United Kingdom

Labour is demanding Boris Johnson explain whether he signalled his backing for the ill-fated European Super League. The plan by the so-called Big Six Premier League clubs for a breakaway competition dramatically unravelled within just 48 hours after it was vehemently condemned by fans and government ministers – including Johnson – alike. However, the Sunday […]

Downing Street has denied an allegation that Boris Johnson said he would rather see “bodies pile high in their thousands” rather than order a third lockdown. It was reported that the prime minister made the remark after he ordered the second lockdown at the end of October. Johnson was said to have “raged” after agreeing […]

The “stench of sleaze” around the Conservative UK government is “becoming quite overpowering”, Nicola Sturgeon has said. The Scottish first minister called for an inquiry into allegations of “contracts for cronies, donations for decorating and text messages for tax breaks”, saying: “It is time for the Tories to put all their dealings into the public […]

Boris Johnson has denied he tried to block an official leak inquiry following a series of incendiary allegations by his former top adviser Dominic Cummings. In a furious outburst, Cummings accused the PM of seeking to halt the investigation into the leak of plans for a second lockdown after he was warned a close friend of […]

Four ponies detained at Belfast Port for almost five weeks due to errors in post-Brexit paperwork have been released to their new owners. Their arrival at the family farm near Ballygowan, Co Down, came after a judge ordered their release this week. The animals, which had been bought from a seller in Wales, had been […]

Dominic Cummings told Boris Johnson plans to have donors “secretly pay” to revamp his official Downing Street flat were “unethical, foolish” and “possibly illegal”, the ex-Number 10 aide said. The prime minister stopped speaking to his top adviser about the issue last year, Cummings said. He said he had refused to help Johnson organise payments […]

Downing Street has outlined details of Boris Johnson’s communications with billionaire James Dyson, but stopped short of publishing their messages amid a lobbying row. The prime minister insisted there is nothing “sleazy” about their discussions, but the summary published by No 10 falls short of what many had expected. The publication outlines how the entrepreneur was […]

Dominic Cummings has denied being the source of a BBC story on Boris Johnson’s text communications with businessman James Dyson. In a blog post that claims that Johnson and his office has fallen “so far below the standards of competence and integrity the country deserves”, he denied leaking the messages.  The prime minister’s former aide […]

Sir Keir Starmer has called for an investigation into renovation work on Boris Johnson’s official flat. The Electoral Commission says it is trying to establish whether money being funneled into the project needs to be considered as political donations. There have been ongoing reports about the cost of the refurbishments to the Downing Street flat, […]

Boris Johnson has insisted there is nothing “sleazy” about his messages with James Dyson as he prepared to publish the communications in an attempt to cool a lobbying row. The prime minister said the texts exchanged with the billionaire would be published later on Friday, as Downing Street declined to dismiss suggestions they had been […]

The Scottish Tories have attempted to distance themselves from the lobbying row engulfing the Westminster party. Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said concerns raised over communications between senior UK government officials and business leaders “cannot be allowed to continue”. Ross said he believes governments should operate in “the most transparent and open way”. He added: “The […]

The UK is no longer a glowing example of tackling climate change - our carbon footprint is growing following Brexit

Political journalist Robert Peston has claimed that Boris Johnson is on the path to “mutually assured nuclear destruction” as Dominic Cummings is brought into the lobbying row. Cummings has been accused of being “bitter” over the government’s “great progress” since departing as the prime minister’s senior aide. It has been claimed he leaked text messages between […]

Government debt has hit its highest point as a portion of gross domestic product since the early 1960s when the country was still paying off what it had borrowed to fund the fight against Nazi Germany, new figures show. But who can hand over £2.1 trillion to the chancellor, and when do they expect to […]

Labour is piling pressure on chancellor Rishi Sunak over his lobbying links by urging him to “come clean” with a publication of his correspondence over changes to tax rules and coronavirus support schemes. The opposition party has called for Sunak to share details surrounding “tax breaks by text” after a lobbying row widened to involve communications […]

David Cameron has hit back at claims Greensill Capital had been begging for access to the government-backed Covid loan scheme. Cameron said it was “nonsense” to say the finance firm has been “in difficulty” when he lobbed on its behalf. But Labour said the company, which later collapsed, had been “desperate for access to taxpayer […]

A Tory minister has been left humiliated live on-air after she admitted to not having Boris Johnson’s private number. Culture minister Caroline Dinenage said the prime minister did not give his number out “willy-nilly” in an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, adding she did not even have it. Dinenage then defended billionaire businessman James Dyson for possessing […]

Downing Street is embarking on an incompetent battle to preserve the Union Boris Johnson doesn’t care about Scotland. There are a lot of complex elements to the government’s anti-independence strategy, but at the heart of it is that one simple fact. He doesn’t understand Scotland and he isn’t interested in it. There couldn’t be a worse […]

As Gregory’s Girl turns 40, Richard Luck chronicles his decades-long love affair with Bill Forsyth’s masterpiece  It was made for next to nothing, it starred nobody famous and it was written and directed by a man whose only previous film had been seen by next to nobody south of the border. Still, no sooner had […]

A committee of senior MPs has rejected a Labour call to launch an investigation into Boris Johnson’s conduct over “cronyism”. Shadow frontbencher Rachel Reeves issued the call after it emerged the prime minister exchanged text messages with billionaire Sir James Dyson over the tax status of employees involved in creating new ventilators as the coronavirus […]

Boris Johnson’s former aide Dominic Cummings has been blamed for the leaking of the prime minister’s text messages. An internal inquiry has been launched into how messages between the prime minister and billionaire Sir James Dyson were leaked to journalists. But reports said Downing Street sources are pointing the finger at Cummings, who quit as […]

Downing Street has announced an internal inquiry into the leak of private text messages between Boris Johnson and billionaire James Dyson over the tax status of his employees. Johnson promised the entrepreneur he would “fix” the issue after personal lobbying from Dyson as he sought to build ventilators at the height of the coronavirus crisis, […]

An industry body representing Scottish salmon producers has insisted that the figures demonstrating a significant drop in exports are “very, very wrong”. The Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO) told the Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee it believed more salmon had been exported than in January last year despite the UK leaving the EU. New post-Brexit rules came […]

Whitehall officials still fail to take working-class people seriously, Boris Johnson’s former communications director has said in his first public comments since departing No 10. Lee Cain also suggested on Thursday that the government could have averted its “terrible tangle” over free school meals if more senior politicians had experienced food poverty. He left Downing […]

David Cameron repeatedly lobbied Bank of England officials as he grew increasingly frustrated about Greensill Capital’s failure to access a state-backed coronavirus support scheme. The former prime minister, who worked as an adviser for Lex Greensill’s financial firm, also contacted the Treasury as he tried unsuccessfully to get the firm’s activities covered by the Covid […]

Parliament is scheduled to dissolve on April 29 ahead of next month’s Queen’s Speech, the government has said. Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg, announcing forthcoming business, confirmed the Commons will prorogue next Thursday once royal assent has been signified for all necessary legislation – such as the Domestic Abuse Bill. The Queen’s Speech to start the […]

Dominic Raab has clashed with MPs as he sought to defend a cut to the government’s foreign aid budget by £8billion. Raab faced the International Development Committee on Thursday after last night’s confirmation that official development assistance (ODA) was being slashed from 0.7% to 0.5% of gross national income. Committee chairwoman Sarah Champion accused the foreign secretary of  […]

Keir Starmer's time will come - but he must start to take risks.

The SNP could miss out on a majority at the Holyrood election, according to a new poll. The Savanta ComRes survey for The Scotsman predicts the party will return 63 MSPs – two short of a majority and the same number as in 2016. However, there would still be a pro-independence majority at Holyrood, with […]

Downing Street has scrapped the Pick for Britain campaign to recruit British workers for seasonal farm roles after as little as 5% signed up. According to The Grocer, the government is now focusing on removing barriers to recruitment rather than running another national campaign. This comes as estimations suggest Britons made up between 5% and 11% of the […]

A former defence minister has described Boris Johnson’s government as a “cesspit” and the “most distrustful, awful environment” that he has ever worked in. A day after quitting his job, Johnny Mercer launched an extraordinary attack on Johnson and fellow ministers, accusing them of being “cowards” for backtracking on promises to end “vexatious historical investigations” of veterans who […]

The opposition has demanded that the powerful Liaison Committee of MPs holds an urgent investigation into Boris Johnson’s conduct after fresh revelations about Tory sleaze. The call came after it emerged the prime minister exchanged text messages with billionaire James Dyson over the tax status of his employees. Johnson promised the entrepreneur he would “fix” […]