Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson and the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said “substantial progress” had been made on a Brexit trade deal following a phone call on Thursday – but both are still warning there are significant obstacles to overcome. As the clock ticks towards the deadline for an agreement at the end of the […]

Former Conservative special advisor BARNABY TOWNS imagines an alternative political universe where the 2016 was never held, or won by Remain.  As Great Britain – England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland – stare down the abyss of casting aside nearly half a century of increasingly integrated trade and security relationships, it is worth […]

Former Europe minister DENIS MACSHANE suggests the Brexit bluster is fading as the final deadline looms and predicts a feeble deal similar to the one offered to Theresa May The Brexit signals emerging from both London and Brussels are now pointing clearly to a deal largely on the terms that Michel Barnier, the EU negotiator, […]

Dominic Cummings has used a column in The Spectator‘s magazine Christmas special to launch a veiled attack on Boris Johnson and his fiancée Carrie Symonds. Cummings used a slot in a publication where his wife works to say politicians had become “more focused on Twitter and gossip-column stories about their dogs”. Johnson’s former top aide is set to […]

Brexiteers in government – along with the prime minister – have been accused by former Brexit Party MEPs of ‘selling out’ to Brussels. In a sign of discontent over any Brexit agreement with the EU, Alexandra Phillips and Ben Habib have penned a column in the Daily Telegraph accusing the biggest proponents of the project in the Tory […]

The British government has been called a “disgrace” after UNICEF was forced to intervene in the country’s food crisis for the first time ever. The UN agency said Covid-19 had left British youngsters facing the biggest crisis since the Second World War and donated £25,000 to a charity feeding Britain’s hungry children. Since the first national lockdown […]

A BBC factchecker has debunked Boris Johnson’s claims that coronavirus infection rates were falling across England. Politics Live‘s Joel Massey said government data showed the majority of local authority areas reported an increase in cases over the past week. Johnson had declared that a “huge amount of progress” had been made to bringing down infection rates. His comments comes as […]

Sir Keir Starmer has chided Boris Johnson during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) after he granted Dominic Cummings a £40,000 pay raise while at the same time enforcing a pay freeze on public sector workers.  In his return to the chamber since self-isolating, Sir Keir said: “Another major mistake of the past 12 months is losing public trust. “We all know what […]

The SNP’s Ian Blackford has demanded an economic analysis of Boris Johnson’s Brexit plans. The party’s Westminster leader a “detailed economic assessment of the cost to the UK of his extreme Tory Brexit plans” before MPs are asked to vote on any possible deal. The Scottish politician claimed at Prime Minister’s Questions that the Tory […]

A former prime minister of the Republic of Ireland said a Brexit deal was inevitable “as long as” Boris Johnson does not get involved. Bertie Ahern, who helped broker the Good Friday Agreement, said striking a deal was only a matter of time and trade-offs. Ahern told POLITICO the EU could give into Britain’s demands on fishing […]

Boris Johnson has told Eurosceptic members of the Tory party’s European Research Group that they should ignore the messages coming from the European Union about a Brexit deal. According to the Express, Conservative backbenchers were told by the prime minister to ignore the “propaganda” and “fake news” from Brussels which has left Brexiteers unhappy. It […]

No 10 has spent £2.7 million of taxpayer’s cash in one year to pay out sacked advisers, a government report has revealed. The sum includes severance pay-outs to advisers who left between April 2019 and March 2020, the Cabinet Office has confirmed. An annual report on Special Advisers shows staff turnover in 2019 was unusually high due to […]

A minister has defended the £40,000 pay rise given to Dominic Cummings – which was part of the £10 million pay for Boris Johnson’s advisers in the last year. Former chief adviser Cummings, who is in the process of leaving his government post, was paid the equivalent of £140,000-£144,999 – up from £95,000-£99,999 last year. […]

New polling has found that 28% of Britons Boris Johnson has handled Brexit well – despite talks faltering and the prime minister failing to so far deliver his “oven-ready” deal he promised at the last election. A total of two-thirds of the country (63%) think the UK’s departure from the EU has been handled badly, according […]

Scottish Conservative Party leader Douglas Ross has said he has no intention of “bringing up” Boris Johnson on the campaign trail during next year’s Holyrood elections. Consecutive polling has shown Ross’ party faces an up-hill to beat the SNP in next year’s vote, which is tipped to win by a landslide. The SNP has repeatedly described the 2021 election as […]

Boris Johnson has told MPs he is still searching for the “chatty rat” who leaked details of proposals for a second lockdown in England. The search for the culprit – continues and the prime minister promised to update the Commons “if” the source is identified. The announcement of the lockdown was made at a hastily-convened […]

A German television show has mocked Boris Johnson and his Brexit proposals in a spoof of Netflix’s The Crown entitled ‘The Clown’. Extra3, which airs on public broadcaster NDR, derided the UK’s departure from the European Union and its prime minister in a spoof trailer which is going viral in the European country and now the […]

Scientists have warned that the easing of coronavirus restrictions over Christmas will cause a spike in infections, as experts encourage Boris Johnson to follow German chancellor Angela Merkel’s lead by rethinking proposals for the holiday. Germany has announced a national lockdown that will close shops and schools until at least January 10 – with restrictions on social […]

Former Conservative Party leader William Hague has said that Boris Johnson’s biggest test won’t be over whether or not he secures a Brexit deal – but what happens afterwards. Lord Hague, a Tory grandee, said that Johnson has turned in a strong performance in convincing the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen he is “crazy enough to […]

Post-Brexit Cornwall is set to receive just 5% of what it needs to replace EU funding, according to a local councillor. As one of the UK’s poorest areas, Cornwall requested £700 million over 10 years to make up for a shortfall in EU funds caused by Brexit. Instead, the county will get little more than £1.8 million […]

A Labour MP has been reprimanded by Sir Keir Starmer after accusations he suggested Boris Johnson was “recreating Nazi Germany”. Junior shadow frontbencher Bill Esterson shared a tweet suggesting the prime minister was steering the country “to a very dangerous place”. Esterton tweeted: “My dad’s family is Jewish. “We have no idea how many of […]

The former Conservative Party chairman has branded Boris Johnson an “English nationalist” – claiming that he did not believe he was a Tory. Lord Patten, a Tory peer, claims that Johnson’s government appeared to have thrown “out of the window” their defence of the union. “What we’re seeing is Boris Johnson on this runaway train […]

The SNP has indicated that it will vote down Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal – despite saying a deal would be better than the “complete disruption” of a no-deal Brexit. Appearing on Good Morning Scotland, the party’s Brexit secretary said it could not back something that is “the wrong thing for Scotland”. He explained: “There will be […]

A Labour MP has delivered a scathing attack on Boris Johnson for suggesting that crashing out of the EU would be a “wonderful” outcome for Britain. David Lammy, the shadow justice secretary, accused Johnson of attempting to deliver a type of Brexit no-one wanted. MORE: Boris Johnson under renewed pressure as new polling finds two-thirds of Brits […]

Irish prime minister Micheal Martin has said that “Britain needs Europe, and Europe needs Britain”. In a criticism of Boris Johnson’s handling of Brexit talks, he said the Taioseach was critical of Boris Johnson’s threat to deploy Royal Navy vessels to patrol the seas around Britain if there is no deal. “All of that type of […]

Veteran Tory MP Sir Roger Gale said Boris Johnson should quit as prime minister if he fails to secure a trade deal with the European Union. Sir Roger, who was one of only two Tory MPs to vote against the UK Internal Market Bill, said an acceptable deal would see “imaginative ideas” regarding trade and […]

Boris Johnson has come under renewed pressure to strike an EU trade deal after fresh polling showed two-thirds of Britons preferred an Brexit agreement over no-deal. The survey, conducted by YouGov, shows Britons overwhelmingly support ending the Brexit transition period, which finishes on December 31, with a trade agreement. Some 66pc of people polled said they supported leaving with a […]

A video of Boris Johnson at the last election claiming nobody would be talking about Brexit in 2020 because he will have done his trade deal has gone viral as the UK’s departure from the European Union still dominates headlines. Brexit has overtaken the coronavirus as the top story on news headlines, with the UK […]

Boris Johnson has been reminded of comments around a Brexit trade deal with the EU in which he claimed that “100% of issues” relating to a trade agreement had been resolved already. During another visit to a car factory days before the general election, the prime minister was questioned about the likeliness of a trade agreement […]

Ed Miliband has dismantled Andrew Marr’s defence of Boris Johnson’s ‘oven-ready’ Brexit pledge that was made during the general election campaign. Referring to a clip of Johnson at Nissan days before the vote, he said that Marr’s claim this only related to the Withdrawal Agreement was “nonsense”. He explained: “He went to Nissan in Sunderland – very […]

Sunday’s deadline for Brexit talks has been scrapped, with Boris Johnson agreeing with European Union chiefs to continue negotiations over a trade deal beyond the weekend.  The prime minister spoke to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to extend the deadline for negotiations to continue. In a joint statement they agreed to “go the extra mile” […]

SAM FOWLES took on Boris Johnson’s government over the prorogation of parliament in 2019 – now he warns of a new battle against the repealing of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act. The Royal Prerogative harks back “to the clanking of mediaeval chains of the ghosts of the past”. So said the great judge Lord Roskill, […]