News and Opinion

Boris Johnson has pulled out of an appearance before senior MPs with less than 24 hours’ notice – asking for it to be arranged for five or six months after he became prime minister Boris Johnson had been due to face questioning by the Commons Liaison Committee – made up of select committee chairmen – […]

A complaint that Nigel Farage has appeared less on television since he denounced Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal has been met with some surprise. Alastair Campbell, appearing on the BBC’s The Andrew Neil Show, noted that broadcasters appeared less keen on the Brexit Party leader now he is attacking the prime minister’s Brexit deal rather than […]

Boris Johnson has been told he should apologise for his government’s contradictory remarks about checks on goods moving between Northern Ireland and Great Britain after Brexit. Home secretary Priti Patel was unable to clarify what checks will take place and was not able to rule out the involvement of Border Force officers when she appeared […]

Who is on Question Time tonight and where do they stand on Brexit? Here’s your guide… The BBC’s flagship current affairs programme tonight comes from South Shields, hometown of 50% of Little Mix. But whose performance will we Salute – and whose Glory Days are long gone? Here’s you full guide to the panel and […]

The home secretary has been unable to clarify what checks will take place on goods moving between Northern Ireland and Great Britain after Brexit. Priti Patel, who did not rule out the involvement of Border Force officers, said she would seek clarification on the matter, after her appearance at the Home Affairs Committee failed to […]

A Brexiteer MP who has been pleading with the Polish prime minister to veto the requested extension of Article 50, has been summarily shut down. Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, has claimed he is in regular contact with Mateusz Morawiecki, prime minister of Poland’s rightwing government over the last months. The 27 EU […]

There has been a lot of speculation about the future of the 50p coin planned to commemorate Brexit, which is almost certainly delayed after the House of Commons scuppered Boris Johnson’s plans. Did they say 'we don't want to give commercially sensitive information away to all the other 50p manufacturers'? https://t.co/Rb76phewb0— Simon Neville (@SimonNeville) October […]

Remember the 2017 general election? It resulted in a hung parliament which created another Brexit impasse. Holding another will still fail to solve the limbo, argues JOHNNY LUCAS. Our country is officially in Brexit limbo. Despite winning the vote for a second reading, after their defeat on Tuesday night, the government pulled their own Withdrawal […]

BARNABY TOWNS warns those looking for a second referendum while Boris Johnson is in power to be careful what they wish for. Boris Johnson is Britain’s political celebrity par excellence, taking that art to heights that the likes of his predecessor as London mayor, Ken Livingstone, and Hartlepool mayor Stuart Drummond, elected under the guise […]

Brexit is a battle of two different political agendas, argues MARY HONEYBALL. Remainers are battling to save the soul of Britain. Brexit is more than leaving the European Union – it’s the battle for the soul of Britain and ‘Super Saturday’ could not have provided a starker contrast about what is at stake. On the […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY takes a look back at the life of French film director François Truffaut who helped found one of the most influential movements in the history of cinema – French New Wave. In the final scene of 1959’s The 400 Blows, the film’s teenage protagonist Antoine picks up the ball to take a throw-in […]

A Tory Brexiteer has been accused of throwing the DUP under a bus just 24 hours after he claimed the Brexit deal breached the Good Friday Agreement. Andrew Bridgen appeared on Channel 4 News after the Brexit deal was announced by Boris Johnson. Immediately after the announcement the DUP had announced their objections, but the […]

The ‘Get Ready for Brexit’ campaign not a good look for either the government or marketing, writes JON GOULDING. Not only does it damage public trust in the marketing industry, he says it also shows that even £100 million can’t buy you a smart campaign. Last week the government rolled out a ‘Get Ready for […]

After 92 days in post, Boris Johnson finally deigned to appear at his second prime minister’s questions today There are many reasons for the tardy attendance rate, of course – an illegal prorogation of Parliament, a party conference meaning he had to send dead-eyed-shark-in-a-suit Dominic Raab in his place, a Queen’s Speech setting out a […]

eBay sellers in Northern Ireland will be among traders who will have to submit declaration forms when sending goods to the rest of the UK under Boris Johnson’s deal, the government has admitted. Did Boris Johnson mislead the House of Commons today? Watch this video and decide for yourselfAnd make sure you've signed the letter […]

Brexit Party MEP Ann Widdecombe has come out in defence of a former Nazi concentration camp guard who is on trial in Germany, saying that the case against him ‘lacks proportionality’. Widdecombe said that resistance from Bruno Dey, who was 17 when he guarded prisoners at Stuthof camp in Gdansk, would have done “absolutely nothing […]

The leader of the opposition and the prime minister have met to discuss a new Brexit bill timetable. The meeting was arranged after a vote in the House of Commons saw the programme motion for Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill defeated by MPs. Following the meeting, a Labour party spokesman said: “Jeremy Corbyn reiterated Labour’s offer […]

A shadow minister has been mocked after he ‘exclusively revealed’ his party would win the next election. Appearing on Sky News, Richard Burgon claimed that he expected Jeremy Corbyn would manage to boot Boris Johnson out of 10 Downing Street, despite YouGov polls showing that his party significantly trailed the Tories, with some polls even […]

A Belgian MEP has called for a one-year extension to Brexit while Britain makes up its mind on the way forward. Philippe Lamberts appeared on Radio 4’s Today programme when he was asked if he agreed with the Benn act proposal that a three-month extension was “the way forward”. The Green MEP, who sits on […]

Business benefit to the UK is increasingly being sought as a condition of the UK’s aid spending since the 2016 referendum, according to a new report. Funds under the post-Brexit ‘global Britain’ agenda, such as the £1.2 billion Prosperity Fund started in 2016, are “explicitly tied” to mutual prosperity, with “new economic opportunities” as a […]

CHARLIE connelly on the death of a poet who chronicled his city’s epic story. There was something terribly poignant about how Ciaran Carson, who died on October 6, left us just when Northern Ireland was anchored to the top of the British news agenda for the first time in two decades. Diagnosed with terminal lung […]

Former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine has said he believes that he would be behind bars if he had acted in the same way Boris Johnson had as prime minister. Originally appearing on Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Lord Heseltine explained that the way Boris Johnson acted over the extension letter, by sending different copies was […]

From the days of his grandfather – a British army general who trained the IRA on his estate – Cathal Ó Gabhann’s fascinating family history has been entwined with the Irish border. In this powerful essay, he looks back at the past and reflects on what Brexit means for the next generations. Christopher Dorman O’Gowan, […]

A Brexiteer has suggested she feels no guilt about Northern Ireland when it comes to the Brexit deal, because she argued her constituency is ‘miles away’. Appearing on Sky News, Kay Burley asked Andrea Jenkyns how she squares being a unionist with “casting aside” the DUP by putting a border down the Irish sea. The […]

Mark Francois still believes Boris Johnson is doing what he can to take the UK out of the EU in the next week, despite MPs delivering a setback for the prime minister over his timetable. The Tory Brexiteer had claimed on television in September that if Boris Johnson asked for another Brexit extension “this country […]

Broad and wide mean pretty much the same thing – they are very close to being synonyms. The Oxford English Dictionary defines broad as “extended in the direction measured from side to side; wide”; and wide is also defined as “having great extent from side to side”. Both broad and wide are also said by […]

Boris Johnson has won the support of the House of Commons on his Brexit bill in principle, but rejected his proposed timetable, calling for more time to debate and discuss the plan. The House voted by 322 to 308 against the programme motion which would have required the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) to clear all […]

329 to 299 to approve the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) at second reading – a majority of 30 – but how did your MP vote? These MPs voted with the government on the Brexit bill. 285 Conservative MPs: Nigel Adams (Selby and Ainsty), Bim Afolami (Hitchin and Harpenden), Adam Afriyie (Windsor), Peter Aldous (Waveney), Lucy […]