United Kingdom

The cabinet secretary has defended the prime minister’s role as the ultimate arbitrator of the ministerial code after critics argued the current system means Boris Johnson is able to “mark his own homework”. It comes as the prime minister’s ministerial standards adviser, Lord Geidt, is in the process of undertaking an investigation into how renovations […]

Keir Starmer is set to discuss his childhood, career in law and leading the Labour Party from his spare room in lockdown during an interview with Piers Morgan. The Labour leader will sit down with the broadcaster for an hour-long episode of Life Stories, due to be filmed next month and expected to air on […]

Parliament’s standards watchdog reportedly believes Boris Johnson’s holiday to Mustique was worth more than double the £15,000 he declared in the Commons register. According to the Daily Mail, Kathryn Stone, the commissioner for standards, said the bill had not been met by Tory donor David Ross as the prime minister has insisted. The revelation will […]

Priti Patel has been accused of a “flagrant breach” of the ministerial code by lobbying a fellow minister in an attempt to secure a healthcare firm access to a personal protective equipment (PPE) deal said to be worth £20 million. Labour has urged cabinet secretary Simon Case to investigate the home secretary over efforts to […]

Greater Manchester mayor and former national Labour leadership candidate Andy Burnham says the party would not have lost so many seats in the last election had he defeated Jeremy Corbyn in the battle to become its leader in 2015. The claim came in an interview with the Observer, in which Burnham said he would run […]

Brexit minister Lord Frost has threatened that the UK could soon take drastic action over the post-Brexit agreement on Northern Ireland over concerns about violence and disruption. He urged the European Union to “stop the point-scoring and work with us” to “rapidly” find new solutions to end border checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea […]

The demise of some social distancing measures might be celebrated by some, but for others they will be hard to say goodbye to Have you updated your online shopping basket? Listerine? Right Guard? Extra chewing gum? Are you ready for Huggy Monday and the advance of the personal space invaders? With more guests allowed at […]

On the eve of an American poet’s 80th birthday, the places and people over here broadened his horizons When he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 ‘for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition’, Bob Dylan – who will celebrate his 80th birthday on 24th May – was clear […]

Why communication may have been the least of the problems when the Vikings invaded The Great Heathen Army of the Danes invaded eastern England in 865. Large-scale Viking settlements followed throughout the 9th century and on into the 10th. Many eastern and northern areas of our island came to have a heavily Scandinavian or Scandinavianised […]

How the archipelago’s dialect hung on for centuries, but is now disappearing The Channel Islands lie between 70 and 85 nautical miles off the south coast of England. They are very much closer to the Cotentin Peninsula of Normandy in France, which is only about 12 nautical miles away. The islands are not part of the […]

Will Laurence Fox end up with a radio job after the London mayoral elections? BITTER BLOW OF THE WEEK Like many of you, I’m sure, I have spent the last few days trying to recover from what must surely be the most savage disappointment ever to be inflicted upon the progressive caucus in this country. […]

The BBC’s Question Time offers an insight into why Labour lost many elections last week. Peter Kellner’s piece on Labour’s troubles in red wall seats was an interesting read and his insights informative. One only had to watch BBC’s Question Time last night to see some truth regarding Kellner’s points about how Labour has lost […]

Boris Johnson’s former senior aide Dominic Cummings has warned the prime minister against unlocking England on Monday over fears of a surge in the Indian variant of coronavirus. Cummings shared calls from independent scientists on social media who claim that a lifting of lockdown on May 17 could risk a third wave of the pandemic […]

Labour frontbencher Wes Streeting is to step back from politics while he undergoes treatment for kidney cancer. Streeting, 38, said the diagnosis had come as “an enormous shock” but the prognosis was good as the disease had been caught early. In a video message posted on his Twitter feed, the MP for Ilford North said […]

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden has said the privatisation of Channel 4 will be considered during a government review of public service broadcasting. Channel 4 was launched in 1982 as a publicly owned, largely commercially self-funded public service broadcaster with a remit to offer “high quality and distinctive programming”. “I have set up a public service […]

One in 10 EU nationals living in the UK are considering leaving before the deadline to get settled status, a new survey has found. The Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens’ Rights Agreements (IMA) found that some 10% of EU citizens are considering to move by June – the legal deadline by which EU nationals […]

Lawyers have revealed five ‘false claims’ made by ministers they say prove the government refused to strike a deal to rescue visa-free touring in the EU. Legal opinion obtained by The Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM) found ministers misled performers about the reason behind not pursuing a Visa Waiver Agreement (WVA) with Brussels last year. In fact, […]

Northern Ireland’s troubled past and Brexit tensions are likely to dominate discussions between the Irish premier and UK prime minister on Friday. Boris Johnson has been dogged by criticism in recent days over his response to an inquest finding that 10 people killed in shootings involving the Army in the Ballymurphy area of west Belfast […]

The sound of us Remainers crying over spilled milk has been replaced by everyone crying over unsold milk It has been another gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain. The dairy industry has been among the biggest losers of Brexit so far, with milk and cream exports to the EU down 96.4% year […]

A senior trade unionist has been suspended by Labour after suggesting home secretary Priti Patel should be deported. Unite’s assistant general secretary Howard Beckett – who is standing for the leadership of the major union – has apologised for the social media message. He sits on Labour’s ruling national executive committee and has now been […]

Efforts to explain recent political developments through the prism of regions misses more pertinent points about England’s electoral map On Crosby beach on the north shore of the River Mersey, Antony Gormley’s sculptures of naked metal men famously stand stoically in the face of the waves of the Irish Sea. Much of this coastline is lined by […]

The Home Office has been urged to give EU citizens in the UK the automatic right to stay as it emerged 305,000 applications are still yet to be processed. EU citizens have a deadline of June 30 to apply for settled status to afford them legal status to carry on living and working in the […]

David Cameron has said he often signs off text messages “love DC”, as he defended his informal approach to lobbying Whitehall. The former prime minister bombarded ministers and Government officials with texts as he controversially lobbied for Greensill Capital. The Conservative politician said it was a “painful day” for him on Thursday as he gave […]

Boris Johnson no longer has a county court judgment against him after Downing Street sought to strike out a claim for a £535 debt for alleged defamation. No 10 said the claim against the prime minister had been “totally without merit” and “vexatious” and lodged an application to have it struck out. A court official […]

A Tory MP who urged people not be be “litter tossers” has been accused of hypocrisy after he was fined for dropping a cigarette butt. Richard Holden, MP for Durham North West, was one of two people caught by neighbourhood wardens outside the election count at the Louisa Centre in Stanley, County Durham, on Saturday, […]

Any donations Boris Johnson received over the controversial refurbishment of his Downing Street flat are expected to be published by the end of the month. His new ministerial standards adviser Lord Geidt said that he is “determined” to publish the long-overdue list of ministers’ interests before May is up. The Crossbench peer told MPs that […]

Brexit has cost the UK economy £16billion in trade since 2016, experts have said. The Centre for European Reform (CER) estimates that leaving the single market and customs union at the end of 2020 has reduced UK trade by £7.7billion, or 11%, since March. Another £8billion – or 10% – has been wiped from the […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has defended the government’s plans to require photographic identification to vote by comparing it to a ban on MPs wearing overcoats and hats during Commons divisions. The Commons leader was challenged by Labour over the proposal amid fears it could disenfranchise some voters who do not have any form of photo ID. Shadow […]

TIM WALKER on an unusual theatrical production, with an intriguing premise The premise is intriguing: an unacknowledged daughter of Boris Johnson is on a quest to find out what he’s really like. Charlotte Evans, the journalist and theatre performer, had initially been commissioned by the BBC to make My Dad Boris, which comprised serious interviews […]

Earlier this year Keir Starmer called for a 1945 moment, but he has yet to outline what it involves. In June last year, Ed Miliband was asked on The Andrew Marr Show whether Keir Starmer was going to be a better leader of the Labour Party than he had been. “Definitely,” he responded, adding: “I […]

A shadow minister has quit after being accused of trying to intimidate a colleague seeking to assist a parliamentary worker who raised allegations of sexual harassment against a former Labour MP. Kate Hollern left her role on Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s frontbench after the allegations were made during an employment tribunal against Mike Hill. […]

David Cameron is to face a grilling by MPs over his lobbying activities for collapsed finance firm Greensill Capital. The former prime minister is appearing at back-to-back hearings by the Commons Treasury and Public Accounts committees. Earlier this week, the Treasury Committee released dozens of texts and emails Cameron sent to ministers and senior officials […]