Media

A right-wing commentator who said Covid-19 had “disappeared” has admitted he was wrong during an on-air grilling on the BBC. Lockdown Sceptics editor Toby Young claimed in June that coronavirus “had all but disappeared” and questioned the need for social distancing. Young was confronted over claims during a debate on free speech on BBC 2’s Newsnight. […]

A TV presenter has blasted Downing Street after it emerged Boris Johnson would be holding another coronavirus press conference on Tuesday afternoon. Phillip Schofield did not hold back when he found out that No 10 announced another Covid conference for 5pm this afternoon. The news comes less than 24 hours after the prime minister announced […]

A Tory housing minister has come under fire after he suggested Britons purchase a £170 bottle of champagne to ward off the Covid blues. Labour branded Christopher Pincher as “truly out of touch” after he recommended people see off a “rotten” 2020 with a lavish bottle of bubbly, despite more than half a million Britons […]

Nigel Farage has said Tony Blair should lead the UK’s vaccination programme, adding the former Labour prime minister “commands respect” and is “seriously bright”. Expressing his frustration with Boris Johnson’s latest lockdown announcement, Farage took to Twitter with a suggestion on how to speed up Britain’s vaccination drive. Describing the current cabinet as the “most low grade […]

A former Brexit Party MEP has called for coverage of Brexit on the television news to be more positive after claiming coverage of the end of the transition period was too “sombre”. Claire Fox, a new peer in the House of Lords, complained about Sky’s “funereal” tone throughout programming on December 31. Fox was asked […]

A Leaver breaking down and apologising for voting Brexit, which was turned into a song, has recently resurfaced. Comedian Brian Limond added a beat over audio of a man expressing his regret to LBC radio’s James O’Brien live on air. The man, who identified himself as Bill from Exmouth, said: “I owe you an apology my […]

A comedian has delivered the perfect rebuke to Brexiteers up in arms over jokes he made about Nigel Farage and Brexit on New Year’s Eve. Nish Kumar angered Brexiteers when he described Farage as “not technically a man, but a sack of meat brought to life by a witch’s curse whose blood type is technically real ale,” […]

A former senior Tory MP has perfectly explained why Britain faces decades of Brexit infighting despite Boris Johnson’s deal promising an end to them. Dominic Grieve, who lost his seat in the 2019 election after campaigning as an independent, said the prospect of Britain joining the EU in the future was still possible. Asked if the Tory […]

A Labour peer has warned Boris Johnson against dodging democratic scrutiny of his Brexit deal as MPs complain there is not enough time to scrutinise it. Former Tony Blair aide Lord Andrew Adonis said Johnson was “spinning” negotiations “out to the last minute” in order to avoid democratic scrutiny of his new deal. Reports have emerged that Johnson […]

A Brexiteer has said “the nation would never forgive us” if he and fellow Eurosceptic MPs voted in favour of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal. Tory backbencher and member of the hardline anti-EU group, the ERG, said he was not ready to sign a deal ‘just because’ of an impending deadline. Appearing on talkRADIO, Bridgen said: “If we […]

Social media users have been quick to criticise The Sun over its front cover of Boris Johnson dressed as Santa Claus delivering Brexit following news he clinched a trade deal with the EU. The Sun‘s front for Christmas Eve shows Johnson in a Santa suit stuffing presents down a chimney, with the headline “The Night Before Brexmas”. This […]

It is “possible but far from certain” that a post-Brexit trade deal could be agreed with Brussels on Wednesday, a Downing Street source has said. A cabinet minister has also indicated that hopes are rising for securing an agreement although major differences still remain between the UK and the EU. This comes as the BBC’s […]

Britons visiting Gibraltar after Britain leaves the Brexit transition period will need to present their passports while Spaniards will not, reports claim. The British Overseas Territory could be entering Europe’s Schengen Zone from next year meaning visitors not from the area will be forced to furnish their passport upon arrival. Negotiations between London and Madrid […]

An EU diplomat has said a Brexit deal is “pretty much there” and could be announced as early as Thursday. Three diplomatic sources told Reuters that preparations for a deal have been stepped up. Reuters reported that national diplomats have been told to prepare for a meeting as early as Thursday should a deal be struck […]

Companies faces further chaos at Britain’s border after Brexit after a fund set up to help them process customs paperwork ran out of cash. HMRC said almost all the money from the Customs Grant Scheme – an £84million-pound programme to train staff and set up new IT systems – has run dry, leaving businesses at the risk of continued […]

A column by Boris Johnson accusing Labour of the “putrefaction of the honours system” has re-emerged hours after he ennobled a former Tory donor against the advice of the peerage watchdog. Peter Cruddas was one of 16 new peers appointed by Downing Street on Monday in an announcement that was slipped out after MPs had returned home for Christmas. […]

Pro-Brexit newspaper the Daily Express has been derided over its front page criticising the French government and Emmanuel Macron for its decision to close its borders to the UK, sparking huge queues at the port of Dover. The newspaper front claimed that French president is ‘no friend’ of the UK after blaming him for causing […]

A British musician has been lauded after saying it was a “grave error” for the country to Brexit in the middle of an international crisis. Yungblud, whose real name is Dominic Richard Harrison, caught Twitter users’ attention when he called on the government to extend EU trade talk and avoid the UK “legitimately running out of […]

Boris Johnson has overruled the peerage watchdog to make former Tory treasurer Peter Cruddas a life peer. The move went against the advice of the House of Lords Appointments Committee. A statement posted on the gov.uk website said: “The House of Lords Appointments Commission was invited by the prime minister to undertake vetting of all party […]

A BBC presenter has given a sobering assessment of the nation’s mood ahead of Christmas and a looming Brexit deadline in a minute-long clip. Ros Atkins captured the national sentiment in a cerebral monologue broadcasted on BBC World service. Soaking up news of the Dover port blockade, the uncontrolled spread of a new strain of Covid-19, […]

British war graves staff working in France and Belgium have been told to expect a 50% pay cut from next year following Brexit. Workers tending the graves of soldiers killed in both World Wars were told of the change mere hours after Armistice day. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission emailed 32 staff, some of whom had tended […]

Rhetoric on sovereignty coming from Britain during Brexit talks is “totally pathetic,” the EU vice president has said. Heidi Hautala said there was “no problem” with Britain leaving the bloc to reassert its “sovereignty” as long as it remained open to a fair transition. Speaking with the LBC’s Tom Swarbrick on the day of a new deadline, […]

Sections of Liz Truss’ speech on inequality and discrimination in Britain has been removed from the government’s website. Critics have labelled the speech “bonkers” after the Tory minister claimed pupils at her school were unable to read or write because too much had been taken up learning about racism and sexism. Truss went to school in Leeds […]

Britain will never get a better trade deal with the EU than the one it has as a member state, a German MEP has declared. Theresa Reintke said Britain’s trading relationship with Europe would never be the same once it left “the table in Brussels”. Reintke, an MEP for the Greens–European Free Alliance, told the EU parliament: “No […]

Whetherspoon boss Tim Martin has come to the “rapid conclusion” that Boris Johnson and his government have been “incapable of making good decisions” over Brexit.  Tim Martin, a Brexiteer, suggested Johnson would “tie up the country for decades” in agreement he would not fully understand. Discussing the prospect on talkRADIO, Martin said: “I’m rapidly forming the conclusion that Boris […]

Remainers have revelled in a ‘told you so’ moment as a clip surfaced showing a miles-long queue of lorries at Dover port. The 58-seconed video shows a birds-eye views of trucks piled back to back down M20 trying to access the Eurotunnel entrance in Folkstone. This is the fourth consecutive day of heavy traffic along the M20 as companies […]

Will Self searches for meaning in the prime minister’s festive messages. Hanukkah ends on Friday December 18 this year – and I wonder whether our beloved leader will be delivering another filmed address to the British Jewish community. Last year’s message was both utterly bizarre and politically tendentious; and given that we’ve seen a year […]

Videoconferencing has come of age during the pandemic. Could it catalyse activism as well as business, asks NIMO OMER?

Liz Truss has been berated for suggesting that the debate surrounding gender and race equality issues had been dominated by “fashion” and not “facts”. The equalities minister today announced a change to government policy around systemic discrimination issues, promising a move away from “identity politics” in favour of a focus on people’s social class and individual “character”. She […]

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 […]

JAMES OLIVER suggests 12 festive movies – a combination of the familiar and the less so – that best reflect the complexities of the season. Just don’t call his list a ‘best of…’ It was always unlikely, in this year like no other, that we’d have anything like a normal Christmas and so it has […]

The gender pay gap has significantly widened at the Department for International Trade (DIT) run by women and equalities minister Liz Truss, new figures reveal. Labour said the growing divide “raises serious questions” about the government’s commitment to close the gender pay gap when Truss’s department is “clearly going backwards”. The gap in the DIT, […]