News and Opinion

Former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine is urging people to vote either Lib Dem or ex-Tory MPs standing as independents in the general election. At a Lib Dem press conference in central London Heseltine made an impassioned case for Britain’s place in Europe, and of immigration to the UK. He lambasted the Tory party’s campaign […]

Boris Johnson’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings has warned the general election is ‘much tighter’ than the opinion polls suggest with the ‘very real possibility’ of another hung parliament. Despite the polls consistently giving a clear lead to the Tories, he said there was “a very real possibility” of another hung parliament on December 12. He […]

Hugh Grant has announced he plans to head out ‘on the stump’ with Dominic Grieve and will be supporting a ‘dolly mixture’ of candidates in a tactical voting drive. I am pleased and privileged to have your support and look forward to seeing you - DG— Dominic Grieve for Beaconsfield (@DominicGrieve1) November 27, 2019 The […]

Nigel Farage has addressed his Brexiteer supporters to claim that there is an ‘extreme cult’ in the Labour Party. Speaking at a party event in Doncaster, the Brexit Party leader said Corbyn was “completely in denial” about allegations of anti-Semitism in Labour. Addressing the audience at the local racecourse, Farage said: “Just look at Jeremy […]

A former leader of the miners’ struggle has spoken out on how Brexit has turned sour for him, saying it puts the UK ‘into the arms of Donald Trump’. Ken Capstick, former vice president of the Yorkshire National Union of Miners has said in a candid interview that his criticisms of the EU led him […]

After both Nicola Sturgeon and Jeremy Corbyn received a mauling from interviewer Andrew Neil all eyes were on Boris Johnson’s appearance in front of the BBC presenter. The BBC has confirmed by that both Jo Swinson and Nigel Farage have signed up to appear before the interviewer with their shows scheduled in for next Wednesday […]

New data from pro-EU campaign Best for Britain shows that the Conservatives could win up to 366 seats unless the electorate gets out and votes tactically, say the group. Their analysis of 39,476 voters using multilevel regression and post-stratification (MRP) found that this predicted majority depended on the Tories holding onto and gaining a “significant […]

A newspaper group has accused the Lib Dems of trying to pass the publication off as one of his group’s newspapers in the same area it circulates the Basingstoke Gazette. Newsquest editorial director Toby Granville said he would advise editors in the organisation not to publish campaign news for the Lib Dems unless the leaflet […]

After Boris Johnson decided to send a stand-in to the BBC’s seven-way election debate on Friday, Jeremy Corbyn has opted to do the same thing In their place will be chief secretary to the treasury, Rishi Sunak, for the Tories, and shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey for Labour. WATCH: Boris Johnson’s debate stand-in asked: ‘What’s […]

Boris Johnson apologised for the ‘hurt and offence’ that has been caused by Islamophobia within the Tory party. The prime minister said his party would hold an inquiry into “every manner of prejudice and discrimination” in his party, adding that it would start before Christmas. The Conservatives had been criticised for their handling of Islamophobia […]

Boris Johnson has been heckled at a hospital over his pledge to bring 50,000 more nurses into the NHS – with staff themselves asking if he has a ‘nurses tree’. Visiting a hospital in Penzance, West Cornwall the nurses had questions from the prime minister over his much-derided announcement to bring in 50,000 new nurses. […]

Comedian Russell Howard has taken on one of Matt Hancock’s general election video tweets, and won. It seems like the would-be Tory health and social care minister just can’t catch a break with his attempts to crack relatable social media. His latest video, in which he discusses the Tory manifesto’s aims for the NHS, has […]

Boris Johnson could be ’empty-chaired’ during a television debate after he has so far refused to confirm attendance. Boris Johnson and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage have yet to confirm attendance for an hour-long Emergency On Planet Earth debate on Channel 4 News, which will focus solely on climate change. The broadcaster said the debate […]

A general election candidate was booed by a hustings audience when he named the wrong constituency in his campaign speech. The Courier will be asking Mr Nicolson about this today but I can't guarantee he won't send the response to the Kirkintilloch Herald https://t.co/ZP0mmM8ovc— David Clegg (@davieclegg) November 27, 2019 The SNP’s John Nicolson did […]

Jeremy Corbyn has said Labour has obtained official documents showing that the US is demanding that the NHS will be ‘on the table’ in talks on a post-Brexit trade deal. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Photograph: Dominc Lipinski/PA Wire. – Credit: PA The Labour leader said the uncensored papers gave the lie to Boris Johnson’s […]

Jo Swinson has won a court case stopping the SNP distributing a leaflet which it claimed exposed the ‘hypocrisy’ of the Lib Dem leader. The SNP’s leaflet, produced for rival in East Dunbartonshire Amy Callaghan, claimed that £14,000 donation from a “fracking company”. But lawyers acting on behalf of the Lib Dem leader said the […]

A record-breaking number have applied to register to vote on the deadline day. A total of 659,666 people applied to register to vote on the day of the deadline to take part in the general election. It is the largest volume of applications submitted in a single day since registration data was first published in […]

The Lib Dems have increased pressure on Boris Johnson and the Tories after concerns that the party could work with their former coalition allies again once the votes are counted. A new Lib Dem poster criticises Boris Johnson. Photograph: Lib Dems. – Credit: Archant New general election posters from the anti-Brexit party accuse the prime […]

Boris Johnson’s chancellor Sajid Javid has refused to criticise the prime minister for his use of language to describe Muslim women. Speaking on the campaign trail, Javid struggled to explain Boris Johnson’s use of words like “letterboxes” and “bank robbers” to describe Muslim women wearing a veil, which he wrote in a column for The […]

Scotland will pay a ‘heavy price’ for the Conservatives’ Brexit obsession, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has said. Launching her party’s manifesto in Glasgow, Sturgeon said: “The leaders of the No campaign, made up of the Westminster parties, promised that if we voted No, we would get stability. “Since then, the Westminster parties have delivered not […]

Ursula von der Leyen has issued a spectacular put-down to the Brexit Party MEPs in a speech to the EU Commission. The president-elect of the commission was delivering a speech in Strasbourg to ask the parliament to approve the make-up of her new commission. She argued that the EU can shape the global order in […]

The New European has waylaid the prime minister during one of his campaigning walkabouts in an attempt to get some answers on the Russia report. Boris Johnson was given a free copy of this issue, with a cover design by Chris Barker depicting him as a Russian doll. Picture: Archant – Credit: Archant Boris Johnson […]

Campaigners for a second referendum have released a list of 25 recommended candidates in key marginal constituencies aimed at preventing the majority Boris Johnson needs for a free rein with a hard Brexit. A new organisation, Vote for a Final Say (VOFS), will be working with young activists from For our Future’s Sake to support […]

Nigel Farage has complained that the election has not ‘taken off’ as a poll put his Brexit Party on just 4% of support. Farage was meeting voters at a working men’s club in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, when he hinted he could spoil his ballot paper on polling day. He said he thought there would be […]

A former speechwriter for the Conservative Party and its prime ministers has hit out against the current state of the party, challenging the former secretary of housing on his support of a ‘racist, Islamophobic’ party leader. Ian Birrell was speaking on Politics Live when he challenged James Brokenshire on his views. Birrell said: “It’s the […]

The actor Hugh Grant has revealed his support for tactical voting in the general election in a series of tweets. Hugh Grant has expressed his support for tactical voting in a series of tweets. Photo: Twitter – Credit: Archant Famous for many roles – and notably for starring as David in the 2003 Christmas RomCom […]

Boris Johnson is weakening his negotiating hand with the EU for short-term popularity with British voters – but his trade deal with the EU will be even harder to achieve than Theresa May’s, warned a former ambassador to the bloc. Sir Ivan Rogers, who resigned in 2017 as the senior civil servant dealing with Brexit […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY looks back on the life of Svetlana Alliluyeva. Soviet politician Lavrentiy Beria with Josef Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva, USSR, 1930s. Beria (1899-1953) was First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party during the 1930s. He began working in the security apparatus in the early 1920s and went (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images) […]