News and Opinion

Liverpool leader Klopp said he would never go into politics, but his leadership and authenticity in the face of all odds should inspire our politicians, says ALASTAIR CAMPBELL. Jurgen Klopp, Manager of Liverpool is thrown in the air as he celebrates with his players and staff after winning the UEFA Champions League Final 2019. (Photo […]

Boris Johnson has revealed plans to copy the White House communications strategy by televising daily press briefings in a major shake-up of the government’s approach to media. Under the new arrangements, an afternoon session will be broadcast from Number 9 Downing Street as part of plans to increase transparency with the public. Confirming the changes […]

Boris Johnson has said he will not ‘take the knee’ in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, because he believes in ‘substance’ not ‘gestures’, whilst also being questioned why there were not more black people at the top of government. Speaking on an LBC radio phone-in, the prime minister – who was pictured performing […]

Prime minister Boris Johnson has said that a no-deal Brexit would be ‘a very good option’ during a radio interview, a day after trade talks collapsed. Johnson told LBC radio that leaving the transition period without a deal would still allow the UK to trade on Australian-style terms. ‘We now need to make sure that […]

The Conservatives are overlooking Northern Ireland in both the coronavirus response and with Brexit, Labour’s Keir Starmer has said. Writing for the Belfast Telegraph, Starmer and shadow secretary of state Louise Haigh have claimed that the UK government has failed to grasp the challenges facing Northern Ireland during the coronavirus crisis. He said: ‘As we […]

Boris Johnson has refused to criticise his father, Stanley Johnson, for ignoring coronavirus travel advice over a recent flight to Greece. The prime minster avoided commenting on his father’s actions during an interview on LBC radio. When asked to comment on Johnson senior’s decision, the prime minister replied: ‘I think you really ought to raise […]

The transport secretary has defended Stanley Johnson’s recent trip to Greece, arguing the prime minister’s dad was ‘in his rights’ to ignore travel advice. Grant Shapps told Sky News that Johnson senior could ignore government guidance against travel because it was ‘advice and not restrictions’. Replying to accusations the prime minister’s dad broke the rules […]

Boris Johnson has urged Britons to ‘enjoy summer sensibly’ ahead of the easing of lockdown restrictions on Saturday. The prime minister told LBC: ‘Tomorrow we come to step three of the plan that I set out on May 10, that everybody, I think, has understood, or huge numbers of people have understood and followed very […]

Organisations are reconsidering their links with pro-Brexit historian David Starkey after racist remarks in which he said slavery was not genocide because there are ‘so many damn blacks’ still around. The historian made the comments during an online interview with Brexit campaigner Darren Grimes for YouTube channel Reasoned UK. During the interview, Starkey said: ‘Slavery […]

The government has launched a consultation on plans for UK courts to have the final say on legal disputes after Brexit. Officials are asking the judiciary, lawyers and business to comment on the reforms which will decide which British courts have the power to depart from EU case law. At present, only the UK Supreme […]

Think you know Europe? Take our latest lockdown quiz As a New European reader, you probably reckon you know the continent inside out. Test yourself with our fiendish quiz…

Infection rate rises, riots, looting, attacks on police, illegal partying and attempted quarantine breakouts… What is going on in the country considered Europe’s most sensible? Cathrin Schaer reports STUTTGART, GERMANY – JUNE 21: Glasses are seen on the floor as a display window of a shop stands smashed following violent clashes between rioters and police […]

Politics is moving into a new, post-Covid era. Expert pollster PETER KELLNER suggests what the parties can glean from the polls, including a desire for new approaches and the overturning of some conventional wisdom We are told these days to expect a ‘new normal’: different ways of living, working, travelling and shopping once the Covid-19 […]

The pandemic has played havoc on the dating scene. CLAUDIA WILLIAMS reports on how a minefield just got a lot more complicated ‘This is the point I’d usually ask you for a drink, but we can’t do that so… Can I interest you in a PowerPoint presentation instead?’ Jess, a 26-year-old who works in communications, […]

Hussein Kassim on where the stumbling blocks remain, and what might sweep them out of the way A new optimism followed the recent conference between Boris Johnson and Ursula Von der Leyen. In the run-up, the media had reported an apparent softening of the UK position, as well as pressures on the EU negotiator Michel […]

For 73 years, the right ruled in Bordeaux – until a shock victory late on Sunday night saw the capital of wine turn green. France’s local elections were a watershed moment for the environmental movement that had previously struggled to get its voice heard. As Bordeaux’s outgoing mayor Nicolas Florian, flanked by sombre-looking attendants, conceded […]

Pubs in England can re-open from 6am on Saturday, 10 Downing Street has said, preventing some landlords from pouring the first pint at midnight, but allowing some to open as soon as the sun rises. The regulations signed off by health secretary Matt Hancock are also expected to place a 30-person limit on gatherings at […]

A new video by a group of campaigners, giving a damning account of the government’s bungled attempts to contain the coronavirus in Britain, has been projected on to Barnard Castle. Created by the Led By Donkeys campaigners, and narrated by former Newsnight presenter Gavin Esler, the almost 10-minute long recording outlines government missteps and missed […]

A radio broadcaster has accused Brexiteer MPs of orchestrating a campaign to blame the public for a second wave of coronavirus cases. James O’Brien was responding to a poll showing that 59% of Britons believe the public, rather than the government, should be blamed for a second spike in Covid cases when he made the […]

A Tory MP has claimed Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon is acting ‘like Trump’ after she criticised Boris Johnson’s remarks about borders. Boris Johnson told PMQs on Wednesday that ‘there is no border between Scotland and England’ after Sturgeon failed to rule out ‘border checks’ on English visitors. But asked at the Scottish government’s coronavirus […]

The latest round of Brexit talks between the UK and EU have ended a day earlier than expected after both sides failed to overcome ‘significant differences’. Face-to-face talks in Brussels between officials were due to continue into Friday, however, that goal has been dashed after negotiators failed to find compromise over issues like the level […]

New polling suggests a majority of Britons are ready to blame their fellow citizens, rather than the government, if a second wave of the coronavirus hits. More people believe a second lockdown will happened before the end of the year; Peston Show, Twitter – Credit: Archant The new survey found that 59% of respondents think […]

A former Tory minister and leader of the short-lived Change UK party has said she believes the UK will be back in the EU within a decade. Anna Soubry was speaking to LBC Radio on the day that the deadline expired to request a transition period extension. She said: ‘When our economy suffers in the […]

Our government follows a pattern of breaking things apart without knowing how to put them back together, writes JAMES BALL. There are very few of us who would actively want to hear much about home insulation. But for governments, it’s the kind of boring policy that makes a lot of sense – especially during a […]

The Conservatives’ grip on the northern and Midlands seats they took from Labour has weakened since the election, says ANTHONY CLAVANE At 11.31pm on December 12, 2019, a new political landscape came into being. The returning officer for the former mining community of Blyth Valley announced an unexpected breach in Labour’s ‘red wall’ as Ian […]

MICHAEL WHITE looks ahead to a summer of local lockdowns, recriminations and economic gloom. The paradox at the heart of this week’s dismissal of Mark Sedwill as Whitehall’s Grand Vizier is that Dominic Cummings has scattered so much forensic evidence at the scene of the crime that it will likely seal his own fate in […]

A leaked government document has detailed the new customs checks will be in place in the Irish Sea after Brexit, despite promises from Boris Johnson that they would never happen. In a secret dossier from HMRC, seen by The Guardian, hauliers will now have to submit new paper work to transport goods from mainland Britain […]

An author of a book on superforecasting has urged readers not to let Dominic Cummings’ praise of the book cloud their judgement. Seemingly fearing a dent in sales as a result of support from Boris Johnson’s most senior adviser, Philip Tetlock has urged people not to form opinions on the book before reading it. Tetlock, […]

As foreign secretary Ernest Bevin helped shape the post-war world, keeping communism at bay and creating a western alliance against it. Yet, as ANDREW ADONIS shows – in extracts from his new biography – his career also had its failures, while his anti-Semitism poisoned his politics The King David Hotel bombing (July 22, 1946) was […]

Television presenter Piers Morgan has attracted hundreds of complaints after he refused to read a government statement during a boycott from ministers. The Good Morning Britain presenter refused to read a statement from the government, in which it defended Helen Whately for her comments over student nurses and their role during the coronavirus pandemic. Morgan […]

The West must stand up for the three million Uighur Muslims in Chinese re-education camps, says ANDREW ADONIS, or will the world face another Mao? The question can no longer be ducked: is China’s persecution of its ethnic minorities a genocide in the making? I see China’s ruler Xi Jinping in a wholly new light […]

The Treasury has deleted a tweet encouraging people to ‘raise a glass’ when pubs reopen on ‘Super Saturday’ after it was met with huge public backlash. The government department shared a video of wine glasses clinking, accompanied with laughter sound effects, to hail the reopening of pubs on Saturday. In the post, published on its […]