News and Opinion

Boris Johnson could walk away from trade talks with the European Union unless there is sufficient progress by June. The government has set out its plans for the talks ahead of the first round of negotiations next week, making clear that it “will not negotiate any arrangements in which the UK does not have control […]

More than a fifth of British people would trust artificial intelligence over politicians to handle Brexit, new research suggests. When asked about AI and politics, 22% said they would trust an AI program over politicians to handle complex negotiations such as Brexit. However, the research, carried out by AI firm Fountech.ai, indicated that public opinion […]

As the Brexiteers celebrate leaving the European Union they are yet to realise that their hopes of ‘sovereignty’ will never truly exist. The government talk of taking back control from Brussels, but then are quite willing to pass over key strategic sectors to the Chinese. First Huawei are able to bid for the sensitive 5G […]

Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein to be stripped of his CBE, a Labour MP has urged. Chi Onwurah has written to officials in the Cabinet Office calling for his CBE honour to be removed following the Hollywood producer’s rape conviction. A New York City jury found Weinstein guilty of rape and sexual assault on Monday, […]

Boris Johnson won the election because Labour ‘made him look good’, Sir Keir Starmer has claimed. Sir Keir denied that the prime minister’s force of personality was a key part of the Tory victory, telling ITV’s Peston: “No. We made him look good. “I think I went to 44 constituencies with campaign teams in the […]

As the public ponders when the Russian interference report will be released, the Tories continue to take money off those with links to Vladimir Putin. Lubov Chernukhin, wife of Russia’s former finance minister Vladimir Chernukhin, was one half of the pair who paid £90,000 for an opportunity to play tennis with Boris Johnson and the […]

DON BRIND, a former press officer for the Labour party, suggests how it can get back into the debate and who is the best placed leadership candidate to do so. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and former Labour leader Ed Milliband (second left) speak with flood affected residents in Doncaster during the general election campaign. […]

Who is on Question Time tonight? Here’s your guide… The BBC’s flagship current affairs programme tonight comes from Middlesbrough, hometown of gravel-voiced guitar stalwart Chris Rea. But which of the guests will have nothing to fear – and who’s on the road to Hell? Here’s your complete guide to the panel… Edward Argar Who? Well, […]

Most people are worried about meat quality standards being lowered in a future trade deal with the United States, a new poll has found. More than four fifths of 2,000 people surveyed voiced concern about meat standards, Unison said. The union said its poll also showed that just over half of people believe government regulations […]

The Department for Work and Pensions has been accused of a cover-up after it emerged that officials destroyed reviews into suicides that took place more than five years ago, citing data protection rules for their actions. Almost 50 internal reviews carried out before 2015 have been destroyed, according to a freedom of information response seen […]

JAMES BALL on the Tory Brexiteer’s realisation that Britain does need experts after all. Britain’s Brexiteer government, it seems, hasn’t had enough of experts after all. In an interview this week, Iain Duncan Smith – the former Conservative leader and prominent hard Brexit backer – made the staggeringly original observation that the UK hasn’t done […]

Sajid Javid has used his resignation speech in the House of Commons to take a swipe at Dominic Cummings for the ultimatum that was issued by Boris Johnson over his special advisers. The former chancellor told MPs: “A chancellor, like all cabinet ministers, has to be able to give candid advice to a prime minister […]

STEVE ANGLESEY on the similarities between home secretary Priti Patel and her old classmate Geri Horner (née Halliwell). Given the name of a famous person and the instruction to name a single interesting fact about them, most people will come up with the same set of answers. David Bowie? His eyes were different colours. Shot-putting […]

Jeremy Corbyn won’t be cutting anything out for Lent because he has already given up ‘so many things’, his spokesman claimed. The Labour leader, a teetotaler, rarely has the heating on in his office and there’s “not a lot of meat available”, according to his aides. Asked what the outgoing leader would give up for […]

The Netherlands. Cambridgeshire. Flat Stanley. The Earth (according to Andrew Flintoff). All things considerably less flat than today’s prime minister’s questions. It’s partly Jeremy Corbyn unaccountably still being there, of course, and partly the newbie Tory MPs queueing up to humiliate themselves, their families and their constituencies to ask fawning questions of just where in […]

Boris Johnson has been branded a ‘part-time prime minister’ as Jeremy Corbyn confronted him over his ‘silent’ response to floods. The Labour leader urged the government to “step up to the plate” and protect communities after claiming Mr Johnson had been “sulking” in his grace-and-favour mansion in Kent. Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Corbyn told […]

The BBC has defended a journalist who described events in Parliament Square on Brexit night as ‘very white’. The corporation received more than 200 complaints about the BBC News channel’s coverage of the night the UK left the European Union on January 31st. At least 209 complaints related to the fact that reporter Geeta Guru-Murthy, […]

A commemorative gold and silver Brexit 50p coin has sold for £60,000 at the Tories’ latest black and white fundraising ball. Boris Johnson joined cabinet members at this year’s venue at the Battersea Evolution, which was compered by Go Compare advert star Wynne Evans, and attended by more than 650 people. A gold and silver […]

The mayor of London has given Keir Starmer a boost in the Labour leadership race by backing him to replace Jeremy Corbyn. Khan said the frontrunner in the race to replace Jeremy Corbyn is the “best person to unite our party” and put Labour in government. The Labour mayor, who was MP for Tooting before […]

Labour officials have denied the party intended to deceive members by sending an email endorsement from John McDonnell backing Rebecca Long-Bailey as ballots dropped in the leadership race. Although the move is not unusual for the party to send out mass emails on behalf of candidates, this one did not include the disclaimer making clear […]

The deputy leader of Sinn Féin has said that Ireland must prepare for a border poll within the next five years. Speaking at a public meeting in Dublin’s Liberty Hall, Michelle O’Neill accused the leaders of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael – Micheal Martin and Leo Varadkar – of doing nothing to prepare. O’Neill said: […]

The boss of the Wetherspoon pub chain believes the public will ‘shun’ EU goods if they give the UK a bad deal at the end of the year. In his latest Brexit rant Tim Martin claimed that Brussels has become a “laughing stock in most of the world” and said the public were fed up […]

The leader of the right-wing Tory pressure group the European Research Group (ERG) has stepped down. Steve Baker, the self-styled “Brexit hardman”, said that after five years of chairing ERG it was time to give way to others on the issue. He said the group – whose failure to support Theresa May’s Brexit deal eventually […]

Boris Johnson’s letter accompanying a delivery of the Conservative’s Brexit tea towels has raised eyebrows after claiming he will bring broadband to ‘hedgerows’. Thanking buyers for purchasing a “tea towel with a dodgy mock-up of me on it”, he explains that Brexit is now “finally crossed of the list”. In one dubious claim he says: […]

An SNP MP has urged BBC chiefs to review the practices of Question Time after a row surrounding an audience member who called for immigrants to be stopped from coming to the UK. The rant from the bigoted woman, later identified as a Tommy Robinson supporter, appeared on the programme’s social media feeds without any […]

The row over a bigoted member of the Question Time audience deepened after claims that she was a far-right right activist who may have stood in a general election for the National Front. An audience member on Question Time calls for government to close all the borders. Photograph: BBC. – Credit: Archant Questions have been […]

Labour’s only Scottish MP has received the backing of Tony Blair in the party’s deputy leadership race. The three-time election winner said Ian Murray “gets it” and is urging Labour members to give the Edinburgh South MP their vote in the five-candidate contest. In Labour’s landslide victory in 1997 that swept Blair into Downing Street, […]

After securing blue passports the Tory Brexiteers are continuing their mission to get everything to return to their favourite colour by calling for the police to follow suit. Conservative MP Richard Drax has called for police forces to ditch their yellow hi-vis jackets and return to the traditional blue uniform. Claiming that police officers now […]