Michael Crick

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has told this programme the EU should mediate an agreement between the Catalan and Spanish governments. There’s significant support for the Catalan separatist movement at the SNP annual conference, but the leadership has been careful not to interfere in the dispute that has raged in Spain. Nicola Sturgeon has insisted…

Our political correspondent Michael Crick is in Glasgow at the Scottish National Party’s conference.

The former Conservative Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath would have been questioned over seven allegations of sex abuse, if he had still been alive when the claims emerged. Wiltshire police defended their decision to pursue the investigation – but stressed today’s report did not imply any inference of guilt. Sir Edward Heath’s supporters said they…

Considering they won the most votes and got the most seats, the Tories aren’t exactly in a jubilant mood. Instead there’s a lot of soul searching about how they lost their majority and, indeed, whether they could be on the brink of losing power altogether.

At the first day of the Conservative party conference in Manchester, ministers unveil plans to attract younger voters. Theresa May has promised to “look at tuition fees” and has pledge more money for the Help to Buy scheme. Michael Crick reports.

Ukip has avoided a split in its ranks after a former army officer was elected as its new leader, beating the far-right, anti-Islamic, candidate, Anne Marie Waters. Henry Bolton secured over 3,800 votes, 1,000 more than Ms Waters, who came second. The result, announced at the party’s conference in Torquay, was greeted with cheers in…

Labour conference has many fringe events covering multiple topics, but one this evening was supposed to have the Venezuelan ambassador as a key speaker. Left-wingers in the Labour Party, such as Jeremy Corbyn, have long held Venezuela up as a model of socialist government. But with its economy tanking and its government being accused of human rights abuses, would the Labour left’s attitude…

One of the more memorable refrains heard at this year’s general election, not to mention the Glastonbury Festival, was the chant in support of Jeremy Corbyn. At conference you can hear it just about everywhere you go, though not everyone is joining in.

Michael Crick discusses the reaction at Westminster to Theresa May’s EU speech in Florence.

Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters on the left have strengthened their position within the Labour Party with new rules, agreed this afternoon,  by the party’s ruling National Executive Committee.  In future, candidates for leader and deputy leader will only need to get nominations from 10% of MPs and Euro-MPs, rather than 15%, as now.

The Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable has claimed Theresa May is “letting the country” down over the Brexit talks, describing the government as unprepared and totally divided. Earlier his predecessor Tim Farron told the party’s conference in Bournemouth that Brexit would turn Britain into a “poorer, meaner, insular place”. But can the Lib Dems…

More armed police have been deployed across London’s transport network, as the Prime Minister said the UK’s threat level would stay at its second highest – severe. Mrs May also had some strong words for the US President Donald Trump after he tweeted that the people behind the attack had been in Scotland Yard’s sights. It  was not helpful to speculate,…

The government suffered a defeat on NHS pay in the House of Commons this afternoon, a defeat that seems to have significantly changed Parliamentary convention. It came amid a row over claims that the Prime Minister made about police pay during Prime Minister’s Questions.

Seven years of capped pay for public sector workers. Today, police officers were told they’d get a one per cent rise and a one per cent bonus, with prison officers securing a 1.7 per cent rise. But both deals are well below inflation, and the extra money for police is to come from their existing…

The government’s Brexit negotiating strategy has been under attack from the Trades Union Congress boss Frances O’Grady, who told delegates at their conference in Brighton that the repeal bill would mean “open season” on workers’ rights if it’s allowed to go through the Commons unamended.