Politics

Energy giant Shell is due to install a multi-billion pound gas platform in the North Sea this spring despite being blocked from drilling, Sky News understands. The Jackdaw field, which it is claimed could eventually power more than a million UK homes, has to get fresh approval from Downing Street to extract gas after a

Nigel Farage has compared Reform UK’s rise in the polls, with Donald Trump’s recent election victory in the US. At a rally held in Tory leader Kemi Badenoch’s constituency, four of Reform’s five MPs gave speeches. During the North West Essex rally, Mr Farage told Reform members the Conservative Party “should be bloody scared of

AstraZeneca has cancelled plans for a £450m vaccine manufacturing plant in Liverpool, blaming a cut in funding from government. The investment, announced last year in the Tories’ spring budget, was dependent on a “mutual agreement” with the Treasury and third parties, it was said at the time. It will no longer go ahead because Labour

Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband will find the government’s support for a third Heathrow runway “uncomfortable” but he won’t cause any “disruption”, Harriet Harman has said. The Labour peer told Sky News political editor Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast Mr Miliband is a “green conscience” in the cabinet “but we’ve been here before”.

Former Labour prime ministers Gordon Brown and Sir Tony Blair have led tributes to “working class hero” Lord Prescott at his funeral. The great and the good of the Labour Party remembered the UK’s longest-serving deputy prime minister, who died in November aged 86 after a battle with Alzheimer’s. The funeral cortege included a Jaguar

Deregulation, streamlining planning decisions, and clamping down on judicial reviews – you might have found much of what Rachel Reeves said on Wednesday a bit dry and abstract. But keep reading, because it is also a very big deal, and years down the track will probably be looked back on – for good or for

Lord Mandelson says calling Donald Trump a “danger to the world” in 2019 was “ill-judged and wrong”. The former Labour minister has been named as the next UK ambassador to the US, although there have been questions about whether President Trump will accept him. Speaking to Fox News, Lord Mandelson walked back his criticisms from

Don’t, whatever you do, call it a “relaunch”. When the chancellor stands up and delivers her much-anticipated speech on Wednesday – with all sorts of exciting schemes for new infrastructure and growth-friendly reforms – she will cast it as part of the new government’s long-standing economic strategy. Having begun the job of repairing the public

Sir Keir Starmer has warned the UK has a “cohort of loners who are extreme and need to be factored in” as a leaked Home Office review said the UK should deal with extremism by focusing on concerning behaviours and activity rather than ideologies. The prime minister said his government is “looking carefully where the

Over the last week, Sir Keir Starmer’s government has fired the starting gun on the biggest domestic fight of this parliament on his highest priority issue. Yet it’s a battle this government is far from certain to win, and the manner in which they’ve entered combat makes ultimate success less likely. The outcome matters to

The Scottish government is scrapping its plans to create a National Care Service. It is an embarrassing but perhaps predictable end to years of ambitious talk about finally coming up with a solution to the social care crisis. In a statement at Holyrood, the government tore up parts of the bill that would require major

👉 Follow Trump 100 on your podcast app 👈 President Trump says he and Keir Starmer “get along well” as he speaks to the British prime minister for the first time since his inauguration. Sky’s US correspondents James Matthews, Martha Kelner and Mark Stone look at what it tells us about the “special relationship” under

Kemi Badenoch has defended blaming “peasants” from “sub-communities” in foreign countries for the grooming gangs crisis. Speaking to Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, she insisted she would not be “shy” when talking about the scandal, which saw a string of child sexual exploitation convictions of men mostly from Pakistani backgrounds. Ms Badenoch told

Terrorist material viewed by Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana could inspire another atrocity unless tech companies take action, the home secretary has warned. In a letter seen by Sky News to TikTok, X, Meta and Google, Yvette Cooper and technology secretary Peter Kyle warned the potential consequences of leaving dangerous content online have been “laid bare”.

Southport child killer Axel Rudakubana received the second-longest life sentence in English history and the government does not ever want to see him released, Downing Street has said. Sir Keir Starmer’s official spokesman said ministers “share the public’s disgust at [Rudakubana’s] barbaric crimes” but said imposing a whole life order (WLO) was not possible because

The government has hinted it is open to joining a tariff-free trading scheme as part of its plan to “reset” its relationship with Europe. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds suggested that joining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (PEM) could be acceptable as it “is not a customs union”. Politics latest: Minister ‘hopes’ Southport killer dies in prison The

From shattering the record for most executive orders signed on a first day in office, a bishop imploring him to have mercy on immigrants and LGBTQ+ people, Melania’s hat and Mark Zuckerberg’s wandering eye – the first few days of Trump 2.0 has been not just the talk of the town in Washington DC, but in

A record number of children are living in B&Bs beyond the legal limit as England’s homelessness crisis pushes councils to breaking point. MPs said there is a “dire need” for housing reform, with the lack of affordable homes forcing cash-strapped local authorities to haemorrhage their funds on temporary accommodation. The “crisis situation” means there is

👉Listen to Politics At Jack And Sam’s on your podcast app👈 Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico’s Dan Bloom look at the day ahead in British politics. Today, Sir Keir Starmer is on the NIMBY offensive to boost economic growth, with plans to reduce the number of times people can go to

Sir Keir Starmer is vowing to take on “the NIMBYs” by reducing legal challenges to infrastructure building – with a new approach stopping “newts and bats” from blocking construction. The Labour government has made growth one of its primary targets, with a key plank of this strategy to build new infrastructure like roads and power