British Politics

Minister for Women Liz Truss will not be attending Boris Johnson’s meeting on violence against women, Downing Street has confirmed. Johnson last night announced he would be holding a meeting of the Crime and Justice Taskforce to discuss ways to make streets safer for women and girls following the alleged murder of Sarah Everard on March 3. […]

Organisations including the RSPB, Liberty and Friends of the Earth have written to Priti Patel and Robert Buckland to raise concerns about “draconian” legislation to boost police powers. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is being “rushed through parliament” during the coronavirus pandemic and will have “profound implications” for the public, the groups said. […]

An MP is cross-referencing constituents’ complaints about Dominic Cummings’ trip to Durham with those who complained about the Clapham Commons vigil. According to Guido Fawkes reporter Tom Harwood, an MP is sifting through his emails from people who complained about both in a bid to “point out the hypocrisy of their positions”. He tweeted: “One MP tells […]

A Russian-owned firm was hired to carry out key works in the £2.6million renovation of No 9 in an undisclosed contract to get it ready for White House-style television briefings. An inside source told HuffPost UK that Megahertz undertook essential work, including the installation of computers, cameras, microphones and a control desk to get the building […]

Former Remain and Leave groups have united in opposition to the government’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Opponents of Priti Patel’s latest act of legislation include Richard Tice – former chairman of the Brexit Party and Leave Means Leave – and Tom Brufatto, former leader of the People’s Vote marches and co-director of March […]

Labour has said it will not back the government’s key crime legislation because of clauses that could lead to harsher penalties for damaging a statue than attacking a woman. Shadow justice secretary David Lammy said the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill contain “poorly thought out” proposals that would impose controls on the right to protest. […]

The EU will begin legal action on Monday over the UK’s breach of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a source close to the matter has confirmed. A letter is expected to be issued laying out the grounds on which the EU believes a breach occurred. A second “political” letter will be sent sharing the arbitration procedures […]

South African comedian Trevor Noah has taken aim at the royal family and Boris Johnson during his stint as host of this year’s Grammy Awards. Noah, who hosts the late-night satirical news programme The Daily Show in the US, made fun of the prime minister during a comment about UK pop star Harry Styles. The comedian joked that […]

Brexiteer Mark Francois has urged Boris Johnson to stop paying the EU for post-Brexit arrangements after the UK’s decision to leave the EU led to a number of issues in Northern Ireland.  The chair of the European Research Group and Tory MP said the prime minister should reconsider paying £20bn worth of payments over the […]

Scottish secretary Alister Jack has hailed the vaccination programme against the virus as being a success for the UK. The minister claimed Scotland would still be in the “vice-like grip” of coronavirus if it had followed SNP advice on vaccinations. He insisted: “Had we followed the SNP’s advice on vaccines and waited for the flat-footed […]

Boris Johnson will discuss ways to protect women and girls from violence with the head of the Metropolitan Police amid a storm of criticism over the force’s handling of a vigil in memory of Sarah Everard. The prime minister is expected to chair a meeting of the government’s Crime and Justice Taskforce on Monday, with […]

Boris Johnson has held “frank” conversations with the DUP on the Northern Ireland Protocol as he visited the region. Extra checks on goods passing through its ports from the rest of the UK following Brexit have angered unionists. The prime minister toured a mass vaccination centre in Arlene Foster’s Co Fermanagh constituency. He was joined by […]

Comedian Mitch Benn hands out his alternative awards of another week in politics… REPEAT OFFENDER OF THE WEEK Rishi Sunak, who followed up last week’s excruciating “I’m just a guy, standing in front of a country, commending my budget to the House” video with an equally bizarre sequel in which he was interviewed by a […]

The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says her case has been a “failure of diplomacy and campaigning” ahead of her return to court in Iran. Richard Ratcliffe said it would take “a long time” for his wife to recover from the psychological trauma of her ordeal, but that continuing media coverage had “kept her a bit […]

A Tory minister has raised eyebrows after claiming “British wind” will soon fuel homes across the UK. Paul Scully, a minister at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), made the announcement during an interview on Sky News, in which he promoted a new government pledge of £95million in funding for offshore wind farms in […]

Schools, colleges and universities can now apply for funding to allow students to study and work abroad as part of the post-Brexit replacement of the Erasmus exchange programme. The £110 million Turing scheme, which will fund global exchanges for about 35,000 UK students from September, will target disadvantaged students and those from under-represented areas. But […]

Amazon and Serco are among a number of businesses to receive government help with New Year Honours nominations even though they are at the centre of a row over Covid contracts, a major Whitehall leak has revealed. The Sun reports officials asked the companies to nominate staff members for the award in a list they accidentally leaked. The […]

The Tories have backed their London mayoral candidate after he was accused of politicising the disappearance of Sarah Everard. Business minister Paul Scully said Shaun Bailey can “absolutely” still run for office despite facing criticism for comments around the case of the missing 33-year-old. The mayoral candidate had said his wife and daughter “have to […]

The SNP are no longer on course to win a majority in this May’s Holyrood elections, new polling has suggested. The survey, conducted by Sevanta ComRes on behalf of The Scotsman, found Scots being put off the SNP over its leader’s botched handling of sexual harassment complaints against Alex Salmond. This is the first major poll […]

Sir Keir Starmer will target the government’s controversial 1% pay rise for NHS workers during the campaign for the May elections, declaring “a vote for Labour is a vote to support our nurses”. The Labour leader is to launch the party’s campaign for the local and mayoral elections by demanding key workers are given “a […]

Three of the government’s LGBT advisers have resigned as they issued sharp criticism of equalities ministers Liz Truss and Kemi Badenoch. Jayne Ozanne accused Boris Johnson’s government of creating a “hostile environment” for LGBT people and criticised the two ministers as being “ignorant” on key issues. The government’s Equalities Office also confirmed that it had […]

Stormont’s agriculture minister has said special cricket pitch soil can be freely moved from Great Britain to Northern Ireland under Brexit rules. The clay-containing material known as loam can be obtained from counties in England to help give the ball a predictable bounce on the pitch. Northern Ireland Protocol bureaucracy has caused problems for suppliers […]

The Northern Ireland secretary has failed to explain the legal grounds for scrapping Brexit customs checks in the Irish Sea. Brandon Lewis was asked to clarify which part of the Northern Ireland Protocol would allow the UK to renege on its committment on customs checks – amid claims it could be breaching international law. “Is it […]

Boris Johnson has refused to apologise for falsely accusing Labour of having voted against a pay rise for NHS staff. Johnson claimed during Prime Minister’s Questions, where he came under fire for a 1% pay rise for nurses, that Labour had opposed earlier government plans to give health workers a 2.1% hike. Johnson told MPs the […]

The failure to properly investigate allegations against ministers risks damaging public confidence, Boris Johnson’s former independent adviser on the ministerial code has warned. Sir Alex Allan said there was now a case for giving the adviser greater powers to initiate their own inquiries into complaints against members of the government. Sir Alex quit the post […]

The Welsh secretary has accused the first minister Mark Drakeford of being “fixated on politics” after said that Boris Johnson “really, really is awful”. Simon Hart said that he hopes the first minister now “slightly regrets” a clip of him saying the prime minister “really, really is awful”, which emerged during an S4C film. The Welsh […]

Sir Keir Starmer has questioned whether Boris Johnson thinks NHS workers or Dominic Cummings are more deserving of a pay rise. In this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir asked: “Who does the prime minister think deserves a pay rise more, an NHS nurse or Dominic Cummings?” The prime minister replied: “As I told (Daisy […]

A senior European Union diplomat has been summoned to the Foreign Office in a row over coronavirus vaccine exports. Nicole Mannion, deputy ambassador of the EU to the UK, attended the meeting on Wednesday morning after European Council president Charles Michel accused Britain and the US of imposing bans on the movement of jabs. Foreign […]