News and Opinion

A snap poll has shown that a majority of people think the government has done a bad job delivering personal protective equipment (PPE) to the NHS during the coronavirus outbreak. A survey by YouGov found that 65% of respondents felt the government had poorly handled the delivery of vital PPE to frontline NHS workers. Around […]

The pandemic has reset the world. It would be a big mistake to try to go back to the old one, argues former Green MEP CATHERINE ROWETT. Just four months ago, the UK elected a government which had two jobs to do: to get Brexit done and to organise the COP26 UN climate summit in […]

The culture secretary has claimed the Cabinet Office is rebutting around 70 false narratives about coronavirus every week. Oliver Dowden told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee in a virtual meeting that its disinformation unit was co-ordinating with other government departments to tackle fake news about the virus, including No 10 and the […]

A survey has found that more than half of Britons do not care if Northern Ireland left the United Kingdom, while many supported a border poll. Prime Minister Boris Johnson (left), First Minister, Arlene Foster of the DUP (centre right), deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill (centre left) of Sinn Fein, and former Northern Ireland minister […]

The former chancellor George Osborne has said the country faces a power vacuum if it does not appoint an acting prime minister during the coronavirus pandemic. George Osborne told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Emma Barnett that without a legitimate decision-maker during the Covid-19 outbreak, the government was jeopardising ‘the health and recuperation of a country.’ […]

Following the chairman of the Brexit Party’s suggestion Britain should boycott Chinese ventilators, the political organisation’s leader has gone one better. Nigel Farage is now calling for Chinese goods to be boycotted over the coronavirus pandemic. The Brexiteer, in an interview on the Breitbart News Daily Show on Sirius XM Patriot, was the latest politician […]

Scientists admit they do not know how long antibody protection will last for coronavirus, suggesting herd immunity as a strategy may not be practical. Asked whether it was possible that people in Britain could be immune for a few weeks or a month before being able to get or spread the virus again, Professor David […]

Prime minister’s questions returned today – and like the rest of us, MPs were largely forced to do it via Zoom MPs Peter Bone, Liz Saville Roberts, Stephen Kinnock and Barry Gardiner speaking via videolink during Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons. Photograph: House of Commons/PA Wire. – Credit: PA You could be […]

The EU has refuted comments from Matt Hancock that the UK has taken part in its Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) bulk-buying scheme. Health secretary Hancock told reporters on Tuesday that his department had accepted an invitation to join the EU joint PPE procurement scheme as an ‘associate’ and had ‘yet to receive any PPE from […]

A Labour politician has been sacked and forced to apologise for ‘crass and offensive comments’ after Boris Johnson’s stay in intensive care. Julie Heselwood, a councillor and executive member at Leeds City Council, urged a Facebook post to tell people not to ‘fall for it’ after Johnson was taken to hospital with coronavirus. Responding to […]

Readers have their say about Boris Johnson and the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. It is an observable fact that organisations and even countries rapidly take on the characteristics of whoever is leading them at the time. The UK response to the COVID-19 crisis is no exception. Bluster, half-truths, unrealistic future projections and avoidances […]

Tory care minister Helen Whately has been accused of giving ‘wrong’ numbers of frontline coronavirus deaths during another ‘car crash’ interview. Whately appeared on Good Morning Britain where she was quizzed by presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid on the deaths of healthcare professionals in the NHS and the government’s target of reaching 100,000 coronavirus […]

Labour leader Keir Starmer has accused of being ‘too soft’ in attempts to hold the government to account over the coronavirus crisis. Alastair Campbell, former director of communications for Tony Blair, said Labour should show ‘no mercy’ in highlighting the mistakes made by ministers over things like testing and personal protecitve equipment (PPE). His comments […]

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will go head to head with foreign secretary Dominic Raab in the first round of Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) since Easter. Starmer will make his debut at the dispatch box on Wednesday where he is expected to question Raab on his government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak. The newly-elected leader […]

An RAF plane, believed to be carrying a delayed consignment of personal protective equipment (PPE) for NHS staff from Turkey, has landed in the UK. Flight tracker RadarBox showed the Airbus A400-M registered ZM416 depart Istanbul and land just after 3.30am on Wednesday at RAF Brize Norton. The plane had been dispatched from the Oxfordshire […]

Despite the over-70s being advised to remain self-isolated at home during the coronavirus outbreak, Jeremy Corbyn has turned up in the House of Commons chamber to ask a question. Jeremy Corbyn flouts coronavirus guidance to attend the House of Commons. Photograph: Parliament TV. – Credit: Archant Parliament has seen the introduction of a ‘virtual parliament’ […]

The Lib Dems have joined calls for an independent inquiry into the government’s ‘shocking failures’ over coronavirus. Ed Davey with fellow Lib Dem MPs and party president Sal Brinton. Photograph: Lib Dems. – Credit: Archant Sir Ed Davey, the party’s acting co-leader, called for the fact-finding mission to have the ‘strongest possible powers’ in order […]

An MP has claimed a senior civil servant in the Foreign Office has been ‘leant on’ after he sent a letter to the select committee withdrawing his remarks about government failure to join EU bulk-buying schemes. Sir Simon McDonald, hours before sending the letter, told the foreign affairs committee that ‘it was a political decision’ […]

Keir Starmer has led on accusations of the government’s slow response to the coronavirus at Prime Minister’s Questions – and outwitted Dominic Raab at his first outting. Labour’s new leader and foreign secretary Raab – deputising for Boris Johnson as the prime minister continued his recovery from Covid-19 – faced each other in a sparsely […]

A third of Europe’s tech start-ups could be damaged by the impact of the coronavirus crisis, just as they had hoped to gain the advantage over UK rivals distracted by Brexit. New figures show that 6,000 European tech companies could lose customers, revenues and have to cut staff, as the impact of Europe’s lockdown takes […]

Matt Hancock has denied the UK’s failure to take part in an EU scheme to procure equipment to tackle coronavirus was a ‘political decision’. The Foreign Office’s top civil servant Sir Simon McDonald had said that there was no e-mail error as the prime minister’s office had previously claimed, but ‘as a matter of fact […]

The Liberal Democrats have called on the government to grant all foreign NHS workers a right to remain in the UK. Lib Dems home affairs spokesperson, Christine Jardine, said foreign NHS staff were putting their lives at risk every day to treat patients with the coronavirus and should be thanked with a permanent right to […]

The Foreign Office’s top civil servant Sir Simon McDonald has admitted the government’s failure to join an EU bulk-buying scheme was a ‘political’ decision, not an e-mail communication error. McDonald smiled awkwardly as he initially tried to use the government line that the UK ‘left the European Union on January 31st’ in response to a […]

Denmark and Poland have been praised for refusing to let companies registered in offshore tax havens access economic support during the coronavirus. Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki has previously said that companies wishing to receive financial support from the government must pay domestic business taxes. ‘Let’s end tax havens, which are the bane of modern […]

A former Tory defence minister admitted his government could face a ‘Chilcot-style’ inquiry at the end of the coronavirus epidemic. The chair of the Defence Select Committee Tobias Ellwood told Channel 4 News viewers he expected members of his own government will be summoned to an inquiry into their handling of the coronavirus crisis. The […]

Boris Johnson is to telephone Donald Trump on Tuesday afternoon, and will hold an audience with the Queen later this week. In a sign that the prime minister is preparing to return to work, he will talk to the US president on to discuss the G7 response to the coronavirus. Johnson is also expected to […]

The government has pulled its controversial immigration bill, that seeks to introduce a points-based system after Brexit, from House of Commons business. The bill – which would have formally ceased freedom of movement with Europe after the Brexit transition period – was pulled from the Commons order paper by Jacob Rees-Mogg ahead of a second […]

Theresa May’s former deputy has issued a warning to Boris Johnson’s government that a Brexit delay is now ‘inevitable’ due to coronavirus. David Liddington, former Tory MP and de facto deputy prime minister to Theresa May, said plans to push ahead with a hard Brexit this year are likely to trigger a backlash from the […]