Anyone who advertises Channel crossings or fake passports on social media could face up to five years in prison under new government plans. Research suggests about 80% of migrants arriving to the UK by small boat used internet platforms during their journey – including to contact agents linked to smuggling gangs. While it is already…

Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn may be the figureheads of a new left-wing party, but already there is a battle over leadership. The confusion behind the initial launch speaks to a wider debate happening behind closed doors as to who should steer the party – now and in the future. Already, in the true spirit…

The Online Safety Act is putting free speech at risk and needs significant adjustments, Elon Musk’s social network X has warned. New rules that came into force last week require platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and X – as well as sites hosting pornography – to bring in measures to prove that someone using…

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has dodged calls from her predecessor Anneliese Dodds for a wealth tax to be considered ahead of this autumn’s budget. When Sir Keir Starmer became Labour leader in 2020, Ms Dodds was his first pick for shadow chancellor. However, she did not last long and was replaced by Ms Reeves, who then…

The idea of a wealth tax has raised its head – yet again – as the government attempts to balance its books. Downing Street refused to rule out a wealth tax after former Labour leader Lord Kinnock told Sky News he thinks the government should introduce one. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible…

Former anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq’s lawyer was denied any information about the case against her in Bangladesh, Sky News understands. Ms Siddiq resigned earlier this year over accusations she illegally received a plot of land in a new high-end development on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, from her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted…

It wasn’t so much a gathering of the Thatcher clan, because there are not many of her cabinet ministers from the 1980s still around these days. But the majority of the Tory grandees who gathered at St Edmundsbury Cathedral in Suffolk for the funeral of her most loyal ally, Norman Tebbit, were indeed Thatcher devotees.…

A former Labour minister has said she wants Rachel Reeves to consider the “evidence” behind introducing a wealth tax in the UK. Anneliese Dodds, who quit as international development minister in February over Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to slash the overseas aid budget, said she believed it was “important” that the government considers “who has…

A youth prison where suicidal children weren’t seen by experts for 12 days, medicines were mixed inappropriately and some youngsters “experienced unintentional pain” has been placed into special measures after an Ofsted inspection. The situation at Oakhill Secure Training Centre has been branded “shocking and unacceptable” by a minister. The facility – run by G4S…

Authoritarian states are operating without impunity in attempts to silence dissidents on UK soil – and the government needs to take urgent action, parliamentarians have warned. Transnational repression has increased in recent years, with foreign states using online harassment, lawsuits, surveillance and physical violence to intimidate people in the UK, a report published on Wednesday…