France’s prime minister has failed in a last-minute bid to save his job, with the country’s National Assembly ousting him in a confidence vote.

Francois Bayrou – who entered office just nine months ago – is required to submit the resignation of his minority government after losing Monday afternoon’s vote by an overwhelming 364-194.

The outgoing prime minister is paying the price for what appeared to be a staggering political miscalculation, as he gambled that lawmakers would back his view that France should slash public spending to address its growing economic issues.

Analysis: Macron has few good options amid a worsening crisis

Earlier in the day, Mr Bayrou called for unity as he attempted to win support for both his premiership and his ambitious plan to curb France’s public spending.

Arguing the country’s spiralling public deficits are threatening the future of the European Union’s second-largest economy, Mr Bayrou said state debts will weigh on future generations and leave France vulnerable to foreign creditors.

“Our country works, thinks it’s getting richer, but keeps getting poorer,” he said, pausing for sips of water when hecklers tried to drown him out.

Mr Bayrou had proposed to cut a huge €44bn (£38.1bn) in spending in 2026.

But his plan – which included the removal of two public holidays – was heavily criticised by his political rivals, who sensed a golden opportunity to bring him down.

Addressing the confidence vote, he said: “Our country has an urgent need for lucidity, it has the most urgent need for unity. But it is division that threatens to prevail, that threatens its image and reputation.”

Mathilde Panot of the hard-left France Unbowed, told Mr Bayrou in the debate before the vote: “Today is a day of relief for millions of French people, of relief over your departure.”

Marine Le Pen said: “This moment marks the end of the agony of a phantom government.”

What happens next?

France’s President Emmanuel Macron now faces finding another government chief – the country’s fourth in 12 months – after Mr Bayrou tenders his resignation on Tuesday.

Mr Macron is facing a narrowing set of options, and financial markets are signalling worry at France’s political and financial crisis.

More from Sky News:
France’s spending crisis explained
Australian mum jailed over mushroom poisoning

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He could nominate a politician from his own centrist minority ruling group for the top job, or someone from the ranks of conservatives, but that would mean doubling down on a strategy that has failed to secure stability.

Mr Macron could also nominate someone on the left, but no scenario is likely to hand the next government a majority.

The president has so far resisted calls from France’s far-right and far-left factions to call a snap election as he did in June last year – which was the root of the latest government collapse.

At least five people have been killed in a shooting in Jerusalem, authorities have confirmed.

Footage showed dozens of people fleeing from a bus stop during the morning rush hour.

Paramedics who responded to the scene said the area was chaotic and covered in broken glass, with people wounded and lying unconscious on the road and a pavement near the bus stop.

Police said two attackers were “neutralised” soon after.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now holding an assessment with his heads of security.

Around 15 people were injured – with six in a serious condition – after it appeared two attackers boarded a bus and opened fire as it reached a major intersection at the northern entrance to Jerusalem, on a road that leads to Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem.

Israeli Defense Force soldiers were dispatched and are searching the area for any other suspects. They are also searching several areas on the outskirts of Ramallah.

A spokesperson for Israeli emergency services, MDA, confirmed four deaths – a man about 50 years old and three men aged around 30.

The fifth victim, a woman about 50 years old, was confirmed at hospital.

Paramedics have evacuated from the scene other casualties in serious conditions with gunshot wounds, to hospitals in Jerusalem.

Several people with minor injuries from glass shards are being treated at the roadside.

The motive for the shooting and who carried it out, was not immediately clear.

The war in Gaza has sparked a surge of violence in both the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Israel.

An Australian mother who murdered her estranged husband’s parents and aunt by feeding them a beef wellington laced with poisonous mushrooms has been jailed for life with a minimum of 33 years.

Erin Patterson, 50, lured her former parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail Patterson’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, to lunch at her home in Leongatha, Victoria, on 29 July 2023.

Mrs Wilkinson’s husband, Reverend Ian Wilkinson, also ate the meal, which was served alongside mashed potatoes and green beans, but survived after receiving a liver transplant and spending months in hospital.

Patterson, a mother-of-two, had made the pastry dish with deadly death cap mushrooms, also known as amanita phalloides.

At the sentencing hearing at the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne, Justice Christopher Beale said the substantial planning of the murders and Patterson’s lack of remorse meant her sentence should be lengthy.

“The devastating impact of your crimes is not limited to your direct victims. Your crimes have harmed a great many people,” he said.

“Not only did you cut short three lives and cause lasting damage to Ian Wilkinson’s health, thereby devastating the
extended Patterson and Wilkinson families, you inflicted untold suffering on your own children, whom you robbed of their beloved grandparents.”

Patterson’s trial in Morwell, southern Australia, heard that she fabricated a cancer diagnosis to use as an excuse not to invite her children, pretending to want to discuss how to break the news to them after the meal.

The four guests fell ill immediately after eating her food. Mrs Wilkinson and Mrs Patterson died on 4 August, and Mr Patterson a day later.

Reverend Wilkinson spent seven weeks in hospital but survived.

Read more
More details of mushroom case revealed

In his victim impact statement, he said the poisoned food meant he had to have a liver transplant and was left feeling “half alive”.

Patterson, who maintains her innocence and that she poisoned her victims by accident, also invited the father of her children, Simon Patterson, to the fatal meal.

He declined the invitation.

In his victim impact statement, Mr Patterson said of the couple’s children: “The grim reality is they live in an irreparably broken home with only a solo parent, when almost everyone else knows their mother murdered their grandparents.”

In July, Patterson was found guilty of murdering Don and Gail Patterson, and Heather Wilkinson, and attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson.

Previous poisoning attempts left husband ill

Following the guilty verdicts, more details of the case were revealed.

Mr Patterson said he had rejected the lunch invite “out of fear” as he believed his former partner had tried to poison him three times before.

After they separated in 2015, he stopped eating any food she had prepared, having become seriously ill after meals cooked by her.

Reverend Wilkinson also revealed he and the other three guests were served their food on large grey dinner plates, while Patterson served her portion on a smaller, tan-coloured plate.

The nine-week trial attracted intense interest in Australia – with podcasters, journalists and documentary-makers descending on the town of Morwell, around two hours east of Melbourne, where the court hearings took place.