Politics

Councils will be given £68m to build thousands of homes on disused brownfield sites, the government has announced. The money will be spread across 54 local authorities in England and is expected to deliver 5,200 homes on sites such as former industrial land and car parks that can be difficult to build on. Labour’s manifesto

Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico’s Jack Blanchard share their daily guide to the day ahead in politics in under 20 minutes.  With just over two weeks to go until the autumn budget – what are the rumours about national insurance, and would a rise in the tax for businesses be breaking

Weight loss jabs like Ozempic and Wegovy should not be used to get the “Instagram perfect body”, Wes Streeting said amid a surge in demand for the treatment. The health secretary told the Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge that his view on the injections “is pretty nuanced”, as while the results can be “game changing”

Susan Hall, the Conservative candidate for London mayor, is reported to have liked tweets praising controversial former minister Enoch Powell. Ms Hall, who will go up against Labour’s Sadiq Khan in the mayoral election next May, liked a message in February 2020 quoting the far-right, anti-immigration politician as saying: “It’s never too late to save

American XL bully dogs are a danger to communities and will banned, Rishi Sunak has said, after a man was mauled to death. Announcing the move, the prime minister stressed the need to end such violent attacks “and keep people safe”. Mr Sunak was responding to the latest incident in which a man died after

Labour has promised to end the use of hotels for asylum seekers if it gets into power at the next election. Outlining its latest policy pledges, the party said it would also clear the growing backlog of asylum cases and speed up the return of those who fail to meet the threshold. As a result

The NHS will receive a £200m boost from the government ahead of the busiest months of the year for them. The winter resilience fund is aimed at supporting the health service so it can attend to patients as quickly as possible amid record waiting lists. Last month, NHS England said 7.6 million people were waiting

Labour has confirmed it would seek to negotiate a returns agreement for migrants with the EU if it wins power, as it accused the government of having “lost control of our borders”. Shadow Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said the “objective” was to secure a returns agreement to establish “management and control of the system”.

The chair of the Commons’ defence committee, Tobias Ellwood, has resigned from his role following criticism over a video he posted on social media, Sky News understands. The Tory MP, who had been the chair of the cross-party group since 2020, came under pressure to quit after sharing the clip on X, the platform formerly

The Conservatives reportedly dropped two potential candidates to become MPs after MI5 warned that they could be spies for China. The security service contacted the Tory Party last year and in 2021 advising the pair should not be included on the central list of candidates, according to The Times. The newspaper reported the pair had

Angela Rayner declared the battle to win over voters at the next general election is “getting started” as she revealed Labour’s vision to boost workers’ rights. In a speech at the TUC conference in Liverpool, Labour’s deputy leader gave a “cast iron commitment” to push through an employment rights bill in the party’s first 100

Collapse-prone concrete has been found in the Houses of Parliament. Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, known as RAAC, was a common building material used in the post-war era as it was cheaper and lighter than traditional concrete. But it is now proving a nightmare for the government as it has been found to have a 30-year

A parliamentary researcher who has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China has said he is “completely innocent”. In a statement released by his lawyers, the man – who they did not name – said: “I feel forced to respond to the media accusations that I am a ‘Chinese spy’. It is wrong that

The Conservatives will be accused of having “broken Britain” in a keynote speech by the new leader of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) attacking the state of the economy and public services. In his first speech as head of the union federation, Paul Nowak will highlight that “nothing works in this country anymore and no

About 40 prisoners have been moved out of Wandsworth prison after the escape of terror suspect Daniel Khalife. Justice Secretary Alex Chalk told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that inmates were moved “out of an abundance of caution”. Khalife, 21, was arrested on Saturday after 75 hours on the run. Politics Live: Justice

Two men have been arrested under the Official Secrets Act amid reports that a parliamentary researcher spied for China. The researcher has links to several senior Tory MPs and has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China, according to The Sunday Times. He was arrested along with another man by officers on 13 March,

Rishi Sunak says he is confident a trade deal will be struck between the UK and India after meeting with Narendra Modi at the G20 summit. The meeting came as the Indian prime minister said a consensus had been reached on a G20 leaders’ declaration and it has now been adopted. The wording around the

Rishi Sunak has denied his party is preparing for election defeat and insists his team is “fired up” about winning a full term. Asked what his message would be to Tory MPs despondent about the party’s lag in the polls, Mr Sunak said he was “entirely confident we can win the next election”. “I am

The jail from which terror suspect Daniel Abed Khalife escaped “really needs closing ultimately”, the chief inspector of prisons has said. Speaking to Sky News’ Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge, Charlie Taylor said there was a “crisis” in large institutions like Wandsworth prison in south London due to a lack of places and staff, and

Labour is calling for an independent inquiry into how a prisoner was able to escape from a London jail while awaiting trial for terror offences. Daniel Abed Khalife, 21, is alleged to have escaped from Wandsworth prison – one of the UK’s largest – under a food truck. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said