The Labour Party has an "ideological obsession" with private schools, an education minister has claimed.

Conservative MP Tom Hunt told the Commons he had met with the chief executive of a chain of independent schools, including special schools, who was "concerned about any proposal to put VAT on school fees".

Labour has vowed to add VAT to private school fees within its first year of government if it wins the next general election.

Mr Hunt said the person he'd spoken to fears it will "put up school fees and a lot of parents who are just about managing to send their kids to independent special schools would take them out."

In response, education minister David Johnston said "Labour's ideological obsession with private schools" would see the VAT extend to independent special schools, "making it harder for those families to afford the provision they need".

"It's just another example of the mess they'd make of our education system," he added.

Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf has resigned – days after he cut the SNP's powersharing deal with the Scottish Greens.

It followed a bitter row over the SNP's climbdown on climate targets as he said the agreement between the parties had "served its purpose".

As a result, his former Green allies teamed up with the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats to get behind two no-confidence motions, one in himself as leader of Scotland and another regarding the entire Scottish government.

Now attention turns to another SNP leadership contest and what the divisions in Scottish politics could mean for the future of the independence campaign.  

On the Sky News Daily, Matt Barbet speaks to Paul Hutcheon, political editor of the Daily Record, and Shona Craven, from The National, about how the SNP can move on after Mr Yousaf's resignation.

Plus, Connor Gillies, our Scotland correspondent, explains how the leadership election will unfold.  

Our flagship weeknight politics show Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge will be live on Sky News from 7pm - and it's been a hugely significant day.

The fast-paced programme dissects the inner workings of Westminster, with interviews, insights, and analysis - bringing you, the audience, into the corridors of power.

Sophy will be joined by leader of the Scottish Conservatives Douglas Ross, deputy leader of the SNP Keith Brown, and former first minister Alex Salmond.

On her panel tonight are:

• Former Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt;
• Labour's Baroness Shami Chakrabarti.

Watch live on Sky News, in the stream at the top of this page, and follow live updates here in the Politics Hub.

With a general election looming, what counts as gains and losses for the main parties in next week's locals? 

Sky's election analyst Michael Thrasher tells us what to look out for:

By Adam Boulton, Sky News commentator

We have been warned. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's pre-election pitch to voters this week was to place the nation on "war footing".

On a lightning visit to Poland and Germany, countries redolent of bloody war in Europe, he announced "a completely funded plan" to raise annual UK defence spending to 2.5% of national income over the next five to six years.

Tony Blair flew to the US to deliver one of the defining speeches of his 10 years in power. His immediate task was to persuade a reluctant President Bill Clinton to commit to NATO's defence of Kosovo against Serbian aggression.

He set it in the context of a broader ideology which became known as "humanitarian" or "liberal interventionism".

The contrast in tone is stark between Mr Blair's positive argument for the use of force in some circumstances and Mr Sunak's urgent plea that "we must do more to defend our country, our interests and our values".

Read the full analysis here:

More than 7,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after crossing the Channel - a new record for the first four months of the year.

Home Office figures show some 500 migrants crossed the Channel to the UK on Friday and Saturday alone, taking the provisional total for the year to date to 7,167.

It exceeds the previous record high of 6,691 for January to April 2022 and has already surpassed the 5,946 arrivals in the first four months of last year.

The figures mean arrivals are 24% higher than this time last year and 7% higher than at this point in 2022.

No crossings were recorded on Sunday.

Jenny Gilruth, the Scottish education secretary, has ruled out running to be the next leader of the Scottish National Party after the resignation of Humza Yousaf.

Taking to social media, she backed former deputy John Swinney.

He is the "best choice" and she "will be strongly supporting him" if he runs, she said on X.

Meanwhile, our Scotland correspondent Connor Gillies has been told by a source close to former finance secretary Kate Forbes that she is "actively considering" entering the leadership race again.

Ms Forbes lost to Mr Yousaf in the last SNP leadership contest.

You can read more about the runners and riders below:

Back to news that Humza Yousaf has quit as Scotland's first minister, and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar is appearing on Sky News.

He is asked whether he is going to withdraw a motion of no confidence now that Mr Yousaf has resigned, and says: "I think we need to see how the rest of the week plays out, because there are still quite a lot of unknowns."

Mr Sarwar says "the principles of our motion still stand", including Labour's lack of confidence "that the SNP can provide the stable, competent leadership our country needs right now".

He adds: "We are now in the process of electing a third SNP leader in just over a year, possibly a fourth if they go with some kind of interim arrangement.

"Nicola Sturgeon herself said that we shouldn't have a revolving door in Downing Street when Rishi Sunak was elected as the Conservative Party leader and that they should go back to the country to elect the leader of the UK government.

"I think this exact same principle applies here in Scotland. It should be for the people of Scotland to decide who leads our country."

Hamas should accept the "generous" ceasefire package which has been put on the table, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron has said.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum, being held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the first time, he said Hamas must leave Gaza in order for a two-state solution to become a reality.

"Hamas are not currently in favour of a two-state solution," he said.

"They are in favour of a no Israel solution."

He added the conflict in Gaza will not end until all hostages taken by Hamas are freed and claimed a proposed truce deal presented by Israel includes the release of potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

"I hope Hamas do take this deal and frankly all the pressure in the world and all the eyes of the world should be on them today, saying 'take that deal'. It will bring about this stop in the fighting that we all want to see so badly," he said.

Follow the latest in our Middle East blog here:

Continuing his news conference, Chris Heaton-Harris said the relationship between the UK and Ireland is "strong enough to deal with" a dispute over new legacy laws.

The Northern Ireland secretary defended the establishment of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery as a move in "an important direction".

"This new body starts work on the first of May - on Wednesday - and is completely independent, has a huge budget and has unprecedented disclosure by the UK state about what went on during the times of the Troubles to try and get some information to those families that wish to have it.

"We're bound to have politics and various political debates between us, but I'd like to think our relationship is strong enough to deal with all of those issues."