News and Opinion

Senior Tory MPs have joined opposition calls to scrap a NHS surcharge for international healthcare workers, fuelling claims it could lead to a revolt from the prime minister’s backbenches. Senior Tory MP William Wragg in the House of Commons; Twitter – Credit: Archant Former Conservative Party vice-chairman Sir Roger Gale warned that not to waive […]

The prime minister will find out at lunchtime if he faces a criminal investigation into his relationship with American entrepreneur Jennifer Arcuri when he was mayor of London. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is set to reveal this afternoon its long-awaited decision on whether Johnson its possible to investigate him over a possible […]

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced schools will reopen more than two months after Boris Johnson’s proposed date for the return of English pupils. She told MSPs children will return to a ‘blended model of part-time in-school and part-time at-home learning’. From August 11, all schools in Scotland will reopen, she added, more than […]

A report has claimed that the private supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to hospitals is to blame for bottlenecks during the coronavirus outbreak. It is alleged that a ‘dysfunctional’ supply chain process and the production of essential PPE by private firms is behind the recent ‘fiasco’ of hospitals not receiving enough protective kit. Authors […]

Michael Gove has been accused of ‘double speak’ after claiming that there will be no ‘new customs infrastructure’ in Northern Ireland after Brexit before claiming there would be ‘some expansion of existing infrastructure’ Making a statement in the Commons on the UK government’s approach to the Northern Ireland Protocol, the minister claimed: ‘Subjecting traders to […]

A high street name is selling a coronavirus antibody test to show if you have had Covid-19, and it will reveal results in two days. But to purchase the test – which it says is 97.5% sensitive and has 100% specificity – you will need to pay £69. At present the test can only be […]

Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle threatened to kick health minister Matt Hancock out of the Commons for interrupting Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). During a heated debate over coronavirus testing in care homes in the Chamber, speaker Hoyle interrupted health minister Matt Hancock for heckling Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer during his responses. He blasted: ‘Minister […]

A Tory cabinet minister has been seen fleeing the scene after being asked to join Piers Morgan in a live television interview on Good Morning Britain. Robert Buckland avoids questions from Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain. Photograph: ITV. – Credit: Archant Presenters Morgan and Susanna Reid abruptly paused their interview with two panellists and […]

Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg has been accused of overturning public health guidance on social distancing to force MPs back to the Commons. A Whitehall source told POLITICO that Rees-Mogg had asked Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle if he could relax social distancing rules in order to get more than 50 MPs into the chamber. It […]

A health minister has accused for opposition politicians to be more positive about the government’s coronavirus response, after opposition politicians accused it of being a ‘massive shambolic mess’. Lord Bethell acknowledged the nation has been hit ‘extremely hard’ by the pandemic and while he was sure the government will be found to have made mistakes, […]

British trade experts have warned that the UK’s demands for a ‘Canada-style’ Brexit trade deal with the EU are ‘unrealistic’. UK trade experts claim that the UK is placing unrealistic demands on EU negotiators to seed ground in trade talks after reviewing the country’s latest draft trade proposals. David Henig, director of the UK trade […]

Spanish foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya has called for the UK to end its ‘posturing’ in Brexit talks and return to serious negotiations. The Spanish minister said the UK had to realise it would have to pay a price if it wanted to continue enjoying the benefits of access to the internal market. Arancha Gonzalez […]

The Liberal Democrats are to kickstart the party’s leadership contest in June, it has been announced. At a meeting of the party’s Federal Board the party agreed a timetable for a leadership election this summer, which will include ‘online hustings and online voting’ due to the pandemic. The opposition party had been due to start […]

After a coupling of bruising weeks for Boris Johnson at the hands of Keir Starmer, today the PM reached for his old catchphrases Germany’s Bundesliga resumed at the weekend, with no crowds, a strict limit on who could enter the stadia and an ensuring eery atmosphere. Geisterspiel, the Germans call it. But when the whistle […]

Boris Johnson has claimed Sir Keir Starmer is ‘ignorant of the facts’ after the opposition leader quoted a care home boss at him during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). Sir Keir quoted Care England’s chief executive who said that, despite a government announcement on increased testing in care homes, facilities had yet to receive more swabs. […]

The Liberal Democrats are to take the first steps to try to force the government’s hand to seek a Brexit transition period extension. The opposition party will seek to put forward a bill in the House of Commons next month requiring the government to seek a two-year extension of the Brexit implementation period from Brussels. […]

Former prime minister Gordon Brown has savaged Boris Johnson over his response to the coronavirus – telling him to ‘get a grip’ on the government’s handling of the pandemic. The former Labour leader, who led the UK through the financial crash a decade ago, called on Boris Johnson to offer explanations about why the government […]

An axed Brexit Party candidate who offered to run in an East of England constituency during last year’s general election has won an expense claim against his former party in court. Paul Bullen, a retired RAF officer and former UKIP council leader, won £575.15 in costs from Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party after it failed to […]

A political expert has warned the Tories that Labour’s new leader Sir Keir Starmer is well equipped to take advantage of the growing anger surrounding the government’s coronavirus response to turn around Labour’s fortunes. Dr Steve McCabe, a senior fellow at the Centre for Brexit Studies at Birmingham City University, noted that Labour was deemed […]

Michael Gove has dodged a question over whether his government will seek a Brexit extension by issuing a sly remark aimed at the SNP. SNP’s Margaret Ferrier (L) and Michael Gove during a House of Commons Q&A; ParliamentLive – Credit: Archant Gove was summed to the Commons by his Labour counterpart Rachel Reeves to answer […]

Home secretary Priti Patel has baffled Twitter by claiming she was ending freedom of movement to ‘open Britain up to the world’. https://twitter.com/camillaengelby/status/1262458962638786560 Brexiteer Patel took to Twitter as MPs voted for the second reading of her immigration bill, which intends to bring in a new framework for who can come to live here. It […]

Iain Duncan Smith has questioned the scientific advice of remaining two metres apart during the coronavirus epidemic arguing that ministers should relax the measure in order to kick start the economy. The former Tory leader and ex-work and pensions minister has appealed to Boris Johnson to reconsider the two-metre social distancing rule, and questioned the […]

The former Ukip MP hasn’t sat in Parliament for three years. So why does the Express report his every utterance? Douglas Carswell, who defected from the Conservatives to Ukip in 2014, lost his seat at the 2017 general election. Since then he has effectively left frontline politics, co-founding and then resigning as a director of […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has accused opposition MPs of trying to ‘stymie’ the government by refusing to return to the House of Commons. Ahead of a meeting with Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, senior politicians from opposition parties and representatives of the unions, Rees-Mogg claimed that parliament was not able to do its job properly under the […]

A Commons science and technology committee report has found that the government’s decision to freeze community testing in March caused the virus to spread in care homes. The report – which outlines 10 lessons for ministers and health advisors to learn – slams decisions which led to Public Health England (PHE) rolling back its community […]

Labour MP Stella Creasy has issued an impassioned plea for the government to go back to the drawing board with their immigration bill, which will end the EU’s freedom of movement after Brexit. Speaking during the second reading of Priti Patel’s immigration bill, Creasy told MPs: ‘Ending freedom of movement has become the loudest answer […]

A government minister has refused to accept five times that they had made mistakes in the coronavirus response, but instead appeared to blame scientists if there had been faults. Therese Coffey was challenged by Sky News’ Kay Burley over the government’s broken promises and missed targets during the crisis as well as the care home […]

A growing number of backbench Tory MPs have criticised Boris Johnson over his handling of the coronavirus epidemic with many calling his approach ‘back to front’. Conservative MPs told The Telegraph that Johnson has failed keep backbenchers in the loop on government plans to ease lockdown measures while many say he was too slow to […]