Politics

A shake-up of childcare rules will be announced this week, aiming to save money for hundreds of thousands of families by allowing staff to look after more children. The government plans to increase the number of two-year-olds who can be cared for by one adult in a nursery from four to five, billed as helping

Boris John made the “choice he thought was best” in appointing Chris Pincher to government and was “not aware of specific claims” about the Tory MP, a cabinet minister has insisted. Speaking to Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey also rejected the idea there was a “problem with

Chris Pincher, who lost the Conservative whip after being accused of groping two men, said he is seeking “professional medical support” as he hopes to return to his duties as an MP “as soon as possible”. In a statement by the Tamworth MP, Mr Pincher said he “respected” the prime minister’s decision to suspend the

Boris Johnson is facing questions over his delay in suspending former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher from the parliamentary party over an allegation that he drunkenly groped two men. Mr Pincher had already been forced to quit his role in the Tory whips’ office – in which he was responsible for party discipline and the

Pincher: the name sounds like a character from a Jeffrey Archer novel or the TV drama House of Cards. There have also been, inevitably, some wry smiles and giggles among MPs about the former deputy chief whip’s unusual surname and the groping allegations against him. But in all seriousness, as Mr Pincher faces up to

Boris Johnson’s deputy chief whip has resigned over an allegation of “groping”, Sky News understands. Chris Pincher said he had drunk “far too much” and “embarrassing myself and other people” on a night out. The Conservative MP for Tamworth wrote to the prime minister to explain his decision to stand down. He said in his

New figures have revealed the Department for International Trade only has enough desk space to accommodate 22% of its staff in the office – despite a government push to get civil servants to stop working from home. In April Cabinet Office minister Jacob Rees-Mogg circulated a letter to fellow ministers in which he urged them

European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic said it was “high time we got Brexit done” as he fired the latest salvo against Boris Johnson’s government over the Northern Ireland Protocol. Mr Sefcovic told an audience in London that UK legislation designed to tear up parts of the protocol, which governs Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements,

Gordon Brown has claimed that Britain is “at war with America over Ireland” – amid opposition from US politicians over plans to tear up the Northern Ireland Protocol. The former prime minister told Sky News’s Beth Rigby Interviews that there was no chance of the UK signing a trade deal with the world’s biggest economy

An anti-Brexit protester has had his amplifiers seized from him outside Parliament in line with new laws that came into force on Tuesday. Steve Bray, known as the “Stop Brexit Man”, was demonstrating in Westminster when police took the equipment. Under the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act, noisy protests are forbidden in a designated

Boris Johnson has called questions over his leadership “political commentary” as rumours mount that a few of his own MPs are considering defecting to the Labour Party. Asked about the reports, the prime minister told reporters that “these are matters for commentators”. Mr Johnson added that his job is to “get on with the agenda”

Mandatory life sentences for those who kill emergency workers are among criminal justice reforms designed to “make our streets safer” coming into force today. The changes also toughen sentences for those guilty of pre-meditated child murder. In such cases a whole-life tariff – where offenders are told they will never be released – will be

Theresa May has delivered a stinging rebuke to Boris Johnson’s plan to override parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol ahead of a Commons vote. The former prime minister told fellow MPs that she could not support the controversial legislation – which she said would be illegal, fail to achieve its aims, and diminish Britain’s standing

Boris Johnson still has the support of his cabinet despite one of his top team resigning last week, George Eustice has said. Asked whether the PM has the full support of his cabinet, the environment secretary told Sky News that “we work as a team”. “We have the support of the prime minister. The prime

Boris Johnson is capable of winning the next general election, a cabinet colleague has insisted, as he said the ability to look forward is a good thing after the prime minister said he was eyeing a third term. Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis threw his support behind the Tory leader, amid fresh criticism and plots

Two by-election defeats, the resignation of his party chairman with the parting shot that Conservative grassroots “deserve better than this”, and his colleagues back home openly discussing how to change party rules for another confidence vote – none of it seems to bother Boris Johnson. As MPs back in the UK talked – publicly and

In the end, it wasn’t a double blow, but a triple one. Boris Johnson lost not just two by-elections but his party chairman too, who became the first of his cabinet to publicly express misgivings over the PM’s leadership, saying volunteers and staffers “deserve better than this”. The by-election losses he was reluctantly expecting, but

The former Tory MP who quit after watching pornography in parliament says the public have “largely got over” what he did and his resignation has not helped the party, after its humiliating by-election loss. Neil Parish – whose resignation triggered the Tiverton and Honiton by-election – told Sky News that people in the constituency had

Conservative Party Chairman Oliver Dowden this morning resigned declaring “somebody must take responsibility”. Yet it is far from clear that blame for the two overnight defeats in two very different sets of electoral circumstances could ever be laid at the door of the mild-mannered Mr Dowden. The voters of Tiverton were not demanding his head

Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden has resigned after the party slumped to two by-election defeats. Mr Dowden said in a letter to Boris Johnson that the defeats were “the latest in a run of very poor results” and added: “We cannot carry on with business as usual.” He is the first Cabinet minister to fall