News and Opinion

In an eviscerating essay, LIZ GERARD says the UK is being misgoverned, misled and manipulated, with doublespeak and double standards. They are playing us for fools. They said we were prepared for the coronavirus. That we had ‘fantastic, world-beating’ testing; that the NHS was fully equipped and ready. Then the bug arrived. And it turned […]

LEONIE COOPER, a Labour member of the London Assembly, makes the common sense case for an extension to EU negotiations. Brexit is, at last, yesterday’s battle. As everyone must now accept, that fight is over. Those supporting Remain lost, and while we may make the case for Britain to maintain close relations with the EU, […]

Russia’s experience of the Second World War was very different to that of its allies. And that is reflected in its films of the conflict. JAMES OLIVER reports on a genre which reflects the poetic melancholy of the country Films tell stories, that much is obvious. Those stories, though, are sometimes more than what happens […]

JAMES BALL says many global companies will cut UK operations and implement mass layoffs if Brexit is forced through at an idiotic pace. Remember Brexit? It happened roughly a century and a half ago, on January 31 of this year. The UK left the EU and is no longer a member state. A bitterly divisive […]

There has been criticism of Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg after a minister self-isolated with a suspected case of coronavirus shortly after the plan to axe virtual parliament proceedings went ahead. Just hours after Rees-Mogg’s plan was implemented to scrap the virtual parliament system the business secretary Alok Sharma appeared unwell at the despatch box. Sharma […]

Business secretary Alok Sharma has been tested for coronavirus and is returning home to self-isolate after he visibly struggled at the despatch box in the House of Commons. He was travelling home to self-isolate during the second reading of the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill. The development came a day after MPs approved the government’s […]

Former chancellor Philip Hammond has urged the government to seek an interim Brexit trade deal to allow more time to deal with the economic impacts of the coronavirus. Hammond appeared in front of a select treasury committee to answer questions over the economic consequences of the coronavirus. When asked by SNP MP Alison Thewliss for […]

A man who lost his brother to the coronavirus has said headlines suggesting that Boris Johnson is only now taking charge of the government’s Covid-19 response was like being ‘spat in the face’. Edlin, whose brother passed away at the Easter long weekend, told LBC’s James O’Brien that suggestions the prime minster is now taking […]

The head of the government’s test and trace programme has unimpressed at the health and social care committee as she was accused of not knowing the statistics behind her own programme, and even covering them up. Throughout of her appearance in the Commons committee Dido Harding refused to give definitive numbers for the new government […]

Former Tory prime minister Theresa May has appeared twice in the House of Commons to cast doubt on the government’s economic strategy for Brexit and coronavirus. Appearing at Prime Minister’s Questions, May questioned Boris Johnson’s Brexit [plans for keeping the UK safe after the transition period ends in December. She said: ‘(He) has rightly been […]

To protect black lives we must abolish or radically reform the police, says a former press secretary to Boris Johnson Disappointingly, much of the commentary about the protests in the US condemns looting and violence and fails to examine the root causes. In western societies, the police force has historically perpetrated violence against black communities, […]

Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer has challenged Boris Johnson to explain who has been in charge of the government’s coronavirus response during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). Following an article published by the Telegraph suggesting Johnson would now take ‘direct control’ of his government’s coronavirus response, Starmer asked: ‘Who has been in thorough control up ’til […]

Boris Johnson has responded to a question on a drop in public confidence in his government by accusing the Labour leader of trying to ‘distract’ the public from its lockdown guidance. Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions. Photograph: Parliament TV. – Credit: Archant Starmer – appearing at Prime Minister’s Question (PMQs) – did not reference […]

An NHS fundraiser has labelled the government’s coronavirus response ‘bullshit’ live on Good Morning Britain. Adee Phelan, who works as a celebrity hairdresser, appeared on videolink from his flat in Covent Garden to discuss a fundraiser he led to give 94,000 healthcare staff hair products and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) when he let loose over […]

A fifth of Britons are following the lockdown rules less strictly than before – with a third of those citing Dominic Cummings’ actions as a factor, new polling suggests. The poll by YouGov suggests the majority of the public – some 73% – are still following lockdown rules strictly. But of the 21% who said […]

The Northern Ireland assembly has backed a call for an extension to the Brexit transition period, in a surprise move, which argues that the UK should be given time to focus on the coronavirus crisis first. Nationalist, green and social democratic parties led calls in Stormont for the extension, with the DUP and UUP voting […]

Brexiteer MP Steve Baker has posted a video rant describing new voting measures in the Commons as a ‘farce’ – before going on to vote for them. https://twitter.com/SteveBakerHW/status/1267846962742792198 The former chair of the European Research Group posted a video on his Twitter account berating recent remote voting guidelines with a video of him queuing outside […]

Good Morning Britain presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid have mocked Boris Johnson over claims that the prime minister is finally taking control of the UK’s coronavirus response. A Telegraph report suggests that Johnson is now to take charge – almost six months after the first case arrived on British soil with the political leader […]

Japanese car manufacturer Nissan has warned its Sunderland plant could shut if a deal ensuring tariff-free trade between the EU and UK is not struck. In an interview with the BBC, Nissan’s global chief operating officer Ashwani Gupta said the plant would become ‘unsustainable’ without a deal. ‘You know we are the number one carmaker […]

A new report which claims that Boris Johnson is now taking ‘direct control’ of the government’s handling of the coronavirus has left people baffled. The Daily Telegraph reports that Downing Street will oversee the government’s ‘entire approach’ to the pandemic with two centrally-run committees ‘covering strategy and operational delivery’. Tory MPs hope the committees will […]

Labour leader Keir Starmer has told the government to stop ‘winging it’ in its handling of the coronavirus and told the prime minister to ‘get a grip’. The Labour leader stepped up his criticism of Johnson’s record as he prepared to face him at Prime Minister’s Questions for the first time since news emerged of […]

Hardline Brexiteers – including Mark Francois – have claimed that a new royal yacht will help secure international trade deals after Brexit, and in turn help Britain recover from the economic impact of coronavirus. The new yacht – a successor to the Britannia vessel which was decommissioned by the Tories in 1994 and never replaced […]

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has criticised the government for dropping the virtual parliament system, and for the ‘shameful’ and ‘unnecessary’ system that has replaced it. Prime minister Boris Johnson said it was not ‘unreasonable’ to call MPs back to parliament; ParliamentLive – Credit: Archant In the fourth session of Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) since […]

As Boris Johnson lashed out at the first hint of scrutiny, PMQs suddenly seems to matter again PMQs suddenly seems to matter again. After a brief hiatus, when the gloves were put on amid a national coming-together and the prime minister’s own hospitalisation, and five years during which the opposition frontbench was predominantly staffed by […]

Messaging about the end of the Brexit transition period may end up ‘crowded out’ by coronavirus information, a committee of MPs are warning. The Commons Public Accounts Committee has warned the previous ‘get ready for Brexit’ campaign failed to prepare people for a possible no-deal Brexit on October 31st, and warned the government will find […]

An anti-racism campaign group is urging Britons to ‘take the knee’ on their doorsteps as a socially distanced protest in solidarity with George Floyd protesters in the US. Stand Up to Racism (SUTR) has organised the protest for 6pm on Wednesday as part of a day of action against discrimination in response to the death […]

A campaigner has called for a public inquiry into the impact of coronavirus on black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people after it was revealed those were more likely to die from the virus. It comes after a review by Public Health England (PHE) found people of Bangladeshi ethnicity had around twice the risk of […]

Health secretary Matt Hancock has been rebuked by the UK’s statistics watchdog over coronavirus testing figures which are ‘still far from complete and comprehensible’. UK Statistics Authority chairman Sir David Norgrove said ‘it is not surprising that given their inadequacy data on testing are so widely criticised and often mistrusted’. He criticised the way the […]

As MPs returned to the House of Commons they aired their frustrations over the prime minister’s top adviser Dominic Cummings. It was the first time MPs could speak in the Commons about Cummings’ trip from London to Durham, which was revealed in the press last month. SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford called for Johnson’s senior […]

The daily Downing Street press conferences will no longer take place at weekends, Number 10 has said. Boris Johnson, who has appeared at 12 press conferences so far, will lead at least one briefing a week from now on, alongside scientific and medical experts. The prime minister’s official spokesman told a Westminster briefing: ‘From this […]

Boris Johnson’s attempts to downgrade the coronavirus alert level was blocked by England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty. The prime minister wanted to announce the five-stage alert level was being reduced from four to three as new measures were introduced as a partial relaxation of the lockdown. On May 11 the PM had said that […]

The BBC could turn the Dominic Cummings scandal surrounding his lockdown rule-breaking into a new television drama. Piers Wenger, the controller of BBC drama commissioning, has admitted that writers are desperate to pitch the drama after the furore surrounding Boris Johnson’s senior aide breaking lockdown rules. Asked by the Radio Times if the BBC would […]