Politics

Sir Keir Starmer has said he intends to pursue a “pragmatic” relationship with China when he meets President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit. The prime minister said the size of China’s economy and its membership of the UN security council meant he wanted to have “serious and pragmatic discussions” with the Chinese leader during

The government has indicated the £3 bus fare cap in place until next year may be scrapped beyond that point. Bus fares have been capped at £2 on more than 4,600 routes in England since 1 January 2023, but the government has said that from next year the cap will rise to £3. Speaking to

Sir Keir Starmer has said he will defend the decisions made in the budget “all day long” amid anger from farmers over inheritance tax changes. Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced last month in her key speech that from April 2026, farms worth more than £1m will face an inheritance tax rate of 20%, rather than the

A former Conservative MP has said he felt “enormous guilt” when he found out he was the victim of a Westminster honeytrap scandal. William Wragg resigned from the parliamentary party in April after he admitted giving out fellow politicians’ phone numbers to the suspected perpetrator of the sexting scam. He said he felt threatened and

Nigel Farage has announced that he has paid a visit to Clacton following criticism that he does not spend enough time in his constituency. The Reform UK leader shared an image of himself on X alongside the caption: “I would like all my haters to know that I am once again in Clacton living my

Wes Streeting “crossed the line” by opposing assisted dying in public and the argument shouldn’t “come down to resources”, a Labour peer has said. Speaking on Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Baroness Harriet Harman criticised the health secretary for revealing how he is going to vote on the matter when it comes before parliament later

Brexit has “weighed” on the British economy and relations with the EU must be rebuilt, according to the governor of the Bank of England. Andrew Bailey’s comments come in a speech at the City of London’s Mansion House this evening and were widely trailed beforehand. He said although he takes “no position on Brexit per

Pension “mega funds” will be created under government plans to increase infrastructure investment. Reforms could “unlock £80bn” of investment, according to Treasury plans, which say bigger funds can get greater returns. Chancellor Rachel Reeves wants to imitate the way large Canadian and Australian pension schemes work. She will give more details about her plans in

Labour MPs who are opposed to legalising assisted dying believe the momentum is swinging behind their side of the campaign, Sky News has learnt. MPs are currently weighing up whether to back a change in the law that would give terminally ill people with six months to live the choice to end their lives. At

NHS league tables revealing failing NHS trusts and cancelled pay rises or dismissal for managers who don’t turn things around are to form part of the government’s plans to improve the health service. Health Secretary Wes Streeting is confirming new measures he hopes will boost failing hospital trusts and encourage successful ones. The changes form

Self-administering drugs to end your own life legally is more compassionate than someone else doing it, the MP proposing assisted dying legislation has said. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was published on Monday and revealed the medicine that will end a patient’s life will need to be self-administered, with doctors not allowed

The UK has unveiled a punchy new climate goal to slash its emissions by 81% by 2035. The government said it is on a mission to “tackle the climate crisis in a way that makes the British people better off”, by investing in clean, home-grown power and cutting ties with volatile fossil fuel markets. Energy

The prime minister has encouraged companies to start spending money on global climate change as he heads to the COP summit in Baku, Azerbaijan. On the trip to the Caspian coast, Sir Keir spoke to journalists travelling with him. He was asked if the UK – which the government says is struggling financially – would

The defence secretary has insisted Donald Trump is committed to NATO and is right to push other European nations to put more funding into the security alliance. John Healey dismissed suggestions the new US president will pull out of NATO, the military alliance consisting of 30 European countries and the US and Canada, after previous

Farmers could blockade ports or cause food shortages by refusing to supply their produce if the government doesn’t listen to calls to rethink inheritance tax changes made in the budget, Sky News has been told. Tractor go-slows and a strike on spreading sewage sludge on their land are also being considered by some “hardcore groups”,

Britain’s annual Remembrance Day has a special dimension this year because it is the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. The speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, and the Imperial War Museum are arranging for images of the men and women who took part in the Normandy campaign to be projected on

Fresh from Donald Trump’s victory party at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, it is an emboldened Nigel Farage who meets us at his latest Reform conference in Newport, South Wales. “What a win!” He chirps, as the cameras are set up. To be clear: Nigel Farage is not on the brink of becoming the next

The war in Ukraine needs “concessions on both sides” if it is to come to an end, Nigel Farage has said. The Reform UK leader suggested the invaded nation could gain “quite a lot from settling”, though he refused to say if this meant giving up territory to Russia in return. Politics Live: ex-Blair aide

Can a Labour prime minister get on well with a Republican US president? Or a Conservative PM with a Democrat in the White House? The short answer is yes, absolutely. There are plenty of examples of a good relationship and close bond between a Labour prime minister and Republican president. And vice versa. Indeed, some

David Lammy has downplayed calling Donald Trump a “neo-nazi” and insisted he can find common ground with the new president-elect. The foreign secretary said the remarks he made in 2018 were “old news” and at the time most politicians “had some pretty ripe things to say” about the then leader of the US. Mr Lammy

UK and European leaders will collectively react to Donald Trump’s win as they meet to discuss security today – and it casts a very long shadow. As the enormity of the US result sinks in, Sir Keir Starmer will join a summit in Budapest hosted by the president-elect’s biggest cheerleader on the continent, Hungarian Prime

MP Mike Amesbury has been charged with common assault following an incident in Frodsham, Cheshire last month Cheshire Police said the 55 year old will appear in a magistrates court later today to face the assault charge. In a statement, police said the charge “relates to reports of an assault on a 45-year-old man on

It wasn’t yet official, but Sir Keir Starmer was straight out of the blocks on Wednesday morning to congratulate Donald Trump on his imminent victory – as America reeled from an election that turned from being too close to call into an emphatic, definitive and quick win. The president-elect took the Electoral College, the popular

Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico’s Jack Blanchard share their daily guide to the day ahead in politics in under 20 minutes. With everyone waking up to the possibility of a second Trump presidency in the US, how will the UK government react? There may be huge news across the pond, but

A Labour MP has been mugged on the way back to his London flat. Chris Webb said the attack happened on Monday evening as he walked home from Parliament. The 38-year-old, who represents Blackpool South, said he was “attacked and mugged by a group of individuals” who were on bikes and wearing balaclavas. “Luckily, I

Tom Tugendhat is not serving in Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet as the new Tory leader continued her appointments today. Former Home Office minister Chris Philp has been awarded the job of shadow home secretary, the last of the key posts to be announced. Unveiling a host of announcements today, Ms Badenoch, who was elected leader

The education secretary has said no decision has been made on whether university tuition fees will increase with inflation each year. Bridget Phillipson has announced the maximum cap on tuition fees in England will go up in line with inflation from April 2025. The cost of tuition will increase by £285 to £9,535 next year

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