Politics

Labour has launched a fresh attack on the Conservative Party with a series of scathing adverts. Sir Keir Starmer’s party will be looking to capitalise on the government’s current leadership crisis and recent unpopular economic polices as it gears up for the next general election. In a set of four damning posters, Labour has taken

Jeremy Hunt has confirmed that Prime Minister Liz Truss’s economic vision is not only dead, but that the immediate actions of this administration will be to do almost exactly the opposite of what the prime minister promised during the summer leadership campaign. This was a cold, hard reality check from a chancellor who is being

Tory MPs appear to be divided over the future of Liz Truss as prime minister following her major U-turn announcement. Ms Truss reversed a key policy to scrap the planned rise in corporation tax from 19% to 25% after she sacked Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor. Heated messages were shared in Conservative Party WhatsApp groups after

Labour has pledged to ban fracking “once and for all”, calling it “an unjust charter for earthquakes”. The party is working to bring forward an opposition day motion to maintain the ban on the controversial gas extraction method, after Liz Truss said she would lift it as part of her energy security plan. The moratorium

The government is set to raise corporation tax despite promising not to do so in the mini-budget, Sky News understands. Kwasi Kwarteng, who was today sacked as chancellor, promised during last month’s mini-budget to keep corporation tax at 19% instead of increasing it to 25%, as was planned. The change in direction is the second

Discussions are under way in Downing Street over whether to scrap some of the contentious proposals in the chancellor’s tax-cutting mini-budget, Sky News understands. The proposed changes to corporation tax and dividend tax are understood to be under discussion. Downing Street insisted earlier on Thursday that there will be no more U-turns on policies in

Liz Truss has pledged not to cut public spending to balance the books in her first PMQs since the chancellor’s contentious mini-budget – despite a leading economics-focused think tank warning the government is billions short of the sums needed. The prime minister insisted she was “absolutely” not planning public spending reductions, but vowed that taxpayers’

Jacob Rees-Mogg has declared his confidence in the governor of the Bank of England, but disputed that pension funds are at “systemic” risk. Speaking to Sky News, the business secretary said “of course” he has confidence in Andrew Bailey, describing him as “respected”. He questioned, however, whether there was a “systemic problem” with pensions after

Renewable energy generators and nuclear power plants face having their revenues capped as part of new government legislation. The Energy Prices Bill will be introduced in the Commons on Wednesday to bring into law its plan to help households and businesses with soaring energy costs over the winter and beyond. But late on Tuesday, the

Sir Keir Starmer has removed his chief of staff as part of a major restructuring of the Labour leader’s office as he moves the party to an “election footing”. In a statement released on Tuesday, the party said the Labour leader held a call with staff this morning alongside the general secretary and announced plans

MPs will return to Westminster on Tuesday after a chaotic conference season, with the chancellor set to face questions for the first time since the fallout from his mini-budget. Parliament has been in recess for over two weeks to allow the parties to hold their annual political gatherings, but will kick off at 2.30pm with

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s debt-cutting plan will be published on 31 October – three weeks earlier than planned – alongside an independent economic forecast, the Treasury has confirmed. Both the publication of the medium-term financial plan and the forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had been due on 23 November, but the chancellor has

Cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi has warned restive Tory MPs that “dither or delay will end in defeat” as he appealed for unity just over a month after Liz Truss took office. Speaking to Sky News, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster stressed the need for party colleagues to “focus” on delivery or face being

Four cabinet ministers have urged their colleagues to rally behind Liz Truss or risk election defeat amid infighting in the Tory party. Home Secretary Suella Braverman, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Nadhim Zahawi, Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt and Environment Secretary Ranil Jayawardena have all written articles calling on the party to unite around the

On Thursday, the day after the end of the conference season, YouGov hosted a focus group with seven Blue Wall voters from around the South East exclusively for Sky News. Some natural Conservatives, some former Tony Blair supporters, all with one thing in common: each voted Tory in the 2019 general election. Now their votes

Liz Truss has “showed the world she is unfit to be prime minister” and is a “symptom of the Westminster dysfunction”, SNP’s deputy leader will say in his opening speech at the party conference. Keith Brown will accuse the prime minister of delivering “more chaos and confusion than even the most pessimistic prediction” when he

Liz Truss has sacked trade minister Conor Burns from her government “with immediate effect” following an allegation of serious misconduct. The Tory MP for Bournemouth West has also had the whip suspended while the complaint is investigated. A No 10 spokesman said: “Following a complaint of serious misconduct, the prime minister has asked Conor Burns

A government minister has failed to rule out energy rationing across the UK this winter after warnings three-hour power blackouts could be imposed. Asked on Sky News whether the measure – not seen in the UK since the 1970s – would be brought in, climate minister Graham Stuart said the government did not “expect that

Labour has called for an investigation into the appointment of Liz Truss’s chief of staff, after it was revealed he was questioned as a witness in an FBI bribery inquiry and was initially being paid by Number 10 via his lobbying company. Mark Fullbrook refused to answer questions about the FBI investigation when tracked down

The plane flying Liz Truss to meet the Queen at Balmoral for her appointment as prime minister a month ago was hit by turbulence in bad weather and struggled to land at Aberdeen airport. The aircraft’s helpless circling in mid-air was seen at the time as a bad omen for her premiership. And after a

Liz Truss will hold meetings with EU leaders today after a chaotic party conference that left Conservatives divided over her policies. The prime minister arrived in the Czech Republic on Thursday morning for the European leaders’ summit in Prague where she is expected to have bilateral meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron, Dutch Prime Minister

Liz Truss vowed to “get Britain through the tempest” and insisted “everyone will benefit” from the result of her economic policies in her keynote conference speech during which she was heckled by Greenpeace supporters. Addressing Conservative members at the event in Birmingham, as she battles to save her premiership, the prime minister acknowledged that “these

In power for just 28 days – and for 10 of them politics was paused following the death of the Queen – it has been the worst possible start for Liz Truss. A (mini) budget unveiling £45bn of tax cuts without a fiscal framework, precipitating a £65bn emergency bond buying programme by the Bank of

A law allowing the deportation of illegal migrants and effectively banning them from claiming asylum could be introduced by the home secretary as she unveils plans for another “crackdown” on Channel crossings. In her first major speech to the Conservative Party conference, Suella Braverman is expected to set out proposals for legislation that will go

Liz Truss has said the UK must have “the courage of its convictions to put our nation on the path to success”, a day after a major U-turn on a key economic policy. Writing in the Telegraph, the prime minister said the struggling economy was a global problem caused by Putin and COVID, that there

The first rule of U-turns, as a veteran former cabinet minister told me last week, is to do them quickly. Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng decided late last night to cut their losses, both saying this morning that the policy of abolishing the 45p rate for those earning more than £150,000 had become a “distraction”.

A little under four weeks as prime minister and it couldn’t really have gone worse for Liz Truss. A mini-budget that precipitated a run on the pound (it has rallied a bit since), a £65bn emergency intervention by the Bank of England to prop up pension funds, and the withdrawal of nearly 1,000 mortgage deals

Kwasi Kwarteng is facing calls for an official inquiry following a report that he attended a private champagne reception with hedge fund managers following his mini-budget. The Sunday Times newspaper reported that the chancellor joined the gathering in Chelsea on 23 September and was said to have been “egged on” to pursue his plan of

Liz Truss and the Tories’ approval ratings have again plummeted in a fresh poll – as Labour jumped to a 19-point lead. The Opinium poll showed 55% of voters disapprove of the new prime minister and just 18% approve, which is worse than Boris Johnson’s final days in office. Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is no more

Three-and-a-half weeks ago, Liz Truss was beaming as she was announced as the new leader of the Conservative Party. She did not embrace her husband or console her defeated opponent – reaching instead for her victory speech and marching onto the stage. The contrast as she heads to her party’s annual conference in Birmingham is

Consumers are being warned they may be targeted by scammers as the government’s energy price guarantee comes into effect. Messages asking for people to provide personal or financial details to receive support should be treated as fraudulent activity, as no applications are required, the business secretary has said. The £400 Energy Bill Support Scheme will

You have to go back to Tony Blair’s honeymoon period after his 1997 landslide general election victory to find a Labour opinion poll lead as massive as 33 points. All those critics of Sir Keir Starmer – mostly on the Corbynista left-wing of the party, who’ve claimed with the Tories in turmoil, Labour should be

Labour has surged to record leads in multiple polls in the wake of the economic turmoil after the government’s mini-budget. A YouGov/Times poll placed Labour 33 points ahead of the Conservatives, believed to be the largest lead for Labour in any recorded poll since 1998, when the-then PM Tony Blair was enjoying his “honeymoon period”.