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By Faye Brown, political reporter

The government will announce another delay to the beleaguered HS2 project on Wednesday, saying the latest target is now impossible.

Sky News understands that Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander will announce that the London to Birmingham line will no longer be ready to open by 2033.

It is not clear what the new target date will be.

Ms Alexander is expected to blame the Tories for a "litany of failure" that drove the costs up by 拢37bn since 2012, when the high-speed rail network was approved by the coalition government.

As first reported by The Telegraph, she is also expected to raise concerns that taxpayers may have been defrauded by subcontractors and pledge that "consequences will be felt".

Ms Alexander's announcement will come alongside the findings of two reviews into HS2, looking into what went wrong and how and when to construct the rest of it.

She will tell MPs: "Billions of pounds of taxpayers' money has been wasted by constant scope changes, ineffective contracts and bad management.

"It's an appalling mess. But it's one we will sort out."

By Tamara Cohen, political correspondent

Plans for cuts to benefits which will impact more than three million households will be published today - as the government faces a battle to convince dozens of Labour MPs to back them.

Liz Kendall, the welfare secretary, has set out proposals to cut 拢5bn from the welfare budget - which she has said is "unsustainable" and "trapping people in welfare dependency".

Disabled people claiming PIP, the personal independence payment which helps people - some of them working - with the increased costs of daily living, face having their awards reviewed from the end of next year.

An estimated 800,000 current and future PIP recipients will lose an average of 拢4,500 a year, according to a government assessment.

The government also intends to freeze the health element of Universal Credit, claimed by more than two million people, at 拢97 a week during this parliament, and cut the rate to 拢50 for new claimants.

Under pressure from Labour MPs concerned particularly that changes to PIP will drive families into poverty, Ms Kendall will announce new protections in the bill today.

Sky News understands they include a 13-week transition period for those losing PIP; a higher rate of Universal Credit for people with the most serious conditions; and a commitment that disabled people who take a job will not immediately lose their benefits.

Some 40 Labour MPs have signed a letter refusing to support the cuts; and dozens of others have concerns, including ministers.

Welcome back to the Politics Hub.

Sir Keir Starmer is making his way back from Canada and the G7 summit.

However, he won't be back in time for PMQs today, meaning Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner will be stepping in. The custom is the opposition will also field their backups - normally shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Alex Burghart.

But the main news from the government doesn't look like it will be coming from the weekly lunchtime showdown.

Instead, we are set to find out more on the government's welfare bill as it is published for everyone, including rebellious Labour MPs, to read.

And we are also set to hear more about everyone's favourite infrastructure nightmare, HS2.

The Labour government's review into the high-speed, seemingly slow built line is going to be announced, with Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander saying she wants to draw a "line in the sand" under the previous woes of the project.

Stay with us throughout the day for updates on all the latest politics news.

Speaking to Sky News this morning is Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook, and shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge.

Thank you for joining us for live coverage of today's events in British politics.

It was yet another busy day, with the PM holding a series of meetings with fellow G7 leaders at the summit in Canada, and a historic vote in parliament to change the law so that women will no longer be at risk of prosecution for having an abortion.

Use the key points above for the main moments today, or scroll down for full coverage.

And if you missed tonight's edition of Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge - fear not, for you can watch it in full below.

We'll be back from 6am with the very latest.

Sir Keir Starmer has held a bilateral meeting with the new president of South Korea, Lee Jae Myung.

A Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement that "both leaders agreed to aim to complete the upgrade to the existing Free Trade Agreement between the two countries as soon as possible".

They continued: "They also agreed on the need to cooperate on addressing the climate crisis and reducing carbon emissions.

"Finally, the leaders discussed support for Ukraine and the challenges posed by Democratic People's Republic of Korea [North Korea]."

Here's a rule I tend to apply across the board in Westminster: if a politician is talking, politics is probably taking place.

Add into that: if the topic of debate is especially grave or serious, be more prepared to apply the rule, not less.

Which brings us to the grooming scandal.

There's no doubt Kemi Badenoch was politicising the issue when she ripped into the government in the Commons on Monday.

In fact, she's admitted as much.

Asked about it during her press conference, the Tory leader said: "When I'm in the Commons, I will do politics鈥� if every time we are pointing things out and doing our job we are accused of politicising something, it makes it a lot harder."

So the question here is less about whether politics is at play (it almost always is and that's not necessarily a bad thing), and more about whose interests the politics is working towards.

In other words, does Badenoch care about the grooming scandal because she cares about victims or because she cares about herself?

What does her record say?

To answer that, it's useful to try and pinpoint exactly when the Tory leader started showing such a keen desire for a public inquiry.

Was she always harbouring it? Or did it only arrive after Elon Musk and others pushed the scandal back up the news agenda?

On this, she's not helped by the record of the governments she served in.

Yes, the broader child abuse inquiry was announced under David Cameron, but there was no specific statutory grooming inquiry.

As late as 2022, the then Tory safeguarding minister was batting away demands for a public inquiry on the basis that locally led probes were preferable.

That is 鈥� as it happens 鈥� the same explanation the current Labour safeguarding minister Jess Phillips offered to Oldham Council in the rejection letter that sparked outrage and set us on a path to this eventual outcome.

"If we'd got this right years ago鈥� then I doubt we'd be in this place now," wrote Baroness Casey in her audit.

If Labour can be attacked for acting too slowly, the Tories 鈥� and by extension Badenoch 鈥� can be too.

Watch: Key takeaways from the Casey review

The politics changed

In response, her aides insist she was bound by collective responsibility while a minister and that the issue was outside her brief.

Badenoch also points to her work with patients of the now closed Tavistock Gender Identity Clinic as evidence of her track record campaigning for change in thorny policy areas.

In this context, the presence in the grooming scandal of questions around the role of gender and ethnicity mark this as an issue that you'd expect the Tory leader to not only be interested in, but to genuinely care about too.

But as previously discussed, just because a politician is somewhat sincere in what they are saying, doesn't mean there isn鈥檛 a dollop of politics mixed in too.

And having dug out a recording of a post-PMQs briefing with Badenoch's media adviser from January, that certainly seems to be the case here.

Asked what had changed to trigger the calls for an inquiry, the spokesperson said: "We can all go back and look at the reasons why this entered the popular discourse鈥� this is something that is of high public salience."

Or to put it another way, the politics changed.

We've just had a readout from Downing Street of the meeting between Sir Keir Starmer and Volodymyr ZelenAG百家乐在线官网y at the G7 summit in Canada this afternoon.

A spokesperson said the two leaders "agreed to drive forward the next stage of military support - adding that a strong Ukraine is essential to guarantee peace in the long term".

"They agreed to convene the next Coalition of the Willing meeting in the coming weeks," the spokesperson continued.

"They also discussed ramping up the economic pressure on Putin, with the prime minister updating the president on the new sanctions announced by the United Kingdom today.

"They agreed there should be no place to hide for those who fund Putin's war machine."

After the catastrophic general election loss for the Conservatives, Sophy Ridge asked someone who was on the inside for the party's entire time in government about the future.

Sarah Vine, the ex-wife of veteran former cabinet minister Michael Gove, was complimentary of Kemi Badenoch's performance as party leader so far.

"I think if you ask Twitter, you'd say she's doing quite badly. But I think that she is a grown-up. I think she knows where she's going. She's got a really good idea and a really good vision.

"We live in a world of fast politics, fast food, fast politics. She is slow politics. It's not a popular thing to try and be."

Badneoch's aim is to "rebuild the Conservative Party in a solid, sensible, functional way", Vine said.

She also categorically denied that Gove was the silent hand behind her leadership campaign, saying: "Absolutely not, no. They've had it falling out. No."

She added that there is only about 1% of truth in the stories that circulate around Westminster.

"Michael really admires Kemi and thinks she's very good, and they work together. But in terms of running her campaign, he's not been involved at all."

Veteran former cabinet minister Michael Gove's ex-wife has discussed with Sky's Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge about the aftermath of the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Then prime minister David Cameron found himself on the opposite side of the debate to Gove, who advocated leave.

Sarah Vine said: "I think [Cameron] made a really big mistake walking away after the referendum.

"I didn't think he was going to do it because actually he's a very responsible person and takes things quite seriously."

She argued that had he said while he disagreed with the result but will stay on to manage a "smooth" and "painless" transition, then "things would have gone differently and I think it would have been much less of a psychodrama than it was".

"It was almost like he was the grownup, and then he suddenly left the room and then the children were like, well, hang on, what do we do now?"

Vine continued: "He was the person who started the fire. That's the thing. You don't start a fire if you can't put it out."

On tonight's edition of Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge, we spoke to columnist and author Sarah Vine, who used to be married to veteran cabinet minister Michael Gove.

She told Sophy that they met when they were both journalists, and while he all but guaranteed he wouldn't go into politics, that's exactly what ended up happening.

Asked for her view of politics, Vine said: "I've always felt that good politics is politics that no one notices. My idea of a perfect politician is someone that just gets the job done and I don't ever have to see them or talk to them or think about them.

"But I think once I got into the world of politics, I realised that it's just a lot scarier and a lot more toxic than I think a lot of people realise."

She explained that there was a "process of dehumanisation", and politicians are "basically addicts" searching for "one more great moment".

"Kemi Badenoch put it very well when she said it's about the least perfect solution, and that is very true."

She also said the changing media and social media landscape "means that politicians are under fire constantly, and it's very stressful".

Vine also said she felt like an outsider, and thinks there is a certain class element to her treatment as well.

Those who go to certain schools and know certain people are listened to "because of what you are rather than who you are".

But normal people "have to fight to get your voice heard".

Asked how Michael Gove fared, she said he was "paddling quite hard" while serving in politics.

"Michael has a brain the size of a planet, and so he is brilliant at doing whatever it is he wants to do. But I think on a sort of personal emotional level, I don't think he is a glider [through the system], no."