Boris Johnson condemned after laughing about Mrs Thatcher closing coal mines

Get the latest Scottish politics news sent straight to your inbox with our daily newsletterUS President Joe Biden has decided not to extend his August 31 deadline for the US-led evacuation from Kabul despite an appeal by Boris Johnson and other G7 leaders.The Prime Minister, who struggled to get a phone call with the President as the Afghan crisis unfolded, failed at an emergency meeting of the G7 to change Biden’s mind.Speaking after an emergency meeting of the G7, Johnson revealed the

Johnson to up the number of refugees resettled in the UK while emphasising that Scotland is “committed to playing our part” in an expanded programme. In a letter published while the PM was engaged in an emergency session of the G7 nations, Sturgeon said she required urgent information on how many Afghan civilians, especially women, girls and others in need of refuge, will be protected.

Linda Norgrove Foundation has issued a public appeal for Boris Johnson to get two of its staff members, who are sisters, out of the Taliban-controlled capital. The two women are in hiding in the city with their families and despite cross-party pressure from MPs over the past week the UK Foreign Office has not contacted them for evacuation.

an Blackford MP, the SNP Westminster leader, said that it would be “unacceptable” for parliament to remain in recess for another fortnight, while UK armed forces and personnel were putting their lives on the line at Kabul. Johnson faced a hostile reception from across a packed House of Commons last week when MPs were recalled for a one-off session to debate the deteriorating situation at Kabul airport.

Prime Minister to phone Biden to extend the exit date as former PM Tony Blair said the UK had a “moral obligation” to stay on and complete the evacuation.

Cop26 summit in Glasgow will secure the action needed. Miliband, who was UK Environment Minister at the failed climate talks in Copenhagen in 2009, said getting international agreement required the “extra diplomatic and political heft of the Prime Minister and others”.

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Prime Minister ducked and dived his way through piercing questions from MPs as he waffled his way through an opening statement in a day-long debate on Afghanistan. The Prime Minister had few answers or explanations for the UK’s lack of co-ordinated response to the sudden Taliban takeover at the end of a 20 year war which claimed the lives of 457 British troops and thousands of Afghan civilians.

Commons debate this morning to explain Britain’s role in the unfolding catastrophe in Afghanistan. The Prime Minister will kick off a five hour debate to which MPs have been recalled by announcing the UK will resettle 20,000 vulnerable people.

Prime Minister will hold the meeting this afternoon as a struggle to get UK nationals and local allies out of the country continues. Johnson' s spokesman said the UK will continue the evacuation effort for "as long as we are able to do so and as long as it is safe to do so".

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Afghanistan following the withdrawal of US troops.

Britain and the US have agreed to send more troops in as the Taliban's lightning advance through the country continues - gains that come only weeks before allied forces are due to withdraw. Taliban insurgents are now estimated to hold more than two-thirds of Afghanistan and continue to press their offensive, having taken the country's second and third largest cities, Kandahar and Herat, as part of a week-long blitz.

Boris Johnson has reportedly said he would return to holiday in Scotland "over my dead body" after almost being swept out to sea while paddleboarding last year.

Prime Minister said it was “thanks” to Margaret Thatcher the mines were shut and chuckled as he said it during a two-day visit to Scotland. He claimed that the former PM had given the UK an " early star t" in the shift away from fossil fuels by closing pits.

Nicola Sturgeon has slammed Boris Johnson for his "crass and deeply insensitive" joke about Margaret Thatcher shutting coal mines.

a two day visit to Scotland, insisted the best way to tackle poverty was to help more people into work. Analysis by the respected Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests that cutting Universal Credit by £20 per week back to its pre-pandemic level was the single biggest drop in benefits since the welfare state was established in 1948.