UK

Ed Miliband has called for an “urgent independent investigation” into Sir Gavin Williamson’s reappointment after it was alleged that the cabinet minister sent abusive text messages to former chief whip Wendy Morton complaining that he and other colleagues had been excluded from the Queen’s funeral for political reasons. Speaking on Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on

The chief constable of South Yorkshire Police has offered to meet a young woman who was groomed and abused by a gang of paedophiles in Sheffield 10 years ago – after she alleged to Sky News that a police officer was one of her abusers. Leona Whitworth, 28, has waived her anonymity to tell her

A group of people at a west London immigration removal centre caused “disturbance” on Saturday morning, the Home Office has claimed. No one was injured during the incident at Harmondsworth detention centre near Heathrow Airport, but the power was still out just before 9am on Saturday, the department said. The Home Office initially claimed that

Boat passengers, including British tourists, are understood to have been released after being held by a community group in the Peruvian Amazon. The group, thought to be from an indigenous community, said they had detained them in protest over a lack of government action to tackle oil spills in a river, according to RPP Noticias.

Children as young as nine are getting sucked into drug dealing and violence – with thousands of young people in England “groomed, harmed and even killed”, a new report warns. The Commission on Young Lives is calling for urgent action and investment to tackle the “national threat to our country’s prosperity and security” – and

The Bank of England has raised the base rate of interest by 0.75 percentage points to 3% – the single biggest increase in more than three decades – and said that the UK is already in recession. The Bank warned that the UK could face a protracted contraction in the coming years, with high inflation

The Bank of England is expected to unveil the biggest interest rate rise in decades today. A rise of 0.75 percentage points is anticipated, the biggest since 1992 – pushing the base rate to 3%, a level not seen since 2008. If confirmed, this could push up mortgage bills for millions of people in the

The Home Office is facing a judicial review over the conditions at the migrant Manston processing centre, the immigration minister has told Sky News. Robert Jenrick said the legal action has begun after reports of severe overcrowding at the centre in Kent, which is meant to hold 1,600 people but has been housing about 4,000

Hundreds – if not thousands – of police officers who should have failed vetting checks may be serving in England and Wales, a watchdog has warned. HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services found cases where criminal behaviour was dismissed as a “one off”; applicants with links to “extensive criminality” in their families

Boris Johnson has told Sky News that he does not think Vladimir Putin will use a tactical nuclear weapon in his war in Ukraine. There have been suggestions that the Russian president could carry out such a military strike as his forces continue to lose territory which they captured earlier in the invasion. But in

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick has rejected language used by the home secretary describing the increase of asylum seekers to the UK as an “invasion”. Suella Braverman told MPs yesterday that the public needs to know which party is serious about “stopping the invasion” of migrants on the southern coast of the UK. Mr Jenrick, when

Suella Braverman has said she “never ignored legal advice” about sending migrants to hotels from an overcrowded processing centre. The home secretary said she knew “the importance of taking legal advice into account” and never tried to stop migrants from the Manston processing centre from being sent to hotels. “At every point, I’ve worked hard

The suspect has been found dead after petrol bombs were thrown at a Border Force migrant centre in Dover, police have said. Emergency crews were called to the site in Kent shortly after 11.20am after Reuters news agency – who had a photographer at the scene – reported that a man had thrown petrol bombs

Labour is urging the government to publish its assessments of Suella Braverman’s security breach following her controversial reappointment as home secretary just six days after she was forced out. New Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under growing pressure over reinstating Ms Braverman as home secretary after a former party chair claimed she had committed “multiple

Britain has denied Russian claims that Royal Navy personnel blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines last month, saying the story is “invented”. A Ministry of Defence tweet said: “To detract from their disastrous handling of the illegal invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defence is resorting to peddling false claims of an epic

A man wanted in connection with the deaths of 39 people found in the back of an Essex lorry will appear in court this morning. Marius Mihai Draghici is suspected of being part of a conspiracy that led to the deaths of the Vietnamese nationals, whose bodies were discovered in the lorry container on 23

Britain’s Ministry of Defence sent serving Royal Air Force pilots to China to teach a course to their Chinese counterparts and allowed Chinese nationals to study at UK military colleges, Sky News can reveal. Up to four frontline pilots took part in the ‘Aviation English Course’ in Beijing that ran in 2016, while at least

Public support for sanctions on Russia remains overwhelming, but could erode if the cost-of-living crisis worsens, an exclusive poll for Sky News has found. The poll by Ipsos suggests that 70% of the public support implementing sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. However, just 41% of people now say they would still back

Northern Ireland is set to have an Assembly election before Christmas because the deadline to restore devolved government at Stormont has expired. The region has been in a political crisis for months with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) refusing to return to power-sharing since losing its status as the nation’s largest party to Sinn Fein

More than 20 former patients or their relatives have revealed how they were “treated worse than animals” and failed by the “awful” care they received at mental health hospitals for teenagers. Testimonies gathered in an investigation by Sky News raise repeated allegations of over-restraint and inadequate staffing which youngsters say left people at increased risk