Boris Johnson

Conservative MPs have claimed a promotion for Boris Johnson’s head of communications would be the “final nail for the prime minister”. The Telegraph reports that former Vote Leave spokesman Lee Cain could be made chief of staff, joining a trio of advisers including Dominic Cummings, Lord Udny-Lister and Simon Case in the prime minister’s inner […]

An adviser to Boris Johnson has called for the report into allegations of bullying by Priti Patel should be made public. Lord Evans of Weardale, the former head of MI5 and now adviser on standards in public life, said not revealing the report risks undermining voters’ trusts and would suggest the issue was “brushed over”. […]

President-elect Joe Biden has started to reach out to world leaders, with Boris Johnson finally speaking with the Democrat. The American politician had been expected to prioritise calls with top European leaders, with French president Emmanuel Macron high on the list. But Downing Street has insisted they were near the top of the calls list, […]

Boris Johnson’s Internal Market Bill – which attempts to override international law – is to be tested in Northern Ireland’s High Court. An anonymous litigant is challenging the prime minister for acting in bad faith over the Withdrawal Agreement with the European Union, and signing it “without ever intending he should be bound by it”. […]

Boris Johnson’s tweet congratulating Joe Biden on his US election victory was originally designed for Donald Trump, it has been revealed. The message sent by Boris Johnson on Saturday evening showed the word “Trump” faintly in the background. This led to online speculation that Number 10 had originally prepared a message to herald a Trump win, […]

Ken Clarke has attacked the government for behaving like a “third-world dictatorship” with the Internal Market Bill, claiming what it was asking politicians to do was “ridiculous and deeply damaging to the reputation of the country”. The former Tory minister said that Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill was “inferior” in comparison to the three attempts Theresa […]

Former Conservative prime minister John Major has savaged the Brexit project warning that Britain is “no longer a great power” and “will never be so again”. In a pre-recorded lecture at Middle Temple the former MP claimed “even more brutal than expected” due to the UK’s negotiating “failures” and warned of its impact on Britain’s standing […]

A former Tory leader has led the calls for the government to “think again” over its controversial Brexit legislation as the peers plan to strip out powers that enable ministers to break international law. Brexiteer Lord Howard of Lympne is one of the rebels planning to remove the contentious parts of the UK Internal Market Bill, […]

Brexiteer Tory MPs are hatching a plan to topple Boris Johnson if he does not resign in the spring before local elections. Opponents of Johnson, including Iain Duncan Smith, John Redwood and Esther McVey, have created a Whatsapp group entitled “Lockdown Loons” and are plotting against the government, the Mirror reports. At least one is […]

Boris Johnson is to hold a press conference at Downing Street this evening, following news on a successful coronavirus vaccine. Pharmaceutical company Pfizer has revealed its coronavirus vaccine is more than 90% effective in preventing the disease. But with Johnson looking to seize upon the news, it is likely that the prime minister will face […]

Joe Biden could force Boris Johnson to sign up to a Brexit deal with the EU in his first contact with the British prime minister. British diplomats have conceded that the PM is likely to be far down the list on people the president-elect telephones after his election win, but when he does the dialogue […]

A source close to the Democrats has dismissed suggestions there will be a ‘special relationship’ between Joe Biden and Boris Johnson following the US election result. “They do not think Boris Johnson is an ally,” the Democratic source told the Sunday Times. “They think Britain is an ally. But there will be no special relationship […]

England footballer Marcus Rashford has hailed the power of “kindness and compassion” after reporting that Boris Johnson had U-turned over providing free meals to disadvantaged children during the Christmas holidays. The prime minister personally phoned the Manchester United star on Saturday to alert him to the decision to lay on £170 million of extra funding for […]

Boris Johnson has yet to get in touch with US president-elect Joe Biden after laying out the case for a close UK alliance with the new administration. “The United States is our closest and most important ally, and that has been the case president after president, prime minister after prime minister – it won’t change,” […]

Boris Johnson has refused to answer questions over Dominic Cummings’ unpaid council tax bill during Prime Minister’s Questions. The prime minister sidestepped a question by City of Durham’s Mary Foy over allegations that Cummings had dodged a £50,000 council tax bill on buildings he failed to register with the local authority. The Labour MP said […]

Nicola Sturgeon is planning to ignore Westminster’s veto on holding a second independence referendum, a leaked party memo has suggested. The National is reporting that SNP MPs Angus MacNeil and Chris McEleny will have their motion debate alternative legal routes to independence during this year’s party conference approved. Dubbed “Plan B”, the motion suggests Holyrood should take the UK government […]

The prime minister will host a new coronavirus briefing as England entered a national lockdown for a second time. NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens will join the Downing Street event at 5pm on Thursday. It is unlikely that any new measures will be announced, but it follows chancellor Rishi Sunak revealing that furlough has […]

MITCH BENN on why he would almost be as bad as Boris Johnson. There’s a very useful expression which succinctly encapsulates the difference between the concepts of knowledge and wisdom. As is sometimes the case with such modern aphorisms, I’ve heard a few different versions of it, and I’m not sure with whom the phrase […]

The Test and Trace system has reached the lowest ever proportion of contacts of people who tested positive for Covid-19 in England, a day after Boris Johnson said it had achieved a “remarkable feat”. Four in 10 close contacts of people who tested positive are still not being reached by the system, at the same […]

Rory Stewart has called Boris Johnson the “most accomplished liar in public life” in a personal swipe against the prime minister in an article in the Times Literary Supplement. Stewart, who was of 21 rebel Tory MPs fired for voted against Johnson’s Brexit agenda last year, accused Johnson of being an opportunist who created the “historical forces” […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL on how the UK government shows contempt of near Trumpian levels. Needless to say, the government’s fabled miscommunications team got itself into all sorts of muddles over its reaction to the Sunday Times’ revelation that the chair of the UK’s ‘vaccine task force’ briefed American venture capitalists on details of which projects the government was […]

Suella Braverman has defended Priti Patel’s attack on “activist lawyers” after reports they have faced physical and verbal attacks following criticism from the government. The attorney general was questioned by MPs about a Home Office video which accused them of epresenting migrants of trying to disrupt the asylum system. Labour’s Andy Slaughter also told the Commons: […]

A handful of Tory MPs have defied public opinion and their own party to vote against Boris Johnson’s lockdown plans. The prime minister’s bill sailed through the Commons by 516 to 39 in a vote on Wednesday evening. Under the legislation, non-essential shops will be forced to close and social gatherings and non-essential travel banned from Thursday […]

MICHAEL WHITE on the growing twin nightmares of authoritarianism and incompetence in the week arch-opportunist Nigel Farage returns to frontline politics. Whatever the final outcome it was clear within hours of the polls closing that the result of the US election has not been the decisive repudiation of the Trump Era for which progressive opinion […]

LIZ GERARD is second to no one in her criticisms of Boris Johnson. Yet for all his manifest failings, she cannot help feel some sympathy for his current predicament. But when anger starts turning to pity, how long can a prime minister last? At what point does anger turn to pity? Do we rediscover our essential […]

Boris Johnson’s “toxic” nature is likely to put a strain on a Joe Biden presidency, a prominent Democrat adviser has warned. Max Bergmann, a senior fellow with the Centre for American Progress, told the Times that Johnson’s credibility has fallen across the pond as a result of his Brexit support, and the administration could turn […]

Theresa May accused Boris Johnson of choosing data to fit his coronavirus policies, as she insisted the government must reveal the economic cost of lockdown. The Conservative former prime minister tore into predictions said to have informed her successor’s decision to impose a second national lockdown in England, which will start on Thursday and last […]

Boris Johnson refused to be drawn on the controversy surrounding Donald Trump’s claim that he had won victory in the US election and his threat to go to the courts to stop votes being counted. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had asked the prime minister to criticise Donald Trump’s actions. At Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir […]

Campaigners are embarking on a fresh bid to get the Brexit transition period extended during the continuation of the Covid-19 crisis. More than ten thousand have already signed a petition requesting an extension, which would also look to hold a referendum on any trade deal agreed with the EU, meaning the government must respond. It comes […]

Robert Jenrick has admitted he “doesn’t know” how many tests will be needed for the government’s mass coronavirus testing programme in Liverpool. The government announced that Liverpool will become the first city to offer its citizens coronavirus tests in a new mass testing pilot programme from Friday. Anyone living or working in the city will be available […]

Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock are being sued over the appointment of Tory peer Dido Harding to run the government’s Test and Trace system. Runnymede Trust and the Good Law Project have brought forward legal proceedings against the two over alleged cronyism. The NGOs claim top-ranking affiliates of the Conservative Party were given key public sector […]

A legal challenge over the decision not to investigate Dominic Cummings for alleged breaches of coronavirus lockdown rules will be heard by the High Court on Tuesday. The prime minister’s chief adviser caused controversy by making a 260-mile drive from London to Durham in March with his wife, journalist Mary Wakefield, and their four-year-old son to […]