Politics

Boris Johnson has announced a major shake-up of social care funding in England. A hike in National Insurance will pay for a pledge made when Mr Johnson became prime minister in 2019 to “fix the broken care system”. However, this means he will be breaking his promise to not raise taxes, which has angered Tory

Boris Johnson is expected to raise national insurance by about 1.2% to pay for a pledge to end the “catastrophic costs” of social care, a move Tory MPs claim amounts to a £10bn tax raid. On Tuesday, he is planning a major launch of a long-awaited shake-up which he claims will fulfil a pledge he

Boris Johnson is set to face a significant amount of opposition from MPs over his handling of the Afghanistan crisis, possible plans to hike national insurance, and cutting the Universal Credit uplift when parliament resumes today. In a statement set to be delivered to the Commons later, the prime minister will praise the “courage and

Boris Johnson will tell MPs that he will use “every economic, political and diplomatic lever” to help Afghans left behind by the British as he looks to defend his handling of the withdrawal from the country. The prime minister will reiterate the pledge in the House of Commons on Monday, when parliament returns from its

Concern at the top of government over a rise to national insurance has spilled into the open after a senior minister suggested that voters would remember broken promises on tax. Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg used his weekly segment in the Sunday Express newspaper to republish a famous quote by former president

Boris Johnson is coming under attack from senior members of his own party ahead of a possible announcement on social care this week. The prime minister is expected to increase national insurance to help fund care reforms and clear backlogs in the NHS. However ministers, MPs, government officials and business groups have told Sky News

The government is reportedly determined to push ahead with COVID-19 vaccines for 12 to 15-year-olds, despite advisers recommending against it. The Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation said on Friday that, while it would widen the vaccination programme to include more children in that age group with health conditions, it was not recommending the widespread

The government must immediately remove the mandatory requirement for care home staff to be vaccinated amid a workforce crisis in the sector, the UK’s largest social care union says. UNISON is calling on ministers to stop “sleepwalking into a disaster” and end the ‘no jab, no job’ rule for those in the care industry. Repealing

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has highlighted the importance of engaging with the Taliban as he acknowledged the need “to face up to the new reality in Afghanistan”. While not recognising the militant group as the government in Kabul, the cabinet minister pointed to the necessity of having “a direct line of communication” to discuss a

The prime minister is expected to announce a rise in national insurance payments to fund social care, despite this being a breach of the 2019 Tory manifesto. Reports in The Times and The Daily Telegraph say the plans could be revealed as soon as next week when parliament returns from its summer recess. Both newspapers

The education secretary has insisted children must return to a “normal pre-pandemic” experience in schools, despite the risk of an increase in COVID cases. Gavin Williamson said testing would be key to guarding against rising infection rates, but refused to outline what the government’s “contingency plan” for other potential measures might involve. Experts are predicting

A leaked Foreign Office report warned government ministers on 22 July that the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan would lead to ‘rapid Taliban advances’, a senior Conservative MP has claimed. Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Tugendhat, told Sky News that the department’s own principle risk report on Afghanistan suggested the country’s cities

Dominic Raab has said he is “not confident with any precision” about how many people who are entitled to come to the UK remain trapped in Afghanistan. Facing questions on the UK’s withdrawal by members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the foreign secretary says his best estimate of the number of UK nationals and their

The Foreign Secretary will be questioned by MPs later on how the government intends to deal with the fall-out from the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Parliament is still on its summer break, but an emergency session of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee will take evidence from Dominic Raab this afternoon. Here are some of the

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has admitted it will be a “challenge” for British nationals left in Afghanistan to now find a route to the UK. Speaking to Sky News, Mr Raab said the number of British nationals who had not been taken as part of the now-ended UK evacuation effort was in the “low hundreds”.

Dominic Raab is to hold a series of diplomatic meetings this week focusing on future engagement with the Taliban after the final UK troops pulled out of Afghanistan on Saturday. The foreign secretary will host talks with other officials in a bid to find an international consensus on how to deal with Afghanistan’s new regime