Politics

Yvette Cooper is elevated to shadow home secretary while Lisa Nandy will move from shadow foreign secretary to the levelling up brief as Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer reshuffles his cabinet. Ms Cooper, who held the home affairs brief previously from 2011 to 2015 under former Labour leader Ed Miliband, will depart her current role

Labour would “act to stamp out the corruption that Boris Johnson and his government has polluted our democracy with” if it wins power at the next general election, the party’s deputy leader has said. Unveiling the party’s plans to fix the “broken” system for upholding ministers’ standards, Angela Rayner said the prime minister had been

Have the last few weeks seen a turning point in Boris Johnson’s premiership?  Dozens of Tories have refused to follow the prime minister’s orders in the voting lobbies on issues as diverse as sleaze and social care. Meanwhile a handful of Tory MPs have gone public with demands for change, with many more complaining in

The home secretary has said there will be “even worse scenes” in the Channel than the capsizing of the small dinghy that killed 27 people on Wednesday if co-operation with Europe can not be improved. Priti Patel promised to “continue to push” for improvements despite being disinvited from a meeting taking place today with France,

A government minister has defended Stanley Johnson, calling him “a gentleman” after a fellow Conservative Party MP accused the prime minister’s father of inappropriately touching her. Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, said she “didn’t believe” what Caroline Nokes had accused the former MEP of. In response to the remarks, Ms Nokes said she was “sorry”

There is limited evidence that Rishi Sunak’s £2bn jobs programme for young people is working, according to a new report. The National Audit Office (NAO) watchdog warned that the government has “limited assurance” over whether the Kickstart scheme, aimed at 16 to 24-year-olds, is having any positive effect or creating high quality jobs. The government

Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth has tested positive for COVID-19 and is self-isolating. The leading Labour MP said he will be “out of action for a bit” after announcing he had tested positive on Friday morning. He did not say whether his family or members of his staff have also tested positive for COVID or

France has cancelled a meeting with the UK to discuss Channel crossings after Boris Johnson asked the French to take back migrants arriving in Britain. French interior minister Gerald Darmanin has told Home Secretary Priti Patel “she was no longer welcome” at Sunday’s European meeting on migrant issues, a French government spokesman said. Spokesman Gabriel

Boris Johnson has offered to work with France to “move further and faster” in order to tackle small boat crossings and avoid a repeat of the “appalling tragedy” in the Channel that left 27 people dead. The prime minister has written to President Emmanuel Macron and set out five steps he thinks both sides should

Boris Johnson has hit out at France after more than 30 people died in the English Channel when their boat capsized, as he slammed people trafficking gangs who are “literally getting away with murder”. The prime minister said he was “shocked, appalled and deeply saddened” by the “disaster”, which “underscores how dangerous it is to

Sir Keir Starmer questioned whether Boris Johnson was “okay” as he accused him of introducing a “working-class dementia tax” through this week’s reform to social care funding. The Labour leader said the prime minister was fronting a “Covent Garden pickpocketing operation” over the reform that means only what individuals personally pay for their social care

Parliament is going to review its rules on bringing babies into the House of Commons after an MP was reprimanded for taking her young baby into a debate. Stella Creasy shared an email from an official on Tuesday telling her she should not have had her three-month-old son in the House of Commons while speaking

Boris Johnson has appeared to step back from a manifesto commitment on social care, after a controversial change to his government’s reforms to the system in England were narrowly backed by MPs. The prime minister committed in the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto that “nobody needing care should be forced to sell their home to pay

Labour has criticised the government’s change to social care reforms but failed to come up with details of an alternative way to fund care. Labour MP Sarah Owen accused the Conservatives of breaking their promise that nobody would have to sell their home to pay for care. MPs last night backed a change to social

A controversial change to the government’s social care reforms in England has been backed by MPs, despite critics arguing the move will disproportionately affect the poorest recipients of care. MPs voted 272 to 246, a majority of 26, to add the proposal to the Health and Care Bill. Having promised to “fix the crisis in

“This is the danger of selling perpetual sunlight and then leaving it to others to explain the arrival of moonlight,” so said Tory MP Huw Merriman last week – letting rip in parliament about the government’s rail plan. A few Tory MPs referred to those words when I asked about their intentions in a key

France has pledged to “fight every day” to uphold its fishermen’s rights as the country’s post-Brexit dispute with the UK continues. During a meeting with fishermen in northern France on Sunday, minister of the sea Annick Giardin promised to “not give up” in the row over fishing licenses and criticised the UK’s interpretation of post-Brexit

Sajid Javid has played down the need for more restrictions to be introduced in the coming weeks, telling Sky News that England is “firmly” in Plan A at the moment. Speaking on Trevor Phillips On Sunday, the health secretary said ministers must “remain cautious, not complacent in any way” – but said he hoped people

A government review will look at how to stop migrants crossing the English Channel and entering the UK amid concern that current measures are not working. Downing Street has tasked the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Stephen Barclay with bringing departments together to find a solution. More than 24,700 people have arrived in the

An ex-Conservative MP who was jailed for sexual assault has revealed he is unemployed and currently making a Universal Credit claim as he was hauled before a court over unpaid costs. Charlie Elphicke, the former Dover MP, was released from prison in September after serving half his two-year jail sentence for three sexual assaults on