Politics

Labour backbench MP Dawn Butler has been criticised for sharing a post describing Kemi Badenoch as “the most prominent member of white supremacy’s black collaborator class”. Ms Butler swiftly deleted her retweet of a comment from British-Nigerian author Nels Abbey, which he posted on X shortly before the Tory leadership contest result was announced. In

The new Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said the partygate scandal was “overblown” and the government should not have fined people for “everyday activities” during lockdown. Ms Badenoch, who won the battle to replace Rishi Sunak on Saturday, said the public was “not wrong to be upset about partygate” – when those working in Downing

Rachel Reeves has admitted she was “wrong” to say higher taxes were not needed during the election campaign – but businesses will have to make less money or pay staff less to cover the tax increase. A month before Labour won the July election, the chancellor said “we don’t need higher taxes, what we need

Kemi Badenoch has won the race to be the next leader of the Conservative Party. The 44-year-old North West Essex MP has been declared the winner of the months-long contest, beating Robert Jenrick. Ms Badenoch received 53,806 votes to Mr Jenrick’s 41,388. Politics latest: Reaction after new leader of the opposition revealed Ms Badenoch has

The next leader of the Conservative party will be announced on Saturday, following a run-off between Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick. The winner will replace Rishi Sunak as the leader of the opposition, after he led the party to a crushing election defeat in July, losing almost two thirds of its MPs. His successor faces

The Crown Prosecution Service’s special crime division is considering whether to charge MP Mike Amesbury after CCTV showed the politician punching a man in the street. While the police are responsible for collecting evidence, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is responsible for whether someone should be charged with a crime. Cheshire Police has now handed

The pound has fallen sharply after the chancellor announced the biggest tax rises in a generation. Over the last three days, sterling has dropped by 1.2% (in trade weighted terms) – the biggest fall in 18 months. Between around 1.30pm and 5.30pm today, versus the dollar, it dropped from about 129.9c to the pound to

Rachel Reeves has defended raising taxes by the highest amount since 1993 as she said “everything has to be paid for”. The chancellor announced £40bn worth of tax rises in Wednesday’s budget, with the lion’s share coming from a £25bn increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions. She told Sky News’ Breakfast With Kay Burley that

One hundred and eighteen days into the Labour government, and finally we get to see what the slogan on the front of the manifesto – Change – really means. And you might be forgiven for feeling rather blindsided. Because the tax and spending plans outlined today by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the first Labour budget

The budget will increase taxes by £40bn, with the lion’s share coming from a £25bn rise in employers’ national insurance contributions, the chancellor has announced at the budget. The rise is bigger than predicted but Rachel Reeves added there would be measures to protect small businesses from the change. Ms Reeves, who said she was

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will promise to “invest, invest, invest” in Labour’s first budget for 15 years. Ms Reeves – who is set to stand up in the Commons just after 12.30pm on Wednesday – will also give a pledge that “working people won’t face higher taxes in their payslips”. However, she will clarify that Labour’s

The Labour manifesto never did add up. On the one hand, Keir Starmer vowed there would be “no return to austerity” under his government, while also insisting he had “no plans” to raise taxes beyond an £8bn raid on private equity, oil and gas companies, private school fees and non-doms to pay for more teachers

Kemi Badenoch has suggested she will offer all six candidates in the Tory leadership race a job in her shadow cabinet if she is elected leader. The Tory leadership hopeful, who is competing against Robert Jenrick to become the next head of the Tory party, said she “did not know” if they would like the

The budget will deliver billions of pounds of new funding for the NHS to unlock two million extra appointments a year, the government has announced. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is expected to unveil £1.5bn for new surgical hubs and scanners alongside £70m for radiotherapy machines. An additional £1.8bn will also be put towards elective appointments

Briefings and speculation are rife over what will be included in the chancellor’s budget on Wednesday, particularly the scale of tax rises. The biggest expected revenue raiser, set to generate as much as £20bn for public services, is a hike in employers’ national insurance. Government sources have given strong indications of the chancellor’s thinking, prompting

People will not face higher taxes on their payslips after the budget, a cabinet minister said, as she refused to be drawn on what measures could be in the £40bn revenue raiser. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson repeatedly said she could not speculate on how Chancellor Rachel Reeves intends to fill the black hole in the

Mayors are set to be one of the big winners in the budget after Sir Keir Starmer personally intervened to ensure they have more freedom to spend cash and boost growth, Sky News understands. England’s dozen metro mayors have been working together to push the prime minister, Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner for more powers

A Labour MP has said he was involved in an incident where he “felt threatened” and is cooperating with police. Mike Amesbury, the MP for Runcorn and Helsby, said he felt “threatened on the street following an evening out with friends” on Friday night in Cheshire. “This morning, I contacted Cheshire Police myself to report

The UK has agreed to step up its partnership with Albania following a successful summer in which the two countries carried out a collaborative crackdown on drugs and crime. Senior Home Office officials will travel to Tirana, the capital of Albania, for further talks before Christmas on how to tackle serious and organised crime, as

Newly elected MPs are struggling to set up offices in their constituencies due to fears for their safety and spiralling rents, Sky News has learnt. Several MPs who spoke to Sky News said they believed landlords were becoming increasingly reluctant to have them as tenants due to the perceived risks that came with the job

Who counts as a working person will matter a lot next week when the new Labour government unveils what is being billed as a historic budget. Sir Keir Starmer used the phrase “working people” repeatedly in the general election as he sought to reassure voters he wasn’t going to raise their taxes. But as this

Apologising for the UK’s role in the slave trade is “not on the agenda,” Downing Street has said amid the row engulfing the Commonwealth summit. The prime minister has called the transatlantic slave trade “abhorrent” but ruled out reparations as he said countries affected would rather the UK help them with current issues, such as

Public investment in new technologies and the energy transition is “badly needed” to drive growth in the UK and prevent the national debt rising to risky levels, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned. Speaking as Rachel Reeves travelled to Washington to attend her first IMF annual meeting as chancellor, the body identified the UK

Sir Keir Starmer has rejected calls for reparations for slavery, saying it would lead to “very long, endless discussions” about the past. The prime minister said while the transatlantic slave trade was “abhorrent”, he believes the countries affected by it would rather the UK help them with contemporary challenges, such as the impact of climate

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted his relationship with Donald Trump has not been jeopardised after the Trump team filed a legal complaint against the Labour Party over its activists travelling to the US to support Kamala Harris in the tightly fought US presidential race. The prime minister said on Tuesday he had “established a good

One prisoner let out today under the government’s early release scheme celebrated by saying “big up Keir Starmer”. But Number 10 did not see the funny side of the situation – with the prime minister’s spokesperson saying Sir Keir “shares the public’s anger” over the matter. Today is the second time the Labour government has

Tougher punishments outside prison are being considered as part of a government review into sentencing. The review will be launched on Tuesday by Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood in a bid to ease overcrowding in the prison system. Led by former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke, the review will be activated on the same day that

Sir Keir Starmer has praised the King for doing a “fantastic job” after he was heckled by a senator in the Australian parliament. The prime minister said the King was an “incredible ambassador” for the UK and the 56 independent countries that make up the Commonwealth. He was speaking after the monarch was heckled by

The health secretary has warned of “difficult and big choices” coming in the budget, while refusing to rule out that tax thresholds will be frozen. Wes Streeting told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips programme the government “can’t fix 14 years in one budget” and there are lots of choices “we will have to

A housing minister has lost her building safety brief after Grenfell survivors complained about her attendance at a conference sponsored by a firm criticised by an inquiry into the deadly fire. Rushanara Ali said she understands that “perception matters” and trusted relationships between the government and the Grenfell community are “essential”. It came after Grenfell

A housing minister has lost her building safety brief after Grenfell survivors complained about her attendance at a conference sponsored by a firm criticised by an inquiry into the deadly fire. Rushanara Ali said she understands that “perception matters” and trusted relationships between the government and the Grenfell community are “essential”. It came after Grenfell

One in five councillors in England and Wales have received death threats or threats of violence, according to a new survey. The findings from the Local Government Association (LGA) come as the group calls for the UK government to take more action to protect councillors and other local political figures. Almost three-quarters of those who

The world “will not tolerate any more excuses on humanitarian assistance” from Israel on the situation in Gaza, the prime minister has said. Speaking following a meeting with US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, Sir Keir Starmer sought to make the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar a