Michael Crick

Theresa May has denied claims that she is trying to ‘rig’ parliament in the run-up to Brexit, after a backlash against the government’s attempt to guarantee the Conservatives a majority on crucial Commons committees which determine the legislative agenda.

What do you do if you have been in power for a decade and face attacks from a resurgent left and right? SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon took on that challenge today when she spelled out her Scottish government’s plans for the coming 12 months. The one per cent limit on public sector pay will go,…

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said it’s wrong to blame an entire community after one of his shadow cabinet team resigned over an article she wrote for The Sun. Sarah Champion stepped down after writing that Britain had a problem with “British Pakistani men raping and exploiting young girls”.

The Labour MP for Rotherham, Sarah Champion, has resigned from the shadow cabinet as women and equalities spokesperson after what she called an “extremely poor choice of words” in a Sun newspaper article last week. She’d written an article about the grooming of girls by Asian men after the conviction of 18 people for child sexual exploitation in…

This is what the future looks like after Brexit – an “ambitious new customs arrangement with the EU”, with the “freest and most frictionless trade possible”. That’s according to the Government in its key negotiating position published today. Sounds glorious, but of course Europe has to agree, and so far there’s been a distinctly terse response. The EU’s chief negotiator…

Does the Welfare State still have an obligation to house everyone who can’t afford to buy or rent their own home? Ever since Labour’s Nye Bevan proposed council houses for everyone after the second world war the politics of social housing have been shifting. The most significant change was Margaret Thatcher allowing council tenants the…

The government will have to repay £32 million in fees charged to people using employment tribunals. It follows a Supreme Court ruling that the government was acting unlawfully and unconstitutionally in introducing fees in 2013 – an attempt, it said, to reduce the number of malicious and weak cases. The trade union Unison had argued…

The European Union’s chief negotiator said today that there are “fundamental differences” between the bloc and the United Kingdom. The second round of Brexit talks concluded with arguments over the divorce settlement with Michel Barnier warning “accounts must be settled”. But Brexit Secretary David Davis was more upbeat.

The Prime Minster marked a year in the job today by admitting she shed a “little tear” on election night. Might there be more of those to come over legislation introduced to parliament today?

Sajid Javid was speaking today at the Local Government Association’s annual conference in Birmingham. And not everyone there, as the Grenfell tragedy and its ramifications were digested, was happy to see him. Local authorities around the country are facing potentially huge bills for remedial work on tower blocks on their patch.  And there have been…

Theresa May has overcome a crucial Parliamentary test this evening – winning the vote on the Queen’s Speech with the support of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party.

The Grenfell Tower disaster dominated the first Prime Minister’s Questions since the election. But it was the noises coming from Downing Street that were making the headlines as a Government source briefed journalists that a reversal of the public sector pay freeze could be on the cards – a briefing dismissed barely three hours later.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says she is no longer demanding a second independence referendum in the next two years, before a Brexit deal is agreed. She told the Scottish Parliament that she has changed her mind as the political situation is too unclear and some voters want a break from taking big decisions .…

What do EU citizens living in this country think about their future after Brexit? Will they feel welcome? How secure do they feel? Michael Crick has been finding out.

The tragedy has become increasingly political, as angry residents search for people to blame. There was a lot of criticism of the Prime Minister yesterday for not visiting victims, and she faced angry shouts as she lift the area next to Grenfell tower today.