News and Opinion

Amid warnings that he may be the ‘last prime minister of the United Kingdom’, Boris Johnson has invented a new ministerial role and promptly given it to himself. Johnson had previously claimed in the Scottish Mail on Sunday before his arrival at Number 10 that he wanted the role of prime minister to also ensure […]

Who is on BBC’s Any Questions? this week and where do they stand on Brexit? Here’s your guide. Tonight’s Any Questions? is hosted by Shaun Ley, and comes tonight from Ottery St Mary Parish Church in Devon. The church is where Samuel Taylor Coleridge, author of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, was christened. But […]

After Boris Johnson’s latest fibs about kippers, one reader urges critics of the prime minister to find a new nickname for him. Watching Boris Johnson brandish a kipper on TV the other day, then unjustly blame the EU for its costly plastic packaging, I just shook my head in disbelief. Why should Johnson get away […]

Ofcom has fined Russian news channel RT for a ‘serious breach’ of impartiality rules in seven of its news and current affairs programmes. The broadcasting watchdog fined the channel £200,000 for seven programmes that aired between March and May 2018. The programmes – editions of Sputnik, Crosstalk, and RT News – were broadcast in the […]

Comedian and host of People’s Vote campaign rallies, MITCH BENN calls on remainers to reclaim the flag in the name of true patriotism. There’s just over a week to go before I head up to Edinburgh to perform my show Ten Songs To Save The World at the Festival Fringe (Underbelly, 3.45pm, in case you […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL recalls the evening he and the new prime minister met the pop star Miley Cyrus, and what it tells us about the wrecking ball about to hit Britain Do you want to hear a funny Boris Johnson story? I know, I know, it’s not funny. What has just happened to the country is […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has admitted that there is no certainity that Britain will leave the EU on October 31st – despite insistence from the new Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson. Arch-Brexiteer Rees-Mogg, who now sits within Johnson’s cabinet, said he was “as confident as anybody can be” that the prime minister’s pledge to leave on October […]

Donald Trump is unlikely to hold a grudge against Boris Johnson for his past remarks about the US president, the ambassador to the UK has insisted. Woody Johnson suggested the US president would be relaxed about the British prime minister having accused him of “stupefying ignorance” and criticising his “go back” comments, which were widely […]

Boris Johnson is a man who has been rewarded time and time for carelessness and, as JENNA NORMAN argues, it raises many questions. The personal is political. So said feminists of the 1960s and many of us since. When it comes to inspecting Boris Johnson’s eligibility for prime minister this refrain remains timelessly relevant. The […]

Out of all the prime ministers MICHAEL WHITE can remember, putting Boris Johnson in Number 10 is the greatest gamble yet. So the moment we have waited for has finally come to pass. After decades of foot-dragging in the gender equality department at Westminster, the Liberal Democrats have elected a woman to be the party’s […]

JOHN KAMPFNER on the reputation of the new prime minister abroad, and how the EU might respond to him. Everyone involved in politics remembers the moment when they heard that 
Boris Johnson had been made foreign secretary. It was July 2016. I was standing next to a senior Conservative at a summer event I was […]

Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party has failed to win council seats in its first attempt at fielding candidates in local by-elections – leaving the anti-Brexit party the Liberal Democrats victorious. The Lib Dem wins came in two wards of Gloucester Borough Council in the latest local polls. They defeated Tories in a by-election in Barnwood ward […]

As a New European reader, you probably reckon you keep a close eye on the continent’s news. Test yourself with our quiz… Think you’re on top of what’s been going on across Europe in the past seven days? Take The New European’s tricky quiz and find out just how much of a Europhile you are…

Boris Johnson’s promotion to prime minister has left the country with many questions. But aside from those on Brexit and the future of the United Kingdom, one of the other topics on people’s lips this week surrounds the most unusual protest behind the television broadcasts. And it involves the use of the glockenspiel. Appearing as […]

Boris Johnson delivered his first performance in the House of Commons as prime minister – here are eight moments that summed it up. 1. He began with tributes to Theresa May and then just trashed her. Boris Johnson rubbished the last prime minister’s Brexit Withdrawal Agreement with the damning words: “No country that values its […]

In his first day on the job Jacob Rees-Mogg has been asked by Labour about the role of a Vote Leave chief in government despite being found in contempt of parliament. Shadow Commons leader Valerie Vaz asked leader of the Commons Rees-Mogg whether Dominic Cummings, one of the new top advisers for Boris Johnson, will […]

ALASTAIR SMART on an exhibition which cleverly pairs John B. Yeats, overdue a favourable reappraisal while Lucian Freud, is perhaps facing future reputational damage. freud – Credit: Archant In October 1953, a benefit dinner was held at Jammets restaurant in Dublin for the octogenarian Irish painter, Jack B. Yeats. He’d fallen on hard times, and […]

American writer NAOMI WOLF reflects on the Trump-Johnson axis and what it means for Britain. You now live in Boris Johnson’s Britain, and it’s my bet that what lies ahead will look nothing like British political discourse has traditionally. Instead, it will look more and more, I am sorry to tell you, like chaotic, hate-driven, […]

The seizure of a British-flagged ship is a classic exhibition of Brexit bluster, says ANDREW ADONIS, with a new prime minister in as little control of the seas as he is his mouth. Nothing has done more to exhibit Brexit Britain as the new orphan of Europe than the Iranian ship crisis. After three days […]

A political commentator believes Boris Johnson will try to break the Brexit deadlock with a second referendum because it may be the only way to stop Jeremy Corbyn in Number 10. Discussing the prospect of another general election on BBC Newsnight, political commentator and journalist for The Sun Tom Newton-Dunn said that Johnson could hold […]

MPs want a chance to grill Boris Johnson’s pick for ambassador to the USA before the appointment is made, and are calling for a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to the leaks that fuelled Sir Kim Darroch’s resignation. The cross-party Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, led by Tom Tugendhat, has asked for a pre-appointment hearing to add an […]

The new leader of the Liberal Democrats has wasted no time in calling for a vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson, and is urging Jeremy Corbyn to join her. On the morning Johnson gathers his new cabinet for discussions, Jo Swinson has tabled an early day motion calling for the vote. She has written […]

Sir Nicholas Soames has claimed that ‘chancer’ Boris Johnson will ‘bugger up’ being prime minister, and that we look likely to have a national government to solve Brexit. The Tory MP, who is the grandson of Boris Johnson’s idol Winston Churchill, has claimed that Boris Johnson is a “chancer” with no qualities to be leader […]

Here we are, landed with a lying embarrassment of a prime minister. JONATHAN FREEDLAND tries to explain how it happened and what happened now. Many years ago, Max Hastings, historian, war correspondent and former editor of the Daily Telegraph, declared that the day his former employee, Boris Johnson, became prime minister of the United Kingdom […]

In an epic essay, Irish writer FINTAN O’TOOLE pierces the Boris bluster to brutally lay bare the true character beneath and what he tells us about the UK’s future. In his only novel, Seventy-Two Virgins, published in 2004, Boris Johnson uses a strange word. The hero, like Johnson himself at the time, is a backbench […]

Readers react to Boris Johnson’s arrival in 10 Downing Street. So now the new prime minister says, he has 100 days to “re-negotiate” Brexit – “do or die”. Of course there will be the holiday recess of parliament (six weeks = 42 days) and then another recess (maybe another two weeks = 14 days) for […]

Boris Johnson’s new cabinet has been labelled one ‘from hell’ after he packed it full with Brexiteer loyalists including Priti Patel, Dominic Raab and Jacob Rees-Mogg. The newly-anointed prime minister sacked detractors, squeezed out leadership rival Jeremy Hunt and brought in a team of prominent Brexiteers. Along with resignations, it means more than half of […]

An American news show has perfectly explained the ridiculousness of how Britain got its new prime minister. https://dashboard.jwplayer.com/#/content/list?view=list&property=f0fa667c-5f42-11e8-aca0-0637bffb81a3&pageLength=10 The Last Word’s Lawrence O’Donnell said “if you think the electoral college is crazy, the United Kingdom has just outdone it.” He the told viewers on the day that Britain gained a new prime minister: “Boris Johnson […]

Boris Johnson is making promises he can’t keep to EU nationals in the UK, said David Lammy, after the new prime minister made his ‘unequivocal’ guarantee of their right to stay. In his first appearance as PM in the Commons, Johnson said EU citizens looking to stay in the UK “will have the absolute certainty […]

A series of Cabinet resignations from opponents to a no-deal Brexit took place before Boris Johnson had passed through the doors of number 10 – and he’s quickly got down to the job of sacking other ministers. I have just handed in my resignation to @theresa_may. It has been a privilege to serve as her […]

A protester has stolen the limelight from Theresa May during her farewell speech as she prepares to leave the office of prime minister. Steve Bray almost gets the last word shouting "Stop Brexit" and interrupting Theresa May's speech pic.twitter.com/jTr9mGBwzE— Jono Read (@jonoread) July 24, 2019 Theresa May was midway through thanking her husband, Philip May, […]

Theresa May’s final PMQs was a microcosm of her time in office – eminently forgettable. A valedictory prime minister’s questions can serve as a microcosm of the outgoing premier’s time in office. Tony Blair used his to pretend he likes Parliament, while David Cameron reminded MPs he thought the whole thing had been a bit […]