British Politics

An overwhelming majority of Brexit voters back closer ties with Europe on “mutually beneficial” areas such as trade, new polling has revealed. Some 60% of Leave voters said it was important the UK cooperate with Brussels to tackle climate change and deal with threats from Russia and China. The large-scale poll of over 3,000 adults conducted […]

The SNP is demanding that Boris Johnson should resign if reports he said he would rather see “bodies pile high in their thousands” than have a third English lockdown are true. Ian Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader, said Johnson had a “duty to resign” and called for the PM to address the reports in parliament and […]

Labour leader Keir Starmer has been encouraged to support making changes to the Brexit deal agreed with the EU to develop a closer working relationship with member states. A report published by the left-wing pro-EU group Another Europe Is Possible strongly supports the case for active engagement with the EU to improve the deal. Starmer […]

The UK’s most senior civil servant is expected to indicate he has not cleared Boris Johnson’s former adviser Dominic Cummings over the so-called “chatty rat” leak of plans for a second lockdown. Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, is expected to say his inquiry into the leak last autumn is still “live” when he appears before the […]

Labour is demanding Boris Johnson explain whether he signalled his backing for the ill-fated European Super League. The plan by the so-called Big Six Premier League clubs for a breakaway competition dramatically unravelled within just 48 hours after it was vehemently condemned by fans and government ministers – including Johnson – alike. However, the Sunday […]

Downing Street has denied an allegation that Boris Johnson said he would rather see “bodies pile high in their thousands” rather than order a third lockdown. It was reported that the prime minister made the remark after he ordered the second lockdown at the end of October. Johnson was said to have “raged” after agreeing […]

Boris Johnson has denied he tried to block an official leak inquiry following a series of incendiary allegations by his former top adviser Dominic Cummings. In a furious outburst, Cummings accused the PM of seeking to halt the investigation into the leak of plans for a second lockdown after he was warned a close friend of […]

Mitch Benn told Labour leader Keir Starmer to be a little less stiff – but getting thrown out of a pub is taking matters too far… GEAR SHIFT OF THE WEEK Sir Keir Starmer, about whom, you may recall, I was complaining last week; specifically about how he’s taking so subtle and reserved an approach […]

Dominic Cummings told Boris Johnson plans to have donors “secretly pay” to revamp his official Downing Street flat were “unethical, foolish” and “possibly illegal”, the ex-Number 10 aide said. The prime minister stopped speaking to his top adviser about the issue last year, Cummings said. He said he had refused to help Johnson organise payments […]

Downing Street has outlined details of Boris Johnson’s communications with billionaire James Dyson, but stopped short of publishing their messages amid a lobbying row. The prime minister insisted there is nothing “sleazy” about their discussions, but the summary published by No 10 falls short of what many had expected. The publication outlines how the entrepreneur was […]

Dominic Cummings has denied being the source of a BBC story on Boris Johnson’s text communications with businessman James Dyson. In a blog post that claims that Johnson and his office has fallen “so far below the standards of competence and integrity the country deserves”, he denied leaking the messages.  The prime minister’s former aide […]

Sir Keir Starmer has called for an investigation into renovation work on Boris Johnson’s official flat. The Electoral Commission says it is trying to establish whether money being funneled into the project needs to be considered as political donations. There have been ongoing reports about the cost of the refurbishments to the Downing Street flat, […]

Boris Johnson has insisted there is nothing “sleazy” about his messages with James Dyson as he prepared to publish the communications in an attempt to cool a lobbying row. The prime minister said the texts exchanged with the billionaire would be published later on Friday, as Downing Street declined to dismiss suggestions they had been […]

The Scottish Tories have attempted to distance themselves from the lobbying row engulfing the Westminster party. Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said concerns raised over communications between senior UK government officials and business leaders “cannot be allowed to continue”. Ross said he believes governments should operate in “the most transparent and open way”. He added: “The […]

Political journalist Robert Peston has claimed that Boris Johnson is on the path to “mutually assured nuclear destruction” as Dominic Cummings is brought into the lobbying row. Cummings has been accused of being “bitter” over the government’s “great progress” since departing as the prime minister’s senior aide. It has been claimed he leaked text messages between […]

Government debt has hit its highest point as a portion of gross domestic product since the early 1960s when the country was still paying off what it had borrowed to fund the fight against Nazi Germany, new figures show. But who can hand over £2.1 trillion to the chancellor, and when do they expect to […]

Labour is piling pressure on chancellor Rishi Sunak over his lobbying links by urging him to “come clean” with a publication of his correspondence over changes to tax rules and coronavirus support schemes. The opposition party has called for Sunak to share details surrounding “tax breaks by text” after a lobbying row widened to involve communications […]

David Cameron has hit back at claims Greensill Capital had been begging for access to the government-backed Covid loan scheme. Cameron said it was “nonsense” to say the finance firm has been “in difficulty” when he lobbed on its behalf. But Labour said the company, which later collapsed, had been “desperate for access to taxpayer […]

MEPs are set to finally approve the Brexit trade agreement between the UK and EU next week – whilst also warning that it could be cancelled if Number 10 continues to ignore its terms. German socialist MEP Bernd Lange said negotiations over Northern Ireland are “on track” and a solution is “in sight”.  “Ratification makes […]

A Tory minister has been left humiliated live on-air after she admitted to not having Boris Johnson’s private number. Culture minister Caroline Dinenage said the prime minister did not give his number out “willy-nilly” in an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, adding she did not even have it. Dinenage then defended billionaire businessman James Dyson for possessing […]

A committee of senior MPs has rejected a Labour call to launch an investigation into Boris Johnson’s conduct over “cronyism”. Shadow frontbencher Rachel Reeves issued the call after it emerged the prime minister exchanged text messages with billionaire Sir James Dyson over the tax status of employees involved in creating new ventilators as the coronavirus […]

Boris Johnson’s former aide Dominic Cummings has been blamed for the leaking of the prime minister’s text messages. An internal inquiry has been launched into how messages between the prime minister and billionaire Sir James Dyson were leaked to journalists. But reports said Downing Street sources are pointing the finger at Cummings, who quit as […]

The prime minister has miscalculated on the current sleaze scandal and it will cost him dear During the Brexit referendum, among the pleading emails I occasionally sent to David Cameron’s team were several urging them to hit back far harder against the lies being told by Boris Johnson and the Leave campaign. There were two […]

Downing Street has announced an internal inquiry into the leak of private text messages between Boris Johnson and billionaire James Dyson over the tax status of his employees. Johnson promised the entrepreneur he would “fix” the issue after personal lobbying from Dyson as he sought to build ventilators at the height of the coronavirus crisis, […]

An industry body representing Scottish salmon producers has insisted that the figures demonstrating a significant drop in exports are “very, very wrong”. The Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO) told the Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee it believed more salmon had been exported than in January last year despite the UK leaving the EU. New post-Brexit rules came […]

Whitehall officials still fail to take working-class people seriously, Boris Johnson’s former communications director has said in his first public comments since departing No 10. Lee Cain also suggested on Thursday that the government could have averted its “terrible tangle” over free school meals if more senior politicians had experienced food poverty. He left Downing […]

David Cameron repeatedly lobbied Bank of England officials as he grew increasingly frustrated about Greensill Capital’s failure to access a state-backed coronavirus support scheme. The former prime minister, who worked as an adviser for Lex Greensill’s financial firm, also contacted the Treasury as he tried unsuccessfully to get the firm’s activities covered by the Covid […]

Parliament is scheduled to dissolve on April 29 ahead of next month’s Queen’s Speech, the government has said. Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg, announcing forthcoming business, confirmed the Commons will prorogue next Thursday once royal assent has been signified for all necessary legislation – such as the Domestic Abuse Bill. The Queen’s Speech to start the […]