Politics

A leaked government report has revealed some teachers are working 60 hours or more a week, with a quarter considering leaving the profession altogether because of the “unacceptable” high workload. The findings from a survey conducted by the Department for Education (DfE), and seen by Sky News, said eight in ten were working upwards of

Whisper it, but could the Brexit and Boris bandwagons be gradually trundling off into the distance? Let’s start with Brexit. The most politically important development of a packed Westminster Wednesday was arguably what didn’t happen. Boris Johnson, the European Research Group of Brexiteers and the DUP all objected to the government’s EU deal and yet

Former prime minister Boris Johnson has said he is going to vote against the first part of the government’s new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland. The Windsor Framework was agreed by Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on 27 February to change the way the Northern Ireland Protocol operates. The first

“Substantial” government spending on energy bills support has sent public borrowing to an all-time February record, according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the £16.7bn budget deficit was the highest for the month since records began in 1993. The total is up £9.7bn on February 2022 and greater than the £11.7bn

Boris Johnson’s defence against claims he lied to parliament about whether he knew about Downing Street lockdown parties could be published today. The former prime minister’s case was submitted to the privileges committee by barrister Lord Pannick KC, and allies believe his position – that he was unaware any gatherings broke the rules – will

Boris Johnson is to submit a dossier of evidence ahead of an interrogation by MPs over whether he lied to Parliament about the partygate scandal. The former prime minister will provide information in his defence as he prepares for a lengthy televised grilling by the Commons privileges committee on Wednesday, where he faces a fight

The home secretary is set to travel to Rwanda this weekend as the government’s deal to send asylum seekers to the country remains mired in legal challenges. It is 11 months since the UK agreed the deal, which would see people who claimed asylum in Britain deported to the central African nation to have their

The SNP’s national executive committee will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday morning amid a row over transparency, Sky News understands. It is likely this could lead to the membership figures being released after the party refused to meet demands from all three candidates vying to replace Nicola Sturgeon as Scotland’s first minister to publish

The BBC’s director general says the damage done to football programming following Gary Lineker’s suspension is a “real blow” but he will not be resigning. Tim Davie said he was “sorry audiences have been affected and they haven’t got the programming”. Football Focus and Final Score were taken off the air, and it is understood

WhatsApp is right not to back down in its opposition to UK government proposals that could allow encrypted messages to be scanned, online privacy campaigners have said. Robin Wilton, director of internet trust for the Internet Society, told Sky News that any requirements in the upcoming Online Safety Bill that would weaken user privacy would

Boris Johnson says he believed “implicitly” that he was following COVID rules after a committee of MPs said it would have been “obvious” they were being broken around him at Downing Street gatherings. He also suggested that Sue Gray, who led an earlier civil service report into parties and has just been appointed Sir Keir Starmer’s

Sue Gray has been appointed by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to serve as his chief of staff. The senior civil servant became a household name during the partygate scandal, authoring the report which found “a failure of leadership and judgement” in Number 10 during Boris Johnson’s premiership. Conservative MPs and former cabinet ministers have

Sir Gavin Williamson accused teachers of looking for an “excuse” not to work during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to leaked messages from Matt Hancock published by The Daily Telegraph. In May 2020, as teachers prepared for classrooms to reopen, the then education secretary had messaged Mr Hancock asking for help in securing personal protective equipment

Boris Johnson has said China will be making an “historic mistake” if it supplies Russia with weapons – as he urged the UK to “break the ice” by becoming the first country to supply Ukraine with fighter jets. Speaking to Sky News’ Mark Austin as the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion approaches, the former prime

Boris Johnson has said Rishi Sunak’s attempts to renegotiate Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland may create additional problems rather than solve them. Speaking exclusively to Sky’s Mark Austin on the eve of the first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, the former prime minister refused to say he would back any deal negotiated by his

The Royal College of Nursing says it will pause strike action as it enters “intensive talks” with ministers over pay. RCN members in England were set to walk out for 48 hours from 1-3 March, including by emergency departments for the first time, as part of the long-running dispute with the government over pay and

Iran’s most senior diplomat has again been summoned by the Foreign Office after a UK-based Iranian broadcaster was forced to move out of the UK due to assassination threats from Tehran. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said he summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires in the UK, Mehdi Hosseini Matin, “to make clear we will not tolerate

Scotland’s largest teaching union has rejected the latest pay offer, with strikes set to continue across the country. The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) union has been embroiled in a wage dispute with the Scottish government and Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) over the past year. Under the plans announced by Education Secretary Shirley-Anne

Further teachers’ strikes are now “inevitable”, a union has said, after a meeting with the Department for Education did not result in a new pay offer for its members. Teachers are set to stage walkouts in England later this month and into March in a dispute over pay and working conditions. Union bosses met Education

The Chinese governor of Xinjiang has pulled out of a trip to London after senior MPs protested over the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in his province. Downing Street confirmed on Monday that Erkin Tuniyaz was set to meet officials in the Foreign Office, saying they would “make clear the UK’s abhorrence to Uyghur people’s treatment”.