Politics latest: People 'fed up to the back teeth' of Johnson lockdown stories; Ex-Tory chancellor backs Hunt's recession remarks (2023)

Britain's largest building society has made some mortgages more expensive as the Bank of England's interest rate is now expected to rise higher than previously thought.

Nationwide has said interest rates on new fixed-rate mortgages will rise 0.45 percentage points. It follows moves by lenders such as Halifax, Santander and Atom Bank who also upped their rates by up to 0.2 percentage points this week.

There are also fewer mortgages on the market for prospective borrowers. According to financial information company Moneyfacts, there has been a drop of 38 mortgage products across Thursday and Friday.

There's worse to come, the group said, as other lenders may do the same.

"When lenders withdraw mortgage products it can be in reaction to interest rate volatility, or even down to demand," Moneyfacts spokesperson Rachel Springall said. "However, withdrawals may influence other lenders to follow suit and reconsider their own propositions."

You can read more from our business reporterSarah Taaffe-Maguirebelow:

Sky News' political editor Beth Rigby and guests analyse the week's big stories – how Home Secretary Suella Braverman handled a speeding offence, and also net migration figures hitting a new high.

Nigel Farage tells Rigby the Tories have "betrayed" Brexit and should accept worker shortages to cut immigration.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper says a "points-based system is the right approach following Brexit".

Daily Mirror political editor John Stevens, and Caroline Wheeler, political editor at The Sunday Times, look at the other big stories.

Email Beth Rigby with your thoughts atbethrigbypodcast@sky.uk.

Click to subscribe to Beth Rigby Interviews… wherever you get your podcasts

By Jenness Mitchell, Scotland reporter

The Scottish government's deposit return scheme was due to start in August, but was pushed back to March 2024 afterHumza Yousaf was installed as first minister.

The scheme will see shoppers north of the border pay an extra 20p when purchasing drinks in a can or a bottle, with this deposit then returned when the empty container is brought back for recycling.

Environmental campaigners say it will cut carbon emissions and reduce litter.

But industry figures have argued it will impose potentially fatal costs on their businesses and create a trade barrier betweenScotlandand the rest of the UK.

Read the latest from Jenness below:

Scotland could be allowed to pilot a UK-wide deposit return scheme for drinks bottles.

The Scottish government is seeking an exemption from internal market rules and is currently awaiting a decision from UK ministers amid plans to launch a scheme north of the border next March.

Sky News understands that a letter will be sent to First Minister Humza Yousaf this afternoon that will issue a conditional agreement to permit Scotland to pilot a UK-wide scheme.

The UK government is expected to require glass to be excluded from the scheme, which is a key part of the Scottish proposals.

Other conditions are likely to include standardising the deposit charge, bar codes and labelling across the UK.

The government is also expected to insist on a membership system so that businesses that join anywhere in the UK are automatically signed up across the country.

The Scottish government has been contacted for comment.

Net migration in the UK rose to 606,000 in the 12 months to December 2022 - the highest number for a calendar year on record, despite a Tory 2019 manifesto commitment to "bring overall numbers down".

The figures, published by the Office for National Statistics, showed that most people arriving to the UK last year were non-EU nationals.

The body attributed a "unique year" for migration to "world events", including the war in Ukraine and unrest in Hong Kong.

On the Sky News Daily, Niall Paterson breaks down the numbers with ourdata and forensics correspondent Tom Cheshire and picks through the fallout in Westminster with political correspondent Ali Fortescue.

Plus, Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at Oxford University, explains how what the government says actually impacts the number of people that come to the UK.

Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts

More now from Sir Keir Starmer, who has been taking questions from the media in Scotland as he visited Rutherglen - the constituency of MP Margaret Ferrier.

The former SNP politician is facing a proposed 30-day suspension from the House of Commons for breaching coronavirus restrictions, though a vote on the suspension has been delayed.

The Labour leader said he was in "no doubt" that people will take the chance to get rid of Ms Ferrier as their MP if she is a suspended, prompting a recall petition - which could, in turn, lead to a by-election.

Labour - which held the seat before it was taken by the SNP in 2019 - has been actively campaigning in the now-independent MP's Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency.

The party has selected teacher Michael Shanks to stand in any potential contest, and has previously deployed Scottish leader Anas Sarwar and his deputy Jackie Baillie there to campaign in recent weeks.

Sir Keir said: "I'm sure there will be a vote on her case very soon.

"I've no doubt that there'll be a recall petition.

"I am equally in no doubt, speaking to people here in Rutherglen, that the first chance they get to see the back of her is a chance that they will take."

Sir Keir Starmer was also asked today about new claims around former prime minister Boris Johnson's conduct during the COVID lockdown.

It emerged this week that Mr Johnson had been referred to the police by the Cabinet Office over visitors he had to Chequers and Downing Street over the pandemic, as noted in his ministerial diaries.

Asked about the allegations, Sir Keir said: "I think people are fed up to the back teeth with stories about Boris Johnson.

"Across the country people made massive sacrifices in COVID, and increasing revelations about Boris Johnson add to that sense of hurt.

"People are fed up of it."

The Labour leader added that there were clear questions raised by the latest developments.

"I do think there are questions now about why have these allegations not come out before, all these allegations," he said.

"Obviously there will be investigations, I understand that. The core of this is a very human feeling of one rule for us, which we obey, and another rule for Boris Johnson and those at the top of the Tory Party."

Sir Keir Starmer has put responsibility for the rise in mortgage costs directly in the hands of Number 10 today.

The Labour leader admitted he was "really worried" about mortgages, saying it was the "number one issue... anywhere you go".

Speaking in Scotland, he said: "The problem we've had in the last 13 years is that there hasn't been any effective growth in the economy.

"That's been a massive failure, the net result is that almost no one feels better off after 13 years of this government."

He added: "I'm really worried about mortgages. Anywhere you go, the number one issue is always the cost of living, people saying they can't pay their bills - mortgages are a massive part of that.

"They were high enough, they took a massive whack last autumn with Liz Truss who put a Tory premium on our mortgages. Even now, people are paying far too much on their mortgages.

"There's only one route to responsibility for this - and it's at Number 10."

Earlier, Sky News spoke to Lord Lamont, a former minister under former prime minister John Major.

He suggested that the Bank of England had "overreacted" to COVID and brought interest rates down too low for too long.

He also said the current Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has the "right" attitude.

You can watch more of what he had to say in the clip below:

The UK has faced months of heavy disruption to travel, hospital appointments and schooling due to strikes - and there's more to come.

The latest group to announce industrial action are staff on the Manchester Metrolink tram system.

Unite said around 600 of its members will walk out over the weekend of 10 and 11 June after voting overwhelmingly for industrial action.

The union said workers had been offered a 5% pay rise over a 15-month period, describing it as a "substantial real terms pay cut" as RPI inflation is still in double figures.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Metrolink is operated by vastly wealthy multinational companies that can fully afford to make our members a fair pay offer, but they have chosen not to.

"Our members at Metrolink are frontline workers who play a vital role in keeping Manchester moving. It is incomprehensible that Metrolink thinks it is in anyway acceptable to further suppress their pay when workers are struggling with a cost-of-living crisis."

The strike action will coincide with the city's Parklife festival.