The prime minister calls on "all parties" to "reduce tensions urgently" after Israeli strikes on Iran, adding that "now is the time for restraint, calm and a return to diplomacy". In Westminster, MPs are debating the Assisted Dying Bill, which you can watch live below.
Friday 13 June 2025 13:31, UK
Away from the UK political reaction to the conflict in the Middle East, the big story domestically today is the return of the assisted dying bill to parliament.
MPs are now voting on amendments to the bill that backbenchers have proposed.
You can watch and follow the debate and votes on Sky News' YouTube.
By Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor, and Rob Powell, political correspondent
Officials inside the British foreign office and the Ministry of Defence were aware in advance of Israel鈥檚 plan to attack Iran.
But it is not clear if the Israeli government formally alerted the UK, Whitehall sources said.
Earlier a Whitehall source indicated the UK had not been aware, pointing to the fact that David Lammy only belatedly cancelled a trip to the US to meet his American counterparts this morning.
However, two separate Whitehall sources said officials within government yesterday had been anticipating the Israeli strikes.
It is not clear whether the UK was formally told by the Israeli government or whether the information was received via informal channels.
The prime minister鈥檚 spokesperson also declined to say whether Sir Keir Starmer had spoken with Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the Israeli strikes.
More than fifty people crossed the English Channel and arrived in the UK in a small boat yesterday, new data shows.
The Home Office and Border Force confirmed that the suspected migrants arrived in the UK on Thursday.
It follows 400 people successfully making the dangerous journey in six small boats on Wednesday.
But it should be noted that no people were recorded as arriving in the UK via small boat for the previous seven days before that.
The number of people arriving illegally in the UK is at a record high, with the greatest number of people having arrived already by this point in the year since records began in 2018.
Kemi Badenoch has said the Conservative Party would reverse green policies and scrap a "regressive tax on one of our most successful industries".
The Conservative leader has addressed the Scottish Tories at their conference in Edinburgh this morning.
She spent slightly over half of her speech attacking her opponents.
But in a moment of enlightenment, Badenoch said: "I could be here all day talking about all the things that the SNP and Labour are doing wrong.
"But the truth is, people want to know what we are going to do."
The answer to that question, Badenoch said, is scrapping the windfall tax on oil and gas producers.
She said it was introduced when oil pries were at an all-time high, but warned Labour would allow it to remain in place until 2030, at which point there would be "no industry left to tax".
Badenoch explained: "People are not investing in the North Sea any more. That's why we shouldn't have this energy profits levy at all.
"And what is Reform's answer to energy policy? That the government should nationalize oil and gas. The last thing we need is more politicians meddling with business."
Scottish Tories to go big on North Sea oil and gas
She also called for scrapping the ban on new licences to source oil from the North Sea, and would overturn the ban on supporting oil and gas technology exports.
Badenoch added: "We will let this great Scottish industry thrive, grow and create jobs, ensuring our energy security for generations to come and making Scotland richer in the process."
In a nod to the agricultural sector, Badenoch also committed to overturning "the family farms tax" - the government's inclusion of farms worth more than 拢3m in paying inheritance tax.
The Tory leader said these policies will show to the public that the Conservatives "have changed" and are now "doing things differently".
Kemi Badenoch attacked the SNP for being "obsessed with breaking up our country", 11 years after the independence referendum.
The Tory leader has been addressing her party's Scotland Conference in Edinburgh.
She used the opportunity to turn her fire on the SNP, who she accused of "wasting millions on independence propaganda", and "publishing papers with nonsense claims about NATO, the EU and nuclear weapons".
Badenoch also said the SNP are "wasting millions" on failed projects and "introduced hate crime laws that jeopardized free speech".
She went on: "They were putting rapists in women's prisons until the Conservative government stopped them.
"This year we saw the SNP suffer yet another loss in the Supreme Court because instead of sorting out Scotland they were trying to redefine what a woman is.
"This is not a party that is focused on what people in Scotland need."
Why focus so much on the SNP?
If you're wondering why Badenoch has spent so much time attacking the party, the results of the recent by-election in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse may shed some light.
The results of that vote, earlier this month, saw a new Labour MP elected. But the SNP received only 2.2% less of the vote than the winners, winning 29.4% of all ballots cast. Reform won a further 26.1%, while the Tories received just a paltry 6% of the vote.
Badenoch spent the next chunk of her speech talking up her party's Scottish leader, Russell Findlay - who took over last September.
She pitched her party in Scotland as the only one offering honesty.
Badenoch said: "Russell and I have both been open that in government we didn't always get things right.
"That's something you will never hear from the SNP or Labour. They will never be honest with you when they get things wrong. We are. And we will be."
A little earlier in the debate over assisted dying in the Commons, an MP described it as "murder" to cries from other politicians.
Now a Liberal Democrat has said MPs "have a duty to mind our language".
Caroline Voaden spoke passionately about the issue, saying it is "so wrong" to use phrases like "murder" when talking about assisted dying.
The MP, whose voice cracked with emotion, said: "We've heard the word 'murder', 'killing', 'suicide'.
"Twenty-three years ago next week my husband died of terminal cancer. He was in extreme pain and was given morphine to relieve his pain. And, as the pain got worse, he was given more morphine so that he could die gently and not in complete agony.
"This is about helping people die in a civilised way and helping their families not go through a horrendous experience of watching a loved one die in agony.
"To call it murder and killing is so wrong, and I think we have a duty to mind our language about this bill.
"It's about helping people die quickly and with dignity, it's about assisted dying."
The assisted dying bill currently says that the service should be available to patients within four years.
But an MP has said this proposed deadline should be scrapped, as he fears it could lead to the first cases of assisted dying happening "regardless of how far along the plans and preparations are".
Labour's Adam Jogee said: "The last thing we should be doing is rushing this process".
Instead, his amendment 42 to the bill would mean ministers must make a commencement order before patients can access assisted dying.
The amendment has not been added to the bill yet, but has the backing of more than 60 cross-party MPs.
One death because of a rushed decision would be one too many
Jogee explained to the Commons that a deadline means patients must be granted access to the service "regardless of how far along the plans and preparations are" in terms of the drugs used, the identification and training of those on the panel assessing patients, the impact on the NHS and budgets, among other things.
So, Jogee said: "Let鈥檚 not impose a timeframe that puts us in a bind and means we are driven by timing over purpose, and the pressure that comes with a ticking clock rather than by doing it properly."
"One death because of a rushed decision would be one too many.
UK 'not innovators' - so assisted dying should be implemented sooner
By contrast, Lib Dem MP Tom Gordon has proposed shortening the time assisted dying is implemented to three years, speeding up the rollout.
His amendment is because he believes the "status quo is not acceptable" and people are having to travel abroad for assisted dying.
Addressing criticisms this would be rushed, he told the Commons: "We're not innovators, we're not leaders in the field.
"There is no reason that we can't take best practice and learn and speak to colleagues around the world."
Groups of campaigners both for and against legalising assisted dying have gathered outside of parliament, to call on MPs to act.
Those in favour of assisted dying are currently in Parliament Square as the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill is being debated in the Commons.
The bill is undergoing a second day of report stage, where various amendments to the proposed legislated are being discussed and voted on.
It comes ahead of the bill's third reading next week, where it is expected MPs will have to decide whether to continue passing it or whether to vote against it and end its journey through parliament.
The Campaign for Dignity in Dying is calling for the bill to become law.
By contrast, those opposed to the bill are also in Parliament Square, calling on the government not to turn the NHS into the "national suicide service".
They warn that elderly or vulnerable people could feel pressured into assisted dying or be wrongly permitted to end their own life with an incorrect terminal diagnosis or prediction of how long they have left to live.
We're bringing you all the notable updates from the debate on assisted dying in the Commons right here on the Politics Hub, so scroll down to see what's been said so far.
People who gambled on the date of the 2024 General Election are appearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court today.
In total, 15 individuals have been charged with offences under the Gambling Act 2005, following an investigation into alleged cheating related to bets placed on the timing of last year's vote.
First to be seen arriving at the court is Craig Williams, a former Tory MP who was also an aide to the former PM Rishi Sunak.
An MP has called for tighter restrictions on advertising around proposed assisted dying.
Labour's Paul Waugh has proposed an amendment to an amendment by his colleague Kim Leadbeater, which is on advertisement.
His amendment would mean restrictions on advertising over assisted dying could only be changed in the future with an act of parliament.
Waugh warned that he wants to restrict advertising because it could be "crass or insensitive", because private companies "can profit from death" and because "advertisers know they influence choices".
Watch: Doctors are split over assisted dying
He explained: "Advertising works because we human beings are suggestible.
"Older people are bombarded with adverts for everything from stairlifts to care homes. One person鈥檚 advert, though, is another person鈥檚 public information campaign.
"Many in this House rightly try to protect teenagers from online harms. But the online harm of an ad for a website about assisted dying shared on TikTok could be a reality without the tighter safeguards in my amendment."
Kim Leadbeater has also managed to get another amendment backed by the Commons and added to her assisted dying bill.
The backbench MPs new clause 12 means that doctors who deny their patient an assisted death would have to set out their decision in a report and file it with a GP and the voluntary assisted dying commissioner, a new role that is being created.
Specifically, doctors would have to do this if the patient does not have the "capacity" to end their own life, is being coerced or does not have a "clear, settled, and informed wish to end their own life".
