Politics

The House of Lords has pushed the government’s Rwanda Bill back to the Commons again as a row continues over the controversial plan to “stop the boats”. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told reporters on Monday that “enough is enough”, promising the legislation would pass its final parliamentary stages this evening, “no matter how late it

Rishi Sunak is undertaking a week-long blitz of activity and announcements at home and abroad in a bid to convince a sceptical party he has the ideas and drive to continue as prime minister. After weeks of criticism about an empty legislative agenda, an inability to set the agenda, and divisions in the Tory Party

Two of Westminster’s best-connected journalists, Sky News’s Sam Coates and Politico’s Jack Blanchard, guide you through their top predictions for the next seven days in British politics. This week, they react to MP Mark Menzies’ resignation from the Conservative Party and look at what it might mean for the next election. Also this week, Rishi

Rishi Sunak has revealed he will keep the two-child benefit cap if the Conservatives win the next election. The policy limits the benefits parents on Universal Credit can claim for their children. Writing in The Sun on Sunday, the prime minister said: “Working families do not see their incomes rise when they have more children.

A powersharing agreement between the SNP and the Greens at Holyrood is under threat after the Scottish government ditched a key climate change target. The Scottish Green Party has said a vote on the deal, to be held at a forthcoming extraordinary general meeting (EGM), would be binding. The date of the assembly and the

The Conservatives were warned ex-Tory MP Mark Menzies’s alleged misuse of party funds may have constituted fraud but the whistleblower was told there was no duty to report it Mr Menzies, the MP for Fylde in Lancashire, gave up the Tory whip in the wake of reports in The Times that he misused party funds.

Police say they are reviewing “information” about former Conservative MP Mark Menzies after Labour asked for an investigation into claims he misused party funds. Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds wrote to Lancashire Police asking for an inquiry after The Times reported he had made a late-night phone call to an aide asking for funds to

Sir Keir Starmer said police should be involved in the case of suspended Tory MP Mark Menzies, who faces allegations he misused campaign funds. The backbench MP for Flyde in Lancashire has lost the Conservative whip after The Times published claims he had used political donations to cover medical expenses and pay off “bad people”

Following allegations Tory MP Mark Menzies misused campaign funds, Beth Rigby, Jess Phillips, and Ruth Davidson examine the fallout for the government and for the politician who has been suspended from the parliamentary party. He denies all the claims. And after the Commons votes to ban anyone born after 1 January 2009 from buying cigarettes,

The House of Lords has delayed the passing of the government’s Rwanda bill until next week – in a blow to Rishi Sunak’s attempts to get planes off the ground deporting illegal migrants to the country. MPs overturned Tuesday’s attempts by the House of Lords to dilute the plan – but peers have now put

An MP has lost the Conservative Party whip while newspaper claims about alleged misuse of campaign funds are investigated. Mark Menzies, the MP for Fylde, disputes the allegations reported by The Times but the Conservative Party is looking into the claims. A spokesperson for Chief Whip Simon Hart said: “Following a call with the Chief

It has been two years since Boris Johnson first proposed sending asylum seekers arriving in the UK to be sent to Rwanda to have their claims processed. Since then the government has spent £240m trying to get the scheme off the ground, argued – and lost – its case to send migrants to Kigali in

New defeats for the government’s Rwanda bill in the House of Lords have set up a parliamentary showdown on Wednesday – forcing MPs to consider changes to Rishi Sunak’s stop the boats plan. Downing Street wants to get the bill – which declares Rwanda a safe country and stops appeals from asylum seekers being sent

MPs have rejected a series of Lords’ amendments to the government’s Rwanda bill – as a week of parliamentary showdown on the legislation begins. The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill is currently in the middle of what is known as ping-pong, where the two houses propose, debate and vote on amendments. So far,

From Rishi Sunak to Keir Starmer, to President Macron and President Biden, Western leaders on Monday appealed to Israel to exercise restraint following Iran’s drone and missile attack. The prime minister, addressing MPs, issued a carefully-worded statement that both reiterated unwavering support for Israel while acknowledging the other regional partners – Jordan and Saudi Arabia

Lord David Cameron has urged Israel to “think with head as well as heart” and not retaliate to Iran’s missile attack. The foreign secretary said the nation needed to be “smart as well as tough” and think about the consequences of escalating violence in the region. UN warns of ‘devastating conflict’ – Middle East latest

UK jets shot down “a number of drones” launched by Iran in its unprecedented attack on Israel last night, Rishi Sunak has said. The prime minister called the assault by Tehran a “dangerous and unnecessary escalation” of conflict in the Middle East, warning the “the fallout for regional stability would be hard to overstate” had

Liz Truss has revealed she considered abolishing the UK’s economic watchdog and replacing leaders at the Treasury and Bank of England, accusing the bodies of being “pro-China” and “pro-Remain”. The country’s shortest serving prime minister said she discussed scrapping the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) with her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng but concluded it would have

Mik Parkin has been a Liverpool FC fan for as long as he can remember. But it was only in 2012, while listening to a podcast about Hillsborough, that he realised he’d “spent years enjoying the football but had never done anything at all to help”. He became involved in the campaign for justice for

As with most political scandals, the heat in the Angela Rayner housing row is less about the (alleged) crime and more about the (alleged) cover-up. Or, to put it another way, this is all about how honest and transparent the Labour deputy leader has been in responding to allegations about her living arrangements a decade