News and Opinion

With a general election on the horizon, there is growing pressure on the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to call for a body to regulate political advertising. But that’s not all that needs to happen, argues JON GOULDING. The Lords gave the ASA a grilling at a recent inquiry, asking CEO Guy Parker and chair Lord […]

Calls for Labour and the united Remain parties to form an alliance are mounting from candidates, political organisations, and pundits across party divides. This is a critical moment for Jo Swinson. Does she want to continue splitting the Remain vote for a dozen extra seats, or work with Corbyn to prevent a hard Brexit backed […]

MEP Alexandra Phillips has said she has been ‘disenfranchised by my own party’ and will not be voting in the election now that there is no Brexit Party candidate in her constituency. She said that “the choice is taken away from me” after party leader Farage stood down 317 candidates over fears of splitting the […]

A senior Tory has finally apologised for its party’s use of a doctored video featuring Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer talking about Brexit. Treasury chief secretary Rishi Sunak admitted Tory HQ had gone “a bit too far” and that there were “lessons to be learned”. He appeared on Good Morning Britain the Tory managed to do […]

WILL SELF ponders why perceptions of Pakistan are so bogged down in prejudice, ignorance and cliché. The man in the late-night convenience store on Clapham Road was watching his mobile phone, which lay on the counter beside a display box of Wrigley’s chewing gum and the yellow disc punters touch their Oyster cards to once […]

Caroline Lucas has launched a foul-mouthed denunciation of the Liberal Democrats for their policy of stopping Brexit without a second referendum, in a sign of tensions in the Remain alliance. The former leader of the Green Party criticised the Lib Dems’ policy of revoking Article 50, saying: “If you wanted to send a message to […]

Hillary Clinton has called Boris Johnson’s government’s delay in releasing a report into potential Russian interference in UK elections ‘damaging, inexplicable and shaming’. The 2016 US presidential candidate and ex-secretary of state told the Guardian that it was “incredibly surprising and unacceptable that in your country there is a government report sitting there about Russian […]

Brexit could mean that the environment is the biggest loser of the forthcoming general election. KIERRA BOX from Friends of the Earth urges parties to prioritise environmental safeguards over a speedy exit from the EU. Contests have winners and losers but in an election contest, losing affects a great many people. Despite the recent ambitious […]

The main feature of the Brexit Party’s official website shows a ten-point explainer demolishing the Boris Johnson Brexit deal which the party now backs. I'm just wondering if anybody at the Brexit Party HQ is regretting their decision to make the main feature of their website a 10 point demolition of the Boris Johnson deal […]

An ex-Brexit Party candidate who was dropped from his position said he is considering requesting back his £100 entry fee paid to be considered as a candidate. Calling into James O’Brien’s morning show shortly after Nigel Farage announced that the Brexit Party would not be standing candidates in constituencies currently held by Conservatives, a former […]

Nigel Farage has denied that an offer of a peerage 48 hours before he dropped candidates in every Conservative seat was an influential factor in his decision. “Lord Farage” started to trend on Twitter after the Brexit Party leader confirmed that he had been offered an honour by the Tories. Speaking to the Mirror on […]

Boris Johnson has broken his booze ban for a second time on the election trail. As previously reported, the prime minister had claimed he would not drink until Brexit is sorted – with the first phase of the UK’s withdrawal set for January 31. But he failed to show restraint and maintain his “do or […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY looks back at the life of Russian poet and journalist Olga Bergholz, a figure who faced tragedy and imprisonment but remained a voice of hope. There’s an eternal flame at the gates of St Petersburg’s vast Piskaryovskoye memorial cemetery, where almost all the dead of the 900-day Siege of Leningrad are buried. Around […]

UKIP has claimed it will not field a full list of candidates in the general election – not because of claims it is low on support – but because it now backs Boris Johnson’s deal. UKIP’s Richard Braine. Photo: ISABEL INFANTES/AFP via Getty Images) – Credit: AFP via Getty Images In a tweet from the […]

A YouGov pollster has said Nigel Farage’s decision not to stand in 317 Conservative seats will only hurt the Conservative party. Hate to burst everybody's bubble, but I'm not sure this makes much difference at all. On current polling, the most important seats are the Labour held marginals, which aren't affected by this announcement. https://t.co/wF3nIUQQDQ— […]

Baroness Sayeeda Warsi is encouraging Muslim voters to vote Conservative, despite admitting there is a ‘serious, substantial and widespread’ issue with Islamophobia in the Conservative party. Baroness Warsi: Islamophobia is an issue in the Conservative PartyEmma Barnett: Should Muslims still vote Conservative?Baroness Warsi: Labour have issues tooAnother example of why the car crash that is […]

A video of Boris Johnson attempting to use a mop – and failing miserably – has been branded the perfect metaphor for his handling of Brexit. Boris Johnson “helps” with the clean up at an opticians as he visits Matlock, Derbyshire to view the flooding. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA. – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images Johnson was […]

The BBC has apologised after using old footage of Boris Johnson laying a wreath on Remembrance Sunday rather than the most recent footage of him laying one upside down. Slide One is Boris Johnson, yesterday, laying a wreath upside down on the CenotaphSlide Two is the footage BBC News are rolling with this morning - […]

The People’s Vote campaign is to target 100 seats that can deliver a final say referendum with a pledge to spend £100,000 on pro-People’s Vote candidates. On their new website launched on Saturday, the campaign advises users on tactical voting in key seats across the country recommending which candidate to vote for to avoid a […]

A Brexiteer has used a radio phone-in show to claim that we are a ‘dictatorship’ – and tactical voting guides is evidence of this. Keith was branded an “idiot” by LBC Radio host Iain Dale when he called into his programme to make the claims to Gina Miller, who has just launched a tactical voting […]

Two broadcasters have been criticised for their ‘desperate’ and ‘needless’ questioning of Jeremy Corbyn’s nuclear weapons policy on Armistice Day. 'Would you press the button to kill millions?' is the is trite question usually obsessed over by people who have spent too much time playing call of duty. If a nuclear war starts, all of […]

A former Tory minister has said David Cameron has ‘a lot to answer for’ when it comes to calling the EU referendum. David Mellor, who was pro-European during his time in office but voted for Brexit, appeared on LBC Radio to address remarks made by former speaker John Bercow. The former national heritage secretary said […]

A former chair of the Conservative Party in a key marginal constituency has urged people to vote Labour to stop Boris Johnson gaining a majority for Brexit. Dr Jason Aldiss resigned from his post as chair of the Pudsey Conservative Association shortly after Boris Johnson was elected as prime minister in July. He said that […]

A majority of Remainers and Brexiteers would be prepared to see Northern Ireland leave the Union in order to achieve their preferred Brexit outcome, a survey has found. Around four in 10 Britons said they cared little or not at all about the region. Unionists in Belfast are opposed to prime minister Boris Johnson’s proposed […]

Nigel Farage has said the Brexit Party will not contest the 317 seats won by the Conservatives at the last general election. Speaking to supporters in Hartlepool the politician said he had taken the decision because he feared that if they had run it would have led to a hung parliament with significant gains for […]

PETER TRUDGILL on how languages come up with the words their culture requires and uses snow as an example. My German-English dictionary says that the German word keltern is to be translated into English as ‘to press (of grapes)’ (for the purpose of making wine). The word comes originally from Latin calcatura, ‘stamping’, which is […]

JAMES BALL on how the Brexit Party leader has become Remain’s secret weapon. As Tammy Wynette so nearly sang, sometimes it’s hard to be an attention-seeker. So we should all spare a thought for poor Nigel Farage, who if he were any normal entry-level attention-seeker would be on the horns of an absolutely intractable dilemma […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL on how the issue of Brexit is overshadowing the general election campaigns. There are so many factors swilling around in this election, I fear the stress and anxiety that Brexit has brought into our lives will rise to a whole new level. It used to be easy. You can have that lot as […]

Transport secretary has denied the government has delayed the publication of a report into Russian interference because it contains information that would embarrass the Conservative Party. Shapps instead blamed the “machinery of government” for the delay in publishing the report by the Intelligence and Security Committee. His comments come after The Times said that nine […]

Musicians have always reflected the two sides of Vegas, the glitz on the surface and the pathos that lies below. SOPHIA DEBOICK reports. For a place that is a byword for hedonism, Las Vegas had humdrum beginnings. A Mojave Desert rest stop on the Old Spanish Trail trade route between Los Angeles and Santa Fe, […]

After claiming that Labour’s manifesto promises will cast taxpayers £1.2 trillion, the business minister would not give an equivalent figure for his own party. Kwasi Karteng said he won’t “bandy around figures” when he was asked what the Conservatives’ spending promises add up to. The Tories’ claimed figure for Labour, which took up the front […]

The former speaker John Bercow roundly criticised David Cameron’s ‘public school-instilled’ self confidence that led to calling for the 2016 referendum. Bercow said that the former prime minister “thinks people like him are born to rule” and that he only called the referendum because he thought it would “work for him”. After calling Brexit the […]