British Politics

A BBC presenter has attracted a wave of complaints after calling Brexiteers “headbangers, zealots and quislings”. Sue Perkins, a former Great British Bake Off host and well-known comedian, sparked controversy last week when she posted a tweet mocking David Cameron and Brexiteers. Responding to a message by the former Tory prime minister, which slammed the decision […]

A Labour MP has waded into the calls from Tory politicians for Netflix’s The Crown to be labelled as “fiction” by calling for their leader to be given the same treatment. Over the weekend culture secretary, Oliver Dowden raised concerns that younger viewers might mistake fictional depictions for real-life happenings. He told the Mail on […]

Downing Street has criticised reports that Rita Ora threw a birthday party at a restaurant and actor Laurence Fox boasted of having a “large group over to lunch” over the weekend. Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said that the rules applied to “celebrities” and that they should be setting examples. He said: “It’s important that everybody in society […]

George Eustice has told Piers Morgan that Britain was a “free country” as he sought to defend a six-month government boycott of Good Morning Britain. Eustice, a cabinet minister, said political parties were free to choose which media outlets to speak with as he attempted to explain the reasons behind 201-day hiatus from the popular […]

Matt Hancock is to hold a press conference at 5pm from Downing Street. The health secretary is expected to announce further details on the government’s community testing programme. His appearance comes off the back of new figures suggesting coronavirus infections fell by almost a third in England during the second national lockdown. There was a […]

Environment secretary George Eustice has been ridiculed after claiming that a Scotch egg “probably would” class as a substantial meal in a pub to allow people to have a drink. The minister was ridiculed for entering the debate over what is classed as a “substantial” meal to go with alcohol in pubs in tier two […]

Nicola Sturgeon has vowed to stop “Boris Johnson and his band of Brexiteers” dictating Scotland’s future. The SNP leader told Good Morning Britain (GMB) viewers that Scotland would not put up with having “our future dictated to us” by Johnson and his closest allies. Speaking on the state of Brexit trade talks, Sturgeon said: “I want free […]

A minister in Boris Johnson’s government has admitted that Brexit talks with the European Union could be extended beyond the transition period of December 31. Appearing on Sky News with Kay Burley, the environment secretary George Eustice said it is “always possible” to extend negotiations, and that the UK’s chief negotiator David Frost has always […]

Boris Johnson is set to publish economic impact papers related to the coronavirus lockdown in a bid to attempt to assure Tory MPs. The prime minister will publish an impact assessment of the restrictions ahead of a crunch Commons vote on Tuesday in an attempt to win over would-be rebels. Scores of Tory MPs have […]

Nicola Sturgeon has told Boris Johnson “not to stand in the way of democracy” as she issued a call for a second Scottish independence referendum – claiming he risks being “swept away” by popular opinion if he failed to grant Holyrood a second vote. The SNP has told Downing Street that a landslide victory in next year’s national elections […]

Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan has pulled apart Laurence Fox’s tweet which suggested he had broken lockdown to meet with close friends – in defiance of policies designed to protect the NHS during the coronavirus pandemic. Reading out the tweet live on breakfast television, Morgan said: “Just had a large group over to lunch and we […]

Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin, who boasted of donating £50,000 to the Tory party ahead of the 2019 general election, has now blasted the “reckless” government for their decisions over the coronavirus pandemic. The pro-Brexit chairman has written to MPs criticising the second lockdown for their policies, which he says is hurting pubs. He wrote: “It is […]

Laurence Fox has been slammed for boasting that he had a “lovely” lunch with a “large group” of friends in a breach of lockdown rules, before criticising the NHS response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The actor said he had “hugged” the friends, before claiming that the NHS was not “fit for purpose” if it cannot […]

Sir Keir Starmer has said Jeremy Corbyn’s response to a damning report on anti-Semitism in Labour was “just about as bad as you can get”. The opposition leader said he was “disappointed” when his predecessor claimed the issue had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons”. Corbyn was suspended from Labour over his response to the […]

Boris Johnson has appointed Nadhim Zahawi as a health minister responsible for the deployment of coronavirus vaccines. Downing Street announced that the Stratford-on-Avon MP, who already serves as a business minister, would take on the role until at least next summer. Under the interim arrangement, he will serve as a joint minister between Department for […]

Boris Johnson has warned there will be “disastrous consequences” for the NHS if the new tiered system proposed by government does not win the support of MPs and the country. The prime minister, who is facing a rebellion from his own MPs over the measures, urged the nation to “work together” with tiering, testing and […]

The government has called for ‘fresh thinking’ from the European Union over Brexit, as the foreign secretary insisted there is a deal to be done. Dominic Raab said this could be the last week of “substantive” negotiations as he urged Brussels to recognise the “point of principle” on Britain’s control of its waters. He told […]

Downing Street has attempted to have vials of the Oxford University Covid vaccine labelled with the Union flag. No. 10 asked a taskforce set up to fight calls for Scottish independence to work on having injections kits covered with the flag, the HuffPost UK has revealed. It also asked the unit focusing on developing the […]

UK aviation officials are scrambling to secure a travel corridor between New York and London following fears Joe Biden could scrap it in favour of one with Dublin when takes office as US president next year. Plans to establish a corridor between Heathrow and JFK airport – known as Project Nylon – before Biden moves into the […]

Readers have their say on Andrew Adonis’ essay on whether a federal UK is possible. Can I answer Andrew Adonis’ question “What Chance a Federal UK?” (TNE #220). Yes, there’s every chance, if only we could stop being so shy of the ‘F’ word and address it head on. I hope the TNE will continue […]

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has failed to declare his family’s wealth in a ministerial register, an investigation has found. Sunak is under pressure to explain how a multi-million-pound portfolio of shareholdings and directorships held by his wife and her family were not declared in an official register of ministers’ interests, a Guardian investigation has revealed. Akshata Murty, […]

Nigel Farage has been trolled online after posting a tweet complaining about Boris Johnson’s latest lockdown measures. The Brexit Party leader took to Twitter to vent his frustrations over his county of Kent being placed under the toughest lockdown restrictions announced by the prime minister earlier this week. Kent, along with swathes of the North […]

Robert Jenrick has admitted the government’s Christmas lockdown measures could “drive” a rise in Covid infection rates across England. The minister for communities and housing said he expected to see coronavirus rates increase after the Christmas break. Downing Street announced that “bubbles” of three households could meet indoors over a five-day period during Christmas in […]

Hands up, TNE readers, if you thought Johnson would sack Patel. No takers? Hands up if you knew he wouldn’t but thought he should. Full house, I suspect. Repeat the process with the Brexit questions. Hands up if you think: we’ll be better off economically and our influence in the world will increase; we’ll be […]

When (if?) we finally have a public inquiry into the government’s response to the pandemic I think we will find that the combination of ‘Boosterism’ (entering lockdown late, coming out early, eat out to help out etc.) and ‘Chumocracy’ (purchase of PPE, Test and Trace etc.) has not served the country well, with both a […]

Businesses have been urged to step up Brexit planning after a survey found only 42% believe they are fully prepared for customs changes. A poll conducted by Enterprise Ireland revealed 44% of businesses have yet to decide how to pay customs charges, while 30% have yet to decide who will manage customs procedures. Tanaiste Leo […]

Brexiteer Claire Fox has defended a public sector pay freeze, saying workers were “not the only heroes” of the coronavirus pandemic. Fox, a former Brexit Party MEP turned peer, said the private sector had been “the invisible front line” in the fight against Covid-19 and also merited a pay rise. Responding to Welsh minister Vaughan Gething […]

British actors have been told not to audition for the role of a young Duke of Cambridge in a forthcoming film about Diana, Princess of Wales, due to new rules faced by the country post-Brexit. A casting invitation posted online calls for boys aged between nine and 12 to apply for the role of the […]

Boris Johnson faces a large-scale backlash from Conservative backbenchers after placing 99% of England into tier two or three lockdown measures. Tory MP Steve Baker described the measures as “authoritarian”, while others demanded the publication of a cost-benefit analysis of the restrictions. The government placed more than 23 million people into tier three restrictions on Thursday, […]

An ex-Tory aide has said he had to ‘kill’ plans by George Osborne to appoint David Beckham a peerage and make him sports minister. Then-chancellor Osborne discussed the idea with David Cameron, who was prime minister at the time, on the day of a major Cabinet reshuffle in 2013, the Daily Mail has revealed. The Mail published the […]

Boris Johnson has appointed a former Treasury official as his Downing Street chief of staff. Dan Rosenfield will begin working in No 10 next month before he formally takes over from acting chief of staff, Lord Udny-Lister, in the new year, Downing Street said. The move comes after a row over a proposal to appoint […]

It’s clear Boris Johnson’s brazen approach will cost us all warns Michael White. The mighty Oxford English Dictionary has just celebrated the extraordinary nature of 2020 by issuing an unprecedented number of ‘words of the year’ – starting obviously with coronavirus and lockdown. Me, I was less ambitious in looking for words of the week. […]