Politics

As energy companies fold and businesses cry out for government help over rising gas prices, there is an altogether different row going on inside Whitehall.  In an unprecedented public slap down today, Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, was accused of lying on TV, before the same Treasury source revealed the meetings he said he was

Boris Johnson’s decision to take a holiday following the Conservative Party conference has been defended by a senior cabinet minister. The Prime Minister is reported to have flown to Marbella in southern Spain with his wife, Carrie Johnson, and their son, Wilfred. According to the Mail on Sunday, Mr Johnson and his family jetted abroad

Spiralling gas bills could soar further under government plans to impose new charges to pay for eco-friendly heating, it has been reported. The move to introduce a levy on the fossil fuel is contained in a new strategy due to be published ahead of next month’s COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, according to The Times.

Funding for more than 9.5 million pothole repairs this year has been cut from council budgets, new analysis has found. The Local Government Association (LGA) said overall capital funding from the Department for Transport to councils in England for local road maintenance in 2021/22 is £1.39bn, down from £1.78bn the previous year. That £399m reduction

Conservative MP and former cabinet minister James Brokenshire has died at the age of 53, his family has said. The MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup announced in August that his lung cancer had “progressed” and that he would be beginning a new line of treatment. Mr Brokenshire stepped down as security minister in July

Grant Shapps has said he wants returning international travellers to be able to use lateral flow tests instead of costly PCR tests by the half-term holiday. Speaking to Sky News, the transport secretary said ministers “anticipate” the change coming into force before the October break which will make family trips abroad “much easier, much less

A leading fuel industry body has said recovery from the supply crisis is not happening fast enough – with London, South East and East England still suffering from low fuel levels, Sky News understands. The South East is struggling the most, with fuel stock levels remaining below 20% as the area continues to be hit

Business leaders and think tanks have described Boris Johnson’s party conference speech as “economically illiterate”. The prime minister’s speech to the Conservative Party Conference on Wednesday came as many businesses are struggling with supply chain issues and a lack of workers. A shortage of HGV drivers has resulted in a shortage of fuel in some

Boris Johnson has branded levelling up “the greatest project that any government can embark on” in his closing speech at the Conservative Party’s annual conference. In his keynote address marking the end of the four-day event, the prime minister pledged that his top team will “get on with our job of uniting and levelling up

The removal of the £20 Universal Credit uplift should be paused through winter until there is a better understanding of what is happening to the economy after the pandemic, a former Conservative Party leader has said. Speaking to Sky News, Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the policy has been “the silent ship in the fleet”

Boris Johnson will close his party’s conference in a rousing finale in which he will accuse his Tory predecessors of “drift and dither” and lacking the guts to tackle big problems. Bringing the conference to a barnstorming climax with his speech to the adoring Tory faithful on Wednesday, he will a promise a “long overdue”

Boris Johnson has said he cannot guarantee that targets to improve rape prosecution and conviction rates set out in the government’s Rape Review will be met. Plans set out in the report, which was commissioned in 2019 and published in June of this year, said the volume of rape cases going to court should return

A Conservative donor has suggested the party convenes a “special investigation'” into conflicts of interest surrounding the Tory co-chairman Ben Elliot. Mohammed Amersi, a telecoms entrepreneur and philanthropist, has also argued the party should improve its governance structures and remove Mr Elliot if he does not comply. “[Ben Elliot] has done a great job in

For a chancellor who came into office on the cusp of a global pandemic which forced his hand on policy-making, this speech was the reset moment for Rishi Sunak. Setting up the differences between Labour and the Conservatives on economic policy, a well-rehearsed path walked by most chancellors over the years, Mr Sunak’s speech was

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to announce a £500m expansion of government action to tackle unemployment and support job seekers following the end of the furlough scheme. In a speech at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Monday, Mr Sunak will outline fresh funding for schemes designed to increase the chances of employment for

Boris Johnson has not ruled out shortages continuing until Christmas, but said the festive period this year will be “considerably better” than last year. “I’m very confident this Christmas will be considerably better,” the prime minister said during a visit to a youth club in Manchester. Live updates from the Conservative Party conference When it

Boris Johnson has not ruled out a further relaxation of immigration rules to help ease the UK’s fuel and supply shortages – but the prime minister insisted he does not want to see a return to “a lot of low-wage immigration”. Amid the continuing queues at petrol stations across the country, the government has said

The golden rule of Boris Johnson’s Conservatives is that an otherwise disparate party is at its most happy when it’s talking about Brexit and its consequences. At times of stress, it’s the trump card the PM routinely reaches for. Given the stage of the country, expect it to feature heavily during the party conference. As

Boris Johnson says “infuriating” police forces don’t take violence against women seriously enough and are “not doing enough help victims”. In the aftermath of the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by former Met Police officer Wayne Couzens, the prime minister blamed the failure on the slow progress of those types of cases in

The policing minister has said it would be “perfectly reasonable” for anyone being approached by a lone police officer to call 999 and seek reassurance in the wake of the rape and murder of Sarah Everard. Speaking to Sky News’ Kay Burley, Kit Malthouse gave advice on what people should do if they are approached