News and Opinion

As a comedian, MITCH BENN knows how it feels to stand before a crowd that’s booing you. Here’s when it happened to Prime Minister. Of all the disparate elements in the jumble of intermittently remunerative hobbies which in my case passes for a ‘career’, writing this column is one of the most rewarding (and indeed […]

Despite the divisions wrought by Brexit, there is still a middle ground left in the UK. Unfortunately, our political system is not designed to cope with compromise, says historian GLEN O’HARA. A soft Brexit is the option palatable to the largest number of people. Source: YouGov – Credit: Source: YouGov For nearly a hundred years, […]

Leading judges are expected to announce their decision on Friday on the latest legal attack brought over Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament for five weeks. Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett and two other judges at the High Court in London have been urged to find that Johnson’s August 28 advice to the Queen to […]

The prime minister’s day went from bad from worse – after his brother resigned from government and then a man heckled him when he arrived in Yorkshire… right in from of TV cameras. https://twitter.com/MonarchyUK/status/1169651799827124225 BBC cameras witnessed a man approach Boris Johnson in the Leave stronghold of Morley in Leeds to give him his view […]

The arrival of Dylin the dog in Downing Street won’t help his ailing owner, says STEVE ANGLESEY If anyone doubted that Boris Johnson would be a dutiful pet owner, just look at the dog’s breakfast he made of his big speech in Downing Street at the start of the week. Looking hounded and going round […]

Failing to get Brexit right risks people being killed in Northern Ireland, a former Conservative Party chairman has warned. Conservative peer Lord Patten gave the stark assessment as he highlighted what he felt the dangers of a return to a hard Irish border were. He was speaking as peers debated proposed legislation aimed at blocking […]

When Cressida Dick said a decision would be made about the breaches of electoral law by Leave campaigners within ‘weeks and not months’ in May it was assumed more news would be imminent. A projection of Democracy 999’s message on the House of Commons. Photograph: Twitter/Democracy999. – Credit: Archant She said: “I think it’s fair […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg’s criticism of a doctor who advised the government on the Yellowhammer documents was the deciding factor for Phillip Lee to leave the Tories for the Lib Dems. David Nicholl, a consultant neurologist with Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, called an LBC phone-in show and asked the leader of the Commons what […]

Two versions of the same newspaper have gone with completely opposite reactions to political events – to serve very different audiences Both the Sun and its sister paper, the Scottish Sun, take on the bruising events of prime minister’s questions, which saw Boris Johnson call Jeremy Corbyn “chicken” on the same day the prime minister […]

Nigel Farage isn’t usually lost for words, but when he bumped into anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray he suddenly fell silent. Steve Bray with anti-Brexit protesters in Westminster. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA. – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images Holding two signs making clear his opposition to Brexit, Bray starts to shout at Nigel Farage as he leaves a […]

Boris Johnson’s advice to the Queen to suspend parliament for five weeks was an ‘unlawful abuse of power’, leading judges have heard. Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, sitting with two other judges at the High Court in London, is being urged to make a declaration that the decision taken to advise the Queen to prorogue […]

The prime minister has suffered another political blow, this time delivered by his own brother as Jo Johnson decides to stand down both as an MP and a minister. It's been an honour to represent Orpington for 9 years & to serve as a minister under three PMs. In recent weeks I've been torn between […]

A caller who said he voted Leave has argued with Nigel Farage after he told him that now backs the revocation of Article 50. Len from Loughton rang into the Brexit Party leader’s LBC radio show to tell him: “I voted to Leave, but now I have changed my mind, and the government should revoke […]

MICHAEL WHITE on where the blame lies as Britain descends into dangerous times Yet another rollercoaster of a week in which the words which did it for me were not “dictatorship” or “coup”. They weren’t even “constitutional outrage” or any of the other angry epithets thrown around by frustrated opponents of Boris Johnson’s Brexit zig-zag. […]

Independent MP Luciana Berger has announced that she is joining the Liberal Democrats, giving the party their 16th MP. Luciana Berger has joined the Liberal Democrats. Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images The fifth addition to the Lib Dems’ MPs roster in the last few months, Berger left the Labour party to become […]

A bill amendment requiring a vote on Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement bill has passed in very odd circumstances, with some MPs crying foul. EXTREMELY unusual moment Stephen Kinnock's amendment to bring back the Withdrawal Agreement passes by accident, because no-one was ready to count the votes against it pic.twitter.com/H3aPt3ljY2— Alex Partridge (@alexpartridge87) September 4, 2019 […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL says the recent wave of street protests is a response to the rise of shameless politics. It was hardly the best look for Boris Johnson, speaking above the din of “Stop the Coup” from Whitehall protesters as he struggled to bring peace to his party. He is going to have to get used […]

A reporter from The Sun has joined in with Boris Johnson’s ‘bully boy’ tactics by handing a ‘great big girl’s blouse’ to Jeremy Corbyn as he left his house. Prime Minister Boris Johnson during Prime Minister’s Questions. Photograph: House of Commons/PA Wire. – Credit: PA A reporter was waiting to give him the Marks & […]

ANDREW ADONIS imagines how Winston Churchill would address the House of Commons in 2019: ‘Do not forget Britain’s European destiny’ Disraeli quipped that the House of Lords is proof of life after death, for which I can vouch. Here, I imagine what we might hear if there was a House of Commons in the afterlife, […]

Brexiteer MP Andrew Bridgen has offered a bizarre explanation as to why he should not lose the Tory whip if he opposes the government in any Brexit vote – explaining his rebellions were on specific projects. Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, the government had said that Boris Johnson would also remove the whip from […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg’s disregard for parliament became an internet hit for all the wrong reasons after he was snapped ‘lounging languidly’ on the front bench during a debate. A Jacob Rees-Mogg lookalike campaigns against the prorogation of parliament. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA. – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images The photograph, first shared by Labour MP Anna Turley, quickly […]

The law designed to delay Brexit has cleared another hurdle after the government announced a late-night breakthrough in the Lords. There were fears the bill could have been stalled in the Lords, with Labour peer and leading lawyer Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws accusing Tory peer Lord True, who had submitted a raft of amendments […]

As his brother Jo abandons his cabinet, it has emerged that Boris Johnson once gave an interview attacking Ed and David Miliband for a family feud, saying ‘only lefties think like that’. In an interview with an Australian paper, the future prime minister said in 2013 that only a “socialist” who regarded family as “trivial” […]

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 Westminster, returning one week earlier than planned due to [checks] the UK’s centuries-old unwritten constitution being wrenched apart by a bunch of scorched-earth ideologues led by a mendacious, immoral narcissist […]

Sinn Féin has signalled a willingness to co-operate with other pro-Remain parties to challenge DUP Brexiteer candidates if a general election is called. Party vice president Michelle O’Neill said Sinn Féin would not be reconsidering its Westminster abstentionist policy ahead of any snap poll. But she did not rule out electoral pacts with other “progressive” […]

Dominic Grieve and Phillip Lee were greeted with cheering and applause by pro-democracy campaigners as they spoke at a cross party rally outside parliament. Protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA Wire. – Credit: PA Hundreds of people filled Parliament Square for the Defend Our Democracy rally, organised by the People’s […]

Jo Swinson had to put up with heckling from an ‘entitled, sexist toad’ in the House of Commons as she was midway through taking apart Boris Johnson’s Brexit negotiating position. The Liberal Democrat leader was addressing MPs about the flaws in the prime minister’s arguments around keeping no-deal on the table when she was told […]

MPs have failed to vote for Boris Johnson’s plan to hold a general election on October 15th – which required a two-thirds majority to pass. After legislation designed to prevent a no-deal Brexit cleared the House of Commons, the prime minister had told MPs that the country must go to the polls next month to […]