Politics

Polls are to open for the local elections across the country, with the added extra of a by-election on the same day. Over 2,600 council seats are up for grabs across 107 councils in England, along with 10 mayoralties in major cities and combined authorities, and 25 London Assembly seats. A total of 37 police

The Scottish government has survived a vote of no confidence at Holyrood. Scottish Labour pressed ahead with its motion despite Humza Yousaf announcing earlier this week his intention to stand down as SNP leader and first minister. It failed by 58 votes to 70. The Scottish Greens voted against the motion, with party co-leader Patrick

The UK has sent the first failed asylum seeker to Rwanda – under a voluntary scheme. The scheme is for those who have gone through the asylum process and had permission rejected, rather than for migrants who have illegally entered Britain by crossing the Channel on small boats. The migrant was sent on a commercial

Ireland’s prime minister has insisted the UK must respect an existing arrangement between the two countries to take back asylum seekers. Simon Harris told Sky News the UK must honour a deal that has been in place since 2020 as a row escalates over the Irish government’s new plans to return to the UK asylum

The next leader of the SNP could be “crowned… with no contest”, the Scottish Conservatives have claimed, after Humza Yousaf stepped down from the role on Monday. Mr Yousaf – who has been leader and first minister of Scotland for just over a year – announced his resignation after his decision last week to cut

Humza Yousaf has resigned as Scotland’s first minister after cutting ties with his government’s power-sharing partners. The leader of the SNP, who only took on the role in March last year, has been at the centre of a chaotic few days in Holyrood after he made the surprise announcement to end his power-sharing deal with

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

The number of migrants that have crossed the Channel in small boats is at its highest ever level for the first four months of the year. Some 7,167 people have arrived on UK shores after travelling by small boat from the continent between 1 January to 27 April. This compares to 5,745 for the same

Rishi Sunak has failed to rule out holding a general election in July, as speculation remains rife over the timing of the national vote. The prime minister has repeatedly said his “working assumption” is the election would take place in the second half of this year – with the law stating January 2025 is the

Migrants travelling to Ireland after arriving in the UK on small boats is a sign the Rwanda scheme is already working as a deterrent, Rishi Sunak has said.  Sky News’s Trevor Phillips asked the prime minister if migrants finding their way to Ireland was a sign the UK was “exporting the problem”. Ireland’s deputy prime

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

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 Scottish Greens will not support Scotland’s first minister in a confidence vote next week after they were sacked as government ministers earlier today. The Green’s leader, Patrick Harvie, is expected to make the announcement at 5.30pm. His party was forced out of government by SNP leader Humza Yousaf, who said the power-sharing pact had

Labour will promise to deliver the biggest shake-up to rail “in a generation” by establishing the long-delayed Great British Railways (GBR) organisation and bringing routes back into public ownership. Making the announcement in a speech on Thursday, shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh will also pledge to establish a “best-price ticket guarantee” for travellers, offer automatic

Labour’s Angela Rayner has attacked the Conservatives for “obsessing” over her living arrangements while renters continue to face uncertainty over the government’s promise to end no-fault evictions. The deputy leader has been facing scrutiny over the sale of her former home in Stockport from before she was an MP, with claims she did not pay

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

Rishi Sunak warned the world is now “more volatile and dangerous” than at any time since the Cold War, as the prime minister embarked on a trip to Poland and Germany to discuss the threat of expansionist Russia and refocus the world’s eyes back on to Ukraine. Speaking to journalists on the flight over 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

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