News and Opinion

A minister has defended the £40,000 pay rise given to Dominic Cummings – which was part of the £10 million pay for Boris Johnson’s advisers in the last year. Former chief adviser Cummings, who is in the process of leaving his government post, was paid the equivalent of £140,000-£144,999 – up from £95,000-£99,999 last year. […]

Boris Johnson’s father has been spotted breaching coronavirus rules for the fourth time after he took the London underground without wearing a face covering. The Independent reports that Johnson boarded a tube train in Victoria on Monday afternoon without wearing a mask – only putting on one after the individual filmed the former MEP. Stanley Johnson […]

New polling has found that 28% of Britons Boris Johnson has handled Brexit well – despite talks faltering and the prime minister failing to so far deliver his “oven-ready” deal he promised at the last election. A total of two-thirds of the country (63%) think the UK’s departure from the EU has been handled badly, according […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has claimed that the United Kingdom stronger as a result of Brexit- and that support for the European Union would fall after leaving the bloc in January. Speaking in The House magazine the pro-Brexit leader of the House of Commons claimed that the Westminster government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic – which resulted in the largest […]

MPs might not be able to vote on any Brexit deal agreed until after the transition period has ended, the leader of the House of Commons has admitted. Jacob Rees-Mogg said that MPs may be asked to “retrospectively correct” the law to recognise the agreement that Boris Johnson could sign before December 31. He admits it […]

Scottish Conservative Party leader Douglas Ross has said he has no intention of “bringing up” Boris Johnson on the campaign trail during next year’s Holyrood elections. Consecutive polling has shown Ross’ party faces an up-hill to beat the SNP in next year’s vote, which is tipped to win by a landslide. The SNP has repeatedly described the 2021 election as […]

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 […]

Urgent talks are taking place between the leaders of the devolved administrations and Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove as calls mount to scrap plans for an easing of Covid-19 restrictions over Christmas. The move comes as Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer demanded an urgent review into the easing of rules after leading medical journals warned […]

A Labour MP has apologised for an “altercation” during Prime Minister’s Questions in which he was accused by speaker Lindsay Hoyle of “disgraceful” behaviour after an apparent heckling of Boris Johnson. During an answer from Boris Johnson on Brexit at last week’s PMQs Hoyle took exception to the MP for Rhondda’s behaviour before he left the chamber. […]

A commentator has pointed out that Brexit “won’t get done” even if a deal is achieved by December 31. Author Jemma Forte said she believed Boris Johnson would likely achieve some sort of agreement with the European Union, which he would champion as a victory for Britain. But she warned the detail would be “paper-thin” […]

A list of “opportunities” awaiting Britons once they leave the EU, shared by the chair of the Brexit Party, has been ridiculed on social media. Richard Tice, a former Brexit Party MEP and now its chairman, said the country had “loads of opportunities” in store once it left the trading bloc. Appearing on LBC radio, […]

As London enters tier three of the coronavirus restrictions STEPHANIE WATSON analyses the impact on psychological thinking. Following an increase in COVID-19 cases, London will be put into tier 3 on Wednesday. While restrictions are slightly looser than the first and second lockdowns, social interaction is being cut, triggering feelings of loneliness and isolation across […]

Boris Johnson has told MPs he is still searching for the “chatty rat” who leaked details of proposals for a second lockdown in England. The search for the culprit – continues and the prime minister promised to update the Commons “if” the source is identified. The announcement of the lockdown was made at a hastily-convened […]

A Tory minister has come under fire after publicly stating Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out to Help Out (EOTHO) programme was a “success”, despite claims linking the scheme with increased coronavirus rates. Chief secretary to the Treasury, Stephen Barclay, dismissed the accusation that EOTHO had been a public health disaster which helped the spread of Covid-19. Under the […]

A Brexit lorry park – dubbed the ‘Farage Garage’ – will not be fully ready until after February, it has been reported. The 66-acre site in Ashford was due to be ready for completion on January 1 – the day after the Brexit transition period ends.  The government purchased the land to use “as a permanent […]

Each dawn, sheep farmer Thomas Carrick works the land through freezing winter rain and snow, 2,000 feet up in the bleak Cumbrian fells. Like many British farmers, he is about to find out if life outside the EU is even colder and darker. Well used to weather dependent good and bad years, sheep farming is […]

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 German television show has mocked Boris Johnson and his Brexit proposals in a spoof of Netflix’s The Crown entitled ‘The Clown’. Extra3, which airs on public broadcaster NDR, derided the UK’s departure from the European Union and its prime minister in a spoof trailer which is going viral in the European country and now the […]

A UK citizen who has been living in France for 36 years has brought a case to the Court of Justice of the European Union that could have profound implications for British people living in European countries after Brexit. The woman is hoping to retain some citizenship rights after she ceases to be a European […]

Scientists have warned that the easing of coronavirus restrictions over Christmas will cause a spike in infections, as experts encourage Boris Johnson to follow German chancellor Angela Merkel’s lead by rethinking proposals for the holiday. Germany has announced a national lockdown that will close shops and schools until at least January 10 – with restrictions on social […]

Brexiteer James Dyson’s farming business only managed to make a profit in the last year because it benefited from EU subsidies, it has been reported. Beeswax Dyson Farming posted £3.4 million pre-tax profits last year, the Times reports, up from £2.7 million in 2018. But without a £3.4 million cash injection from the EU’s common agricultural […]

Former Conservative Party leader William Hague has said that Boris Johnson’s biggest test won’t be over whether or not he secures a Brexit deal – but what happens afterwards. Lord Hague, a Tory grandee, said that Johnson has turned in a strong performance in convincing the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen he is “crazy enough to […]

Pro-Brexit Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson delivered herself a ‘self-own’ after her criticism of Covid-19 restrictions backfired. Pearson turned to Twitter to claim that “hardly anyone” knew of people who had the coronavirus. She tweeted: “I’ve asked so many people if they know anyone who has had Covid. Hardly anyone. Two people knew someone (not close) who’d […]

Priti Patel has claimed Labour “stands up for the murderers, rapists, sex offenders” after she was taunted by the opposition over a report which said she had bullied staff. Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds praised police officers for visiting schools to promote anti-bullying messages, before pointing out: “We have a home secretary in office […]

Post-Brexit Cornwall is set to receive just 5% of what it needs to replace EU funding, according to a local councillor. As one of the UK’s poorest areas, Cornwall requested £700 million over 10 years to make up for a shortfall in EU funds caused by Brexit. Instead, the county will get little more than £1.8 million […]

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 […]

Brexit is a ploy to make Britain a “low tax, low regulation economy”, Alastair Campbell has claimed. The New European‘s editor-at-large said Vote Leave would not have won the 2016 referendum had they been up front about their plans for a post-Brexit Britain. Speaking on the BBC’s Politics Live, Campbell said: “It’s basically about trying to […]

Downing Street repeatedly refused to confirm that MPs would be given a vote on any post-Brexit trade deal that is agreed with the European Union. The prime minister’s official spokesman said it was for Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg to set out the business of the House and refused to commit to the principle of MPs […]

The recording of the Queen’s speech has been delayed by Brexit – as Buckingham Palace await a decision on whether or not the UK will leave the EU with a deal. The royal usually records her speech by the middle of December, but it has been pushed back to next week due to the uncertainty surrounding […]

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 […]

The former Conservative Party chairman has branded Boris Johnson an “English nationalist” – claiming that he did not believe he was a Tory. Lord Patten, a Tory peer, claims that Johnson’s government appeared to have thrown “out of the window” their defence of the union. “What we’re seeing is Boris Johnson on this runaway train […]