Politics

A bout of COVID, getting a speeding fine and a young man behind me – unbeknown to me – baring his backside at the camera while I was broadcasting live. These are just some of the perils I’ve encountered covering by-election counts in more than 20 years at Sky News. Mid Bedfordshire, on Thursday, will

Rishi Sunak has been reported to Police Scotland over comments he made about Nicola Sturgeon in his Tory Party conference speech. Chris McEleny, the general secretary of Alba Party, told Sky News he had filed a complaint and asked for an investigation into whether Mr Sunak may have committed contempt of court by mentioning Scotland’s

The government is set to issue new guidance across England to ban mobile phones from schools, Sky News understands. Education Secretary Gillian Keegan will make the announcement later today during the Conservative Party conference, which is being held in Manchester this week. Politics live: Election question momentarily throws Hunt She will recommend the devices are

Boris Johnson has said delaying or scrapping the northern leg of HS2 would be “betraying the north of the country and the whole agenda of levelling up”. The ex-prime minister’s intervention on the eve of the party’s conference comes as Sky News understands the government is set to scrap or delay the Birmingham to Manchester

The Home Office has been ordered to stop work converting a former military base into an accommodation site for asylum seekers, over concerns planning conditions have been breached. West Lindsey District Council has issued the government with an enforcement notice and stop notice in regards to RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire. It means work must cease

Ben Wallace has resigned as defence secretary ahead of an expected reshuffle from the prime minister. Mr Wallace had said he would resign from the role the next time Rishi Sunak made changes to his cabinet – ahead of standing down at the next election. Read his resignation letter in full: Dear prime minister, Last

The Home Office is eyeing an expansion of the use of facial recognition software – including potentially within police forces and the security agencies. The department put out a call asking for companies to make suggestions of how they could improve the way in which facial recognition is used by the government. And the market

The expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone has led to a number of claims about the controversial charging scheme in the capital. The ULEZ expansion has created a political dividing line, with Conservatives using it as a stick with which to beat Labour and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. Sky News has had a

GP surgeries will face economic sanctions if they do not provide patients with adequate services if Labour come to power, according to the shadow health secretary. Wes Streeting has told the NHS that the “like it or lump it” approach taken by UK health providers is not acceptable and Labour “will give back patients control

Suella Braverman has been urged to “stand up” to France as reports emerged the country is intercepting fewer migrants in the Channel despite a £480m funding deal. The call from Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis came as The Telegraph claimed just 45.2% of migrants have been stopped by French patrols since January, down from 45.8% in

Proposals to scrap a target for patients to see a specialist within two weeks if they are suspected of having cancer are being considered by NHS England. Instead, there has been a consultation on the new “faster diagnosis standard” which proposes that patients who have been urgently referred should have cancer ruled out or receive

The UK and Turkey will work together to “disrupt and dismantle” people smuggling gangs under a new deal announced today. A new operational “centre of excellence” will be established by the Turkish National Police as part of the agreement and both countries will also share intelligence. Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said he was unable to

The government has announced a “task force” to root out dodgy lawyers after reports that false asylum claims are being submitted for a fee. The Home Office said the unit would bring together regulatory bodies, law enforcement teams and other government departments to act against solicitors and barristers found to be deceiving the courts. The

The government will fail to meet its asylum backlog target without a drastic increase in the processing of applications, a Sky News analysis has found. At present, there are more than 136,000 asylum applications waiting for an initial decision, including 62,000 that were made before 28 June 2022 – the so-called “legacy backlog”. In December

Donald Trump has told supporters at an influential campaign event in Iowa he is the only Republican candidate who can beat President Joe Biden. The former president took to the stage at the Lincoln Day Dinner with his main rival Ron DeSantis and several other candidates in the race to become the party’s nominee in

What now? This week’s trio of parliamentary by-elections are bound to be the biggest sampling of voter opinion in an election for Westminster this side of the next general election. That election is most likely more than a year away. November 2024 is currently the favoured date, although the prime minister could run all the

Boris Johnson and Liz Truss both received £18,660 as severance payments after they stood down as prime minister, annual accounts have shown. Both leaders quit amid mounting pressure from their own MPs, but were still entitled to the payout – with Mr Johnson having served just over three years in the job and Ms Truss

Boris Johnson has called for NATO to set out a clear timetable for Ukraine to join the alliance – and claimed some member nations still want to negotiate a peace deal with Vladimir Putin. The former prime minister made the intervention following the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, earlier in the week. At the meeting,

The government has “no strategy” to tackle the threat from China and has left the UK “severely handicapped” due to its “short-termist approach”, a new report has claimed. The Intelligence and Security Committee has published its work on the threat the country poses, saying China has managed to “successfully penetrate every sector of the UK’s

A Cabinet minister has suggested the BBC presenter who has been suspended for allegedly paying for sexually explicit images of a teenager should only be named once a “full” investigation has taken place. Justice Secretary Alex Chalk agreed there was a “public interest” in the broadcaster being named but said it would not be appropriate