Politics

Boris Johnson has given the green light to the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk, promising £700m of government funding for the project. He confirmed the move during a speech from the site in one of his final acts as prime minister – and amid the rising cost of living crisis – saying he

Liz Truss has pledged that there would be no energy rationing if she were to become prime minister next week – while rival Rishi Sunak warned “we shouldn’t rule anything out”. Speaking at the 12th and final leadership hustings at Wembley Arena in London, the frontrunner of the contest also promised no new taxes and

After Tory MPs sprinted through five rounds of voting for a new party leader in just a week, the battle for the votes of party members has already been a six-week marathon. For Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak it’s almost the end of the road as they prepare for the 12th and final Conservative Party

Boris Johnson will join new police officers on the frontline tomorrow as he marks his final few days as prime minister. The victor of the Conservative leadership contest and Mr Johnson’s successor – either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak – will be announced on 5 September. With less than a week to go in the

The government’s target to bring gigabit broadband to “every home and business across the UK” by 2025 seems to have been scaled back to reach 85% of the country instead. Boris Johnson made the initial pledge as part of his 2019 manifesto, with £5bn of funding behind the scheme. However, in a press release published

Liz Truss has cancelled a scheduled interview on the BBC with just a week to go before the next Conservative Party leader is announced. A BBC spokesperson said: “Liz Truss has cancelled her BBC One interview with Nick Robinson which was due to air this Tuesday evening (30 August) at 7pm. “Ms Truss’s team say

Boris Johnson could attempt to make a political comeback like “Berlusconi or Trump”, according to a former Tory minister. Rory Stewart, an ex-Conservative MP who ran for the leadership in 2019, accused the outgoing prime minister of having “an extraordinary ego” and believing he was “badly treated” when ousted from Downing Street. He told the

People relying on the state pension could be left with less than £11 a day to live on from next April because of the soaring cost of energy, according to Sky News analysis. A leading charity working with older people said it is “seriously worried” and called on the government to step in urgently. According

Unions are threatening to hold co-ordinated strikes in the coming months as they attempt to secure inflation-matching pay rises for workers struggling with the cost of living crisis. According to the Observer, a series of motions will be tabled at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in September, calling for unions to work together to increase

The government’s new plan to crack down on sewage discharge by 2050 has been branded a “cruel joke” and “licence to pump sewage on to our beaches”. The Department for the Environment (DEFRA) said on Friday that water companies will have to deliver £56bn of capital investment over the next 25 years to stop untreated

Pressure is mounting on the government to put forward detailed proposals to curb rocketing gas and electricity prices after energy regulator Ofgem announced the price cap for an average household will rise to £3,549 a year in October. The figure is £800 more than the forecast figure that was provided to Rishi Sunak in May

Boris Johnson has pledged the government will announce “extra cash” in September to support households further with energy bills – after Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi suggested people should cut back on their usage. The outgoing PM said: “There’s a pipeline of cash coming through over the next few months and through the autumn and the winter.

Liz Truss has said she will use an emergency budget to “ensure support is on its way” amid soaring energy bills if she becomes prime minister – despite repeatedly saying she favours tax cuts over handouts. The foreign secretary made the comments, which could be interpreted as going against much of what she has previously

Rishi Sunak has said it was “wrong to empower scientists” during the pandemic and claimed lockdown “trade-offs” were never properly discussed. In an interview for The Spectator on the “inside story of lockdown”, the former chancellor attacked the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) for having too much influence over government decision-making during the COVID

Freezing energy bills will not help people who need the most support with the cost of living crisis, according to a government minister. The boss of Scottish Power revealed on Tuesday that he had asked the government to back a £100bn loan scheme to allow energy companies to freeze bills for two years. Keith Anderson

Police are investigating a social media post which appeared to show a Plaid Cymru councillor posing with a gun while commenting that he was making sure “there wasn’t any English people trying to cross the channel”. Jon Scriven, who represents Penyrheol in Caerphilly, subsequently deleted the Facebook post and apologised. A Plaid Cymru spokesman said

It was a 3am rise for a dawn police raid in Surrey. But the home secretary – a regular at these kind of events – wanted to project a steady hand at the Home Office, getting on with business as usual when everything else is in a state of flux.  On this occasion, the raid was a

After weeks of blue-on-blue battles, Liz Truss looks set to see off her rival Rishi Sunak to win the Conservative leadership race and become prime minister. But how did the current foreign secretary, who will become only the third female PM if she beats the former chancellor, reach this point? Early life as the eldest

Liz Truss has been accused of presiding over budget cuts to the Environment Agency that have resulted in “doubled sewage discharge”. Labour Party analysis of official figures shows that since 2016, when the Tory leadership hopeful was in charge of Defra – raw sewage discharge more than doubled from 14.7 per overflow in 2016 to

Rishi Sunak vowed to make Britain a “science superpower” while Liz Truss pledged to put the West Midlands “at the heart of our economic revival” in their latest policy announcements. The Tory leadership contenders are continuing to set out their visions for the country as the leadership race enters its final fortnight, with the pair