about the party’s deputy leader – from her early life and career in politics to the abuse and controversy she has faced. Early life

Rishi Sunak’s speech at the Conservative Party conference fell flat with the British public, a new poll suggests. During his speech, the prime minister confirmed his long-rumoured decision to scrap the northern leg of HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester and announced plans to introduce some of the strictest smoking laws in the world. New polling

Rishi Sunak has been reported to Police Scotland over comments he made about Nicola Sturgeon in his Tory Party conference speech. Chris McEleny, the general secretary of Alba Party, told Sky News he had filed a complaint and asked for an investigation into whether Mr Sunak may have committed contempt of court by mentioning Scotland’s

Rishi Sunak has pledged to raise the legal age for buying cigarettes by one year every year in a crackdown on smoking. The prime minister said the proposed legislation would mean a “14 -year-old today will never legally be sold a cigarette and that they and their generation can grow up smoke-free”. He said the

There are fresh calls to clean up politics with stronger rules around lying after senior Tories made false statements around meat taxes and 15-minute cities at their annual party conference. Green MP Caroline Lucas told Sky News a “dishonesty epidemic is infecting the Tory party” as she called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to acquaint

Rishi Sunak will announce around £30bn of spending on road, rail and buses in his conference speech. The big spending commitment will come to sweeten the pill that the second leg of HS2, linking Birmingham and Manchester, won’t be fulfilled. Speculation about what will or won’t happen to High-Speed Rail has been raging for weeks

A conference billed as the start of a Rishi Sunak reset has turned into the Rishi shambles over the past couple of days.  The prime minister has lost control over the narrative while we’ve been reminded very clearly by Liz Truss and other senior MPs that he never had control over his party or the

The Tory candidate for London mayor has been urged to apologise after she claimed that Jewish communities were “frightened” by Sadiq Khan. Susan Hall, who was selected as the Tory candidate in July, made the comments at the Conservative Friends of Israel event on the fringes of the Tory Party conference in Manchester. ‘Rishi reset’

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has refused to commit to tax cuts ahead of the next election, despite growing calls from inside his party. His cabinet colleague Michael Gove told Sky News on Sunday that he wanted to see “the tax burden reduced” by the time the public goes to the polls. But speaking to Kay Burley

Liz Truss is to remake her case for the direction she believes the Conservative Party should take – a year after her administration began to collapse around her. The UK’s shortest ever serving prime minister will speak at a fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester on Tuesday. A year ago, under her

Michael Gove has called for a tax cut before the next general election – putting him at odds with the chancellor on the first day of Conservative Party conference. Jeremy Hunt told The Times newspaper on Saturday the government was “not in a position to talk about tax cuts at all”, and needed to focus

Grassroots Conservative supporters are saying they want to oust Rishi Sunak and “go to war” with the liberal wing of the party in leaked WhatsApp messages obtained by Sky News. We have obtained the discussions amongst members of the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO), founded in December 2022 by donor and Johnson-backer Lord Peter Cruddas after

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has vowed to tackle the “vicious circle of ever-rising taxes” by revamping public services and the welfare system. The cabinet minister argued the state needed to become “more productive”, not bigger, as he pointed to the use of artificial intelligence to realise frontline efficiencies and reduce the burden on the public purse.

Rishi Sunak is considering removing the winter fuel allowance from all but the poorest pensioners as a way of clawing back some taxpayer funds from the elderly as he prepares to fight the next election on a pledge to keep the pension triple lock despite its spiralling costs. Government figures told Sky News the prime

Rishi Sunak is set to block councils from introducing new 20mph speed limits, according to reports. The move is among a package of measures the prime minister is due to announce at the Conservative Party’s annual conference that gets under way in Manchester this weekend. The so-called “plan for motorists” comes in the wake of

Rishi Sunak dodged questions over the future of HS2 as he spoke to local radio stations across the country. The prime minister was repeatedly asked about the northern leg of the high speed rail line between Birmingham and Manchester. He was also quizzed on whether the route would now end in the west London suburb

HS2 is the UK’s biggest infrastructure project, supposed to transform public transport between London, the Midlands and the North. But it is becoming synonymous with political football, disappointment, delays and spiralling costs. It’s been backed by more than one government and political party over the years but Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has declined to throw

“Many people” pretend to be gay to claim asylum in the UK, Suella Braverman has claimed, as she defended herself from criticism from Sir Elton John. The home secretary yesterday delivered a controversial speech in which she claimed the asylum system will break if people are given sanctuary for “simply being gay, or a woman,

A cabinet minister has refused to commit to the UK staying as a signatory to the United Nations human rights convention following a controversial speech in the US by Suella Braverman on migration. The home secretary has faced severe criticism over her comments in Washington DC on Tuesday, where she said being gay or a