News and Opinion

The BBC has been accused of ‘gagging’ breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty after they rebuked her for ‘breaking guidelines’ when she criticised racist comments from Donald Trump. https://twitter.com/AndyGibsonTV/status/1176917823584710656 The BBC Breakfast host condemned the comments made by the US president about his political rivals, after he told female Democrats to “go back” to their own counties. […]

MP Jess Phillips has accused Boris Johnson’s government of having a ‘tested and workshopped’ political strategy designed to ‘inflame hatred’. In an urgent question the MP for Birmingham Yardley was responding to previous tempestuous scenes in the House of Commons. Boris Johnson had caused a furore by dismissing MPs’ fears of far-right violence following the […]

Boris Johnson’s sister has called the language used by the prime minister about Brexit ‘tasteless’ and ‘highly reprehensible’. Speaking on Sky News’ The Pledge, Rachel Johnson said that it was “particularly tasteless” to claim that the “best way” to “honour” Jo Cox was to deliver in Brexit. She said: “I think it was particularly tasteless […]

Emily Thornberry has apologised for likening the Liberal Democrats to the ‘Taliban’ for their stance on wanting to revoke Aritcle 50. The shadow foreign secretary was criticised by a number of Lib Dems including Jo Swinson after making the remark following their party conference. Thornberry had previously told The House magazine: “The Lib Dems have […]

The Tories have warned that MPs will be voting to deliver an economic hit to Manchester if they vote to ‘scupper’ Conservative Party conference next week. MPs are expected to vote on a motion for a three-day Commons recess starting on Monday, which would enable Conservative ministers and MPs to attend as normal. However, with […]

An MP has warned the prime minister to keep his Brexit ‘propaganda’ away from schools. Labour MP Stella Creasy said that parents in her constituency have raised concerns about the content of a presentation broadcast on digital noticeboards across the country. She urged prime minister Boris Johnson to pledge to prevent this from happening, and […]

Boris Johnson has provoked gasps in the House of Commons after telling MPs the ‘best way to honour’ murdered anti-Brexit MP Jo Cox is to ‘get Brexit done’. The prime minister’s remark came after several MPs drew upon the memory of Cox when urging him to curb his “violent” and “dangerous” language. Labour’s Paula Sherriff […]

A Brexit minister has refused to say that the government won’t follow up a letter requesting an extension to Article 50 with another one asking the EU to disregard it. The House of Lords sought reassurance that the prime minister would truly honour the act passed by parliament compelling him to request an Article 50 […]

Experts have warned the Supreme Court ruling means the Queen will be unable to trust the prime minister again. “Her Majesty is entirely protected and untouched in any negative sense. The real issue is, next time she sits down with the PM, why would she believe a word he says?” Philippe Sands QC, a professor […]

The Northern Irish police chief is planning to restrict officers’ holiday in the weeks following the UK’s exit from the EU over fears of potential ‘violence activities’. The move will mean all but 10% of the force will not be able to take holiday in that period, when usually, the leave restriction is 20%. Police […]

In a sign of changing times, a French publishing company has already started producing EU maps without the UK shown in the union. A poster map produced by French educational publisher Éditions Aedis is titled ‘L’Union europeenne – 27 pays’ (‘The European Union – 27 countries’). The 28th country, the UK, is shaded white, just […]

Attorney general Geoffrey Cox has been made to apologise after referencing a ‘joke’ about domestic violence while answering questions about the Supreme Court ruling. Responding to an urgent question in the Commons on the legal advice he gave the government in the run-up to the prorogation of parliament, Geoffrey Cox compared being asked when he […]

Lib Dem MEP ANTONY HOOK argues that the Supreme Court ruling has opened the floodgates of major constitutional reform and, as a former barrister, believes it is the way to restore trust again. Britain has always been a bastion or the rule of law, internationally respected as an exemplar of fairness, decency and parliamentary democracy. […]

Sebastian Reichel, who has grown up, studied and worked in the North East of England could not vote in the EU referendum. His encounter with the Brexit Party left him even more uncertain about the UK leaving the EU. I have lived in the North East of England for most of my life. I grew […]

Alan Sugar has branded Boris Johnson a ‘criminal’ and joked he will visit him in prison after the Supreme Court ruling over the prorogation of parliament. Speaking at the launch of the 15th series of The Apprentice he asked reporters “is Boris going to Brixton, then?” as the ruling came in, before joking “I’ll visit […]

A Labour MP has said the government is a ‘disgrace’ for ‘obfuscating the truth’ about the prorogation of parliament, after Geoffrey Cox told MPs they had ‘no moral right’ to sit in parliament. Angered opposition MPs lined up to say that Geoffrey Cox had “no shame” and that the government was a “disgrace”. One was […]

The company that manufactures the London buses that Boris Johnson commissioned in his time as London mayor is poised for collapse, with the loss of around 1,400 jobs. Wrightbus, one of Northern Ireland’s biggest employers, is on the brink of going into administration as talks failed with several potential buyers. The company was famously awarded […]

Michael Gove has said he doesn’t think the government should apologise for what it has done, even after the Supreme Court ruled its actions unlawful in the strongest possible terms. The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster told the BBC: “I don’t think that the government should apologise for having a strong domestic agenda, I […]

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has hinted that he could leave the UK for America in the future. He complained that it was “not easy” to live a “normal life” in the UK but that it would be possible for him to do so in the United States. It suggests he could abandon the country […]

Forty-three per cent of the country believes Boris Johnson should resign after the Supreme Court ruled that he acted unlawfully by proroguing parliament. A YouGov poll has found that 43% of people think Boris Johnson should resign. Picture: YouGov – Credit: YouGov A YouGov poll of more than 4,000 people also found that nearly half […]

Tory Brexiteer MP Desmond Swayne has called for Boris Johnson to prorogue parliament again, and the Supreme Court to be stopped from political rulings. Swayne was one of the first Brexiteers to call for a prorogation to force Brexit through parliament when Theresa May was prime minister. He said he was not serious, however, because […]

The leader of the Brexit Party was neatly pranked by a caller to his LBC show. Nigel Farage was presenting the show like normal when ‘Mark from Northampton’ called in. The caller firstly lulled Farage into a false sense of security by talking about the Supreme Court decision which has gone against the government. But […]

Boris Johnson has bemused the United Nations by making a comparison of Brexit to the Greek mythical figure of Prometheus. UN ambassadors watch Boris Johnson’s speech with bemusement. Photograph: Sky News. – Credit: Archant Prometheus was chained to a rock as an eagle which pecked out his liver every day for eternity. The Vote Leave […]

Jeremy Corbyn has confirmed Labour will vote against any short recess to allow the Conservatives to hold their conference next week. The government had been expected to table a motion paving the way for a short recess of parliament to allow the Conservatives to go to their party conference next week. The Times’ Steven Swinford […]

National newspapers have called for Boris Johnson to resign a day after a Supreme Court found he misled the public on his prorogation plan. Front page of the Mirror. Photograph: Twitter. – Credit: Archant While Johnson has remained defiant, and Downing Street has made it clear he will not resign, the Financial Times, the Daily […]

Peter Trudgill recounts the story of what happened to one of Britain’s ancient languages, Old Norse During the first millennium AD, Britain was home to four major languages, each of which had arrived from a different point of the compass. The first was Britonnic Celtic, the ancestor of Breton and Cornish, which had come to […]

Françoise Sagan lived an ostentatious and radical lifestyle when she was not working on a collection of dozens of plays, novels, and short stories, CHARLIE CONNELLY reports. On the afternoon of September 14, 1957, Françoise Sagan was at the wheel of her Aston Martin barrelling along the D448 just outside Paris. Egged on by the […]

The chairman of the Brexit Party Richard Tice says people need to now realise we will not leave the EU on October 31st. Tice said that Boris Johnson is “probably going to have to offer his resignation” when parliament returns, and that Dominic Cummings should resign too. He said a general election should happen in […]

Boris Johnson’s attorney general told ministers prorogation would be legal and that any ‘outrage’ over it would be politically motivated, say reports. A Scottish court released the redacted minutes of a conference call between cabinet ministers discussing the option of prorogation. But an unredacted version has been leaked to Sky News which stated that attorney […]

Jeremy Corbyn has set out an ambitious leftwing agenda in a speech that has been received almost rapturously despite the Brexit divisions the party conference has exposed. The Labour leader said that the “years of retreat and defeat are coming to an end” and confirmed that a Labour government would organise a second Brexit referendum. […]

As one of the most historic judicial rulings helped shape the course of this country’s democratic future, Twitter marked the moment with memes. Came to power, lost his majority live on TV, fired his hero's grandson, set the record of losing his first five votes in Parliament (breaking the previous record of four set by […]

Labour frontbencher Barry Gardiner has repeated claims that Tom Watson recently made – which nearly saw him ousted from the role of deputy leader. Barry Gardiner, Labour’s shadow secretary for international trade, was appearing on the BBC’s Politics Live when he said that wants to “resolve, finally the issue of Brexit”. But he argued that […]