Politics

PA By Chris Mason Political editor, BBC News It has felt like a week where politics has notched up a gear. Again. The local, mayoral and police and crime commissioner elections in England and Wales are a week away. And the general election is imminent too. Quite how imminent? Texts zip around seeking the latest

By Eleanor Montague & Sam Francis BBC News, in Kyiv & London Jeremy Hunt has defended plans to slash civil service jobs to increase defence spending and Ukraine aid, during a surprise trip to Kyiv. The chancellor said cutting public services will cost “a great deal less” compared to allowing Russia to succeed. The government

Reuters By Chris Mason Political editor, BBC News In the cool, spring sunshine of a Polish military base, a noisy and smoky tank performs a 90-degree turn, the metal of its caterpillar tracks scraping along the concrete. Creatures of war had become backdrops for the politics of defence. A dangerous world is colliding with a

EPA By Jennifer McKiernan Political reporter Rishi Sunak’s flagship Rwanda bill is set to become law after five months of Westminster wrangling. It designates Rwanda a safe country and is a key part of the government’s plans to send some asylum seekers there. The bill has been fiercely criticised by opposition parties but after several

Getty Images By Becky Morton Political reporter When Douglas Alexander lost his seat in the House of Commons to 20-year-old Mhairi Black in 2015 it was one of the biggest shocks of the night. The former minister in the Blair and Brown governments had represented Paisley and Renfrewshire South since Labour swept to power in

Getty Images By Paul Seddon Politics reporter The UK has rejected a EU offer that would make it easier for people aged between 18 and 30 to study and work abroad in the wake of Brexit. The European Commission had said the deal would be a limited arrangement, not a restoration of free movement. But

Reuters By Oscar Bentley BBC Political Research Unit The number of MPs who have said they will leave Parliament at the next general election has reached 100. Conservative Tim Loughton, who has represented East Worthing and Shoreham since 1997, became the 100th MP to announce he was leaving the Commons. Most – 63 in all

By Nick Eardley & Isabella Allen BBC News The Tory activist allegedly called by an MP in the early hours of the morning asking for money has told the BBC she is “appalled” by the party’s response. Katie Fieldhouse says Mark Menzies rang her at 3:15am one December morning asking for £5,000 to pay “bad

Reuters By Paul Seddon & Jennifer McKiernan Politics reporters The government’s showdown with the House of Lords over its Rwanda deportation bill continues. Peers have voted to demand changes to the bill, including an amendment which would ban sending people who have assisted the UK military to Rwanda. Earlier, MPs overturned a series of changes

EPA The government’s flagship Rwanda Bill has suffered a fresh set of defeats in the House of Lords. Despite MPs overturning previous changes, peers backed Labour plans to carve out exceptions to the scheme for children and ensure it sticks to international law. The much-debated bill will now return to the House of Commons for

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. By Chris Mason, political editor & Sam Francis, political reporter BBC News Liz Truss has endorsed Donald Trump to win this year’s US presidential election, saying the “world was safer” when he was in the White House.

Reuters By Nick Eardley Political correspondent Charities supporting asylum seekers plan to launch legal challenges “as quickly as possible” against moving people to Rwanda, after a new law passes in the coming days. Legislation to declare Rwanda safe is likely to pass its final parliamentary hurdles this week. Downing Street hopes this will allow the

PA Media By Laura Kuenssberg Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg “Everyone says they want to have a woman around who drinks and smokes and makes jokes. “Then they get a woman who drinks and smokes and makes jokes, then they say, ‘oh, we didn’t mean quite like that'”. As a source who knows Angela Rayner

Getty Images The UK economy grew slightly in February increasing hopes it is on its way out of recession. The economy grew by 0.1%, official figures show, boosted by production and manufacturing in areas such as the car industry. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that construction was dampened by wet weather though. This

PA Media By Phil Kemp & Henry Zeffman BBC News The police were first made aware of suspicious messages targeting men at Westminster late last year – but did not warn MPs, the BBC has learned. Many of those targeted in the alleged “honeytrap” scandal did not realise others had also been receiving messages until

PA Media By James Landale & Jennifer McKiernan BBC News More than a quarter of all UK overseas aid was spent on asylum costs at home last year, new figures show. The Foreign Office statistics reveal £4.3bn of its foreign aid budget went on supporting refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. That represents a