Politics

The prime minister has said the first deportation flights to Rwanda will leave “in 10 to 12 weeks”, hours before MPs are due to vote on his emergency legislation. Rishi Sunak added that the government has “an airfield on standby and booked commercial charter planes”. “No ifs, not buts, these flights are going to Rwanda,”

Sadiq Khan has confidence in Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley despite him facing calls to quit over the force’s handling of a recent pro-Palestine protest, Sky News understands. It comes after Energy Secretary Claire Coutino told Sky News that the incident in London – in which an officer was captured on video calling a man

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

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 has described her personal situation as “incredibly difficult” after her husband was charged in connection with the embezzlement of SNP funds. Peter Murrell, who was chief executive of the party until March 2023, was rearrested on Thursday amid a long-running Police Scotland investigation into the SNP’s finances, dubbed Operation Branchform. The 59-year-old remained

Rishi Sunak is to call for an end to the “sick note culture” in a major speech on welfare reform – as he warns against “over-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of life”. The prime minister wants to shift the focus to “what people can do with the right support in place, rather than what

This was the week it was meant to be done.  Having forced the House of Commons to vote down the Lords’ amendments to the prime minister’s flagship illegal immigration bill three times, peers would typically have bowed out of the battle this time around and passed the Rwanda bill. Instead, they sought to amend the

The House of Lords has delayed the passing of the government’s Rwanda bill until next week – in a blow to Rishi Sunak’s attempts to get planes off the ground deporting illegal migrants to the country. MPs overturned Tuesday’s attempts by the House of Lords to dilute the plan – but peers have now put

The government is “working on operationalising” Rwanda flights, a minister has said – amid reports RAF planes could be used for the controversial deportation scheme. Laura Trott did not deny a story in The Times newspaper which said migrants might have to be flown to the east African nation on RAF Voyagers because the Home

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

Nigel Farage said police would “have to drag me off stage” after officers moved to shut down the National Conservatism conference in Brussels. Local officials arrived as the former Brexit Party leader was finishing a speech at the event, which is also due to hear from Hungary’s pro-Putin leader Viktor Orbán and two Conservative MPs.

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,

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

MPs return to Westminster today after two weeks away, to the possibility of dangerous escalation in the Middle East. But this is a week the prime minister will also need to avoid danger domestically if he is to see through some of the key policies on which his political survival depends. One is the legislation

UK jets shot down “a number of drones” launched by Iran in its unprecedented attack on Israel last night, Rishi Sunak has said. The prime minister called the assault by Tehran a “dangerous and unnecessary escalation” of conflict in the Middle East, warning the “the fallout for regional stability would be hard to overstate” had

Liz Truss has revealed she considered abolishing the UK’s economic watchdog and replacing leaders at the Treasury and Bank of England, accusing the bodies of being “pro-China” and “pro-Remain”. The country’s shortest serving prime minister said she discussed scrapping the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) with her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng but concluded it would have

Angela Rayner has said she will “do the right thing and step down” if she is found to have committed a crime in the police investigation into her former living arrangements. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) confirmed earlier today that it was re-examining claims the deputy Labour leader may have broken electoral law over information she

As with most political scandals, the heat in the Angela Rayner housing row is less about the (alleged) crime and more about the (alleged) cover-up. Or, to put it another way, this is all about how honest and transparent the Labour deputy leader has been in responding to allegations about her living arrangements a decade

Police have launched an investigation into Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner. Ms Rayner has faced claims she may have broken electoral law over information she gave about her living situation a decade ago. A Greater Manchester Police (GMP) spokesperson said: “We’re investigating whether any offences have been committed. This follows a reassessment of the information