News and Opinion

Stalwart Brexiteer MP Steve Baker has labelled Boris Johnson’s coronavirus lockdown restrictions ‘tyrannical’, claiming they could be ‘unlawful’ and struck down in court. Baker, a former chair of the pro-Brexit thinktank, the European Research Group (ERG), said the laws had given rise to a ‘surveillance state’ that had put the nation ‘into imprisonment’. In an […]

Ministers have been urged to ‘get ahead of the game’ and learn from past mistakes by assuring the public what their plans are for stockpiling face masks. Labour has written to the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove urging the government to demonstrate that it has sufficient quantities of masks and a manner […]

Boris Johnson is urging every country to work together in response to the coronavirus pandemic to form a vaccine, which he describes as the ‘most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes’. The prime minister is expected to tell an online pledging conference – co-hosted by the UK and eight other countries and organisations – that […]

New polling of the public has found Keir Starmer’s net favourability has jumped 50 points compared to where Jeremy Corbyn left off as Labour leader. The new Opinium polling, taken four weeks after he became leader, gives Starmer a 36% approval rating compared to a 18% disapproval rating. It puts the Labour leader on +18 […]

Leeds for Europe – a pro-EU campaign body in West Yorkshire – is planning a virtual ‘Euro Café’ on Saturday to celebrate Europe Day. This May 9 marks a milestone for Europe. Over three-quarters of century ago France’s foreign minister Robert Schuman told a rally in Paris his ideas of a bold new Europe in […]

MITCH BENN says it will be up to those of us left standing to ensure the lessons are learned, and it will involve fighting the very powerful to make sure it happens. First of all, many thanks to those of you who sent messages of support and condolence after last week’s column; Harry’s family send […]

Having the worst coronavirus death rate in Europe would be a statistic hard to spin for Boris Johnson’s government. MICHAEL WHITE says the prime minister is already looking for scapegoats. Boris Johnson. Photo: PA / Dominic Lipinski – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images When the Daily Telegraph reported that Boris Johnson was returning to work under […]

Health secretary Matt Hancock has dismissed the latest reports from the Sunday Times that there will continue to be a blanket ban on the elderly leaving their home due to coronavirus fears. The Sunday Times reported the British Medical Association (BMA)’s call under the headline ‘Set free healthy over-seventies, say doctors’ after Dr Chaand Nagpaul, […]

TIM WALKER looks into the life and career of Christopher Lee, best known for his portrayal Dracula. There are certain parts – and Dracula is one of them – that require of the actor playing them some sense of being in on the joke with film-goers. Christopher Lee never saw anything funny about what was […]

Fewer people would have died from coronavirus in the UK if the country had greater testing capacity sooner, minister Grant Shapps has said. The transport secretary, appearing on BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, was asked about people in care homes after one expert warned the environments could become the ‘epicentre’ of coronavirus transmission. Shapps […]

A former government chief scientific adviser is to form a new group of experts to act as an alternative to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). Sir David King, who worked under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, intends for the group to look at ways out of the coronavirus lockdown. The new 12-strong committee […]

Historian DAVID EDGERTON on the cynical fantasies about innovation and exceptionalism providing a common strand with Covid-19 and Brexit. Workers in the assembly area of an aircraft factory in the Midlands, building spitfires. (Photo by Hudson/Fox Photos/Getty Images) – Credit: Getty Images The government’s response to Covid-19 and Brexit are intimately connected. Recognising this is […]

More than four in five Britons are against lockdown restrictions being eased for schools, pubs and restaurants this week, a poll suggests. Boris Johnson said the country had passed the peak of Covid-19 infections and he would be setting out a ‘road map’ for easing measures in the near future. But only 17% of those […]

Doctors treating Boris Johnson were preparing to announce his death, the prime minister has told a Sunday newspaper. Johnson spent three nights in intensive care at St Thomas’ in London with the disease, where he said medics gave him ‘litres and litres of oxygen’. He described it as a ‘tough old moment’, telling the Sun […]

The UK government has been left angered after the EU published a technical note calling for more post-Brexit detail on the Northern Irish border without discussing with London first. The note from the European Commission warns that key preparations for the Northern Ireland Protocol must be under way by July 1 if it is to […]

Sir Keir Starmer has appointed Martin Forde QC as head of an inquiry into a leaked report on anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. Forde, a barrister and independent adviser to the Windrush compensation scheme, will investigate how a report revealing anti-Semitism issues within Labour was leaked in April. He will lead a panel of experts […]

Piers Morgan has slammed Boris Johnson’s coronavirus response, claiming his decisions made Donald Trump look ‘credible’. In a Daily Mail column penned by Morgan, the Good Morning Britain presenter criticised Johnson’s first press conference since time spent in hospital, claiming he failed to get a grip on the virus in its early days. He also […]

The government has been accused of ‘changing the rules’ in how it counts the number of coronavirus tests carried out to help it hit the 100,000-a-day target for April. Speaking at the daily Downing Street press briefing, health secretary Matt Hancock branded it an ‘incredible achievement’ as 122,347 tests were performed in the 24 hours […]

While our attention is elsewhere, we are hurtling towards a catastrophic no-deal, says Caroline Voaden. She says the government must urgently rethink its Brexit strategy. Former Lib Dem leader in the European parliament Caroline Voaden. Photograph: Supplied. – Credit: Archant It’s hard to believe that something which had dominated our lives for so long – […]

Government negligence over coronavirus comes as a result of Tory preoccupation with Brexit, and we are all paying the price. Thousands of deaths in the Covid-19 pandemic is a tragic if inevitable statistic. Dozens of deaths of NHS frontline staff and care workers, however, represents negligence of stupefying dimensions. Now that a leaked Department of […]

Football pundit Jeff Stelling has hit out at the government’s response to the coronavirus – claiming it had got it ‘horrifically wrong’ and that the daily press conferences were ‘nothing more than self serving propaganda’. The Sky Sports presenter, not known for political outbursts, turned to Twitter to express his frustrations with the latest Downing […]

A statistician has urged against comparisons between the UK and Europe over the numbers of coronavirus deaths. While the UK is currently on a trajectory of having the highest number of Covid-19 deaths in Europe, professor Sir David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University warned against taking a ‘Eurovision approach’ and making ‘naive comparisons’. He told BBC […]

The House of Lords is to scrutinise the government’s coronavirus response with the formation of a new Covid-19 committee. The House of Lords Liaison Committee has recommended the immediate establishment to undertake ‘cross-cutting’ scrutiny of the long-term implications of coronavirus. The new committee should have a broad remit, looking at economic, societal and wider international […]

Former Brexit secretary David Davis has urged the government to ‘carry on’ with a Brexit deal during the coronavirus crisis, saying that the government can ‘take advantage’ of the economic uncertainty. Davis made the claim on LBC radio with Nick Ferrari, arguing the EU were ‘lunatics’ if they did not accept British demands for a […]

STEVE ANGLESEY looks at the Brexiteers making the headlines for the wrong reasons. THE FRUITCAKES Brexiteer environment minister (and former UKIP candidate) George Eustice suggested a shortage of fruit pickers, caused by the absence of EU migrants who normally do the dirty work, should be eased by workers currently on furlough. Former ‘Kipper MEP Godfrey […]

Sir Paul Nurse has slammed Boris Johnson’s government over coronavirus, claiming that they knew the UK was unprepared for a global pandemic as far back as 2016 and failed to act in time. The former Noble Peace Prize winner said the inaction had handicapped the NHS during the coronavirus outbreak. Nurse told Question Time viewers: […]

The Electoral Commission and Brexit donor and campaigner Arron Banks have settled a dispute over his Leave.EU campaign. The Electoral Commission had referred the Leave.EU co-founder to the NCA after his campaign was fined £70,000 for breaking electoral law. The unofficial Brexit campaign during the EU referendum was said to have overspent by £77,380 – […]

The government is once again dragging its feet over the coronavirus – this time over face masks. I just don’t get it. Why on earth is the government not advising us all to wear face-coverings? OK, not the masks needed by hospitals and front-line workers. But scarves or home-made masks. Imagine that a face-covering gave […]