The Latest Breaking News from Grant Shapps

Unlike his predecessor, the chancellor will be presenting an Office for Budget Responsibility forecast alongside the statement

The new Defence Secretary has indicated that he will seek increased funding for the armed forces, as he warned critics not to ‘underestimate’ him.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps defended the time it had taken to make the move.

Whether you’re violently anti or hysterically pro-Ulez, you have to admit that it demonstrated admirable qualities in our Mayor, Sadiq Khan. He showed us he can be refreshingly intractable and dogged, that he doesn’t mind upsetting people under incredible pressure from half of London, and even his own party leader.…

It was once said that no minister could coherently lead a Whitehall department in under two years. Shapps seems to believe he can do it in two days, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

The Chancellor said Rishi Sunak does not care about the ‘personalities’ involved.

Despite their ‘Global Britain’ rhetoric, both the UK’s soft and hard power has diminished under 13 years of Conservative rule

Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin’s legacy; Ukraine captures key village on the southern Zaporizhzhia front; life on the ISS at a time of war

Welcome to this week’s Worst of Westminster newsletter, brought to you by political reporters Steph Brawn and Hamish Morrison.

Lately, it can seem as though Britain is crumbling around us. A number of schools in England have had to close while hundreds of others will have to do without buildings that are at risk of collapse, the government announced this week, leaving thousands of pupils facing a return to…

Brief letters: Remembering loved ones | The art of whistling | Superior female surgeons | Ulez vandalism | Recycling Grant Shapps