News and Opinion

Nicky Morgan, a former culture secretary, is reportedly the frontrunner to become the next BBC chairman. Morgan, a Tory peer, is said to be the favourite for the role and is one of two candidates approached for the job when David Clementi steps down in February. The Telegraph reports that an announcement was due this […]

A new poll has found the Tories have suffered a slump in the public’s confidence in data which one pollster said is a ‘massive shift’ for Labour. YouGov’s snap poll asked which party would be the most competent in running the country, with the Tories receiving 29% of support, leaving them level-pegging with Labour, after […]

German chancellor Angela Merkel is said to back a proposal that would extend the country’s furlough scheme to 24 months. Roughly 10.1 million workers have signed up to Kurzarbeit, or ‘short-work’ in English, since companies were forced to close in late March during a nationwide lockdown over the coronavirus. Shops and firms have been able […]

Support for Scottish independence has surged after Boris Johnson and fellow ministers visited the country to shore up support for the union. Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Rishi Sunak have all headed north of the English border in recent weeks in a ‘panic’ over support for the union. The Tories have also been accused of […]

A Welsh politician has left the Brexit Party because of its desire to see the Senedd abolished. Caroline Jones, a former UKIP leader for Wales, said the Brexit Party’s stance against devolution ran contrary to her own. Jones, who lent her support to the party after becoming an independent Members of the Senedd (MS) in […]

A former education secretary has claimed Gavin Williamson’s decision not to fix A-Levels had been ‘very much a political decision’. Alan Johnson, a former education minister in Tony Blair’s cabinet, said the current office holder ‘had a week’ to change the way A-Levels were calculated but chose not to. Appearing on LBC radio, Johnson that […]

Women leaders acted ‘more quickly and decisively’ to save lives by locking down their nations to slow the spread of coronavirus than their male counterparts, a study has confirmed. Their actions in the early days of the pandemic resulted in ‘systematically and significantly better’ outcomes for their citizens than in countries led by men, the […]

The EU has warned that a post-Brexit trade agreement must be struck by October ‘at the latest’ if both sides want to avoid a no-deal scenario. A spokesman for the EU Commission said the EU still wanted an ‘ambitious and fair partnership with the UK’, but a deal must be achieved by the end of […]

A group of Tory MPs say that without proper scrutiny, Dominic Cummings could drive a ‘coach and horses’ through the UK’s defence policy when he launches a major inquiry into how the sector. Senior Tories have called on Cummings to submit to questioning over his role in a major review of the UK’s defence capabilities. […]

Health secretary Matt Hancock has launched a new National Institute for Health Protection designed to ‘fight health threats’, which he claims will be ‘world-renowned’. It is part of the government’s controversial plans to break up Public Health England (PHE), with Tory peer Dido Harding becoming interim executive chairwoman. The government has faced criticism over the […]

GARTH CARTWRIGHT on the story of two of Britain’s brightest pop talents – both the daughters of Kosovar refugee families – and how entwined they remain with that region’s delicate politics. Rita Ora on Monday, March 25, 2019 — (Photo by: Nathan Congleton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images) – Credit: NBCU Photo […]

Some of the fiercest criticisms of the government’s handling of the way A-Level grades are calculated has come from the right-wing newspapers. Education secretary Gavin Williamson and prime minister Boris Johnson had little room for cover on Tuesday after the mainstream press criticised the pair over its decision to ditch the A-Levels standardisation process in […]

Far from being a political sideshow, the Lib Dem leadership election could have major implications. Constance Kampfner reports on a strangely muted race. A closely-fought election that could have momentous consequences is in full swing. But, amid a busy summer of significant events, even many liberally-minded New European readers may feel that it is passing […]

Writer, broadcaster and Liberal Democrat EMMA KENNEDY on the three priorities for her party’s next leader. It’s a funny old time for Liberal Democrats. We’re in the middle of a leadership contest after an election where we increased our vote share by 4%, but ended up losing our leader and talented MPs like Chuka Umunna […]

Shoppers are returning to supermarkets and grocers more regularly since masks became compulsory, despite some protestations over the introduction. However experts warn that just over half of the shoppers feel safe while out, showing there still a considerable way to go to restore confidence in shopping. Morrisons was the biggest winner among the Big Four […]

Sir Keir Starmer has attacked the government’s handling of A-Levels results by using clips of Boris Johnson defending how marks were calculated days before the government U-turned on the system. Sir Keir has slammed Johnson and his education minister Gavin Williamson over the A-level fiasco. In a tweet late Monday evening, the opposition leader posted […]

Former chancellor Sajid Javid has accepted an extra job with US banking giant JP Morgan. The MP, who quit as chancellor earlier this year, has been appointed senior adviser on the bank’s advisory council for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The bank would not disclose Javid’s salary, but confirmed it would be a paid […]

An EU official has urged Boris Johnson to take the ‘unique and highly attractive’ offer it has made to the UK which it says has never been offered to any country before. David McAllister, the chair of the European Parliament’s UK Coordination Group, told German newspaper Börsen-Zeitung the EU had made ‘a unique and highly […]

Education secretary has ruled out answering questions on whether he would resign – or whether he had offered his resignation to Boris Johnson – over the handling of the A-level and GCSE exams. The cabinet minister apologised for the ‘distress’ caused by the abandoned policy which was intended to give fair results to pupils who […]

Baroness Dido Harding, who runs NHS England’s Test and Trace scheme, is set to take on another key role in the UK’s efforts to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. Health secretary Matt Hancock is set to announce that the Conservative peer will head the government’s new Institute for Health Protection, which will replace Public Health England. […]

Boris Johnson may not fight the 2024 general election, and his heart might not be in staying the full term, an expert has suggested. Professor Steven Fielding, a professor of political history at the University of Nottingham, explained: ‘We’re not even sure he’ll be in charge for that long’. He told Newsweek: ‘The talk around […]

The EU’s financial services chief has said UK banks are set to miss out on substantial market access because Brussels still needs to decide how to regulate them. Instead, UK financial institutions may have to negotiate deals with each of the 27 EU member states to continue selling its products into the bloc after Brexit, […]

The government has made its latest U-turn following controversy over the downgrading of thousands of pupils’ A-level results. It has been confirmed that students in England will be given grades estimated by their teachers rather than by an algorithm. It comes days after education secretary Gavin Williamson vowed there would be ‘no U-turn, no change’. […]

Boris Johnson is being urged by his advisors to quickly grant Scotland a second independence referendum if Nicola Sturgeon wins a landslide majority in next May’s Holyrood elections. Peter Duncan, a former shadow secretary of state for Scotland, has said the UK government risks infuriating Union supporters if it continues to flatly refuse Holyrood a […]

Boris Johnson’s government is in talks with senior US Democrats in a bid to secure a post-Brexit trade deal if Donald Trump loses the election. The UK government has been speaking with allies of Joe Biden to attempt to win over the frontrunner in November’s election to avoid talks losing momentum should the current president […]

International trade secretary Liz Truss – who is seeking a post-Brexit trade deal with America – has claimed the country’s tariffs on British products is ‘unacceptable and unfair’. Truss was complaining about America’s tariffs which were slapped on products from Europe including Scottish whisky, French wine and Airbus aircraft as part of a tit-for-tat dispute […]

Wales joins Scotland and Northern Ireland in announcing plans to scrap a controversial algorithm used to work out A-level and GCSE results in England. A-level and GSCE students in Wales will now have their exams results decided by teacher predictions following student protests in England. Pupils across England were left reeling on Thursday when a […]

The Tories have been accused of quietly watering down farming laws after Brexit that could help achieve a post-Brexit trade deal with America. Friends of the Earth have raised concerns about a change in farming laws which will change the limits on antibiotics used on farm animals. The EU presently sets a ‘Maximum Residue Limit’ […]

A former Tory minister turned peer has accused Matt Hancock of heaping blame for coronavirus response errors onto Public Health England (PHE), adding that the body can only act on ministerial orders. David Cameron’s former cabinet minister Andrew Lansley said Hancock was trying to distract the public over his own poor decision-making during the pandemic […]

Despite the government sending 50 civil servants to Brussels to deal with the Brexit negotiations, a former minister has claimed that the figure needs to be in the hundreds. The government has insisted it is ‘working hard’ for a deal, with fifty civil servants working through the deal. But David Davis, a former Brexit secretary, […]

Organisers are pushing ahead with plans to build a Brexit museum this autumn despite coronavirus sparking delays. Planners have already begun appealing for people to donate memorabilia remembering the historic vote. Among the items being called for is the 1975 pro-European flag jumper worn by former Tory prime minister Margaret Thatcher on her election trail […]

An MP has raised concerns that Wetherspoon pubs could lead to a surge in coronavirus cases after claims that the pubs are not doing enough to prevent the spread of the disease. It follows reports from the Daily Record which visited a number of Scottish pubs and were not asked for any details, and were […]