News and Opinion

Fresh concerns have been raised over a nursing shortfall post-Brexit after a new review found that Britain could be left an additional 10,000 nurses short. In England, the latest nursing vacancy rate figure is 41,722. A new report explores the trends in the health and social care sector’s workforce, including the role of European nationals […]

Westminster’s environment committee has warned over a gap in environmental protections after Britain leaves the EU. Mary Creagh, who chairs the Environmental Audit Committee, said she was “deeply” worried there would be a hole in laws covering chemicals, waste, water and air. The government’s response to the committee’s recommendations, published today, still leaves one third […]

A manufacturing firm is to close two sites in the UK with “uncertainty” surrounding Brexit given as a factor behind the decision. Automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler said the sites in Plymouth and Llanelli, South Wales, will close within two years. It is understood that up to 500 jobs could be affected. The German-owned company […]

With Ian Rankin’s latest novel featuring the cop topping the bestseller charts, STEVE ANGLESEY asks why the Scottish sleuth has not found similar success on the screen John Hannah as Rebus and James Cosmo as Morris Cafferty in the TV adaptation of The Hanging Garden. Picture: Clerkenwell Films/Getty Images A rebus is a puzzle; a […]

The SNP has said the “chaos and despair” of Brexit could result in a narrow majority of Scots voting for independence. The party made the claim after a new poll finding more than a third of people were more likely to back leaving the UK after the country exits the EU. Applying that to the […]

Remain would win a new Brexit poll by 54%-46%, according to analysis of one of the largest surveys carried out on the issue. Some 20,000 people were questioned in a Survation poll for Channel 4 which estimated 105 local authority areas that voted Leave in 2016 would now be carried by the Remain side. Channel […]

Ministers have been warned against causing further confusion over the post-Brexit future of EU citizens living in the UK. Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott spoke of the “very real distress” that mixed messages from the government had caused more than three million EU citizens, their families and employers – warning the “clock is ticking” and […]

Britain is built not just on its diverse roots, but on the deep scholarship which explores them. A new exhibition celebrates both aspects, writes BONNIE GREER. One of the more hilarious aspects of white ethnic-nationalists is their interpretation of British history. About a decade ago, I was invited to appear on Question Time alongside, among […]

Leading Brexiteers are urging their colleagues to put their phones in the microwave to protect them from eavesdropping by spies. A senior member of the European Research Group (ERG) of hardline Tory MPs has been urging his colleagues to buy microwaves for their parliamentary offices to stop Remainers and foreign spooks snooping on their talks, […]

Irish premier Leo Varadkar has told Theresa May that he will not accept a Brexit deal which gives the UK the unilateral power to halt “backstop” arrangements for the border with Northern Ireland. In a phone conversation with the Taoiseach, May said that any agreement would have to include a mechanism to bring an end […]

A £2.4m “no deal safety net unit” is being rushed through by the Metropolitan Police amid alarm over the loss of vital EU tools after next March. Police chiefs have warned home secretary Sajid Javid that losing such tools would make it harder to track sex offenders and terrorist suspects, according to internal police documents […]

Anthea Bell, who died last month, deserves to be remembered as one of the continent’s literary greats, says CHARLIE CONNELLY In Asterix the Legionary, where the eponymous hero and his sidekick Obelix travel to north Africa posing as Roman soldiers, there’s a scene in which the crew of a wrecked pirate ship find themselves stranded […]

Remainer Tory MP Dominic Grieve has said proposals for the UK to remain in a customs union after Brexit made the whole process “questionable”. The former attorney general told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “At the end of the day it highlights why the entire enterprise is questionable, because in fact what we are likely […]

Former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre has used his first public appearance since stepping down to defend his decision to describe high court judges as “enemies of the people” on his front page. Dacre, who left the job in the summer and has since been formed to watch his successor steadily dismantle his legacy, said […]

A new film tells the story of Trojan Records and, with it, the birth of multicultural Britain. GARTH CARTWRIGHT reports. Kyle Bell plays Dandy Livingstone in Rudeboy. Picture: Jonas Mortensen – Credit: Archant Not many record labels can provide the basis for a decent film. Yet not many have such a clear narrative arc, and […]

Arron Banks – under investigation over where the money for his Brexit campaign from – dodged questions about his finances when doorstepped by Channel 4 News. The millionaire Brexiteer refused to answer journalist Fatima Manji’s questions. And the man who funded posters claiming the UK was at “breaking point” over immigration even claimed that the […]

More than four in 10 Brits would support a second Brexit referendum offering a choice between a deal or staying in the EU, according to one of the largest polls conducted on the subject. Some 20,000 people were questioned by Channel 4 ahead of a live televised debate that will see senior politicians who supported […]

From the Civil War to the civil rights movement, US politics has a long history of hatred, anger and violence. As a deeply divided America goes to the polls amid heightened tensions, Pulitzer prize-winning writer ALBERT SCARDINO, asks what can bridge the country’s great schism? Uncivil war has a grip on America. The mid-term elections […]

One thousand nationalists from across Ireland have sent a joint letter to the Taoiseach urging him to defend the rights of Irish citizens north of the border amid Brexit uncertainty. The letter to Leo Varadkar has been signed by actors, academics, professional athletes, entrepreneurs, lawyers, teachers, doctors and a range of other figures from within […]

Millions of Brits will stay at home and not book overseas holidays if the UK crashes out of the EU without a trade agreement, according to new research published today. A major report by travel research specialist Euromonitor International has predicted that a ‘no-deal’ Brexit scenario next March would hit the outbound leisure travel market […]

After his death in the final week of the First World War Edward Connelly faded from family history, until a chance discovery by CHARLIE CONNELLY. He started to piece together the details of his relative’s short life and, in a powerful act of remembrance, undertook a personal pilgrimage, from the soldier’s place of birth to […]

Self-proclaimed ‘bad boy of Brexit’ Arron Banks has insisted no Russian money was used to fund the Leave campaign and now even claims ‘it would have been better to Remain’. Arron Banks: 'There was no Russian money'https://t.co/r1aGlvDIhC #Marr pic.twitter.com/xoihgadT62— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) 4 November 2018 The extraordinary U-turn came after the National Crime Agency launched […]

Brexiteers are screaming ‘betrayal’ at the news that Theresa May has reportedly secured concession from the EU to keep the whole of the UK in a customs union as part of the Brexit negotiations. The ‘secret’ deal would mean there would be no need for Northern Ireland to be treated differently to the rest of […]

The Kiwis would be more than happy with a free trade agreement. It is Britain who shouldn’t be, says MATTEO DI MAIO The news that Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, is prioritising a free trade deal with New Zealand once the UK leaves the EU went down well in Wellington. ‘There are lots of […]

The president is back on his favourite topic, and playing with fire. PAUL CONNEW reports By the time the ‘caravan’ of thousands of migrants trudging north through Mexico finally reaches the US border, next week’s US mid-term elections will be a distant memory. Their timing could not be more perfect for the president. By then, […]

TIM WALKER reviews The Wipers Times, on at Arts Theatre, London, until December 1, in this week’s Stage Review. One of the most wearying aspects of Brexit has been the endless harping back to the days when Britain was at war. Boris Johnson likes, of course, to see himself as Churchill, and the way the […]

Brexiteers are undermining 20 years of peace in Northern Ireland and are fraying relationships between Britain and Ireland, the Irish prime minister has warned. Leo Varadkar gave the stark warning about the state of cross-border relations, with just months to go before the UK is due to quit the European Union. His comments came after […]

New polling has found that a majority of voters in Labour constituencies back a People’s Vote campaign – with 80% of voters in Jeremy Corbyn’s own seat in Islington North wanting a final say. The data also found more voters support a People’s Vote in the Labour leader’s own constituency than in any other Labour […]

Young Labour member BEN DUNCAN-DUGGAL says the party’s MPs would be betraying its core values if it supports Theresa May on Brexit. On a tense June night two years ago, I awoke with a jolt at 6am. The yellow-blue swingometer on the BBC News website ticked over as it loaded. I saw that we’d voted […]

The BBC has defended a decision to book controversial Leave.EU campaign donor Arron Banks for the Andrew Marr show – despite the millionaire being under investigation by the National Crime Agency. Banks is being investigated over claims he had hid the source of illegal overseas donations used to fund the referendum campaign. He has denied […]

As a leader, the German chancellor provided the moral compass for a continent, says ZOE WILLIAMS. We will all miss her Angela Merkel is conducting her departure from the world stage with characteristic foresight; indeed, she has announced her intention to step down as head of the Christian Democratic Union so far ahead of time […]

Being loud and brash can go too far, but it is necessary when you’re pushing against established beliefs, writes ALASTAIR CAMPBELL. Let’s start with a bit of self-awareness. I am fully conscious, as I recorded here last week following a gentle chiding from the velvet mouth of Mariella Frostrup, that I can be aggressive in […]