Politics

Nearly 50,000 people have signed a petition backing former prime minister Gordon Brown’s call for an emergency budget to tackle the cost-of-living crisis. On Monday Mr Brown warned people will have to go without food and will be unable to heat their homes by October if the government does not take urgent action. He told

Allies of Rishi Sunak have played down the defection of a Tory MP to supporting Liz Truss as the two campaign teams continued to trade blows over economic policy. Former Cabinet minister Theresa Villiers, who is backing Mr Sunak, said that “inevitably MPs change their mind during these contests”, when asked on Sky News about

Rishi Sunak has promised to give “hundreds of pounds” more to people for energy bills while Liz Truss refused to commit to extra support for struggling families. Mr Sunak said he is “confident” he could find the money needed to support people with the rising cost of living from government efficiency savings if was to

The Liberal Democrats are demanding parliament be recalled from its summer recess to pass a law to scrap impending hikes in energy prices. The party has drafted legislation to cancel the price cap rise, which is due to be announced at the end of the month and coming into force in October. The Energy Price

Liz Truss has shifted her focus to tackling anti-social behaviour after a bruising weekend over the cost of living crisis – while Rishi Sunak has pledged to whittle down Whitehall to fund support for those struggling with bills this winter. As the Tory leadership contest continued to get more angsty, despite both saying it was

Downing Street has rejected calls for Boris Johnson to summon an emergency COBRA meeting to deal with the cost of living crisis. Gordon Brown, the former Labour prime minister, has called for Mr Johnson to meet with his two potential successors and thrash out a financial package of measures before energy bills soar in October.

Liz Truss was not ruling out future cost of living support when she said she would reject “handouts”, her supporters have said, with prominent backer Penny Mordaunt claiming the comments were “misinterpreted”. Leadership rival Rishi Sunak attacked the comments saying the foreign secretary needs to “get real”, while claiming her plan to cut taxes immediately

Liz Truss has pledged to “immediately” reverse the increase in National Insurance if she wins the race for Number 10. The foreign secretary said she would make the move in an emergency budget in September while announcing other tax cuts. But leadership rival Rishi Sunak hit out at her plans, contrasting his “clear-eyed realism” with

The Conservative leadership hopefuls have clashed over how best to help households amid the cost of living crisis, with Liz Truss ruling out direct support and insisting instead on tax cuts – an approach her rival has called “simply wrong”. Ms Truss, the Tory frontrunner, has rejected “handouts” to help households through the worse income

Liz Truss was interrupted by activists as she attempted to deliver her opening speech at a Conservative Party hustings in Eastbourne. The protesters from Green New Deal Rising shouted “shame on you” and “Green New Deal” as they stood holding placards inside the hustings venue. “I think we have some infiltrators and I will wait

Rishi Sunak has said Nicola Sturgeon needs to be beaten rather than ignored, aiming a dig at Liz Truss who earlier this week called Scotland’s first minister an “attention seeker”. Mr Sunak said Ms Sturgeon and her party the SNP “pose an existential threat to our cherished union”, adding: “Arguing that we should ignore them

Rishi Sunak has been accused of “funnelling taxpayers’ money to rich Tory shires” after he told party members he had been working to divert funding from “deprived urban areas”. A video obtained by the New Statesman magazine shows the former chancellor telling grassroots Conservatives that he had started changing public funding formulas to ensure more prosperous

Rishi Sunak won the audience, but Liz Truss appears to have a grip on the Tory membership in the country. All the clues as to why both are true could be found in Thursday night’s 90-minute Battle for Number 10 on Sky News with Kay Burley, which tested the breadth, depth and agility of the

This is the moment that matters. On the advice of the National Cyber Security Centre, an arm of GCHQ, the Conservative party has delayed sending out ballot papers to its members – originally expected last weekend. As a result the next seven days, beginning today, are now crucial to determining the next prime minister of

Sajid Javid has thrown his support behind Liz Truss as the next Conservative Party leader, in what will come as a huge blow to Rishi Sunak. The former health secretary, and ex-leadership hopeful, attacked Mr Sunak’s economic policies as he revealed his choice in The Times this evening. He suggested Mr Sunak’s refusal to cut

Liz Truss has said she would “support and extend” the government’s controversial Rwanda deportation policy “to more countries”. The widely criticised strategy, introduced by the current Conservative government, has been the subject of numerous court cases and received widespread international backlash. Both Tory leadership hopefuls Ms Truss and Rishi Sunak have previously committed to continuing