Politics Hub brings you the latest political news, insight and analysis from the Sky News team in Westminster, as the race between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to succeed Boris Johnson continues.

The government has announced £130m of funding for buses in England today to last for six months.

However, operators say the fact the decision was made on the last possible day means they have no idea if services will still be cancelled.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: "This funding will ensure millions across the country can continue to use vital bus services, and brings the total we've provided to the sector throughout the pandemic to almost £2 billion."

"At a time when people are worried about rising costs, it's more important than ever we save these bus routes for the millions who rely on them for work, school and shopping."

The Urban Transport Group, which represents city region transport authorities, said: "The government has stood behind public transport during the pandemic restrictions and the aftermath and we welcome this latest funding package.

"Given the funding announcement has been made on deadline day for bus companies registering plans for extensive service cuts it's too early to know how many bus services this funding will save."

They also called for a "long-term revenue funding settlement", adding that the country needs to "move away from bailing out commercial bus companies" and towards "locally accountable transport authorities".

The government says it is investing £3bn in bus services by 2025.

The shadow education minister responsible for further education has warned that BTEC students might be missing out on university places due to a delay in results.

Toby Perkins wrote to Education Secretary James Cleverly to express his concerns.

Pearson, which publishes the results, said "a very small percentage of BTEC students didn't receive their results" yesterday.

Their last tweet was at 9pm yesterday evening.

Writing today, Mr Perkins said: "Today, BTEC students are left behind, while A Level students are able to claim clearing spots at Universities.

"This is not only disappointing for those students but could potentially see them miss out on spots at university which A Level students could claim."

New polling shows both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are unpopular in Scotland.

A survey of 1,000 people by Ipsos between 12 and 15 August found the former chancellor was marginally less unpopular than the foreign secretary.

Some 59% of respondents had an unfavourable view of Mr Sunak, while 60% held a similar view about Ms Truss.

However, 19% had a favourable view of Mr Sunak, compared to 15% viewing Ms Truss positively.

This means the former chancellor has a net popularity in Scotland of -40%, while Ms Truss has a net popularity of -45%.

Both candidates are still more popular than Boris Johnson, who has a net rating of -60%, but less popular than Sir Keir Starmer, who sits at -14%.

The government is taking further control of Liverpool away from the council following a damning report into the operation of the authority which found a budget gap of close to £100m over four years.

Levelling Up Secretary Greg Clark has appointed a steering committee consisting of the Liverpool Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, former Chief Executive of the City of Manchester Sir Howard Bernstein, and the former Leader of Leeds City Council Baroness Judith Blake.

They will work alongside the council and City Mayor Joanne Anderson, as well as a group of commissioners initially appointed in June last year to work with the council and improve it.

They provided a report to Mr Clark in June this year, which found multiple failures within the authority.

It noted shortcomings in finance, workforce capacity and capability, decision making, risk management, and managerial leadership - and ultimately stated the council did not meet "its statutory duty to provide best value".

The commissioners, Mike Cunningham, Joanna Killian, Neil Gibson and Deborah McLaughlin, recommended the government take action.

They noted: "The services that support the running and management of the council have been hollowed out over the last decade, notably: finance, procurement and audit."

The report added that "people do not feel accountable for managing public money" as they highlighted the budgetary shortfall of £98.2m.

Mr Clark has written to the council saying he intends to take a number of steps, including appointing an additional commissioner with financial expertise to help run the council's money matters.

He also wants to hand recruitment of senior staff to the commissioners, as well as decisions on governance and scrutiny of strategic decisions.

These powers would last until June 2024.

Following the news that Vladimir Putin will be heading to the G20 meeting in Indonesia in November, Rishi Sunak has said he would lobby the summit to ban the Russian president.

When Liz Truss's campaign was asked for her opinion, they pointed to when she said she would "call out" Mr Putin in July.

A spokesperson for Mr Sunak said: "Our G20 partners and allies have a collective responsibility to call Putin's abhorrent behaviour out. 

"Sitting round a table with him isn't good enough when he is responsible for children being killed in their beds as they sleep.

"We need to send a strong message to Putin that he doesn't have a seat at the table unless and until he stops his illegal war in Ukraine."

Last month, Ms Truss - who is currently the foreign secretary - said it would be important to confront Putin in front of allies like India and Indonesia.

She said: "I would go there, and I would call Putin out."

Indonesia is head of the G20 this year and has faced pressure from the West to uninvite Mr Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been invited to attend the summit in Bali.

Nationalised industries are not fondly remembered, writes Adam Boulton.

Some remember them as seemingly run for the benefit of their trade unionised workers rather than their customers. 

Margaret Thatcher's reforms were credited with reversing the UK's post Second World War economic decline.

But that was at least a generation ago. 

The capitalists who now run the UK's public utilities do not seem to be serving the public very well either. 

Times change and the public, if not the politicians, would appear to be in favour of a major shake-up in the ownership of vital utilities which serve us all.

You can read Adam's take on the debate around privatisation and nationalisation of public utilities here:

Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has criticised Grant Shapps for not knowing the London to Manchester train timetable.

Mr Shapps, the transport secretary, told BBC News this morning that four trains an hour run between the two cities.

But only one train makes the trip every hour as Avanti West Coast, who operates the trains, is struggling to find staff.

Drivers work on a basis of volunteering for shifts, and currently not enough are putting their hand up to work. 

Ms Haigh said: "The clueless transport secretary doesn't have the first idea how bad the disruption he has inflicted on passengers is.

"Major cities are being cut off, passengers are battling shockingly bad services, and the man in charge can't even be bothered to get the basics right.

"Hapless ministers should stop making it up as they go along, do their job and get these vital services restored.

"They should demand a plan from Avanti to urgently restore these services, claw-back taxpayers' money being handed over for services that aren't running, and if they do not act, strip them of the contract."

The government's response to the continuing strikes being seen on Britain's railways is bullish, according to political correspondent Amanda Akass.

She says the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, is attempting to "divide and rule" by claiming that union bosses are not putting pay offers to workers.

You can watch her take on this story, as well as the cost of living crisis and the Conservative leadership race, here:

Government borrowing has exceeded forecasts by £3bn since April, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

According to the latest data, the state had to borrow £4.9bn in July - in pre-pandemic times a surplus in July was usual due to self-assessment payments being made.

It means the government has borrowed £55bn since the start of the financial year in April, £3bn more than was forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility.

And while debt interest payments weren't as high as last month - when they were £13.9bn - the government still had to pay £5.8bn, £4bn of which was due to retail price index (RPI) inflation.

These figures will make grim reading for either of the candidates to be prime minister, as they look to see how they will manage the economy.

Ms Truss wants to have an emergency budget if she takes office, but these figures will limit some of the ability she has to spend money or cut taxes.

Tory leadership frontrunner Liz Truss has been speaking to Daily Express about the wave of strike action that the UK is currently experiencing.

She has promised to introduce legislation within a month of taking office that would make it harder for unions to call strikes and guarantee minimum levels of service on public transport during any industrial action.

"Once again we're seeing militant trade unionists holding our country to ransom, with members of Sir Keir Starmer's party keeping them company on the picket lines," she told the newspaper.

"As prime minister I'll crack down on the debilitating strikes that cripple the vital services that hard-working people rely on."

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