News and Opinion

A Tory MP has been accused of supporting Islamophobia after he spoke alongside Katie Hopkins and far-right political commentators. The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has called on Boris Johnson to enforce disciplinary measures on Harrow East MP Bob Blackman after he spoke at seminar with far-right figures via videolink. Blackman, an European Research Group […]

Liberal Democrat MP LAYLA MORAN points out the government’s information Brexit blitz comes from the same politicians who have spent years spinning and lying about the reality of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. Even by the standards we’ve come to expect from this government, the latest announcement of a £93 million Brexit publicity campaign […]

The hashtag #FarageGarage has trended on Twitter after locals in Ashford were left fuming about plans for a ‘lorry park’ which arepart of the government’s preparations for Brexit. Work has already started on the 27 acres of pristine farmland in Ashford in a plan that was only officially revealed to locals last week. Local authorities […]

A radio host has suggested that confusing messages from government ministers over when to wear face masks could be a deliberate ploy to blame the public of ignorance if there is a second wave of coronavirus. LBC’s James O’Brien suggested minister could be deliberately misleading the public over face covering in order to shift blame […]

Priti Patel’s immigration bill has ruled out overseas social care workers being able to apply for a new health care visa, which will act as a route for key health professionals to work in the UK. In what has been branded ‘another kick in the teeth for the care sector,’ the prime minister’s official spokesman […]

Despite Boris Johnson’s repeated calls for people to return to work, the government advice is unlikely to change urging people to work from home where they can. The Prime Minister said people ‘should start to think about getting back to work’ if their employers had made their workplaces safe against coronavirus, having made similar remarks […]

Priti Patel’s immigration bill will be a disaster for already struggling businesses which are already struggling from the coronavirus, campaigners have warned. In a written ministerial statement to the House of Commons, the home secretary said: ‘At a time where an increased number of people across the UK are looking for work, the new points-based […]

Dominic Cummings has refused to explain why a private company he owned and controlled paid a firm, now hired by the government and that is linked to the Vote Leave campaign, payments of £260,000. The prime minister’s top advisor has declined to comment on the newspaper reports that he paid artificial intelligence (AI) firm Faculty […]

Award-winning author Sir Philip Pullman has warned that the UK is ‘done for as a nation’ and that it will ‘sink giggling into the sea’ because it will continually reject reformed politics. Pullman’s pessimistic analysis was part of the author’s latest blistering attacks on post-Brexit politics in Britain, as he hit out at Dominic Cummings […]

Ireland’s prime minister has ruled out a border poll claiming it would be ‘far too divisive at this stage’, and instead wants to promote ‘peace and harmony’. Sinn Féin has been calling for a border poll amid the political turbulence caused by Brexit and uncertainty over future arrangements. Micheál Martin told the BBC’s Andrew Marr […]

The government has unveiled plans to spend more than £700 million shoring up Britain’s mainland borders after Brexit, with critics branding it another waste of taxpayers’ money. The funds will go towards building new infrastructure, hiring staff, and developing new technology to improve the flow of people and trade between the UK and the EU […]

Ed Davey has said that the Tories are now too ‘right-wing’ to work with at the next election, and has insisted that the Lib Dems must now work tactically with Keir Starmer’s Labour to defeat Boris Johnson. Davey has said he had ‘anti-Conservative’ values, and would refuse to work with the Tories even if they […]

The government has launched a new information campaign preparing UK businesses for the end of the Brexit transition period, but campaigners warn it will be ineffective, and will come too late into the process. Dubbed ‘The UK’s new start: let’s get going’, the £93 million media blitz will include a barrage of adverts on television, […]

Nadine Dorries was caught out claiming that the Liverpool Echo had produced a ‘fake news’ story. STEVE ANGLESEY picks his Brexiteers of the Week. NADINE DORRIES ‘Liverpool Echo, I’m gutted. I thought better of you. This is a classic fake news story,’ tweeted the health minister (yes, you didn’t dream it, she really is one) […]

Former transport minister Chris Grayling was not a ‘parachute’ appointment 10 Downing Street has insisted, ahead of a vote which is set to elect him chair of the influential Commons intelligence committee. Government whips have been instructed to ensure Tory MPs support Grayling – who was nicknamed ‘Failing Grayling’ for his role as transport minister […]

A behavioural expert who sits on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) committee has called for ‘clear, coherent and consistent’ messaging on face coverings after Michael Gove appeared to contradict the prime minister. On Friday Boris Johnson said that the government ‘needs to be stricter in insisting people wear face coverings in confined spaces’. […]

For many, Tenerife is synonymous with beachside package holidays. But, as EMMA LUCK explains, that’s only half the island’s story. Palm trees and hotels in Playa de las Americas, Tenerife. Picture: Getty Images – Credit: Getty Images So vast is the tourism industry that has sprung up on Tenerife that it can – at least […]

Labour has seized on the ‘complacency, chaos and confusion’ over Brexit which is detailed in minister Liz Truss’ letter to her cabinet colleagues, where she slammed the government’s plans for the end of the transition period. The letter, sent on 8 July, reveals there are still many unanswered questions ahead of the ending of the […]

JAMES OLIVER reports on China’s complex cinema culture, its relationship with domestic politics and international relations. A scene from ‘So Long, My Son’. Picture: Arrow Films – Credit: Archant Amidst all the anxieties of lockdown, the economic fears and the psychic traumas that the last three months has wrought, spare a thought for the real […]

Four hundred years on from their voyage aboard the Mayflower, Richard Holledge asks whether we should consider the Pilgrim Father heroes or villains of history. Embarkation of the Pilgrim Fathers (1620), an updated print depicting the Pilgrim Fathers’ from Delft in the ‘Speedwell’. Picture: Getty Images – Credit: Print Collector/Getty Images The story of the […]

An expert in public procurement rules has claimed that reports of the government handing a contract to a company with links to Dominic Cummings and Michael Gove is a sign of politicians exploiting the Covid-19 crisis. Public First, a small research firm in London, was awarded an £840,000 contract without an open tender for the […]

The president prompts not much more than a Gallic shrug right now, says JASON WALSH. But France’s fractured political scene means it’s still all to play for. He came from the right and seemed to symbolise politics meeting in the middle, but now he’s gone. Édouard Philippe is out as French prime minister. As Philippe […]

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks to editor-at-large, Alastair Campbell, about how the pandemic has changed her. It is two long months since I wrote a piece for a Scottish newspaper comparing the leadership and crisis management skills of Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson. I took 10 crisis management ingredients I had been setting out […]

An app that was designed to steer people away from Wetherspoons is proving a hit among drinkers. Neverspoons – named after the Twitter hashtag that slammed Wetherspoons founder Tim Martin for his attitudes towards staff during the lockdown – is helping independent pubs put bums on seats. Well, beer stools, to be precise. The app […]

Boris Johnson’s strategy for easing lockdown has been about ‘cheap headlines’, a scientist has claimed, as he praised Scotland’s approach. Professor Stephen Reicher criticised the Westminster government over its approach to easing restrictions, claiming the ‘drift’ plan consisted of ‘ad hoc openings’ and ‘cheap headlines’. And he told a briefing that Scotland had taken an […]

The COVID-19 crisis is a mirror. And we need to take a good hard look into it, says BONNIE GREER. That the anti-racism, human rights movement has gained such momentum now is no accident. Black men have been killed by the police countless times, but why did the death of George Floyd affect us so […]

Number 10 is facing calls to explain why ministers are not using face coverings in public after several government figures have been spotted without them in the last few weeks. New data from Office for National Statistics shows that 52% of adults in Britain had worn a face covering in public during the final week […]

Former Commons speaker JOHN BERCOW reviews Andrew Adonis’ new biography of Ernest Bevin. Labour politician Ernest Bevin poses beside a bronze bust made of him for a boardroom in 1930. Picture: Getty Images – Credit: Corbis via Getty Images Andrew Adonis is right. Ernest Bevin has been all but air-brushed from political discourse. Churchill is […]

The Multicultural Man on coffee as fuel for economic recovery. Will Self’s preferred Starbucks order. Picture: Contributed – Credit: Archant The reopening of bars and cafes in England recalls to my mind this observation by the great Russian novelist Andrei Bely: ‘We are only ever drinking coffee over the abyss.’ The need to ‘restart the […]

PETER TRUDGILL on the curious confusions that can arise from the double meaning of quite. Several decades ago, when I first took my American girlfriend home to meet my parents, she was shown some of my father’s paintings – he was a rather well-known local artist. She said that she thought the pictures were ‘quite […]

MICHAEL WHITE on the impact of COVID-19 and the unseen challenges that lie ahead. Well, that was an unexpectedly good start to another tricky week for the government. The many millions who care about the arts in all shapes and sizes woke to find that movers and shakers in theatre, film, music and the rest […]

A German government minister has thanked Boris Johnson for promoting his coronavirus tracing app after the prime minister tried to downplay its success in parliament. Jens Spahn – Germany’s health minister – said his country’s track-and-trace app worked ‘very well’ and had been downloaded more than 15 million times. ‘I’m happy that someone helped us […]