Politics

Spiking will become a criminal offence with a possible 10-year prison sentence under a new law, the government has announced. It said in a statement the new offence is part of the Crime and Policing Bill, which will be introduced in parliament next week. The government also announced a nationwide training programme to help workers

The first domestic violence specialists have been placed in 999 control rooms in response to the death of a woman who was murdered by her ex-husband, despite ringing police on the night she died. Raneem’s Law has been launched in five pilot areas – West Midlands, Northumbria, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Humberside. The legislation – promised

Nigel Farage has said Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not a dictator and everything Donald Trump says should be taken “truthfully not literally”. Speaking to Sky News’ US correspondent James Matthews, the Reform UK leader also said he did not think Ukraine started the war with Russia and claimed Mr Trump was talking about “causal factors” when

Sir Keir Starmer has held private calls with European leaders to ensure the Western alliance does not fracture, a minister has said, after Donald Trump claimed Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a “dictator”. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast the prime minister has spent a “quite considerable amount of time” over the

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has spoken with Volodymyr Zelenskyy to give the Ukrainian president his backing after Donald Trump called him a “dictator”. A Downing Street spokesperson said Sir Keir called Mr Zelenskyy this evening and shared his support for him “as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader”. The prime minister “said that it was perfectly

Some government departments have been asked to make savings which would amount to a 11% cut in spending – as the prime minister faces calls to raise defence spending. Sky News has been told that departments which do not have their spending protected have been asked to model two options – “flat” spending, which, adjusted

A former Australian prime minister has said his country should be “prepared to make a contribution” to protect the freedom of Ukraine. Tony Abbott told Sky News’ Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge that no country “will be safe against a bully” if Vladimir Putin wins the war. He called on Britain to take the lead

Sir Keir Starmer was the first leader to arrive at this meeting in Paris, strolling down the road from the British Embassy. When he emerged, after three hours of discussion, he looked sombre. Sir Keir, like the other political heavyweights who came to the Elysee Palace, knows that Europe has been battered and marginalised over

There’s been a lot of talk in politics recently about “Western values”. Just last week, the new US vice president JD Vance spoke about the “crisis” in the West and accused European governments of retreating from their values. He said Europe was determined to ignore voter concerns on migration and said free speech was in

The war in Ukraine is “the frontline for all of us” in Europe, a minister has said after Sir Keir Starmer said he is prepared to put British troops on the ground. Health Secretary Wes Streeting told Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast the government stands firmly behind Ukraine – not just for Ukrainians, but

The whole government recognises the need to spend more on defence, including Chancellor Rachel Reeves, a cabinet minister has said. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that he “disagrees” with claims the prime minister is preparing to overrule the chancellor on the amount of cash being spent on the

Rachel Reeves says “no one ever raised any concerns” about her expenses when she worked at HBOS, as she responds to reports she was investigated while working for the bank. The chancellor was accused by former employees of being involved in an “expenses scandal” while working at Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) from 2006 to

A waiting game on tariffs is beginning to play out between the UK and the United States on tariffs, amid warnings that Donald Trump’s latest strategy could hit the UK especially hard. The US president on Thursday revealed he has asked his government to consider what tariffs should be applied to other nations – and

People who believe the things posted in a controversial Labour WhatsApp group shouldn’t have been MPs in the first place, according to Harriet Harman. Speaking on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, the veteran Labour parliamentarian said the scandal was “very serious” as the public already thinks MPs are “contemptuous of their voters”. Politics live: Follow the

👉 Click here to listen to Electoral Dysfunction on your podcast app 👈 Do MPs say one thing in public, and another in private? This week, Beth Rigby, Harriet Harman and Ruth Davidson ask what’s been going on with the two MPs suspended from the Labour Party over WhatsApp messages containing offensive comments. Andrew Gwynne

Farmers forced the prime minister to cut short a visit to a housing development as they drove tractors to the site in a protest against changes to inheritance tax. Sir Keir Starmer was in Buckinghamshire to announce more than 100 new towns could be built under the government’s plans for the “largest house building programme

A leak inquiry will take place following reports that economic growth forecasts have been reduced by the government’s financial watchdog. Bloomberg reported that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had reduced its growth forecasts in data sent to Chancellor Rachel Reeves last week. Reduced growth could force the government to cut further spending or increase

The man who killed Conservative MP Sir David Amess was released from the Prevent anti-terror programme “too quickly”, a review has found. Sir David was stabbed to death by Islamic State (ISIS) supporter Ali Harbi Ali during a constituency surgery at a church hall in Leigh-on-Sea in October 2021. The killer, who was given a

Angela Rayner has insisted the government can meet its target to build 1.5m homes over the next five years as ministers pledged an extra £350m for housebuilding. An extra £300m has been injected to the affordable homes programme, a move ministers believe will allow 2,800 additional homes to be built. More than half of these

The Labour Party has suspended 11 of its councillors over their membership of a WhatsApp group that led to a minister being sacked from the frontbench. It is understood most of the councillors are part of Tameside Council while two are members of Stockport Council. The move comes after the party sacked health minister Andrew

Has Sir Keir Starmer picked a fight with a bat tunnel that – in time – he will eventually discover he just can’t win? For the last six months, the prime minister has singled out the most hated construction site in Britain for criticism – a kilometre-long, £100m shed to protect bats in Buckinghamshire from

Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has a ruthless streak when it comes to suspending MPs who’ve brought the party into disrepute or failed to toe the line. It’s no surprise that Andrew Gwynne was sacked before the story of his outrageous comments on WhatsApp had even been published, given that Sir Keir has built his

A Labour MP has said he “deeply regrets” comments he made on a WhatsApp group – a day after health minister Andrew Gwynne was sacked for alleged racist and sexist remarks posted on the same chat. Burnley MP Oliver Ryan is being investigated by the Labour Party over comments which a government source said were

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said the party now has more than 200,000 members and is aiming to overtake the Labour Party’s total of 309,000. Speaking to delegates at a regional conference in Wiltshire, the Clacton MP called his party’s growth “truly extraordinary” since its founding in 2021 as the re-launch of the Brexit

Margaret Thatcher died on 8 April 2013. But the UK’s longest-serving post-war prime minister still casts a long shadow over politics today, more than a decade later. Only last week the Labour Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer cited her example in support of his deregulation plans. “In the 1980s, the Thatcher government deregulated finance capital…,”

Health minister Andrew Gwynne has been sacked over comments posted on a WhatsApp group. Mr Gwynne reportedly made antisemitic comments and ‘joked’ about a pensioner constituent, saying he hope she died before the next election, according to the Mail on Sunday. In the WhatsApp chat, which contained Labour councillors, party officials and at least one

Keir Starmer was touring the UK National Nuclear Laboratory in Preston when the Bank of England halved its 2025 growth forecast, cut interest rates for the third time in six months, warned of an uptick in inflation and said the national insurance hike on employers would hit prices and jobs more than expected.  It was

The Labour MPs who have set up a pressure group to counter the threat of Reform UK have been warned they risked promoting factionalism. Baroness Harman, a former deputy leader of the Labour Party, said setting up the group was also “problematic” because it gave the impression that those involved did not believe the leadership

The Foreign Office has revoked the accreditation of a Russian diplomat after a British official was expelled from Moscow last year. A Foreign Office spokesperson said the Russian ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, had been summoned to a meeting with a senior British official to revoke the accreditation of the diplomat. “This is in

The government has been accused of “ignoring” the voices of people who lost family in the Grenfell Tower tragedy in its decision to demolish the building. Grenfell United, which represents some bereaved and survivors, criticised the government’s conduct as “disgraceful and unforgiveable”. The news was announced in a meeting attended by deputy prime minister Angela

The Conservative Party is pledging to tighten immigration rules after Reform topped a landmark poll for the first time earlier this week. In her first major policy announcement as Tory Party leader, Kemi Badenoch is pledging to double the amount of time an asylum seeker needs to have been in the UK before claiming indefinite

Southport killer Axel Rudakubana’s anti-terror case should have been kept open, a review into his attacks has found. Following the killings in Southport last summer, a rapid review was launched into Rudakubana’s contact with Prevent – a government strategy aimed at stopping people from becoming terrorists. Speaking in the House of Commons, Home Office minister

Britain’s foreign secretary is on a visit to Ukraine barely a fortnight after the prime minister said the UK will “play its full part” in securing a lasting peace, including by potentially deploying troops. With war with Russia still raging, David Lammy’s trip today also comes as Kyiv waits to hear how the new US