News and Opinion

A radio broadcaster has accused Brexiteer MPs of orchestrating a campaign to blame the public for a second wave of coronavirus cases. James O’Brien was responding to a poll showing that 59% of Britons believe the public, rather than the government, should be blamed for a second spike in Covid cases when he made the […]

A Tory MP has claimed Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon is acting ‘like Trump’ after she criticised Boris Johnson’s remarks about borders. Boris Johnson told PMQs on Wednesday that ‘there is no border between Scotland and England’ after Sturgeon failed to rule out ‘border checks’ on English visitors. But asked at the Scottish government’s coronavirus […]

The latest round of Brexit talks between the UK and EU have ended a day earlier than expected after both sides failed to overcome ‘significant differences’. Face-to-face talks in Brussels between officials were due to continue into Friday, however, that goal has been dashed after negotiators failed to find compromise over issues like the level […]

New polling suggests a majority of Britons are ready to blame their fellow citizens, rather than the government, if a second wave of the coronavirus hits. More people believe a second lockdown will happened before the end of the year; Peston Show, Twitter – Credit: Archant The new survey found that 59% of respondents think […]

A former Tory minister and leader of the short-lived Change UK party has said she believes the UK will be back in the EU within a decade. Anna Soubry was speaking to LBC Radio on the day that the deadline expired to request a transition period extension. She said: ‘When our economy suffers in the […]

Our government follows a pattern of breaking things apart without knowing how to put them back together, writes JAMES BALL. There are very few of us who would actively want to hear much about home insulation. But for governments, it’s the kind of boring policy that makes a lot of sense – especially during a […]

The Conservatives’ grip on the northern and Midlands seats they took from Labour has weakened since the election, says ANTHONY CLAVANE At 11.31pm on December 12, 2019, a new political landscape came into being. The returning officer for the former mining community of Blyth Valley announced an unexpected breach in Labour’s ‘red wall’ as Ian […]

MICHAEL WHITE looks ahead to a summer of local lockdowns, recriminations and economic gloom. The paradox at the heart of this week’s dismissal of Mark Sedwill as Whitehall’s Grand Vizier is that Dominic Cummings has scattered so much forensic evidence at the scene of the crime that it will likely seal his own fate in […]

A leaked government document has detailed the new customs checks will be in place in the Irish Sea after Brexit, despite promises from Boris Johnson that they would never happen. In a secret dossier from HMRC, seen by The Guardian, hauliers will now have to submit new paper work to transport goods from mainland Britain […]

An author of a book on superforecasting has urged readers not to let Dominic Cummings’ praise of the book cloud their judgement. Seemingly fearing a dent in sales as a result of support from Boris Johnson’s most senior adviser, Philip Tetlock has urged people not to form opinions on the book before reading it. Tetlock, […]

As foreign secretary Ernest Bevin helped shape the post-war world, keeping communism at bay and creating a western alliance against it. Yet, as ANDREW ADONIS shows – in extracts from his new biography – his career also had its failures, while his anti-Semitism poisoned his politics The King David Hotel bombing (July 22, 1946) was […]

Television presenter Piers Morgan has attracted hundreds of complaints after he refused to read a government statement during a boycott from ministers. The Good Morning Britain presenter refused to read a statement from the government, in which it defended Helen Whately for her comments over student nurses and their role during the coronavirus pandemic. Morgan […]

The West must stand up for the three million Uighur Muslims in Chinese re-education camps, says ANDREW ADONIS, or will the world face another Mao? The question can no longer be ducked: is China’s persecution of its ethnic minorities a genocide in the making? I see China’s ruler Xi Jinping in a wholly new light […]

The Treasury has deleted a tweet encouraging people to ‘raise a glass’ when pubs reopen on ‘Super Saturday’ after it was met with huge public backlash. The government department shared a video of wine glasses clinking, accompanied with laughter sound effects, to hail the reopening of pubs on Saturday. In the post, published on its […]

Boris Johnson’s father Stanley Johnson has ignored Foreign Office guidance to only take ‘essential’ trips by travelling to Greece. The Greek authorities have said that Britons cannot currently travel to the country, citing high cases of coronavirus in the country, but said the decision will be reviewed on July 15. Despite this, Johnson senior proudly […]

Former Tory deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine has criticised Boris Johnson’s economic response to the coronavirus, particularly as he pursues Brexit at the same time. Lord Heseltine told Sky News that it was ‘frightening’ people thought the issue of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU had ‘gone away’. He told Sky News: ‘Yes and that […]

Experts have warned Public Health England could be blamed for coronavirus failures as Downing Street suggested changes aimed at improving ‘public health capabilities’. Public Health England (PHE) has been criticised over its handling of the outbreak, particularly among Tory MPs, although Number 10 publicly insisted it had been ‘working hard to protect the country’. Former […]

Boris Johnson will appear at a Downing Street press conference on Friday ahead of the lockdown being eased in England at the weekend. Johnson is expected to lead a Downing Street press conference on Friday ahead of pubs, hairdressers, cinemas and hotels reopening. The prime minister wants the public to follow coronavirus guidance and ensure […]

Jürgen Klopp, manager of new Premier League champions Liverpool, is a man who transcends his sport. TONY EVANS interviewed him, shortly before his team took the title, about his politics, his background and what drives him. Jürgen Klopp does not care what people think. He has little interest in how others perceive him. The 53-year-old […]

Tory MPs have voted down a bill that would have prevented a prime minister being nominated without the consent of parliament. The legislation would have forced any future prime ministerial contender to first seek the support of fellow MPs before they could take up the role. The proposals were brought forward by SNP cabinet office […]

Dominic Raab has blamed the EU for a defunct email address being used offering the UK a chance to join a scheme to secure supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE). The foreign secretary told MPs that the correct details had been provided but information on the schemes aimed at securing PPE including gloves, overalls, goggles […]

People in Northern Ireland could miss out on vital food products after Brexit because of proposed check points in the Irish Sea. Goods travelling into the region could become stranded if marine check points are not ready for the end of the Brexit transition period, Stormont MLAs (Member of the Legislative Assembly) were told. Members […]

Broadcaster James O’Brien has questioned why so many in Britain are celebrating imposing ‘economic sanctions’ on the country by pursuing Brexit. The broadcaster said Britain was in a ‘unique’ position where no country living in a democracy has managed to see the positives of economic sanctions. He pondered why so many Brexiteers were celebrating the […]

German chancellor Angela Markel has warned the EU needs to prepare for a no-deal Brexit. Addressing members of parliament inthe Bundestag, the long-serving leader said the EU ‘must and should prepare for a situation in which an agreement does not happen’. Merkel’s warning come as trade talks between Brussels and London begin to founder as […]

The SNP could withdraw from UK institutions – including the House of Commons – if Boris Johnson’s government continues to block a second Scottish independence referendum. Pete Wishart, one of the party’s most senior MPs, said the party could consider ‘withdrawing from the apparatus of the UK state’ if Westminster continues to reject calls for […]

Piers Morgan has slammed the government for not releasing critical coronavirus testing figures, claiming it was a case of ‘smoke and mirrors’. The presenter blasted the government over refusing to release pillar two testing figures which show the number of people tested outside of hospitals, calling the move ‘a total scam’. ‘It’s blatant lying again. […]

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator has warned finance chiefs that the UK government will fail to insulate the city of London from the consequences of Brexit. Barnier said current demands during the Brexit trade talks were unacceptable, and that their proposals to ditch EU financial regulations could hurt the bloc. He claimed the UK was […]

Business secretary Alok Sharma has admitted he got coronavirus testing figures wrong in a live interview with the BBC. Sharma appeared on BBC Breakfast last week saying that 240,000 people had been tested for Covid-19 in a single day when in fact that figure related to the number of tests available, not taken. Rival breakfast […]

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Rebecca Long-Bailey appears to have finally removed the tweet which saw her sacked from the shadow cabinet. Long-Bailey, the former shadow education secretary, had tweeted praise of an interview with Maxine Peake in which the actress said the police tactic of kneeling on someone’s neck, which killed George Floyd, was ‘learnt from seminars with Israeli […]

Dominic Cummings is forcing government advisors to read books promoting paranoia and superforecasting as part of a rigorous training regime he arranged. Special advisors were told to read the 350-page novel Superforecasting – a form of predicting events through random selection – by Philip Tetlocks and High Output Management by Andrew Grove which claims that […]

Environment secretary George Eustice has claimed ‘we don’t need to worry too much’ about interrupts to food supplies after Brexit. Concerns have been raised about interruptions to food supplies in the face of a ‘no-deal’ situation where a trade agreement is not secured with the EU before January. But Eustice said the pandemic had shown […]