Politics

The government at one point considered using Iraq to process asylum seekers – like the Rwanda scheme – according to documents seen by Sky News. This could have seen people sent from the UK to a country the government advises against all travel to. The two countries already have a returns agreement – but only

Graeme McCormick has pulled out of the race to become SNP leader and endorsed rival John Swinney as Scotland’s next first minister. Mr McCormick’s decision not to pursue a leadership bid leaves Mr Swinney as the only official candidate after Humza Yousaf announced he is stepping down. In a statement shared with Sky News, he

Andy Street’s interview with Sky News fired the starting gun for discussion over the future direction of the Conservative Party. But the battlefield immediately proved to be the Conservative WhatsApp group, also leaked to Sky News. There are two big conclusions about the leaks There are two Tory MPs publicly prepared to call on Rishi

It was a wafer-thin victory, but a huge win. The symbolism of Labour taking the West Midlands mayor, a jewel in the Tory crown, could be felt in the room as Labour activists gathered in Birmingham to celebrate the win with their new mayor Richard Parker and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer. There are moments

Boris Johnson has paid tribute to the villagers who Sky News revealed turned him away from his local polling station when he tried to vote without a valid photo ID – under rules he introduced. The former prime minister has said he had attempted to cast his ballot using a magazine sleeve with his name

We went into this set of local and mayoral elections with two big questions: Is Labour on course for a majority and how bad is it going to be for Rishi Sunak?  On the Sunak question, it’s a very clear-cut story. The Tories are having as bad a night as their worst nightmare. There is

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has renewed his demand for Rishi Sunak to go to the polls after the prime minister suffered a by-election drubbing and bruising council losses across England. But while Mr Sunak said the the grim early results were “disappointing” for the Conservatives, he insisted he was focused completely on the job

Senior Tories are predicting they will lose the Blackpool South by-election as counting gets under way. Sources told Sky News’ political correspondent Tamara Cohen they did “not expect to hold” the seat – which they won with a 3,690 majority in 2019. And they said the “stars could not be more aligned against us” following

John Swinney has announced his bid to take over from Humza Yousaf as SNP leader and Scotland’s first minister. The Perthshire North MSP has spent a year on the backbenches after he stepped down as deputy first minister when Nicola Sturgeon resigned in 2023. Announcing his intention to run for first minister during a visit

The Scottish government has survived a vote of no confidence at Holyrood. Scottish Labour pressed ahead with its motion despite Humza Yousaf announcing earlier this week his intention to stand down as SNP leader and first minister. It failed by 58 votes to 70. The Scottish Greens voted against the motion, with party co-leader Patrick

The Tory mayor of the West Midlands is sending voters an endorsement from Boris Johnson which urges people to “forget about the government”, Sky News can reveal. Andy Street’s campaign website makes no mention of Rishi Sunak on its homepage and is coloured in green rather than Conservative blue, suggesting the mayor is trying to

The UK has sent the first failed asylum seeker to Rwanda – under a voluntary scheme. The scheme is for those who have gone through the asylum process and had permission rejected, rather than for migrants who have illegally entered Britain by crossing the Channel on small boats. The migrant was sent on a commercial

Ireland’s prime minister has insisted the UK must respect an existing arrangement between the two countries to take back asylum seekers. Simon Harris told Sky News the UK must honour a deal that has been in place since 2020 as a row escalates over the Irish government’s new plans to return to the UK asylum

Humza Yousaf will no doubt be riddled with regret at the colossal miscalculation to bin the Greens last week. His options to fight on, despite the severe headwinds, eventually evaporated and, short of striking a deal with Alex Salmond, he was boxed in. Mr Yousaf inherited a lot of his problems. The Green pact was

The UK will not to take back asylum seekers who cross the border into Ireland “until the EU accepts that we can send them back to France”, according to a government source. The comment comes amid an escalating row between Dublin and Westminster over the Irish government’s plans for new legislation to enable asylum seekers

Thursday’s local elections have been pencilled in as a day of peril for Rishi Sunak for so long, it’s hard to remember when Tory turbulence – and maybe even a leadership challenge – was not expected after 2 May. Most council seats up for election were last contested in 2021, the high watermark of Boris

I’ve known Rishi Sunak slightly for almost a decade, having first met him after he penned a thoughtful, comprehensive, well-received report on Britain’s minority communities, which I’d say is still the best of its kind. Sitting down to interview him in a state-of-the-art defence facility this week, I could still see the same energetic, likeable problem

Conservative MP and former health minister Dan Poulter has defected to Labour. The MP for Suffolk Central and Ipswich North, with a majority of 23,321 at the last election, has indicated he is not planning to stand at the next general election. The defection was revealed in an article on The Observer website, in which

A defiant Humza Yousaf has told Sky News he will not resign as Scotland’s first minister. Pressure has been building on the SNP leader after he tore up the power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens – prompting a no-confidence motion in his leadership and a threatened knife-edge vote. However, Mr Yousaf, on a visit to

Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf is battling to save his job as he faces a knife-edge no-confidence vote. The SNP leader triggered a crisis at Holyrood after he dramatically brought the power sharing deal with the Scottish Greens to an end. Follow live updates in the Politics Hub The backlash has plunged Mr Yousaf’s future