Politics

Members of the public have been urged to share their experiences of how the coronavirus pandemic affected them to help shape the COVID-19 Inquiry’s recommendations. Every Story Matters aims to aid understanding of the full picture of what happened and what more needs to be done to ensure the UK is better prepared in the

Rishi Sunak will take personal responsibility if inflation in the UK has not halved by the end of the year. The prime minister was speaking to Sky News political editor Beth Rigby during a visit to Washington DC where he will meet President Biden. Mr Sunak has made a significant amount of noise about his

The prime minister said Russia would have hit “new lows” if it turns out that Moscow is responsible for what he described as the largest attack on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine since the start of the war, following the destruction of a critical dam. Speaking en route to Washington, Rishi Sunak told reporters that the

Ian Blackford, the former leader of the SNP in Westminster, has told Sky News he will be standing down at the next election. Mr Blackford was replaced as leader of the independence-backing party’s Commons delegation at the end of last year by Stephen Flynn. The outgoing MP said he had been thinking “long and hard”

The government is still being “too slow” to recover taxpayer money lost to fraud and error over the pandemic, MPs have said. The cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC) also said Whitehall needs a “step change” in its approach to risk in order to prevent a similar “panic response” in the future. In a wide-ranging report,

Conservative MP Bob Stewart has been charged with public order offences relating to a “racially aggravated” incident in December last year. Police say the 73-year-old has been charged with using threatening or abusive words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour and that the offence was racially aggravated. He was also charged with using threatening or abusive

The majority of the British public thinks Rishi Sunak is doing a bad job in delivering on his five priorities, a new poll has found. Almost half a year after the prime minister set out his five key aims – including halving inflation, growing the economy, cutting NHS waiting lists, reducing the national debt and

Hundreds of migrants have so far been returned to Albania under the government’s “gold-standard” deal with the country, says immigration minister Robert Jenrick. That’s despite more than 12,000 Albanian people crossing the Channel on small boats last year, according to official figures. Speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge, Mr Jenrick initially said “thousands” of illegal migrants

A sitting Labour MP has filed a complaint against Geraint Davies after he was suspended over allegations of inappropriate behaviour, Sky News understands. It means Labour has now received two formal complaints after a woman also contacted the party yesterday. The 63-year-old has been “administratively suspended” from the party pending an investigation into reports of

Labour has blocked a sitting mayor from standing for a new role in the North East in a move that has reawakened divisions in the party. Jamie Driscoll, the serving North of Tyne mayor, revealed on social media that he had been “barred” from running as the Labour candidate to contest the North East mayoralty

In the wake of the Geraint Davies allegations, Labour has said it will look again at its processes for dealing with these types of complaints. In a (very long) email to all staff, the party’s general secretary, David Evans, went through all the resources already available – and the list was long. In doing so,

Boris Johnson is giving all the WhatsApp messages and diaries available to him directly to the COVID inquiry, Sky News understands. The former prime minister had originally given the information to the Cabinet Office, but it had refused to comply with the inquiry’s order to hand over all the material in unredacted form. Friday’s move

The government has been accused of an attempted “cover-up” as it bids to block the COVID inquiry’s request for Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages and notebooks. Bereaved families and opposition parties criticised Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after the Cabinet Office revealed it was taking the unusual step of bringing a judicial review of Baroness Hallett’s

A group of high-profile Labour politicians have banded together to campaign for “urgent” reform of the UK’s democracy. Former prime minister Gordon Brown, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham are among those who have joined the Alliance for Radical Democratic Change. They will launch the push at an event in

All of Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages and notebooks that have been requested by the COVID inquiry have been handed to the Cabinet Office in “full and in unredacted form”, his spokesman has said. The spokesman said the former prime minister wanted the Cabinet Office to “urgently” disclose the material to the inquiry. A statement from

The government will ask people to put fewer items into recycling bins as it plans to cut back on contamination from improperly prepared or non-recyclable objects, according to reports. It is part of a plan to tackle “wishcycling” – where people put items they hope are recyclable into the relevant container, but their good intention