News and Opinion

Newspaper reports have claimed the chancellor is considering income tax hikes, a public sector pay freeze and the end of the triple lock on pensions to fund the debt sparked by the coronavirus. The Daily Telegraph reported that a Treasury document estimated the UK’s deficit could reach £337 billion this year because of the pandemic, […]

The UK music industry may not survive a double-whammy threat of Brexit and the coronavirus without government help, the Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM) has warned. The professional body for the UK’s musicians is calling on the government to follow Germany and France in providing ‘robust financial support for their cultural industries’. In a new […]

MPs and their staff across the political divide have claimed government plans to force them back into the Commons during the coronavirus crisis are ‘dangerous’. MPs from opposition parties – including the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Liberal Democrats – say the move by Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg would put them in harms way […]

While the government is said to be following the science in its decisions on the easing of lockdown, it is also running a large-scale data-driven operation to help with strategy, as seen during the general election and EU referendum. POLITICO reports that Downing Street have resorted to Vote Leave tactics to win ‘hearts and minds’, […]

Former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Campbell has said that Remainers have been silenced in the Commons over fears about the end of the Brexit transition period. Lord Campbell said the refusal by ghe Government to extend the Brexit transition period is ‘irresponsible’ as it left open the threat of a ‘catastrophic’ no deal. Speaking during […]

National radio presenter James O’Brien has criticised the prime minister for playing to the Brexiteers with his call for people to use ‘British common sense’. In a stringing rebuke of Johnson’s latest comments, LBC’s James O’Brien said the prime minister was using Brexit-style tactics to whip up support for his government’s latest coronavirus measures. O’Brien […]

Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer returned to the Commons for their rematch today and it didn’t go any better for the prime minister Here’s a question. What does Boris do in his prime minister’s questions preparations? Because, week two of Johnson v Starmer, it’s beginning to look like nothing at all. David Cameron was derided […]

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called on Boris Johnson to return to the Commons to correct the record about the coronavirus advice issued to care homes. Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons. Photograph: House of Commons/PA Wire – Credit: PA In the Commons, Sir Keir said […]

Boris Johnson has been pressed during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) to publish the scientific advice that led to his decisions surrounding the easing of lockdown. Taking to the despatch box, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer challenged the prime minister to release Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) advice to the public. ‘The prime minister is […]

Media outlets across Europe have ridiculed the government’s latest coronavirus containment plans, branding them ‘confusing’. European papers criticised the prime minister following his statement on Sunday evening where he presented the country with ‘road map’ out of lockdown. Press across the Channel in France said Johnson’s latest approach showcased the difficulty his government faced now […]

The number of deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK has now passed 40,000, according to the latest available data. The total includes new figures published on Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics. These figures show that 35,044 deaths involving Covid-19 occurred in England and Wales up to May 1 (and had been registered up […]

Don’t just clap in support of our carers. On International Nurses Day campaigner NINA DE AYALA PARKER calls for you to take action to campaign for them too. Happy international Nurses Day! Underpaying NHS nurses should be ancient history. The undervaluing of nurses has lifted, with the nation’s clap – now so too should the […]

A Tory MP had claimed the BBC had ‘big questions’ to answer over its decision to air Sir Keir Starmer’s speech on Monday. Bishop Auckland MP Dehenna Davison said the BBC had ‘big questions’ to answer after airing Sir Keir Starmer’s coronavirus speech; PA Wire/Images – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images Taking to Twitter, Dehenna Davison […]

Ratings for Labour leader Keir Starmer have overtaken Boris Johnson’s net favourablility score for the first time. A new YouGov poll – conducted over the weekend – found that 40% believe that Starmer is doing a good job, compared to 17% believing he is doing a bad job. It gives him a net approval rating […]

To extend or not to extend. That is the question which soon will have to be settled. The coronavirus crisis goes on and on to its indefinite horizon. But very soon, barely a month, away Boris Johnson will have to take a big decision. Does he tell the business world, and the wider political community, […]

A polling expert has suggested that Keir Starmer needs his own equivalent of Boris Johnson’s ‘get Brexit done’ slogan to set out his vision for Britain. Professor John Curtice told the Express that during the election it was not the policies that were the problem with the electorate, but issues with the leadership trying to […]

A new poll has found almost half of the public believe Boris Johnson’s lockdown announcement went too far in easing measures. The polling, taken by YouGov after Boris Johnson’s televised address to the nation on Sunday, found 46% of respondents believe the changes go too far in relaxing the rules, compared to 35% who believe […]

A new study reveals that, despite Boris Johnson making fewer appearance in front of cameras, people want to see less of the prime minister and more of the experts. Since the UK government introduced late afternoon press conferences in March, these have tended to dominate the news cycle. But our research with news audiences suggests […]

The UK’s statistics watchdog has criticised the ‘limited detail’ in the government’s coronavirus testing figures. UK Statistics Authority chairman Sir David Norgrove told health secretary Matt Hancock that the ‘trustworthiness’ of official figures would be helped if they were more straightforward to find and better explained. Boris Johnson has set a goal of having the […]

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has called the government’s reluctance to follow the way Asian countries responded to the coronavirus a ‘major blind spot’. Addressing the Commons, the former Tory leadership hopeful said the UK, US and Europe failed to follow in the footsteps of its Asian trading partners and implement a more vigorous coronavirus […]

Health secretary Matt Hancock has issued a strong defence of the government against allegations he has ‘let the care sector’ down during the coronavirus outbreak. Today programme presenter Martha Kearney put it to him that more care workers had died than doctors and nurses. But Hancock provided a strong defence of the government’s actions, claiming […]

A professor has claimed that more lives could have been saved had the UK government enforced a coronavirus lockdown sooner. Sir Lawrence Freedman, a strategic studies professor at Kings College, accused the government of following public opinion rather than leading it when it imposed a shutdown of the economy on March 23. Writing in Survival, […]

A former Conservative Party leader has called for Boris Johnson to stop using slogans during the coronavirus pandemic. William Hague said the approach of delivering a ‘straightforward and direct’ message paid off in the early day of the battle against coronavirus but more nuance was needed now. The prime minister has told the country ‘stay […]

Brexiteer MP and disgraced former defence minister Liam Fox has claimed that the global community may have ‘overreacted’ to the emergence of the coronavirus. Speaking in the House of Commons, the Brexiteer told MPs that ‘we cannot afford to close down the global economy every time we have a new virus emerging’. He said: ‘We […]

A recent study has suggested up to 3% of NHS staff could be infected with the coronavirus without knowing it. Researchers at Cambridge University tested more than 1,200 workers at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge throughout April and found that of the almost three-quarters that reported feeling fit for work, 3% had tested positive for Covid-19. […]

Neil Ferguson already had Covid-19 so was unlikely to be infectious. So did he really do wrong in flouting the rules? If anyone is an expert on when it might be OK to breach lockdown regulations, it’s one of the country’s leading epidemiologists. But after breaking the rules, Neil Ferguson felt the need to step […]

The furlough scheme currently supporting 7.5 million workers through the coronavirus crisis will be extended until the end of October, chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced. The scheme – which pays 80% of a worker’s salary up to a £2,500 monthly cap – will remain unchanged until the end of July and then continue with employers […]

A former council leader has fumed that the government’s coronavirus lockdown ‘infringes our basic human rights’ claiming that people still ‘have the right to carry out actions even if they are not in our best interest’. Former Cambridge County Council leader Nick Clarke is given a guided tour of Wisbech Town Centre. Photograph: Archant. – […]

The government’s new coronavirus lockdown slogan has been ridiculed by Twitter users who have rehashed the ‘stay alert, control the virus, save lives’ graphics into hilarious parodies. The new government ‘stay alert’ slogan. Photograph: Downing Street/Twitter. – Credit: Archant The new messaging was introduced ahead of Boris Johnson’s latest lockdown announcement on Sunday, after ministers […]

The prime minister has rejected newspaper reports that the government’s new ‘stay alert’ message was not signed off by two of its keys experts. The Guardian reports that neither Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer (CMO), nor Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser (CSA), were asked to sign off the new messaging […]

The RNLI has issued a warning after Boris Johnson ruled out opening up swimming pools in the easing of coronavirus lockdown, but claimed people can use lakes and the sea. Johnson told MPs in the House of Commons ‘we can’t do anything for swimming pools’ but changes to allow people to access lakes and the […]

Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford has accused the UK government of ‘getting it wrong’ over its new coronavirus lockdown measures. Speaking at his daily press conference, Drakeford said he would use ‘whatever means are available’ to stop revellers crossing into Wales. He said: ‘I think we have got it right in Wales, and I don’t […]