Politics

Donald Trump’s second stint as president will be like a “24/7 bar-room brawl”, according to the UK’s former ambassador to Washington. Lord Darroch was the representative for the UK to the US between 2016 and 2019 – when Mr Trump was last in power – until cables he sent to London were leaked and showed

Government plans to boost prison capacity could cost billions more than estimated and fall short by thousands of cell spaces, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has warned. The National Audit Office (NAO) said current plans to expand prisons are “insufficient to meet future demand”, with a projected shortage of 12,400 prison places by the end of 2027.

The Home Office spent a record £5.38bn over the last year on asylum – more than a third higher than the previous year. Figures released on Thursday showed spending on asylum rose by £1.43bn in the 2023/24 financial year to £5.38bn – 36% higher than in 2022/24 when £3.95bn was spent. The latest figure, covering

Instagram is releasing a feature that will let users easily reset their algorithms, as the government strengthens its regulation of online safety. With the new reset feature, users can clear their recommended content from Explore, Reels and their feed, potentially reducing the amount of harmful content they are exposed to. It’s all part of Meta’s

Non-crime hate incidents guidance needs to be urgently changed because officers are “not the thought police”, the shadow home secretary has said. Chris Philp told a major policing conference that the police should “apply common sense and not waste time and resources” investigating incidents unless there is “an imminent risk of criminality”. He said forces

Climate change, the crisis in the Middle East, the continuing war in Ukraine, combating global poverty. All of these are critical issues for Britain and beyond; all of them up for discussions at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro this week, and all of them very much in limbo as the world awaits the

👉 Listen to Electoral Dysfunction on your podcast app👈 Beth, Ruth and Harriet work out what Donald Trump’s second presidency will mean for the UK as they debrief after the American election. They heard from one of Theresa May’s advisers who had to deal with Trump when he was last in the White House and

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

Reform MP Lee Anderson has been told to apologise in the House of Commons for “swearing twice at a security officer after his pass did not work” as he tried to enter parliament. A report by the Independent Expert Panel (IEP) now requires Mr Anderson to “make an apology in the House of Commons for

We’ve been here before. Yvette Cooper is the third home secretary to promise to reform procedure for armed police officers after the shooting of Chris Kaba. But then we have had three home secretaries in the past year: Tories Suella Braverman and James Cleverly and now Labour’s Ms Cooper. It was when dozens of officers

Firearms officers on trial over police shootings will not be named during criminal proceedings, the home secretary has announced. Yvette Cooper made the announcement after police marksman Martyn Blake was cleared by a jury on Monday of the murder of Chris Kaba in Streatham, south London, in September 2022. Mr Blake, 40, fired a single

If Donald Trump wins the US presidential election in November this could be rather awkward. The Trump-Vance campaign have accused the Labour Party of “blatant foreign interference” in the US election and are demanding a formal investigation into Labour members’ campaigning for their Democratic rival Kamala Harris. But is this anything new, or just a

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

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

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper attended Taylor Swift’s concert in London for free using tickets provided to her husband by the megastar’s music label Universal, Sky News can reveal. Ms Cooper went as a guest of her husband, former Labour minister Ed Balls, who was given four tickets on 4 August, before Ms Swift’s shows in

A student who heckled Sir Keir Starmer during his speech at the Labour Party conference has told Sky News the prime minister would “not lift a finger” to help the people of Gaza amid the conflict with Israel. Daniel Riley, who is 18 and from Jersey, interrupted Sir Keir’s speech in Liverpool to shout about

Nurses have rejected the government’s offer of a 5.5% pay rise, the Royal College of Nursing has said. Two thirds of nursing staff voted against the current year’s pay award, with a record high 145,000 members of the union casting a vote. In a letter to Health Secretary Wes Streeting MP, RCN general secretary Professor

Climate action will be central to “all” foreign policy, David Lammy will say on Tuesday, as the new government seeks to rebrand the UK’s international image. On Tuesday, the foreign secretary will use his first major speech in his new role to address the climate and nature crises and how they intersect with geopolitics, conflict

The Criminal Bar Association has warned the government against increasing sentencing powers for magistrates, saying the “knee-jerk reaction” would “simply make things worse” for overcrowded prisons. Reports over the weekend claimed the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) was looking at doubling the sentences that magistrates were allowed to impose from six months to a year, enabling

Former Labour MP Harriet Harman has called for the police to act “quicker” when it comes to their investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire. The public inquiry into the west London blaze that saw 72 killed in 2017 delivered its final report on Wednesday. Politics live: MPs to get vote on winter fuel payment cuts