Politics

The UK’s economic outlook will be “challenging” for the next two years, Jeremy Hunt says. The chancellor presented his autumn statement to parliament on Thursday, littered with stealth taxes and curbs on government spending amounting to £55bn in an attempt to plug the black hole in the public finances. But the independent Office for Budget

There is so much about today’s autumn statement that hurts the head. The job of today’s statement – the reason it was urgent and necessary and painful – is because there was a huge black hole in the public finances that was unsettling the markets and pushing up government debt. Yet – amazingly – for

Dominic Raab has denied bullying claims and he requested an investigation into himself following two formal complaints made against him after days of allegations. Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, where he was standing in for Rishi Sunak who is at the G20 in Bali, Mr Raab said he is “confident that I have behaved professionally

His Majesty’s Treasury has opened a Discord account on the instant messaging platform and been subjected to a tidal wave of abuse. The government department’s official Twitter account posted a link to its server on the chat app on Tuesday, though it has apparently been active since 14 October. Discord allows users to communicate with

Rishi Sunak has refused to apologise for the economic turmoil Liz Truss’s short-lived government caused the British people. The prime minister, who is in Bali for the G20 summit, refused six times today to say sorry for the decisions his predecessor made, which caused severe and continuing financial turbulence. He acknowledged that “mistakes were made”

Just three weeks ago, Dominic Raab was sitting in Number 10 being offered his old jobs back, after a short hiatus from government thanks to Liz Truss. But now he has returned to government as justice secretary and deputy prime minister, he is facing questions over his conduct during his previous tenures in the roles,

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will announce a rise in the national living wage this week, Sky News understands. Mr Hunt and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will accept an official recommendation to increase the living wage from £9.50 an hour to about £10.40 an hour, according to news first reported in The Times. The rise of nearly

Rishi Sunak has said getting a grip on illegal migration is the “absolute priority” for his government as he kicks off his G20 summit with a new joint declaration with France to try to tackle record numbers of small boat crossings. The prime minister told journalists on the flight over to Bali that illegal migration

Rishi Sunak will set out a five-point economic action plan to address global instability and the rising cost of living at this week’s G20 summit – where he will face Russia’s foreign minister and call out Vladimir Putin’s regime. The prime minister is travelling to Bali for talks with leaders of the world’s biggest economies

The last time a chancellor of the exchequer appeared on the Sunday morning political shows he helped kick the economy off a cliff-edge. Seven long weeks ago, Kwasi Kwarteng was still revelling in the aftermath of his not-so-mini budget and its promise of unfunded tax cuts, so much so he promised more to come. It

Rishi Sunak has pledged to “call out Putin’s regime” at this year’s G20 summit over the devastating turmoil inflicted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The prime minister will jet to Indonesia on Sunday ahead of talks with world leaders including US President Joe Biden, French premier Emmanuel Macron and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. But Russian

Dominic Raab “values” civil servants in his department, the Ministry of Justice has insisted, after bullying claims have emerged against him. Mr Raab was reappointed as justice secretary and deputy prime minister by Rishi Sunak last month, having held the roles between September 2021 and September 2022 under Boris Johnson, but having been sacked by

There is now a “window of opportunity” to fix the issues around the Northern Ireland protocol, says the Irish prime minister. Speaking after the British-Irish Council summit in Blackpool, Michael Martin said relations between the UK and EU had “improved very significantly”, and both he and British PM Rishi Sunak wanted to resolve the problems

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has said he “could not speak or sleep” when he found out his wife had breast cancer. Susie Cleverly, 49, was diagnosed with triple positive breast cancer in December 2021 after spotting dimpled skin underneath her right breast the month before – nearly a year ago to the day. At the

A union representing more than 100,000 civil servants has voted to strike in a dispute over pay, pensions and jobs. The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), one of the largest unions in the UK, said the legal threshold for industrial action had been reached in 126 separate areas, covering workers including driving test examiners,

Boy George has revealed his mother was in hospital during the pandemic and said if she had not survived he would have quit I’m A Celebrity when Matt Hancock entered the jungle. The Culture Club singer was in tears after the former health secretary, who was booted out of the Conservative Party over his decision