Politics

The UK will not to take back asylum seekers who cross the border into Ireland “until the EU accepts that we can send them back to France”, according to a government source. The comment comes amid an escalating row between Dublin and Westminster over the Irish government’s plans for new legislation to enable asylum seekers

Thursday’s local elections have been pencilled in as a day of peril for Rishi Sunak for so long, it’s hard to remember when Tory turbulence – and maybe even a leadership challenge – was not expected after 2 May. Most council seats up for election were last contested in 2021, the high watermark of Boris

I’ve known Rishi Sunak slightly for almost a decade, having first met him after he penned a thoughtful, comprehensive, well-received report on Britain’s minority communities, which I’d say is still the best of its kind. Sitting down to interview him in a state-of-the-art defence facility this week, I could still see the same energetic, likeable problem

Conservative MP and former health minister Dan Poulter has defected to Labour. The MP for Suffolk Central and Ipswich North, with a majority of 23,321 at the last election, has indicated he is not planning to stand at the next general election. The defection was revealed in an article on The Observer website, in which

A defiant Humza Yousaf has told Sky News he will not resign as Scotland’s first minister. Pressure has been building on the SNP leader after he tore up the power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens – prompting a no-confidence motion in his leadership and a threatened knife-edge vote. However, Mr Yousaf, on a visit to

Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf is battling to save his job as he faces a knife-edge no-confidence vote. The SNP leader triggered a crisis at Holyrood after he dramatically brought the power sharing deal with the Scottish Greens to an end. Follow live updates in the Politics Hub The backlash has plunged Mr Yousaf’s future

Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf is to cancel a speech he was due to deliver on independence in Glasgow this lunchtime, Sky News undertands. Sources say Mr Yousaf will “come out fighting” after the Greens said they will join the other opposition in a vote of no confidence next week. Mr Yousaf announced his plan

Voters in Grimsby – one of Sky News’s election Target Towns – have been offering their views on politics, politicians and “broken promises”. The electoral battle in Grimsby and Cleethorpes, the Target Towns, will be fierce. Labour will need an 11.7 point swing to win this newly-merged constituency back from the Conservatives. In 2019, residents

The SNP and Scottish Greens power-sharing deal has formally ended following a row over a climbdown on climate targets, Sky News understands. It comes after First Minister Humza Yousaf summoned a meeting of his Cabinet – usually held on a Tuesday – this morning following speculation over the future of the Holyrood deal, first struck

MPs have voted in favour of the government’s Renters’ Reform Bill – despite it including an indefinite delay to the end of no-fault evictions. A debate on the legislation ran throughout Wednesday afternoon, including around a new clause from the government which would hold off outlawing Section 21s until a review of the courts system

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has said he wants the new NATO target for defence spending to increase from the current 2% of gross domestic product to 2.5%. Mr Shapps said it would make a “real difference” if the countries signed up to the military alliance met his proposed target. He told Kay Burley on Sky

On the plane from Warsaw to Berlin, Rishi Sunak was buoyant as he briefly chatted to the travelling pack.  Having delivered his hattrick of welfare reforms, the Rwanda bill and now the big lift in defence spending, he was a prime minister who clearly feels on the front foot after a torrid few months. He

It was shortly after midnight when peers in the House of Lords finally ended their long fight against the government’s Safety of Rwanda Bill. So in the end there was no need for sleeping bags or camp beds and dire threats made by government whips of votes at 3am or even later never materialised. It

The House of Lords has pushed the government’s Rwanda Bill back to the Commons again as a row continues over the controversial plan to “stop the boats”. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told reporters on Monday that “enough is enough”, promising the legislation would pass its final parliamentary stages this evening, “no matter how late it

Rishi Sunak is undertaking a week-long blitz of activity and announcements at home and abroad in a bid to convince a sceptical party he has the ideas and drive to continue as prime minister. After weeks of criticism about an empty legislative agenda, an inability to set the agenda, and divisions in the Tory Party

Two of Westminster’s best-connected journalists, Sky News’s Sam Coates and Politico’s Jack Blanchard, guide you through their top predictions for the next seven days in British politics. This week, they react to MP Mark Menzies’ resignation from the Conservative Party and look at what it might mean for the next election. Also this week, Rishi

Rishi Sunak has revealed he will keep the two-child benefit cap if the Conservatives win the next election. The policy limits the benefits parents on Universal Credit can claim for their children. Writing in The Sun on Sunday, the prime minister said: “Working families do not see their incomes rise when they have more children.

A powersharing agreement between the SNP and the Greens at Holyrood is under threat after the Scottish government ditched a key climate change target. The Scottish Green Party has said a vote on the deal, to be held at a forthcoming extraordinary general meeting (EGM), would be binding. The date of the assembly and the

The Conservatives were warned ex-Tory MP Mark Menzies’s alleged misuse of party funds may have constituted fraud but the whistleblower was told there was no duty to report it Mr Menzies, the MP for Fylde in Lancashire, gave up the Tory whip in the wake of reports in The Times that he misused party funds.

Police say they are reviewing “information” about former Conservative MP Mark Menzies after Labour asked for an investigation into claims he misused party funds. Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds wrote to Lancashire Police asking for an inquiry after The Times reported he had made a late-night phone call to an aide asking for funds to