Politics

This Labour Party conference will feel different. Unlike the Conservatives, they don’t need a big comeback moment to save them from dire polling, nor are there peacocking leadership hopefuls waiting in the wings (or at least, there is no looming vacancy). Instead, particularly after the massive win in the Rutherglen by-election, this is a party

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, and his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni, have teamed up to call for more action to be taken to tackle illegal migration. Both leaders have made reducing the number of people arriving in their nations outside traditional pathways a key part of their leadership. The pair co-hosted a summit on the fringes of the

Voting has closed and counting is now under way to replace shamed MP Margaret Ferrier. Ms Ferrier was ousted from her Rutherglen and Hamilton West seat in August following a successful recall petition for breaching COVID restrictions in 2020. Voters took to the polls between 7am and 10pm on Thursday for the by-election, with Ms

The transport secretary has defended Rishi Sunak for insisting no decision had been made on scrapping part of HS2 – despite the prime minister recording a video about his announcement days earlier. Mark Harper told Sky News he did not know “why people are getting so het up” on the issue, and work was done

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

There is a story at the Conservative Party in Manchester so much bigger than the spectacle of a prime minister trying in vain not to talk about HS2 before his big speech. It raises existential questions about what the next iteration of the Conservative Party stands for. And all week it has been happening in

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

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has continued to dodge questions on the future of HS2, despite the issue dominating his party’s conference in Manchester. Sky News reported on Monday that the northern leg of the high speed rail line between Birmingham and Manchester will be axed after weeks of speculation. The confirmation led to even more

Downing Street struggled to be heard on the first day of Conservative conference in Manchester as a somewhat indistinct headline message struggled to break through unhelpful noises off from the fringe.  Some 24 hours later Downing Street had completely lost control of the narrative as full-on chaos ensued. Tory mayor Andy Street was addressing hacks

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

Rishi Sunak has said he is “slamming the brakes on the war on motorists” – with the government confirming that councils will be stopped from enforcing blanket 20mph speed limits. Low-traffic neighbourhoods are also in the prime minister’s crosshairs and will only be permitted where there is local consent. The Department for Transport added that

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

Labour has U-turned on its plans to remove the charitable status of private schools. Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in 2021 that her party was ideologically opposed to fee-charging schools avoiding tax by operating as charities. However, it has now emerged that, while Labour still plans to force independent schools to pay VAT, it will

“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,