Staff in care homes who don’t receive both vaccine jabs ahead of a looming deadline should “get out and get another job”, Health Secretary Sajid Javid has warned. His warning comes ahead of the 11 November legal deadline for care home workers to have had both COVID-19 jabs, but some unions and care homes are
Politics
The golden rule of Boris Johnson’s Conservatives is that an otherwise disparate party is at its most happy when it’s talking about Brexit and its consequences. At times of stress, it’s the trump card the PM routinely reaches for. Given the stage of the country, expect it to feature heavily during the party conference. As
The policing minister has said it would be “perfectly reasonable” for anyone being approached by a lone police officer to call 999 and seek reassurance in the wake of the rape and murder of Sarah Everard. Speaking to Sky News’ Kay Burley, Kit Malthouse gave advice on what people should do if they are approached
Sir Keir Starmer has said the Labour conference this week was a turning point for the party and it now has a “credible programme” to win the next general election. The Labour leader, speaking the morning after his 90-minute keynote speech, said if voters do not want to support the plans put forward at conference
The government’s coronavirus furlough scheme ends today after supporting millions of workers during the pandemic. Ministers say the wages of more than 11 million jobs were subsidised for at least some of the scheme’s duration, at a cost of about £70bn. There is now uncertainty over the almost one million people still thought to be
Sir Keir Starmer batted away hecklers during a mammoth speech in which he used his personal experiences to show off his human side as he announced a key climate change policy. Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, introduced Sir Keir before his conference speech by thanking the Labour leader for helping prosecute his
Sir Keir Starmer has repeatedly refused to say if he is moving Labour away from the left to the centre of British politics, but insisted: “You can’t lose four elections and not change”. On the eve of his first in-person Labour conference speech as party leader, Sir Keir said he was focussed on turning Labour
Ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has revealed he spoke to Andy McDonald before he announced he was quitting Sir Keir Starmer’s top team – but he denied there had been “some deep-laid Machiavellian plot”. Sir Keir has been rocked by the resignation of Mr McDonald as shadow secretary of state for employment rights and protections midway
A Labour MP has dramatically quit the shadow cabinet mid-way through the party’s Brighton conference with an attack on Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership and policies. Andy McDonald, who had been shadow secretary of state for employment rights and protections, said his position as a member of Sir Keir’s top team had become “untenable”. The 63-year-old,
Sir Keir Starmer will look to move on from a row over his reforms of the Labour rulebook during the third day of the party’s conference in Brighton. After a bruising battle over his shake-up of the rules for party leadership contests – which saw the Labour leader forced to water down his initial proposals
Sir Keir Starmer has ruled out nationalising the big energy firms if he wins the next election. Asked if he would pursue such a course of action if he became prime minister, the Labour leader said: “No.” Sir Keir made the commitment in an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show at Labour’s party conference
Angela Rayner has declined to apologise for calling the Conservatives “scum”, saying she was using “street language” to convey her “anger and frustration” at the actions of the government. Speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sunday on Sky News, Labour’s deputy leader said the comments were made “post-watershed…with a group of activists at an event last
Labour’s conference is opening in Brighton after Sir Keir Starmer was forced into a humiliating retreat over his attempt to re-write the party’s rulebook. He had to put his reforms on hold after a backlash from unions and party activists, in what left-wing MPs said was an own goal that had weakened his authority. The
Will Britain elect a prime minister people see as weak? This unfortunate question is one Sir Keir Starmer must confront on the eve of his first in-person party conference as Labour leader, however personally painful he finds it. Can he reverse voters’ first impressions of him by taking on his party in Brighton then imprinting
Dealing with David Cameron’s multiple texts, WhatsApp messages, emails and phone calls “did not take up a very significant part” of the Treasury’s time, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has told MPs investigating the Greensill lobbying scandal. Earlier this year, ex-prime minister Mr Cameron was revealed to have bombarded government ministers and officials – as well as
Boris Johnson has admitted to being “taken aback” by France’s angry reaction to a new security pact between the UK, US and Australia. The prime minister has told French President Emmanuel Macron to “prenez un grip” and give him a “break” in the diplomatic row over the new AUKUS initiative. But he has also spoken
Foreign secretary Liz Truss will travel to Mexico to push for the country’s support for the UK to join an international trade pact. It comes as the Prime Minister conceded an agreement was not about to be struck with the USA following meetings with President Joe Biden. Boris Johnson played down the prospect of an
Boris Johnson has said France should get over its anger at a partnership between the UK, US and Australia that saw the latter pull out of a major contract with Paris for submarines. “What I want to say about that is I just think it’s time for some of our dearest friends around the world
The prime minister has described Britain’s energy crisis as a “short-term problem” and said he does not think there will be disruption to food supplies at Christmas. Speaking to Sky News political editor Beth Rigby in New York, Boris Johnson said: “There is a short term problem caused by the hydrocarbon price spike, the gas
The Ministry of Defence has launched an investigation into a data breach involving the details of 250 Afghan interpreters. It is not yet clear if the interpreters concerned are in the UK or Afghanistan after dozens were left behind following the withdrawal of UK troops from Afghanistan last month after the Taliban took the country.
Boris Johnson has admitted he is facing an uphill battle to convince world leaders to put up hard cash and hard commitments to reduce carbon emissions. Speaking on his way to New York for the UN General Assembly Summit, the prime minister conceded he had a 40% chance of failure in securing the $100bn he
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has challenged his party to “tear down” the Conservatives’ “blue wall” in order to help oust Boris Johnson from Downing Street. In his keynote address at the Liberal Democrat conference on Sunday, Sir Ed said the Tories would only lose power at the next election if his party took
New Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has defended the UK’s “hard-headed” security pact with the US and Australia, amid a deepening diplomatic row with France. The AUKUS deal saw the UK, Australia and the US form a security pact to develop and deploy a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, adding to the Western military presence in
The bonds of friendship between France and the UK, US and Australia have been “tarnished” by the AUKUS pact, and it is now “more difficult than before” for France to trust those countries, the president of the French National Assembly has told Sky News. Richard Ferrand is attending the G7 Speakers’ Conference in Chorley, Lancashire, hosted
Michael Gove’s new levelling up department is being warned not to expect a large injection of new cash in the spending review hours after Boris Johnson called levelling up “our fundamental project”, Sky News understands. Mr Gove‘s department, which covers housing, the Union, local government and elections, will be expected to negotiate its three-year budget
Boris Johnson will gather his cabinet later for the first meeting of his top team since the prime minister’s reshuffle. It comes after the PM completed a shake-up of his cabinet that saw a number of high-profile casualties. Dominic Raab was replaced as foreign secretary by Liz Truss and moved to the roles of justice
Dominic Raab will keep playing an “important senior role” in the government despite being moved in Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle, Downing Street has said. Mr Raab was replaced as foreign secretary by Liz Truss and shifted to the justice brief, a move widely seen as a demotion. Live updates as government reshuffle continues Please use
The military could be called in to help Scotland’s ambulance service which is facing “acute pressure”, Nicola Sturgeon has announced. Scotland’s first minister apologised “unreservedly” for long waiting times and confirmed that targeted military assistance to help deal with “short-term pressure points” is under consideration. The announcement came as Ms Sturgeon was questioned about the
Penny Mordaunt has been appointed as minister of state at the Department for International Trade after Boris Johnson reshuffled the main cabinet positions yesterday. Michael Ellis will take on Ms Mordaunt’s former role as paymaster general at the Cabinet Office. One of the top changes saw Liz Truss getting the foreign secretary brief, bumping out
Lockdowns, mandatory face masks, vaccine certificates, and work from home orders could return this winter as part of a “plan B” to deal with the pandemic, the health secretary has announced. Sajid Javid said if the data shows the NHS is likely to come under “unsustainable pressure” from the COVID-19 pandemic again, the government has
The government has accepted the recommendation from the UK’s chief medical officers that children aged 12 to 15 should be offered a first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine and invitations will start being sent out next week. Making the announcement in the Commons, Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said: “We will now move with the
Boris Johnson has said the government wants to avoid the introduction of COVID vaccine passports in England “if we possibly can”, but added they would be an option to be kept “in reserve”. The prime minister, who will on Tuesday set out his plan to deal with coronavirus during the upcoming autumn and winter months,
A cabinet colleague has rallied to the defence of the home secretary as she faced fresh claims of breaking ministerial rules over a meeting with a billionaire Tory donor and British Airways. Health Secretary Sajid Javid gave his backing to Priti Patel, saying she was doing “incredibly well”, as Labour demanded an investigation into her