Politics latest: Starmer in Washington to discuss war with Biden - as his ratings plunge at home (2024)

With the winter fuel allowance vote passing in the House of Commons, Beth, Harrietand Ruth discuss the row and government’s approach to dealing with the unpopular policy.

They also look at MPs who have second jobs presenting TV shows (or podcasts) and what sort of extra work or broadcast appearances they should, orshouldn’t, be paid for.

Plus, with both Harriet and Ruth now in the House of Lords, they discuss howthe unelected chambercould be modernised, and if itshould even exist.

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Sir Keir Starmer has refused to rule out axing the 25% single-person council tax discount, saying decisions on the public finances had to be looked at "in the round".

The prime minister said he would not be drawn on the future of the tax break for people who live alone ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves' budget on 30 October.

Scrapping the discount could further hit some pensioners living alone who have already suffered the loss of winter fuel payments, but Sir Keir insisted he was not punishing elderly Britons.

The Local Government Association, which represents councils, has argued that cash-strapped authorities should be given the power to vary the single person discount, which is worth about £3bn a year.

Sir Keir was challenged about the potential impact of scrapping the discount for elderly people who live alone and denied the assertion it was a "punishment beating" for pensioners.

"No, absolutely not," he told reporters accompanying him on his trip to Washington.

"And let's just try to quash this now. The budget is on October 30. So, between now and then, you are all going to ask me questions, as you did before the election, 'will you rule out X, Y, Z?'

"And knowing that I'm not going to say before the budget what we're going to do, you will then write a story saying, 'refused to rule out X, Y, Z'.

"I'm not going to say before the budget what we're going to do."

Crime and policing minister Dame Diana Johnson has had her purse stolen - while meeting senior officers to discuss shoplifting and thefts.

It happened as the Labour MP attended the Police Superintendents' Association's annual conference in Kenilworth in theWest Midlands.

During a speech at the event, Dame Diana said the UK had been "gripped by an epidemic of anti-social behaviour, theft andshoplifting".

She later discovered her belongings had been stolen, although no "security risk" was identified, officials said.

There was no growth in the UK economy in July, official figures show.

It's the second month of stagnation, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said as GDP - the measure of everything produced in the UK - flatlined in the weeks following the election of the Labour government.

The flatline was not expected by economists, who had anticipated growth.

Our business correspondent Paul Kelsoreports on the state of the UK economy:

By Mollie Malone, news correspondent

A significant sigh of relief for the government and for the prison service who have been battling a chronic overcrowding crisis for the best part of a year.

The release of thousands of people under a new policy has clearly had an impact reflected in the statistics after just a few days. But there are questions on how long it lasts – for a couple of reasons.

First – there are fears that the mass release of thousands of people in such a manner doesn't prepare offenders for the community properly and that perhaps reoffence and recalls are inevitable – defeating the point entirely.

And second – remember we are still in the midst of the rapid sentencing of rioters after the events in the summer.

Plus – many say that if we continue to send people to prison in the way we are today, with lengthy sentences for some – well we will quickly be back to the same position.

Some prison insiders say we could return to that point within 9 months to a year.

So temporary relief and respite. But some realism too about how long it lasts.

The Conservative leadership competition is approaching the crunch point.

In the first round of voting by Tory MPs last week, the former home secretary Dame Priti Patel was voted out.

A second vote took place on Tuesday evening, in which former work and pensions secretary Mel Stride was eliminated.

Here's a reminder of who's left vying for Rishi Sunak's job:

James Cleverly

Mr Cleverlybecame the first to officially enter the contestwith a post on social media, saying he wanted to "re-establish our reputation as the party who, in government, helps grow the economy".

The Essex MP, who was home secretary until the last election, is one of the Tories' most experienced former cabinet ministers, having also been foreign secretary, education secretary and party chairman.

Tom Tugendhat

Mr Tugendhat was the second Tory to put himself forward, just moments after nominations opened.

The former security minister is regarded highly among the One Nation group of moderate Tory MPs.

Robert Jenrick

The former immigration minister was the third to announce he was running, after Mr Cleverly and Mr Tugendhat.

Mr Jenrick held several ministerial roles, including communities secretary - a position he lost in one of Mr Johnson's reshuffles.

Kemi Badenoch

Mrs Badenoch, the ex-business secretary, was the final Tory to announce she was standing.

She is seen as a darling of the right and has impressed some in the party with her no-nonsense approach.

What happens next?

Later this month, the remaining candidates will give speeches to the party's conference, setting out their stalls to both MPs and party members.

MPs will then vote again to narrow the field to two candidates.

The party's wider membership will then vote, with the winner announced on 2 November.

Six British diplomats have been expelled from Russia after being accused of "spying and sabotage".

The country's FSB security service said they worked in the "political department" of the British embassy in Moscow.

A Whitehall source told Sky News the diplomats were kicked out in August as part of a wave of tit-for-tat expulsions.

The source strongly denied the individuals had been involved in spying.

The FSB claimed the Eastern Europe and Central Asia branch of the Foreign Office was now a "special service whose main task is to inflict a strategic defeat on our country".

News of the latest expulsion comes as President Vladimir Putin warned against Ukraine getting approval to use Western-supplied long-range missiles against Russia.

He said it would "significantly change the very essence, the very nature of the conflict" and "mean that NATO countries, US, European countries are at war with Russia".

By Sadiya Chowdhury, news correspondent

Assisted dying should be legalised in England, according to a panel made up of members of the public.

The so-called "citizens' jury" - a randomly selected group brought together to discuss the topic by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (NCOB) - deliberated for eight weeks.

It concluded that if a person has a terminal illness and capacity to make their own decision about an assisted death, they should be able to legally access both physician-assisted suicide (where healthcare professionals prescribe lethal drugs to eligible patients to take themselves) and voluntary euthanasia (where healthcare professionals administer lethal drugs to patients with the intention of ending their life).

"This is a significant finding that will be valuable for policy makers who are considering whether and how to take forward legislative change," said Professor Anne Kerr, chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics' Assisted Dying Advisory Board.

Twenty-eight members of the public made up the jury, participating in an eight-week process designed to explore the complexity of assisted dying.

The Renters Reform Bill is back in the Commons, five years and four prime ministers after it was first promised.

This time it's Labour's version - with the new party of government vowing to improve and complete the set of proposals the Tories pledged, then watered down, and then abandoned altogether before the general election.

Now, it is being called the Renters Rights Bill, and it aims to "decisively level the playing field between landlords and tenants", according to housing minister Matthew Pennycook.

Below, Sky's Sophy Ridgetakes a look at what will be in the legislation - and you can read more from our politics reporter Faye Brownhere.

Tens of millions of mobile phone users could end up paying more if the merger between Vodafone and Three goes ahead, the competition watchdog has warned.

The deal would create the UK's biggest mobile network and could also improve network quality, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said.

The proposed £15bn merger, announced last year, would bring 27 million customers together under a single provider.

But claims of providing a faster 5G network are "overstated", the CMA added, and the new combined network would not "necessarily have the incentive" to follow through on its investment and improvement plan.

Customers may have to pay more for services they don't value, the regulator also said.