Politics

Boris Johnson has given his support to the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk, promising £700m of government funding for the project. He confirmed the move during a speech from the site in one of his final acts as prime minister – and amid the rising cost of living crisis – saying he was

Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has told Sky News that nobody should be cut off this winter because they can’t pay their energy bills. In an exclusive interview with Kay Burley, he accused Russia of using energy to divide Western countries, but he insisted the UK must continue to support Ukraine. Mr Zahawi promised there would be

The Queen will receive the new prime minister at her Balmoral estate in Scotland for the first time in her long reign. Her Majesty will meet either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak on 6 September, a day after one of them is announced as the winner in the race for 10 Downing Street. She would

After Tory MPs sprinted through five rounds of voting for a new party leader in just a week, the battle for the votes of party members has already been a six-week marathon. For Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak it’s almost the end of the road as they prepare for the 12th and final Conservative Party

The government’s target to bring gigabit broadband to “every home and business across the UK” by 2025 seems to have been scaled back to reach 85% of the country instead. Boris Johnson made the initial pledge as part of his 2019 manifesto, with £5bn of funding behind the scheme. However, in a press release published

Liz Truss has cancelled a scheduled interview on the BBC with just a week to go before the next Conservative Party leader is announced. A BBC spokesperson said: “Liz Truss has cancelled her BBC One interview with Nick Robinson which was due to air this Tuesday evening (30 August) at 7pm. “Ms Truss’s team say

Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi will travel to the United States this week to meet top bankers and US government officials to try and seek joint solutions to the cost of living crisis. Mr Zahawi is expected to push for co-operation on energy security, financial services and tackling spiralling prices as the government faces growing pressure to

People relying on the state pension could be left with less than £11 a day to live on from next April because of the soaring cost of energy, according to Sky News analysis. A leading charity working with older people said it is “seriously worried” and called on the government to step in urgently. According

Four new bank holidays should be created in the UK to reward a “nation of grafters”, according to a union. Workers in England and Wales typically get eight bank holidays a year – but some European countries have 15, almost twice as much. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is calling for a “national conservation” on

The government’s new plan to crack down on sewage discharge by 2050 has been branded a “cruel joke” and “licence to pump sewage on to our beaches”. The Department for the Environment (DEFRA) said on Friday that water companies will have to deliver £56bn of capital investment over the next 25 years to stop untreated

Pressure is mounting on the government to put forward detailed proposals to curb rocketing gas and electricity prices after energy regulator Ofgem announced the price cap for an average household will rise to £3,549 a year in October. The figure is £800 more than the forecast figure that was provided to Rishi Sunak in May

Boris Johnson has pledged the government will announce “extra cash” in September to support households further with energy bills – after Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi suggested people should cut back on their usage. The outgoing PM said: “There’s a pipeline of cash coming through over the next few months and through the autumn and the winter.

Liz Truss has said she will use an emergency budget to “ensure support is on its way” amid soaring energy bills if she becomes prime minister – despite repeatedly saying she favours tax cuts over handouts. The foreign secretary made the comments, which could be interpreted as going against much of what she has previously

Emmanuel Macron has responded after Liz Truss refused to say if he was a “friend or foe” during the penultimate Conservative leadership hustings on Thursday. Asked if Mr Macron, the French president and leader of the UK’s closest neighbour, was a “friend or foe”, the Conservative leadership race frontrunner replied: “The jury is out.” She

Rishi Sunak says he will not quit politics if he loses the race to become the next prime minister and leader of the Conservatives. The former chancellor has become the underdog in the contest, with his rival, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, continuing to lead polls of party members – who will ultimately choose the winner.

The government must increase its energy bills discount by at least 150% or risk pushing millions of households into financial distress. That is the warning from consumer group Which? ahead of Friday’s announcement of the energy price cap for the three months from October. In May, the government said that it would give every household

Freezing energy bills will not help people who need the most support with the cost of living crisis, according to a government minister. The boss of Scottish Power revealed on Tuesday that he had asked the government to back a £100bn loan scheme to allow energy companies to freeze bills for two years. Keith Anderson

It was a 3am rise for a dawn police raid in Surrey. But the home secretary – a regular at these kind of events – wanted to project a steady hand at the Home Office, getting on with business as usual when everything else is in a state of flux.  On this occasion, the raid was a

Liz Truss has been accused of presiding over budget cuts to the Environment Agency that have resulted in “doubled sewage discharge”. Labour Party analysis of official figures shows that since 2016, when the Tory leadership hopeful was in charge of Defra – raw sewage discharge more than doubled from 14.7 per overflow in 2016 to

Rishi Sunak vowed to make Britain a “science superpower” while Liz Truss pledged to put the West Midlands “at the heart of our economic revival” in their latest policy announcements. The Tory leadership contenders are continuing to set out their visions for the country as the leadership race enters its final fortnight, with the pair