Politics

The government is facing calls to carry out an urgent investigation after reports emerged that a phone belonging to Liz Truss was hacked by Russia. The Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party have described the allegations as “extremely serious” and “concerning”. Agents suspected of working for Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly hacked the former prime

The UK is now spending more of its aid budget at home than in poorer countries, development experts have said. That is because a large proportion of the pot – some £3bn – is being spent on housing refugees, mainly from Ukraine, according to the Centre for Global Development (CGD). The UK aid budget is

The UK’s Northern Ireland secretary has said he “will be calling an election” in the nation after a deadline to restore devolved government at Stormont passed at midnight. Yesterday, last-ditch efforts to restore the multi-party executive failed and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris had been expected to subsequently call an election today and announce the

Rishi Sunak will no longer be going ahead with his pledge to charge people for missed GP appointments, the prime minister’s spokesperson has said. The Number 10 spokesperson said “now is not the time to take this policy forward”. During the summer Conservative leadership contest, Mr Sunak pledged to introduce a £10 fine for patients

Security services could be reluctant to share sensitive information with Suella Braverman after her controversial reappointment as home secretary, Lord Blunkett has warned. The Labour peer, himself a former home secretary, suggested “there could be two really unfortunate outcomes to the reappointment of the current home secretary” just six days after she was forced to

Rishi Sunak is under growing pressure over his reappointment of Suella Braverman as home secretary after a former party chair claimed she had committed “multiple breaches” of the ministerial code. Ms Braverman resigned her post just over a week ago after using her personal email address to forward sensitive government documents, breaking the rules ministers

Rishi Sunak is reinstating the ban on fracking that Liz Truss controversially lifted. During Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, the new prime minister said he stands “by the manifesto” on fracking. The Conservative 2019 manifesto placed a moratorium on fracking in England following opposition from environmentalists and local communities. Mr Sunak‘s spokesman explicitly confirmed he

Rishi Sunak will make his debut at Prime Minister’s Questions at lunchtime, in what is shaping up to be the first big test of his leadership.  The new PM will face Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in the Commons – a day after culling almost a dozen Conservative ministers from the cabinet. Jacob Rees-Mogg has

Rishi Sunak has appointed his cabinet after being asked by the King to form a new government. The new prime minister promised to form a government of “all the talents” amid calls from senior Tories to appoint the best ministers available – rather than focusing on those who are loyal to him, as his two

Rishi Sunak has made his first speech as prime minister, saying he was chosen to take over to “fix” the mistakes made by Liz Truss. Speaking outside Number 10, the former chancellor praised his predecessor’s “restlessness” and her “noble aim” to improve economic growth in the UK. But, he added: “Some mistakes were made, not

Rishi Sunak will become the UK’s next prime minister tomorrow after meeting King Charles at Buckingham Palace in the morning. At the start of the day, outgoing PM Liz Truss will hold her last cabinet meeting before she is expected to make a departing statement outside Number 10 at 10.15am. Ms Truss, who became the

After a mad dash back from his Caribbean holiday, a flurry of canvassing, secret summits with rivals Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, and a significant air war campaign, Boris Johnson announced shortly before 9pm last night that he would not run for PM after all. It was the most Boris Johnson way of admitting defeat:

For a man who was, until recently, thousands of miles away on a Caribbean island (and has yet to put his hat in the ring) it is extraordinary that Boris Johnson’s name has dominated this leadership race. Such is the strength of feeling around the former PM: love him or loathe him, we can’t stop

Former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has said he is backing Boris Johnson to return as prime minister despite having previously called for him to resign in the summer. “I’m backing Boris. He got the big calls right, whether it was ordering more vaccines ahead of more waves of Covid, arming Ukraine early against the advice of

Rishi Sunak supporters are claiming that he has the votes to progress to the next stage of the Conservative leadership contest. Those wanting to win the keys to Downing Street have until Monday to secure the backing of 100 MPs, and must meet this threshold to make it onto the ballot paper. This means there

It could be all over on Monday or the Conservatives may be about to mesmerise the nation with another round of vicious infighting. The Conservative Party rules can’t be changed. They are that Conservative MPs draw up a shortlist of two candidates from their number. The 180,000 paid-up and unelected party members then choose between

Penny Mordaunt has become the first MP to enter the race to replace Liz Truss as prime minister after her dramatic resignation yesterday. The leader of the Commons announced her candidacy in a tweet on Friday afternoon, saying fellow Conservatives had urged her to stand. Ms Mordaunt, who came third in the last leadership race

Rishi Sunak has announced his bid to become the next Conservative leader and prime minister, six weeks after Liz Truss beat him to the top job. The former chancellor has put himself forward for the second time in a matter of months after the extraordinary resignation of Ms Truss on Thursday, 44 days into her

Candidates to replace Liz Truss as Tory leader will need at least 100 nominations from Conservative MPs, 1922 Committee chair Sir Graham Brady has said. This will rule out a number of candidates from running, and means the maximum number of people able to stand is three. During the last leadership election, Rishi Sunak won

An investigation has been launched into the chaotic scenes in the House of Commons where Tory MPs were accused of “manhandling” their colleagues into voting. Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle announced he has asked the Serjeant at Arms and other officials to investigate allegations made about incidents in the Commons on Wednesday night. He will be