News and Opinion

Up to 180 Romanian workers are being urgently flown in as pickers to help farmers across Britain after it emerged that not enough Britons registered to work on farms. In a telling sign of the conundrums the country faces with a points-based immigration system that overlooks the value low-skilled labour, a plane filled with Eastern […]

Officials in Brussels have told Britain they are no longer focusing on Brexit talks, stressing that their attention has turned to battling Covid-19. EU negotiators have told their British counterparts that talks around Britain’s future relationship with Europe is now a second-rate issue as all 27 member states scramble to fight off Covid-19. Talking to […]

With no PMQs to review for a while, we look back on some classic encounters. This week it’s Gordon Brown’s first as prime minister That Gordon Brown would succeed Tony Blair was a given, even more so than Keir Starmer succeeding Jeremy Corbyn. John McDonnell attempted to launch a challenge to the chancellor from the […]

The government’s slow response to coronavirus has led to deaths, a former chief scientific adviser has said. The EU rejected Matt Hancock’s claims that his department had participated in the bloc’s PPE bulk-buy scheme. Photograph: Pippa Fowles/Crown Copyright/10 Downing Street/PA Wire. – Credit: PA Professor Sir David King told LBC radio he did not know […]

The boss of a Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) distributor has said it was right to divert stocks from Scotland to English care homes amidst the Coronavirus epidemic. Sam Gompels, managing director of Gompels HealthCare – a Wiltshire-based PPE distributor – said it was not Public Health England’s (PHE) fault that Scottish health authorities were too […]

A care minister has been accused of laughing while being quizzed about the number of deaths in care homes during the coronavirus outbreak. Helen Whatley is interviewed by Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain. Photograph: ITV. – Credit: Archant Helen Whately was being interviewed by Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan as the host held […]

Shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murrayis calling for an ‘immediate’ extension to the Brexit transition period due to the coronavirus outbreak. In a letter to Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, Murray said ‘this is not a time for constitutional politics’, adding the government focus should be on tackling Covid-19. The transition period for the UK leaving the […]

A heartwarming clip thanking overseas workers for their contribution during the Coronavirus epidemic has sparked an outpouring of support for immigrants in the UK. A two-minute clip thanking overseas workers for their efforts during the Coronavirus epidemic has sparked an outpouring of support for immigrants in the UK. The #YouClapForMeNow campaign posted a heartwarming video […]

Sir Keir Starmer has said the Labour Party must concentrate on getting itself into a position to form the next government after party members argued over a leaked dossier revealing splits at its headquarters. The 860-page leaked document found ‘no evidence’ of anti-Semitism complaints being handled differently from other forms of complaint, or of current […]

Labour’s leader has argued that the UK was too slow to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, and has not learned quickly enough from other countries. ‘I think that some of the decisions made in the last few weeks were too slow and didn’t learn quickly enough from other countries, let’s not repeat that,’ Starmer told […]

While the media chastised politicians who have been visiting their second homes and flouting the coronavirus guidance, they have welcomed a decision to send Boris Johnson to his country house in Buckinghamshire. Just days before the prime minister left hospital, newspapers were criticising Scotland’s former chief medical officer Catherine Calderwood for breaching lockdown rules to […]

A Tory MP has called for an end to a nation-wide lockdown by the end of May because ‘money does not grow on trees.’ Tory MP Sir Robert Syms has called on the government to open up the economy by the end of May because ‘money does not grow on trees.’ The member for Poole […]

The UK government has described the EU’s bulk-buying scheme for personal protective equipment (PPE) as ‘inadequate’, despite it delivering £1.3 billion of equipment to 25 EU countries. Work and pensions secretary Thérèse Coffey told LBC’s Nick Ferrari that the country was in a ‘better state now’ in regard to PPE than had it joined the […]

After Boris Johnson praised NHS medics for helping to ‘save his life’ during the coronavirus, a list of MPs that voted against a pay rise for nurses in 2017 circulated, with the prime minister one of those to vote against. Some Conservative MPs cheered as the governing party defeated a Labour amendment to the Queen’s […]

The UK economy could shrink by 35% in the coming months, according to Britain’s fiscal watchdog, but optimistically believes the economy will bounce back in 2021 when the Brexit transition ends. In its first estimate of the economic toll taken by the coronavirus crisis, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said unemployment could hit 3.4 […]

A minister has claimed the government was ‘well prepared’ for the coronavirus outbreak on breakfast TV, despite mounting evidence showing the opposite. A minister has claimed the government was ‘well prepared’ for the coronavirus outbreak during a grilling on breakfast television. Work & pensions secretary Thérèse Coffey appeared on BBC Breakfast to answer questions from […]

Despite an announcement more than two weeks ago, James Dyson’s business has still not had the go-ahead to produce ventilators to help the NHS during the coronavirus. A government official had admitted that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has still not given approval to big-name UK engineering companies to produce the life-saving […]

Eamonn Holmes has attempted to ‘clarify’ his comments on 5G technology and coronavirus after hundreds of complaints to OFCOM. His comments on This Morning sparked 419 complaints after Alice Beer dismissed the conspiracy theories ‘ridiculous’ and ‘incredibly stupid’. The broadcaster, who was co-presenting with wife Ruth Langsford, said that ‘it’s very easy to say it […]

Constitutional experts have set out their proposals for a virtual parliament which will enable MPs and peers to hold Boris Johnson’s government to account during the coronavirus. Professor Meg Russell, from University College London, and Dr Ruth Fox, from the Hansard Society think- tank, said any changes must be temporary and should not be used […]

Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings is back in Downing Street after recovering from coronavirus. Downing Street officials were questioned by journalists wondering why Cummings appeared to be back and ignoring the government’s own advice over COVID-19. It follows a photographer capturing Cummings not maintaining a two-metre distance from fellow aide Cleo Watson. In the […]

Boris Johnson has paid tribute to the NHS and praised the medics from New Zealand and Portugal who he said had saved his life. The prime minister said he had personally ‘seen the pressure the NHS is under’ and listed the essential staff including cleaners, cooks and all healthcare workers who he said had shown […]

Boris Johnson has paid tribute to the NHS, saying there is ‘no question’ it saved his life after he contracted coronavirus. The Prime Minister, speaking in a video released shortly after he was discharged from hospital, admitted there was a 48-hour period when things ‘could have gone either way’. Downing Street had insisted the PM […]

Jeremy Corbyn’s allies have been accused of using a report to ‘smear whistleblowers’ in a bid to ‘discredit allegations’ of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party during his tenure. An extensive internal investigation carried out in the final month of Corbyn’s reign has concluded that ‘factional opposition’ in the upper echelons of the party towards the […]

More than 6,000 Britons have taken German citizenship since the Brexit vote. According to the EU’s statistical body Eurostat more than 6,000 UK nationals have taken up German citizenship with 3,000 becoming French since 2016. There has been a sixfold increase in the number of people in the UK taking EU citizenship since 2015, when […]

The words of the British Queen, King Philippe of Belgium and Queen Margrethe II of Denmark were echoed throughout Europe and around the world. Their messages have resonated far greater than the words of any prime minister. The British Queen’s address to the nation evoked huge interest, respect and widespread appreciation. Nearly 24 million people […]

The government must resume parliament business, whether it is in the building or in an online format instead, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is urging. New Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has demanded ‘urgent talks’ as he wrote a letter to leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg saying there must be ‘scrutiny’ of the government […]

Business secretary Alok Sharma has become the latest minister not to directly apologise for the government’s failure to get NHS workers the personal protective equipment (PPE) they need. Pressed on Sky News, the business secretary said: ‘It is our job to make sure we get that health care equipment, that PPE, out to them. ‘Right […]

Former Today programme presenter John Humphrys has claimed that BBC bosses are privately telling interviewers to go easy on ministers during the coronavirus outbreak. Writing for the Daily Mail in a weekly column, the former broadcaster wrote: ‘I’m told BBC bosses are warning interviewers not to put ministers under pressure. ‘Why? If the questioning is […]