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Keir Starmer says ‘people are ready to put their trust in a Labour government’, as wins in Wellingborough and Kingswood put further pressure on Rishi SunakLabour overturns 18,000 majority to win WellingboroughLabour win byelection in KingswoodSpeaking from the Kingswood election count, Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg congratulated Damien Egan on winning.“Does it tell you anything about the general election? Almost certainly not,” he said.Conservative party...

Labour seeking to take two seats from Tories on Thursday amid fraught week of candidate suspensionsMy colleague Phillip Inman has this analysis on this morning’s inflation figures:Good news came from the food industry, where inflation fell from December to January, but the annual rate remains high at 7% and food and non-alcoholic beverage prices are about 25% higher than they were two years ago,...

Party criticised for delay in acting over comments in which Azhar Ali suggested Israel had allowed 7 October attack to happenHousing minister Lee Rowley was on the media round for the government this morning, hoping to push their new housebuilding plans. He refused, however, to say how many more homes the government hopes will be built, telling the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he...

Candidate Azhar Ali issues apology after comments emerge in which he suggested Israel allowed Hamas attack to happenA quick scoot around the newspaper front pages. For the Daily Mail, the Labour Rochdale story leads, with the paper asking “So has Labour really changed?”That story also made the front of the Times, with the bonus ban at water companies being the lead item. Our Helena...

Rishi Sunak said legacy cases had been cleared, but torture victims and others fleeing persecution feel forgottenWhen Saba* converted to Christianity, she knew she could no longer stay in Iran. As a disabled woman and a victim of religious persecution, to remain would “mean being killed”, she told the Observer, her voice cracking with emotion. She fled in secret, claiming asylum in the UK...

Health secretary defends Conservative NHS dental recovery plan after scathing response from the British Dental Association Good morning. Labour has been campaigning hard recently on the dire state of NHS dentistry, which is near-impossible to access to many places, and today the government is responding by publicising its own NHS dental recovery plan. The British Dental Association has been scathing about it. It is...

PM says he is ‘not a betting person’ after making £1,000 bet during an interview with Piers MorganGood morning. Rishi Sunak gave an interview to Rachel Burden on Radio 5 Live this morning and he was asked about £1,000 bet he appeared to accept from Piers Morgan about the success of his Rwanda policy. The move has been widely condemned as distasteful. Sunak did...

The man who reportedly once organised sex parties for the wealthy is alleged to be involved in a plot to replace Rishi Sunak“Advisers advise, ministers decide,” goes Margaret Thatcher’s aphorism. But if Nadine Dorries is right, one Conservative adviser has the power to elevate and overthrow prime ministers and has been exercising it for two decades.Some might accuse Dorries of hyperbole. But even to...

Reeves says she does not have ‘any intention’ of bringing back cap and wants to champion financial services in UKYesterday, as Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, set out details of the deal he has got from the UK government to adjust the Windsor framework, there were no senior figures from his party speaking out to denounce the deal. Full details are only being...

Former PM is fomenting revolt describing proposal as ‘absurd’ as government set to go ahead with plans to ban disposable vapesGood morning. Two weeks ago Rishi Sunak saw off the Tory rebels wanting him to toughen up the Rwanda bill, last week former cabinet minister Simon Clarke was shouted down by colleagues when he called for a new leader, but the turmoil in the...

Chris Philp says manufacturers found ploy to get around previous ban on previous ban on zombie knives Good morning. Labour and the Conservatives are in a bidding war over knife crime today, with Keir Starmer announcing or re-announcing various plans to deal with the problem on the day when the Home Office is laying legislation before parliament to ban zombie-style knives. Pippa Crerar has...

In today’s newsletter: Former minister Simon Clarke has called for the prime minister to walk before the next election – here’s why• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning.Betrayal, treachery and drama: combined together these elements make for great reality TV. They do not work quite as well in government.Middle East | Thousands of people sheltering in hospitals in Khan Younis...

Clarke, a Truss ally, says Tory party should ditch PM ahead of general electionAs Eleni Courea reports, in private Conservatives have been even more critical of Simon Clarke than the former ministers who have been criticising him on X. She says:Speaking privately, other Tory MPs were even more forthright. “Not sure we should be taking top tips on leadership from Liz Truss’s right hand,”...

Opposition politician Frank Ntwali says country is unsafe and Sunak’s pursuance of policy ‘quite bizarre’A Rwandan opposition politician who narrowly survived an assassination attempt has condemned the UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Kigali.Frank Ntwali, chair of the exiled Rwanda National Congress (RNC) movement, said the country was unsafe and that Rishi Sunak’s persistence with the policy was “quite bizarre”. Continue reading...

Nobody seems to know mystery organisation that funded YouGov survey but its agenda is clearAt the centre of this week’s mega-poll that projected an election wipeout for the Conservatives there lurked both a mystery and a statement of the obvious. Who was behind it? No one seemed to know. But what do they want? Seemingly, a change from Rishi Sunak.It is a sign of...

Prime minister expected to talk about Rwanda bill after it cleared Commons as Tory ‘rebels’ abandoned protestIn an interview with LBC, Chris Philp, the Home Office minister, claimed that Rishi Sunak was in a better position in the light of the Rwanda bill getting a third reading. Asked if Sunak was “stronger or weaker” after the passing of the Bill but the departure of...

As tensions in the Middle East continue to rise, this week John Harris speaks to Niku Jafarnia of Human Rights Watch about the regional conflicts. The Rwanda bill passed its third reading and Pippa Crerar, the Guardian’s political editor, reveals what happened behind the scenes. And the former No 10 adviser Gavin Barwell talks about the increasingly vicious struggles within the Conservative partyArchive: GB...

Paul Kagame also says he would be happy for the scheme to be scrappedUK politics live – latest updatesRwanda’s president has said there are limits to how long attempts to implement an asylum deal with Britain can “drag on”, indicating he would be happy for the scheme to be scrapped.Paul Kagame’s comments on Wednesday came before Rishi Sunak faced a potentially leadership-ending rebellion by...

Michael Tomlinson says ‘there’s a difference of about an inch’ between Tory MPs, despite resignation of two deputy chairsThe illegal migration minister has rejected suggestions of a deepened split within the Conservative party over the prime minister’s Rwanda bill, saying “there’s a difference of about an inch” between MPs.On Tuesday night, Rishi Sunak faced the biggest rebellion of his leadership after two deputy chairs...

Defence secretary dismisses poll, saying things will change by time general election takes placeGood morning. News organisations, including the Guardian, tend to be a bit wary of splashing on opinion polls. Polls are never 100% reliable, there is a good case for saying they constrain political reporting (because if journalists assume X can’t win, they don’t cover what X might do if they were...

Lee Anderson could be one of ‘six Conservatives on the payroll’ ready to support the amendmentsConservative rebels have said as many as 70 MPs could back amendments or abstain from supporting Rishi Sunak’s flagship Rwanda bill, telling the prime minister he will have “nowhere to go” if he does not toughen up the legislation.A leading figure on the right wing of the party said...

No successor has been named for Lord Deben – and now the independent watchdog’s chief executive has resignedRishi Sunak has been accused of trying to avoid scrutiny of his green policies after details surfaced about his government’s failure, over more than 18 months, to appoint a new chair of the independent climate change committee.Senior environmentalists said they believed Sunak may be deliberately trying to...