News and Opinion

Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith (IDS) has been criticised for suggesting it was “far better” for politicians to be “straight and honest” with the public. The former work and pensions secretary said it was right for Rishi Sunak to be “honest” with the public about spending cuts brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. Appearing of Good Morning […]

Boris Johnson’s response to the Priti Patel bullying scandal has laid bare the weaknesses in the way Westminster is run, says JAMES BALL. As a country, those of us in the UK may have to accept we are somewhat slow on the uptake. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than when it comes to our […]

A German MEP has claimed that Britain’s ‘messy’ negotiating tactics are to blame for last-minute Brexit talks. Long-serving German politician Bernd Lange said Brexit negotiations would not have come down to the wire had British officials actually been properly prepared. Speaking on Bloomberg, Lange said: “There were a lot of months, starting in February, where there […]

A Tory peer has resigned from her ministerial post in protest against a cut to the government’s foreign aid budget. Baroness Liz Sugg tendered her resignation as junior minister for sustainable development shortly after the chancellor announced a temporary reduction of the UK’s foreign aid budget to 0.5% on Wednesday. In her resignation letter to prime minister […]

A Telegraph columnist has been heavily criticised after suggesting Priti Patel was too short to be a bully. Allison Pearson caused a stir online when she published her latest Telegraph column blasting allegations of bullying against home secretary Patel. The article comes after prime minister Boris Johnson swept aside findings by his chief adviser on […]

The PMQs before a major fiscal statement is always a case of before the Lord Mayor’s Show, the equivalent of turning on Match of the Day to find they’ve inexplicably chosen to lead with West Brom v Burnley. The only MPs who have booked their seats not to be in the chamber for the main […]

Sir Keir Starmer accused Boris Johnson’s government of a “clean sweep” of ministerial code breaches, as he urged the prime minister to stop “wasting” taxpayers’ cash. The Labour leader highlighted Johnson’s foreword to the code last year in which he insisted there must be no bullying, no harassment, no leaking, no misuse of taxpayer money and […]

Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has interrupted Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) to remind Boris Johnson of his duty to answer queries. Sir Lindsay was forced to abruptly pause PMQs this week after to remind the prime minister that it was his responsibility to answer questions, and not pose them. The rebuke came as Johnson pressed Sir Keir Starmer […]

Liam Fox has backtracked on comments he made about a Brexit deal being “the easiest in human history” by picking on semantics. The staunch Eurosceptic and former international trade secretary has attempted to weasel out of prior remarks he made about EU trade deal negotiations by focusing on his use of language. Appearing on Sky News’ […]

Lorry drivers were left queuing for five miles along the M20 in Kent as a trial of Brexit border controls were carried out at the Channel Tunnel. Lorries on their way across the English channel were forced to wait in queues stretching back to Junction 11 on the M20 as they approached the Eurotunnel entrance outside […]

A public spending watchdog has found that the government spent £10 billion extra in inflated prices for pandemic-battling personal protective equipment (PPE) due to an “inadequate” stockpile and a surge in global demand. Procurement chiefs at the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) faced inflated prices for safety kit, paying 1,300% more for some items […]

LBC radio host James O’Brien has confronted the perception that Remainers want Brexit to fail in a passionate monologue arguing the contrary. O’Brien has explained why he thinks it is incorrect to presume Remainers want Brexit to be an economic failure. Speaking on his LBC show, O’Brien said: “Let me tell you something about being a […]

Labour has elected Margaret Beckett as its next National Executive Committee (NEC) chair amid controversy over how the vote was conducted. Members on the left of Labour’s ruling NEC have staged a walk-out in protest at the election of veteran MP Dame Beckett as chair. The members believe Dame Margaret’s election to the role does not […]

Tory MP Ben Bradley has been schooled by Martin Luther King Jr’s daughter following a tweet he posted quoting the civil rights preacher. Bradley has been called a “global embarrassment” after incorrectly adapting a speech by Martin Luther King Jr on Twitter to support his opinions on race relations. MORE: Tory MP complaining about ‘snowflake’ National Trust […]

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has warned that a no-deal Brexit would cause more economic harm to the UK than the effects of Covid-19. Bailey said a failure to agree to a Brexit deal before the end of the transition period would wreak havoc on cross-border trade and damage the chances of a future economic partnership […]

A US official who once compared Brexit to a dog being run over by a car is expected to be appointed Joe Biden’s secretary of state. Antony Blinken once described Brexit as a “total mess” and said the process resembled a dog being run over by a car. Blinken, an Obama-era White House deputy, is expected […]

Why is fishing proving to be so intractable in the post-Brexit negotiations? Essentially for one reason: the claims made by Brexiters that Britain will be able to run a completely different national policy, reserve all rights to fish in the UK’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to UK fishers, and still export without impediment to the […]

The “Festival of Brexit” is set to receive £29 million in funding amid backlash the money could have been spent on free school lunches. Britain’s “Festival of Brexit” – known formally as Festival UK 2022 –  is on track to receive a lump sum of funding in this Wednesday’s spending review. Festival officials have said £120 million – […]

Labour’s chief whip has asked Jeremy Corbyn to “unequivocally, unambiguously and without reservation” apologise for claiming that the scale of anti-Semitism in the party was “dramatically overstated for political reasons”. In a letter obtained by the PA news agency, Nick Brown said the former Labour leader’s response to a damning Equality and Human Rights Commission […]

David Davis has been made the centre of an online joke on Brexit talks after sharing his frustrations about Vodafone coverage. The former Brexit minister has been roundly mocked after venting his anger over the level of coverage he receives as a Vodafone UK customer in a message on Twitter. Davis’ comment comes a matter of hours after prime minister […]

MITCH BENN on the delights and the dangers of indulging in nostalgia. One of the few industries to derive any sort of benefit from this flaming bin fire of a year has been podcasting: with swathes of the global population being confined indoors for much of the last few months (and with leisure options having […]

A Brexiteer MP has been ridiculed over tweets he made about Project Fear and the fall in car sales across Britain. John Redwood has become the centre of a Twitter trend after suggesting that plummeting car sales in the UK had nothing to do with Brexit. Redwood’s comment comes amid speculation that Nissan’s Sunderland car plant […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY pays tribute to the late Jan Morris, the author he credits with firing his passion for the continent. At the end of her book Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere, published in 2001, Jan Morris speculated about an afterlife where, “I shall happily haunt the two places that have most happily haunted me. […]

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has warned that returning to a three-tiered system without fixing England’s test and trace system is “risky”. Responding to Boris Johnson’s statement on the loosening of lockdown restriction to come into effect on December 2, Sir Keir said: “The vaccine is the light at the end of the tunnel, the question today is […]

Germany is often praised for a political system built on compromise, coalitions and consensus. But what happens when that model meets hard-ball-playing European authoritarians abroad and conspiracy-theorists at home? A few days ago in Berlin, police turned their water cannons on a crowd of protesters outside Germany’s parliament buildings. An estimated 7,000 locals were gathered […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL on the dilemma facing the Labour Party, if the government secures a Brexit deal with the EU. Greetings from the depression front line. There is a lot if it around. Mine, and, judging by my inbox and random encounters on rare sorties out of the house, plenty of other people’s too. Being out […]

Far from being a crypto-republican enterprise, hiding in pay-per-view, The Crown is at worst neutral when it comes to the validity of the monarchy, says WILL SELF. Much fulmination on airwaves and in print has accompanied the arrival of the latest season of Netflix’s staggeringly successful series, The Crown. In a way, this is merely […]

Labour will have to live with its decision on how it votes over a Brexit deal for years to come, says DENIS MacSHANE. Forty nine years ago, 69 brave Labour MPs broke with the party’s conventional wisdom, defied the official whip, and voted to take Britain into Europe. Amongst them was a future party leader, John Smith. The […]

An MP has sent a series of damning tweets condemning a Daily Mail coronavirus graph which questioned official death figures in the UK. Neil O’Brien, the Conservative Party MP for Harborough, has delivered a scathing attack on the Daily Mail, accusing it of using questionable data sources. In a long Twitter thread, O’Brien accused the paper of using a graph […]

A Brexiteer has sparked outrage after claiming Boris Johnson’s lockdown measures were an infringement of European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) laws. Steve Baker has raised eyebrows after claiming the prime minister’s lockdown measures breached ECHR regulations – the very laws he voted to repeal in 2016. Baker, a fervent Brexiteer and former chair of parliamentary anti-EU group the […]

Boris Johnson has written to ministers and heads of government departments telling them there is “no place for bullying” after an investigation into the home secretary found she had shouted and sworn at staff. There was further Downing Street fall-out on Friday when Sir Alex Allan, the prime minister’s adviser on ministerial standards, walked out […]

Boris Johnson is set to intervene in Brexit talks this week in a final push to clinch a trade deal with the EU. The prime minister is said to be preparing for a call with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, in a last-minute attempt to secure a Brexit deal. Brussels […]