Media

It is “possible but far from certain” that a post-Brexit trade deal could be agreed with Brussels on Wednesday, a Downing Street source has said. A cabinet minister has also indicated that hopes are rising for securing an agreement although major differences still remain between the UK and the EU. This comes as the BBC’s […]

Britons visiting Gibraltar after Britain leaves the Brexit transition period will need to present their passports while Spaniards will not, reports claim. The British Overseas Territory could be entering Europe’s Schengen Zone from next year meaning visitors not from the area will be forced to furnish their passport upon arrival. Negotiations between London and Madrid […]

An EU diplomat has said a Brexit deal is “pretty much there” and could be announced as early as Thursday. Three diplomatic sources told Reuters that preparations for a deal have been stepped up. Reuters reported that national diplomats have been told to prepare for a meeting as early as Thursday should a deal be struck […]

Companies faces further chaos at Britain’s border after Brexit after a fund set up to help them process customs paperwork ran out of cash. HMRC said almost all the money from the Customs Grant Scheme – an £84million-pound programme to train staff and set up new IT systems – has run dry, leaving businesses at the risk of continued […]

A column by Boris Johnson accusing Labour of the “putrefaction of the honours system” has re-emerged hours after he ennobled a former Tory donor against the advice of the peerage watchdog. Peter Cruddas was one of 16 new peers appointed by Downing Street on Monday in an announcement that was slipped out after MPs had returned home for Christmas. […]

Pro-Brexit newspaper the Daily Express has been derided over its front page criticising the French government and Emmanuel Macron for its decision to close its borders to the UK, sparking huge queues at the port of Dover. The newspaper front claimed that French president is ‘no friend’ of the UK after blaming him for causing […]

A British musician has been lauded after saying it was a “grave error” for the country to Brexit in the middle of an international crisis. Yungblud, whose real name is Dominic Richard Harrison, caught Twitter users’ attention when he called on the government to extend EU trade talk and avoid the UK “legitimately running out of […]

Boris Johnson has overruled the peerage watchdog to make former Tory treasurer Peter Cruddas a life peer. The move went against the advice of the House of Lords Appointments Committee. A statement posted on the gov.uk website said: “The House of Lords Appointments Commission was invited by the prime minister to undertake vetting of all party […]

A BBC presenter has given a sobering assessment of the nation’s mood ahead of Christmas and a looming Brexit deadline in a minute-long clip. Ros Atkins captured the national sentiment in a cerebral monologue broadcasted on BBC World service. Soaking up news of the Dover port blockade, the uncontrolled spread of a new strain of Covid-19, […]

British war graves staff working in France and Belgium have been told to expect a 50% pay cut from next year following Brexit. Workers tending the graves of soldiers killed in both World Wars were told of the change mere hours after Armistice day. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission emailed 32 staff, some of whom had tended […]

Rhetoric on sovereignty coming from Britain during Brexit talks is “totally pathetic,” the EU vice president has said. Heidi Hautala said there was “no problem” with Britain leaving the bloc to reassert its “sovereignty” as long as it remained open to a fair transition. Speaking with the LBC’s Tom Swarbrick on the day of a new deadline, […]

Sections of Liz Truss’ speech on inequality and discrimination in Britain has been removed from the government’s website. Critics have labelled the speech “bonkers” after the Tory minister claimed pupils at her school were unable to read or write because too much had been taken up learning about racism and sexism. Truss went to school in Leeds […]

Britain will never get a better trade deal with the EU than the one it has as a member state, a German MEP has declared. Theresa Reintke said Britain’s trading relationship with Europe would never be the same once it left “the table in Brussels”. Reintke, an MEP for the Greens–European Free Alliance, told the EU parliament: “No […]

Whetherspoon boss Tim Martin has come to the “rapid conclusion” that Boris Johnson and his government have been “incapable of making good decisions” over Brexit.  Tim Martin, a Brexiteer, suggested Johnson would “tie up the country for decades” in agreement he would not fully understand. Discussing the prospect on talkRADIO, Martin said: “I’m rapidly forming the conclusion that Boris […]

Remainers have revelled in a ‘told you so’ moment as a clip surfaced showing a miles-long queue of lorries at Dover port. The 58-seconed video shows a birds-eye views of trucks piled back to back down M20 trying to access the Eurotunnel entrance in Folkstone. This is the fourth consecutive day of heavy traffic along the M20 as companies […]

Will Self searches for meaning in the prime minister’s festive messages. Hanukkah ends on Friday December 18 this year – and I wonder whether our beloved leader will be delivering another filmed address to the British Jewish community. Last year’s message was both utterly bizarre and politically tendentious; and given that we’ve seen a year […]

Videoconferencing has come of age during the pandemic. Could it catalyse activism as well as business, asks NIMO OMER?

Liz Truss has been berated for suggesting that the debate surrounding gender and race equality issues had been dominated by “fashion” and not “facts”. The equalities minister today announced a change to government policy around systemic discrimination issues, promising a move away from “identity politics” in favour of a focus on people’s social class and individual “character”. She […]

Dominic Cummings has used a column in The Spectator‘s magazine Christmas special to launch a veiled attack on Boris Johnson and his fiancée Carrie Symonds. Cummings used a slot in a publication where his wife works to say politicians had become “more focused on Twitter and gossip-column stories about their dogs”. Johnson’s former top aide is set to […]

JAMES OLIVER suggests 12 festive movies – a combination of the familiar and the less so – that best reflect the complexities of the season. Just don’t call his list a ‘best of…’ It was always unlikely, in this year like no other, that we’d have anything like a normal Christmas and so it has […]

The gender pay gap has significantly widened at the Department for International Trade (DIT) run by women and equalities minister Liz Truss, new figures reveal. Labour said the growing divide “raises serious questions” about the government’s commitment to close the gender pay gap when Truss’s department is “clearly going backwards”. The gap in the DIT, […]

Subscribers of a Tory Party newsletter in Northamptonshire have been advised to campaign like Donald Trump by “weaponising fake news”. Activists were told they could “learn lessons” from Trump, adding: “A lie can go round the world before the truth can get its boots on.” It calls on members to “fight woke-ism” and attacks Labour’s landmark […]

The government is to press ahead with the easing of coronavirus restrictions over Christmas even though it will lead to an increase in the infection rate, a senior minister has said. Communities secretary Robert Jenrick said that it would be up to people to make a “personal judgment” whether they wanted to meet up with […]

The TV broadcasting watchdog is looking into the comments Emily Maitlis made about Dominic Cummings after he broke lockdown earlier this year. The Newsnight coverage centred on the former senior adviser to Boris Johnson’s trip from London to Durham during the first lockdown. The BBC previously ruled that the presenter’s comments about Dominic Cummings, breached impartiality rules.  […]

A former prime minister of the Republic of Ireland said a Brexit deal was inevitable “as long as” Boris Johnson does not get involved. Bertie Ahern, who helped broker the Good Friday Agreement, said striking a deal was only a matter of time and trade-offs. Ahern told POLITICO the EU could give into Britain’s demands on fishing […]

Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has described the prospects of a speedy trade agreement between India and the UK as “the biggest bucket of b*****ks” he has ever heard. Rudd said Australia’s own trade talks with India, which he launched in 2009, were still on going and that chances of Britain getting one sooner […]

Dominic Cummings has been heavily criticised for “quietly receiving” a 40% pay rise while he was Boris Johnson’s adviser in Downing Street. Government special advisers were paid almost £10 million last year, new figures have revealed, with former chief adviser Cummings paid the equivalent of £140,000-£144,999 – up from £95,000-£99,999 last year. Dominic Cummings quietly received […]

The Daily Mail has suggested Britons could make a success out of a no-deal Brexit by buying British-made products such as a Jaguar, a second home in the UK, or a more powerful vacuum cleaner. With the EU and Britain warning a no-deal Brexit was now the most likely outcome of negotiations, leading to World Trade Organisation tariffs […]

A Telegraph editor has been told her newspaper is a ‘big part of the Brexit problem’ after denying the realities of leaving the European Union. Camilla Tominey, the associate editor at the right-wing newspaper, clashed with The New European‘s editor-at-large Alastair Campbell on Politics Live about the prospect of a no-deal outcome. She told Campbell: “I’m afraid you’re […]

A Labour MP has been reprimanded by Sir Keir Starmer after accusations he suggested Boris Johnson was “recreating Nazi Germany”. Junior shadow frontbencher Bill Esterson shared a tweet suggesting the prime minister was steering the country “to a very dangerous place”. Esterton tweeted: “My dad’s family is Jewish. “We have no idea how many of […]

A Labour MP has delivered a scathing attack on Boris Johnson for suggesting that crashing out of the EU would be a “wonderful” outcome for Britain. David Lammy, the shadow justice secretary, accused Johnson of attempting to deliver a type of Brexit no-one wanted. MORE: Boris Johnson under renewed pressure as new polling finds two-thirds of Brits […]

Spain’s foreign minister has been praised for her explanation of why Brexit trade talks between Britain and the EU are failing. Arancha González said trade deals are developed to establish interdependence between parties, and not independence, which she says is likely to be the key barrier to progress. González’s comment comes after the UK and EU […]