British Politics

Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin, who boasted of donating £50,000 to the Tory party ahead of the 2019 general election, has now blasted the “reckless” government for their decisions over the coronavirus pandemic. The pro-Brexit chairman has written to MPs criticising the second lockdown for their policies, which he says is hurting pubs. He wrote: “It is […]

Laurence Fox has been slammed for boasting that he had a “lovely” lunch with a “large group” of friends in a breach of lockdown rules, before criticising the NHS response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The actor said he had “hugged” the friends, before claiming that the NHS was not “fit for purpose” if it cannot […]

Sir Keir Starmer has said Jeremy Corbyn’s response to a damning report on anti-Semitism in Labour was “just about as bad as you can get”. The opposition leader said he was “disappointed” when his predecessor claimed the issue had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons”. Corbyn was suspended from Labour over his response to the […]

Boris Johnson has appointed Nadhim Zahawi as a health minister responsible for the deployment of coronavirus vaccines. Downing Street announced that the Stratford-on-Avon MP, who already serves as a business minister, would take on the role until at least next summer. Under the interim arrangement, he will serve as a joint minister between Department for […]

Boris Johnson has warned there will be “disastrous consequences” for the NHS if the new tiered system proposed by government does not win the support of MPs and the country. The prime minister, who is facing a rebellion from his own MPs over the measures, urged the nation to “work together” with tiering, testing and […]

The government has called for ‘fresh thinking’ from the European Union over Brexit, as the foreign secretary insisted there is a deal to be done. Dominic Raab said this could be the last week of “substantive” negotiations as he urged Brussels to recognise the “point of principle” on Britain’s control of its waters. He told […]

Downing Street has attempted to have vials of the Oxford University Covid vaccine labelled with the Union flag. No. 10 asked a taskforce set up to fight calls for Scottish independence to work on having injections kits covered with the flag, the HuffPost UK has revealed. It also asked the unit focusing on developing the […]

UK aviation officials are scrambling to secure a travel corridor between New York and London following fears Joe Biden could scrap it in favour of one with Dublin when takes office as US president next year. Plans to establish a corridor between Heathrow and JFK airport – known as Project Nylon – before Biden moves into the […]

Readers have their say on Andrew Adonis’ essay on whether a federal UK is possible. Can I answer Andrew Adonis’ question “What Chance a Federal UK?” (TNE #220). Yes, there’s every chance, if only we could stop being so shy of the ‘F’ word and address it head on. I hope the TNE will continue […]

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has failed to declare his family’s wealth in a ministerial register, an investigation has found. Sunak is under pressure to explain how a multi-million-pound portfolio of shareholdings and directorships held by his wife and her family were not declared in an official register of ministers’ interests, a Guardian investigation has revealed. Akshata Murty, […]

Nigel Farage has been trolled online after posting a tweet complaining about Boris Johnson’s latest lockdown measures. The Brexit Party leader took to Twitter to vent his frustrations over his county of Kent being placed under the toughest lockdown restrictions announced by the prime minister earlier this week. Kent, along with swathes of the North […]

Robert Jenrick has admitted the government’s Christmas lockdown measures could “drive” a rise in Covid infection rates across England. The minister for communities and housing said he expected to see coronavirus rates increase after the Christmas break. Downing Street announced that “bubbles” of three households could meet indoors over a five-day period during Christmas in […]

Hands up, TNE readers, if you thought Johnson would sack Patel. No takers? Hands up if you knew he wouldn’t but thought he should. Full house, I suspect. Repeat the process with the Brexit questions. Hands up if you think: we’ll be better off economically and our influence in the world will increase; we’ll be […]

When (if?) we finally have a public inquiry into the government’s response to the pandemic I think we will find that the combination of ‘Boosterism’ (entering lockdown late, coming out early, eat out to help out etc.) and ‘Chumocracy’ (purchase of PPE, Test and Trace etc.) has not served the country well, with both a […]

Businesses have been urged to step up Brexit planning after a survey found only 42% believe they are fully prepared for customs changes. A poll conducted by Enterprise Ireland revealed 44% of businesses have yet to decide how to pay customs charges, while 30% have yet to decide who will manage customs procedures. Tanaiste Leo […]

Brexiteer Claire Fox has defended a public sector pay freeze, saying workers were “not the only heroes” of the coronavirus pandemic. Fox, a former Brexit Party MEP turned peer, said the private sector had been “the invisible front line” in the fight against Covid-19 and also merited a pay rise. Responding to Welsh minister Vaughan Gething […]

British actors have been told not to audition for the role of a young Duke of Cambridge in a forthcoming film about Diana, Princess of Wales, due to new rules faced by the country post-Brexit. A casting invitation posted online calls for boys aged between nine and 12 to apply for the role of the […]

Boris Johnson faces a large-scale backlash from Conservative backbenchers after placing 99% of England into tier two or three lockdown measures. Tory MP Steve Baker described the measures as “authoritarian”, while others demanded the publication of a cost-benefit analysis of the restrictions. The government placed more than 23 million people into tier three restrictions on Thursday, […]

An ex-Tory aide has said he had to ‘kill’ plans by George Osborne to appoint David Beckham a peerage and make him sports minister. Then-chancellor Osborne discussed the idea with David Cameron, who was prime minister at the time, on the day of a major Cabinet reshuffle in 2013, the Daily Mail has revealed. The Mail published the […]

Boris Johnson has appointed a former Treasury official as his Downing Street chief of staff. Dan Rosenfield will begin working in No 10 next month before he formally takes over from acting chief of staff, Lord Udny-Lister, in the new year, Downing Street said. The move comes after a row over a proposal to appoint […]

It’s clear Boris Johnson’s brazen approach will cost us all warns Michael White. The mighty Oxford English Dictionary has just celebrated the extraordinary nature of 2020 by issuing an unprecedented number of ‘words of the year’ – starting obviously with coronavirus and lockdown. Me, I was less ambitious in looking for words of the week. […]

House of Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has delivered a blistering attack on the government after it bypassed the chamber to publish information on England’s new tiered-lockdown system. Sir Lindsay was facilitating a round of questions on this week’s business statement when allowed Labour’s Valerie Vaz to interrupt with an urgent point of order. She said: “This is a […]

The company of a former neighbour of Matt Hancock’s has won a multi-million-pound contract to supply medical equipment to Covid testing centres despite having no previous experience. Alex Bourne, who ran a pub close to Hancock’s former constituency in Suffolk, said he offered his company’s services to the health secretary in a WhatsApp message. Hinpack, Bourne’s company, was […]

Former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell has criticised Rishi Sunak’s cut in Britain’s foreign aid budget, arguing the move makes the UK “less safe and less prosperous”. Mitchell, who served in David Cameron’s cabinet between 2010 and 2012, said the chancellor’s decision to cut foreign aid was a “shameful mistake” that would hurt Britain’s world […]

Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith (IDS) has been criticised for suggesting it was “far better” for politicians to be “straight and honest” with the public. The former work and pensions secretary said it was right for Rishi Sunak to be “honest” with the public about spending cuts brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. Appearing of Good Morning […]

A German MEP has claimed that Britain’s ‘messy’ negotiating tactics are to blame for last-minute Brexit talks. Long-serving German politician Bernd Lange said Brexit negotiations would not have come down to the wire had British officials actually been properly prepared. Speaking on Bloomberg, Lange said: “There were a lot of months, starting in February, where there […]

A Tory peer has resigned from her ministerial post in protest against a cut to the government’s foreign aid budget. Baroness Liz Sugg tendered her resignation as junior minister for sustainable development shortly after the chancellor announced a temporary reduction of the UK’s foreign aid budget to 0.5% on Wednesday. In her resignation letter to prime minister […]

A Telegraph columnist has been heavily criticised after suggesting Priti Patel was too short to be a bully. Allison Pearson caused a stir online when she published her latest Telegraph column blasting allegations of bullying against home secretary Patel. The article comes after prime minister Boris Johnson swept aside findings by his chief adviser on […]