Politics

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

Legal challenges to Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill are “inevitable”, the illegal migration minister has admitted, as human rights organisations called on the government not to put the scheme into force. Michael Tomlinson said the government wanted to ensure flights get off the ground “as soon as possible” but that there would undoubtedly be challenges to

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

The campaigner at the centre of an antisemitism row with the Metropolitan Police has criticised “outrageous” comments made by a former senior officer who said he would have considered arresting him for assault. Gideon Falter, the chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, has spoken to Sky News on Kay Burley at Breakfast after footage

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

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

A “shoplifters’ charter” has seen thefts rise significantly – to about one offence every minute – but police are charging fewer people, according to Labour. The party said data showed a record 402,482 shoplifting offences in England and Wales in the year to September 2023. However, offences resulting in a police charge fell from 20%

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.

Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell has been charged by police after he was arrested amid an investigation into the SNP’s funding and finances. Police said he has been charged in connection with the embezzlement of funds from the party. The former SNP chief executive, 59, was questioned by detectives after being taken into Police Scotland

Following allegations Tory MP Mark Menzies misused campaign funds, Beth Rigby, Jess Phillips, and Ruth Davidson examine the fallout for the government and for the politician who has been suspended from the parliamentary party. He denies all the claims. And after the Commons votes to ban anyone born after 1 January 2009 from buying cigarettes,

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said that “better times are ahead” but that the fundamentals of the UK economy are “very strong”. Speaking to Sky News in Washington, Mr Hunt pointed to price rise data from today showing a drop in the rate of inflation as well as the latest jobs figures and IMF economic growth

An MP has lost the Conservative Party whip while newspaper claims about alleged misuse of campaign funds are investigated. Mark Menzies, the MP for Fylde, disputes the allegations reported by The Times but the Conservative Party is looking into the claims. A spokesperson for Chief Whip Simon Hart said: “Following a call with the Chief

It has been two years since Boris Johnson first proposed sending asylum seekers arriving in the UK to be sent to Rwanda to have their claims processed. Since then the government has spent £240m trying to get the scheme off the ground, argued – and lost – its case to send migrants to Kigali in

New defeats for the government’s Rwanda bill in the House of Lords have set up a parliamentary showdown on Wednesday – forcing MPs to consider changes to Rishi Sunak’s stop the boats plan. Downing Street wants to get the bill – which declares Rwanda a safe country and stops appeals from asylum seekers being sent

MPs have rejected a series of Lords’ amendments to the government’s Rwanda bill – as a week of parliamentary showdown on the legislation begins. The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill is currently in the middle of what is known as ping-pong, where the two houses propose, debate and vote on amendments. So far,

From Rishi Sunak to Keir Starmer, to President Macron and President Biden, Western leaders on Monday appealed to Israel to exercise restraint following Iran’s drone and missile attack. The prime minister, addressing MPs, issued a carefully-worded statement that both reiterated unwavering support for Israel while acknowledging the other regional partners – Jordan and Saudi Arabia

Lord David Cameron has urged Israel to “think with head as well as heart” and not retaliate to Iran’s missile attack. The foreign secretary said the nation needed to be “smart as well as tough” and think about the consequences of escalating violence in the region. UN warns of ‘devastating conflict’ – Middle East latest