News and Opinion

The boss of JD Sports has said that Brexit has ended up “considerably worse” than feared, with a warning job losses could follow as it attempts to minimise disruption. Peter Cowgill, the firm’s chairman, said the extra cost of the UK’s departure from the EU was “double-digit millions”, as it eyed up a new distribution site […]

A senior Tory MP has criticised the “very blokey mentality” of Boris Johnson’s government.  Caroline Nokes, who chairs the Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee, also said there were some “serious questions about the calibre of the women” invited into top positions. She told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour: “I think it’s still a very […]

Anti-privatisation campaigners have criticised the government’s approach to the NHS in trade deals as the Trade Bill returns to the Commons. We Own It – a group campaigning for greater protections for the NHS against future trade agreements – say the government’s proposals for safeguarding the NHS “isn’t worth the paper it’s written on”. The criticism comes as the government produced an […]

Tory peer Lord Freud has agreed to apologise after being found to have breached the Code of Conduct by seeking to interfere in a legal decision. The Lords Commissioner for Standards, Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, found there was “an inherent dishonour in Lord Freud choosing to leverage his position as a parliamentarian to seek to influence the […]

Tory rebels have accused the government of using game-playing to prevent a Commons vote on an attempt to outlaw post-Brexit trade deals with countries that are committing genocide. MPs are threatening to back a House of Lords amendment forcing ministers to withdraw from any free trade agreement with a country which the High Court rules is […]

The Home Office has confirmed that the records of more than 15,000 people were wiped from the Police National Computer (PNC) due to a “coding error”. Policing minister Kit Malthouse said that a total of 209,550 offence records relating to 112,697 individuals has been deleted from the PNC last month, which is run by the […]

A petition has launched in an attempt to secure financial help to protect the future of Eurostar, which has been badly hit by the coronavirus crisis. The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union has launched the petition, calling on the government to give urgent assistance to the cross-Channel rail service. “Like other rail companies and […]

Current and former editors of Britain’s newspapers have joined forces to call for an investigation into the government’s handling of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. In an open letter, they asked for a probe into a Cabinet Office unit named the Clearing House after it was alleged to have profiled journalists and blocked FOI requests. No […]

George Eustice has claimed that the European Union has unexpectedly changed its position on live UK exports of shellfish. The environment secretary has called on Brussels to abide by existing regulations as producers expressed frustration at the lack of government action. The introduction of new checks and paperwork since the end of the Brexit transition […]

A government-funded body has launched an internal investigation after one of its employees spent thousands of pounds on high-end chocolates a few days before Christmas. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) launched a probe into a potential breach of its finance policies after Business Insider made it aware that £6,248.40 had been spent on a corporate […]

Michael Gove has called for a ‘reset’ and ‘refinement’ of the Brexit deal which only came into force at the start of the year. The Cabinet Office minister has expressed frustration at the lack of progress in talks with Brussels aimed at resolving difficulties in Northern Ireland’s Brexit arrangements ahead of a meeting with the […]

Former Labour MP Glenda Jackson has said former prime minister Theresa May was treated badly by the country because she was a woman. The actress and former MP, 84, told the Radio Times the previous Conservative leader was poorly treated by her own party, as well as others. She made the comments while discussing her […]

The hunting of truffles in the foothills of northern Italy remains one of the world’s most clandestine activities. JASON SOLOMONS reports on a charming new film which attempts to lift the lid on the secret society responsible for bringing this most expensive ingredient of all to the dinner table. This time of year, film critics are […]

We now live in the age of belief, says MITCH BENN, where conviction trumps everything. I’m under very few illusions as to how much influence I bring to bear on events. I can trot out wry observations and snarky comments (sometimes with a tune), so as to (hopefully) amuse the readers of this esteemed publication, […]

A Tory MP has been accused of spreading “dangerous misconceptions” about Covid-19 after he called for an end to England’s lockdown. Sir Christopher Chope made a number of claims about the coronavirus which a government adviser described as “outright falsehoods”. Stephen Reicher, an adviser to the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), took aim at […]

A DUP MP has denied “race-baiting” and has refused to apologise after suggesting the number of black people on an edition of Songs Of Praise was “the BBC at its BLM (Black Lives Matter) worst”. Gregory Campbell said no-one raised any issue with the remarks he made on his Facebook page for days after he posted them […]

The unravelling of the deal over Northern Ireland exposes an unresolved issue at the heart of Brexit that is no closer to being resolved now than it was four years ago. STEVE RICHARDS reports.  What is the future for Northern Ireland in the context of Brexit? If the question were posed in an A-level examination the British […]

Revenue officials processed 1.8 million customs declarations in January 2021 – more than they did in the whole of last year. But customs IT systems have struggled to cope with the increased volume of declarations, resulting from post-Brexit red-tape, with officials admitting it has caused “major difficulties” for businesses. Tom Talbot, head of Revenue operations […]

The Green Party has become Westminster’s third biggest party in a new Ipsos Mori poll. The party – led by Jonathan Bartley and Sian Berry – has overtaken the Liberal Democrats in the latest polling. It now enjoys 8% of support, one point ahead of Ed Davey’s organisation. The polling finds the Tories have opened […]

Just four per cent of the public think Labour has got worse under Sir Keir Starmer, fresh polling has shown. According to an Ipsos MORI poll commissioned by the Evening Standard, 48% of participants think Labour has changed for the better under Sir Keir while 36% believed he “has what it takes” to become prime […]

Boris Johnson is seeking to avert a Tory revolt over his post-Brexit trade bill as it returns to the House of Commons. The government has been involved in a parliamentary battle over proposals to outlaw trade deals with countries that are committing genocide – a dispute taking place at a time when the Chinese authorities’ […]

Forcing an employee to have a coronavirus vaccine in order to keep their job would be “discriminatory”, Downing Street has said. Some care home staff are reportedly refusing to have a Covid jab – with some providers said to be considering not hiring staff who have refused the vaccination on non-medical grounds. And Charlie Mullins, […]

A Labour government would “clean up cronyism” and deliver the “biggest wave of insourcing of public services for a generation”, a shadow minister has pledged. Shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves accused the Conservative Party of being “rife with conflicts of interest” as she urged firms awarded contracts during the pandemic with Tory links to […]

A German minister has hit back at comparisons between the EU and the UK over coronavirus vaccines – by pointing to the death and infection rate in the country. German economy minister Peter Altmaier – an ally of Angela Merkel – claimed there had been “endless suffering” in Britain because of the government’s handling of […]

Boris Johnson has shown little to no interest in a report on the abuse of low-paid workers, says the man who led it. Matthew Taylor, who recently stood down as director of Labour Market Enforcement – a workers’ rights watchdog -, said the government was “indifferent or complacent” to the body’s work.  The report warned that unemployment rises caused by […]

Ministers have sought to reassure the public over the effectiveness of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine as experts warned it was “very possible” the South African variant is already quite widespread in the UK. A study of around 2,000 people has shown the jab only offers minimal protection against mild disease of the South Africa variant […]

Elton John has called on the government to renegotiate a better settlement for musicians after they were largely ignored during Brexit negotiations. The British pop icon accused Boris Johnson of having “screwed up” by failing to reach an agreement with the EU for visa-free tours by British musicians. John said Britain’s Brexit negotiators either “didn’t care about […]

Remembering the group of Conservative MPs that their own leader dubbed the ‘Glamour Boys’ and threatened with deselection. In the 1920s and 1930s of buttoned-up Britain, homosexuality was an illicit act, and would remain that way until 1967 when the law changed in England and Wales. Even though gay culture was vibrant, it existed mostly underground, its […]

A DUP MP has been referred to the Westminster Standards Commissioner following a Facebook post in which he criticised the “BBC at its BLM worst” (Black Lives Matter) over the ethnic make-up of a Songs of Praise gospel show. East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell made the comment in a January 31 post. It stated: “Just watched […]

A union representing universities has criticised the government’s replacement for the EU’s Erasmus scheme. Schools, colleges and universities can now access funding rates and eligibility criteria for the post-Brexit replacement of the Erasmus exchange programme to help them prepare bids to join the new scheme. A website with details on the £110 million Turing scheme, […]

The government “doesn’t have a plan” to bring home a British mother due to finish a five-year sentence in Iran next month, her local MP fears. British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been detained in Iran since 2016, when she was sentenced to five years in prison over allegations, which she denies, of plotting to […]

Cronyism concerns have led to Labour urging companies with Conservative Party links to disclose their pandemic profits. Research by the Opposition suggests the value of contracts awarded to firms with connections to the Tories amounts to almost £2 billion. Shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves is expected to reveal she has written to the top […]