News and Opinion

Anti-lockdown protesters and police have clashed at a demonstration in central London as officers tried to shut the event down. Thousands of people massed in Trafalgar Square on Saturday carrying a variety of signs, flags and placards to take part in a “we do not consent” rally, none appearing to wear face coverings or to social […]

Results of approximately 60,000 coronavirus tests carried out in an NHS hospital or Public Health England lab cannot be linked with England’s newly-launched NHS Covid-19 app. The app, which has been available for download across England and Wales since Thursday, has been hailed by health secretary Matt Hancock as an “important step forward” in the […]

Boris Johnson has called for an ‘early warning system’ to alert countries about the possibility of a pandemic – like the one the EU has in place that the UK is set to leave from the end of the year. Johnson is to make a speech on video link via the United Nations General Assembly […]

Andrew Neil is leaving the BBC to launch a 24-hour, TV channel to rival rolling news from his former employers at the BBC and Sky. The veteran presenter of political programmes will become the face of GB News, “Britain’s news channel”, aimed at those who feel “underserved and unheard by their media”. The channel – […]

The president of Italy has hit out at Boris Johnson over remarks the UK’s Covid infection rate was worse than Italy’s because Britons loved their freedom more. Sergio Mattarella said his citizens “also love freedom” but that they “also care about seriousness”. Johnson claimed the UK’s infection rate was higher than both Italy’s and Germany’s because […]

Thousands of UK citizens living in the EU are being warned their bank accounts could close due to Brexit. Lloyds Bank, Barclays and Barclaycard and Coutts – which is owned by NatWest Group – are all warning UK customers their accounts will close by December 31. Lloyds, alone, has written to 13,000 customers saying it will not be […]

The UK’s richest Brexiteer has officially moved to tax-free Monaco, saving himself nearly £4 billion in tax payments. Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who had an estimated fortune of £17.5 billion, has left Britain for the sunny principality in the south of France. He changed his tax domicile from Hampshire to Monaco, the sovereign city-state that has a laxed […]

Labour has indicated it could join more than 40 Tory MPs to support a rebel plan to force a vote on new coronavirus powers. Labour sources said it was likely the party will back a proposed amendment to the Coronavirus Act tabled by influential Tory Sir Graham Brady who is trying to force greater parliamentary […]

Campaigners have staged a protest outside Matt Hancock’s health department urging the government to put the coronavirus test and trace system into public hands. The We Own It campaign group said its research showed that the public did not agree with the use of private firms, pointing out they have so far failed to get […]

Dominic Cummings’ data protection shake-up threatens billions of pounds in trade with the EU, Brussels has warned. Cummings’ radical “pro-tech” plan to rewrite Britain’s data protection laws could jeopardise the flow of data between the UK and the EU, the Guardian has revealed. The government released its new data strategy report which promises a “transformation” of the UK’s […]

DR ROB DAVIDSON, director of Trade Deal Watch, says the UK’s government new trade deal with Japan is far from a cause for celebration. It is the first sign of our poorer future following Brexit. In the suburbs of Tokyo, it is unlikely that many people will be celebrating the hard fought terms for Stilton cheese […]

Public health experts have warned Boris Johnson against pursing herd immunity or mimicking Sweden coronavirus response. Independent SAGE – an independent group of scientists who provide advice to the government – has warned Britain is in a “dangerous place”. The committee released a report in which it advised against the strategy of herd immunity or […]

Older women are being “groomed” on Facebook and are quickly adopting more radical views, claims academic SUE GREENWOOD. A headteacher in Stoke-on-Trent told me that, alongside ensuring a COVID-safe return to school for her pupils this September, she’s having to reassure parents that their children will not be forcibly taken away and isolated in a […]

Downing Street has denied that there is a rift between prime minister Boris Johnson and his chancellor Rishi Sunak, after Johnson stayed away for his big economic speech in the Commons. A spokesperson said Johnson fully supported the package and denied he treated the police visit as being more important than the chancellor’s announcement. “Obviously […]

Home secretary Priti Patel has been mocked for continuing to claim “tests are available” rather than acknowledge that the public are struggling to get them. Patel appeared on BBC Breakfast to answer questions about the fact people in some of the worst areas for coronavirus have been unable to get the kits to decipher whether […]

The latest Conservative attack lines over Brexit have backfired, after it tried to accuse Labour of taking the side of “the EU” in parliament by voting against Boris Johnson’s bill. Moments after the Internal Market Bill passed its second reading – designed to override the Withdrawal Agreement bill and international law – the Tories claimed […]

Downing Street has issued a warning to peers not to try to block controversial legislation overriding key elements of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. A No 10 spokesman said ministers believed the Salisbury Convention – which states the House of Lords should not vote down legislation to implement government manifesto commitments – should apply to the […]

A fact checker has dismissed Liz Truss’ claims surrounding the new free trade agreement between the UK and Japan. The international trade secretary last week triumphed the deal as the first major trade deal made by the UK since it left the EU. The department said that the deal will deliver a £1.5 billion boost to […]

A Tory MP – who previously claimed they had ‘got Brexit done’ – was ridiculed when she tweeted again to say she had voted again to get it done.Dehenna Davison, the representative for Bishop Auckland, sent the tweet after the Internal Market Bill passed – which could override key aspects of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.The […]

Dominic Cummings has been pictured with an archive letter from one of the leading figures of the US missile and space programmes as he entered Downing Street. The document, from former US air force general Bernard Schriever, appears to rail against the “blizzard of legislation” around defence procurement and accused the system of “inhibiting technological […]

STEVE ANGLESEY looks at the Brexiteers of the Week – including Kirstene Hair, who has become an adviser for the Scottish Tories, despite finding the EU referendum too “difficult”. KIRSTENE HAIRPeople are crying “foul” at football referee turned Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross’ big new signing, an adviser who will help him reach swift decisions […]

Liz Truss has bowed to public pressure and released meetings she had with an influential pro-Brexit think tank which were removed from the public register. Labour accused the trade secretary of performing a “shambolic” U-turn and claimed Truss had been caught trying to bypass rules to stop the “secret lobbying” of ministers. In August, Truss […]

A Tory Brexiteer has been given a haranguing online after posting a speech justifying Boris Johnson’s violation of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement (WA). Desmond Swayne MP said it was fine for a country to break international law “when that obligation is interpreted in such a way as to undermine the very integrity of that country”. […]

A caller who phoned into a national radio station has said Boris Johnson’s latest Brexit bill makes her “embarrassed to be British”. Phoning in before a recent Commons vote, Mary, an British expat living in Brittany said she now hides her accent when speaking French. On Monday evening, the prime minister’s internal market bill, which […]

The DUP’s chief whip in Westminster has labelled MPs who voted against or abstained from Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill “agents of the European Union”. Sammy Wilson, a fervent Eurosceptic who supports the Brexit pressure group Leave Means Leave, said he failed to understand why MPs would choose to vote against the prime minister’s internal market […]

A second coronavirus testing site has “disappeared overnight” to make way for a post-Brexit lorry park. The Tipner drive-through centre in Portsmouth, which is owned by Deloitte, was due to become a lorry site on October 5, but was moved to Southampton Airport ahead of schedule and without warning. Portsmouth City Council’s cabinet member for […]

A coronavirus testing centre in Kent is to close to make way for a post-Brexit lorry park. KentOnline reports that a leaked letter from Kent County Council confirmed the Ebbsfleet testing centre would close for use as a site to carry out customs checks of cross-Channel lorries after the Brexit transition period ends on December […]

I wonder what clever slogan the ‘genius superforecaster’ in Downing Street is going to come up with as the UK hits a tipping point over the pandemic?“Get Covid Done” sounds like the best. It’s short and snappy and it’s something we can all believe in. What is brilliant about this slogan is it taps into the […]

David Cameron is adding a luxurious heated swimming pool to his £1.5 million family home in the Cotswolds. The former prime minister, an architect of modern-day Tory austerity, has reportedly applied for planning permission for a 45 by 13 foot outdoor pool. West Oxfordshire District Council officials are yet to approve the build, after a complaints from a […]

There was a lot to applaud in Keir Starmer’s virtual conference speech and I understand why he says Labour will no longer “bang on about Europe”. Yet on Brexit, as with other aspects of policy, the party must do far more than keep schtum and hope that the Tories continue to make unforced errors all […]

A Brexiteer MP has complained the UK is “like East Germany under the Stasi” after being spotted on London’s Underground without a face mask. DUP Brexit spokesperson Sammy Wilson was pictured travelling on the London Underground without a mask days after the government increased fines for failing to wear a mask on public transport to £200. Asked […]

A pub boss has called on Matt Hancock to apologise after implying the hospitality industry were in part to blame for the latest surge in coronavirus cases. Oakman Inns chief executive Peter Borg-Neal said pubs had “sweated blood” to get their venues Covid-compliant by July 4 and that suggestions they were breading grounds for the virus were […]