News and Opinion

Local emergency services face being ‘burnt out’ by no-deal Brexit planning, a leaked government report has found. The report, compiled by cross-party coronavirus scrutiny committee C-19 Foresight, said that failing to seek an extension would ‘compound COVID-19 with a second UK societal-wide, economic and social, chronic threat’. The 76-page national review said that all 42 […]

A Tory MP has been slammed for taking to social media to brand opposition MPs ‘work-shy’ for wanting to continue withthe virtual parliament during the coronavirus pandemic. https://twitter.com/AdamBienkov/status/1263410328102219776 Rees-Mogg said he wants MPs to come in after June 2, following the Whitsun recess, to set an example to the rest of the country, but that […]

Labour has refound its mission as ministers get used to the new normal, argues JAMES BALL. Sunday mornings cannot be fun for anyone in professional politics, particularly if you’re affiliation is with the Labour Party – what for others is a leisurely scan of the paper over breakfast is for you a nerve-wracking assessment of […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL on a shocking survey that lays bare the reputational damage the UK has suffered, as a result of its handling of the coronavirus. The survey was conducted by the Reputation Squad in April. Illustration: The New European – Credit: Archant It will hopefully take more than Boris Johnson to trash the UK’s reputation […]

Campaigner GINA MILLER on how she came to bond with a troll who had been abusing her online. Gina Miller meets a pro-Brexit internet troll as part of a BBC documentary. Photograph: BBC. – Credit: Archant ‘There are no strangers,’ William Butler Yeats once dreamily observed. ‘Only friends you haven’t met yet.’ One wonders if […]

Reopening schools during lockdown should be a priority as education is vital for social mobility, ANDREW ADONIS argues. When Tony Blair famously said his three priorities were education, education and education, the then Tory prime minister John Major quipped that he had the same priorities but not necessarily in the same order. Blair was true […]

BONNIE GREER on Donald Trump’s reckless plan to get re-elected this autumn. Like the plot of a Dario Fo play or a scenario from a Mel Brooks movie, the notorious germophobe Donald Trump has met his biggest opponent yet: a killer virus. ‘I can’t get sick! I can’t get sick!’ he is known to cry […]

The prime minister will not face a police investigation into his links with Jennifer Arcuri, an American model-turned-technology entrepreneur. Boris Johnson with Jennifer Arcuri at an Innotech summit in July 2013. Photograph: Innotech Network/YouTube. – Credit: Archant A review of Boris Johnson’s links with businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri found there was a ‘close association’ between them […]

Who is on the BBC Question Time panel tonight? Here’s your full guide Chris Philp Who? Well, quite. Junior justice minister After a solid run of Cabinet big-hitters representing the government on Question Time, tonight it’s the turn of Chris Philp, a man not even a household name in his own household and most notable […]

Scores of Tory MPs joined the opposition in a failed coup to stop the election of a Boris Johnson ally as head of an all-powerful scrutiny committee. Bernard Jenkin, a Vote Leave board member, was elected chair of the liaison committee despite a challenge to block him from the position from within his own party. […]

Health secretary Matt Hancock has been warned ‘time is running out’ for the government to launch a test, track and trace system if a second wave of cornavirus is to be avoided. Boris Johnson had announced a testing and tracing system considered essential for easing the current coronavirus lockdown will be up and running by […]

Senior Tory MPs have joined opposition calls to scrap a NHS surcharge for international healthcare workers, fuelling claims it could lead to a revolt from the prime minister’s backbenches. Senior Tory MP William Wragg in the House of Commons; Twitter – Credit: Archant Former Conservative Party vice-chairman Sir Roger Gale warned that not to waive […]

The prime minister will find out at lunchtime if he faces a criminal investigation into his relationship with American entrepreneur Jennifer Arcuri when he was mayor of London. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is set to reveal this afternoon its long-awaited decision on whether Johnson its possible to investigate him over a possible […]

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced schools will reopen more than two months after Boris Johnson’s proposed date for the return of English pupils. She told MSPs children will return to a ‘blended model of part-time in-school and part-time at-home learning’. From August 11, all schools in Scotland will reopen, she added, more than […]

A report has claimed that the private supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to hospitals is to blame for bottlenecks during the coronavirus outbreak. It is alleged that a ‘dysfunctional’ supply chain process and the production of essential PPE by private firms is behind the recent ‘fiasco’ of hospitals not receiving enough protective kit. Authors […]

Michael Gove has been accused of ‘double speak’ after claiming that there will be no ‘new customs infrastructure’ in Northern Ireland after Brexit before claiming there would be ‘some expansion of existing infrastructure’ Making a statement in the Commons on the UK government’s approach to the Northern Ireland Protocol, the minister claimed: ‘Subjecting traders to […]

A high street name is selling a coronavirus antibody test to show if you have had Covid-19, and it will reveal results in two days. But to purchase the test – which it says is 97.5% sensitive and has 100% specificity – you will need to pay £69. At present the test can only be […]

Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle threatened to kick health minister Matt Hancock out of the Commons for interrupting Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). During a heated debate over coronavirus testing in care homes in the Chamber, speaker Hoyle interrupted health minister Matt Hancock for heckling Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer during his responses. He blasted: ‘Minister […]

A Tory cabinet minister has been seen fleeing the scene after being asked to join Piers Morgan in a live television interview on Good Morning Britain. Robert Buckland avoids questions from Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain. Photograph: ITV. – Credit: Archant Presenters Morgan and Susanna Reid abruptly paused their interview with two panellists and […]

Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg has been accused of overturning public health guidance on social distancing to force MPs back to the Commons. A Whitehall source told POLITICO that Rees-Mogg had asked Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle if he could relax social distancing rules in order to get more than 50 MPs into the chamber. It […]

A health minister has accused for opposition politicians to be more positive about the government’s coronavirus response, after opposition politicians accused it of being a ‘massive shambolic mess’. Lord Bethell acknowledged the nation has been hit ‘extremely hard’ by the pandemic and while he was sure the government will be found to have made mistakes, […]

British trade experts have warned that the UK’s demands for a ‘Canada-style’ Brexit trade deal with the EU are ‘unrealistic’. UK trade experts claim that the UK is placing unrealistic demands on EU negotiators to seed ground in trade talks after reviewing the country’s latest draft trade proposals. David Henig, director of the UK trade […]

Spanish foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya has called for the UK to end its ‘posturing’ in Brexit talks and return to serious negotiations. The Spanish minister said the UK had to realise it would have to pay a price if it wanted to continue enjoying the benefits of access to the internal market. Arancha Gonzalez […]

The Liberal Democrats are to kickstart the party’s leadership contest in June, it has been announced. At a meeting of the party’s Federal Board the party agreed a timetable for a leadership election this summer, which will include ‘online hustings and online voting’ due to the pandemic. The opposition party had been due to start […]

After a coupling of bruising weeks for Boris Johnson at the hands of Keir Starmer, today the PM reached for his old catchphrases Germany’s Bundesliga resumed at the weekend, with no crowds, a strict limit on who could enter the stadia and an ensuring eery atmosphere. Geisterspiel, the Germans call it. But when the whistle […]

Boris Johnson has claimed Sir Keir Starmer is ‘ignorant of the facts’ after the opposition leader quoted a care home boss at him during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). Sir Keir quoted Care England’s chief executive who said that, despite a government announcement on increased testing in care homes, facilities had yet to receive more swabs. […]

The Liberal Democrats are to take the first steps to try to force the government’s hand to seek a Brexit transition period extension. The opposition party will seek to put forward a bill in the House of Commons next month requiring the government to seek a two-year extension of the Brexit implementation period from Brussels. […]

Former prime minister Gordon Brown has savaged Boris Johnson over his response to the coronavirus – telling him to ‘get a grip’ on the government’s handling of the pandemic. The former Labour leader, who led the UK through the financial crash a decade ago, called on Boris Johnson to offer explanations about why the government […]

An axed Brexit Party candidate who offered to run in an East of England constituency during last year’s general election has won an expense claim against his former party in court. Paul Bullen, a retired RAF officer and former UKIP council leader, won £575.15 in costs from Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party after it failed to […]

A political expert has warned the Tories that Labour’s new leader Sir Keir Starmer is well equipped to take advantage of the growing anger surrounding the government’s coronavirus response to turn around Labour’s fortunes. Dr Steve McCabe, a senior fellow at the Centre for Brexit Studies at Birmingham City University, noted that Labour was deemed […]

Michael Gove has dodged a question over whether his government will seek a Brexit extension by issuing a sly remark aimed at the SNP. SNP’s Margaret Ferrier (L) and Michael Gove during a House of Commons Q&A; ParliamentLive – Credit: Archant Gove was summed to the Commons by his Labour counterpart Rachel Reeves to answer […]

Home secretary Priti Patel has baffled Twitter by claiming she was ending freedom of movement to ‘open Britain up to the world’. https://twitter.com/camillaengelby/status/1262458962638786560 Brexiteer Patel took to Twitter as MPs voted for the second reading of her immigration bill, which intends to bring in a new framework for who can come to live here. It […]