News and Opinion

The Scottish Tories have said they will press ahead with a vote of no confidence in Nicola Sturgeon after a Holyrood committee found she misled parliament. The final report of the Committee on the Scottish government Handling of Harassment Complaints was released on Tuesday, showing a majority of MSPs on the committee felt that Sturgeon […]

People will be allowed to leave the UK to prepare a second home for rent or sale under new Covid travel rules coming into force on March 29. The latest restrictions will include a list of specific “reasonable excuses to travel” outside the UK, including what Labour has dubbed the “Stanley Johnson clause”. The prime […]

A Tory MP has clashed with a BBC chief over the lack of Union flags featuring in the corporation’s annual report. James Wild MP repeatedly asked new director-general Tim Davie why the flag had failed to appear on the report during a Commons grilling on the BBC’s role as a representative of Britain on the world stage. Davie […]

The Brexit vote and subsequent negotiations have reinforced an image of the UK as insular and exceptionalist. It will need a rebrand if it wants continued success away from the EU. As the UK prepares for economic recovery from COVID and makes the best of Brexit, it is striking that there has been no talk […]

Boris Johnson has said coronavirus restrictions are being eased “once and for all” as the UK marks the anniversary of the first national lockdown. The prime minister offered his “sincere condolences to those who have lost loved ones” and praised the “great spirit” displayed ahead of the nation pausing in remembrance on Tuesday. With the […]

Conservative rebels have failed in their bid to prevent ministers from signing trade agreements with countries implicated in genocide following Brexit. The House of Commons voted 319 to 297, majority 22, to disagree with a Lords amendment to the Trade Bill. This would have established a parliamentary panel of judicial experts to determine whether any […]

Division within the SNP could be impacting on support for Scottish independence, a new report has claimed. Scotland’s governing party has been hit by internal disputes, with former first minister Alex Salmond claiming leading figures in the SNP had been involved in a conspiracy against him. Meanwhile, his successor Nicola Sturgeon is facing a vote […]

In these exclusive extracts from his diaries, ALASTAIR CAMPBELL describes the aftermath of the Leveson inquiry. Thursday, November 29  The Leveson report is published, saying the press should set up a tough new independent regulator, underpinned by statute. It found: no widespread corruption of police by the press; that politicians and press have been too close; and that press behaviour, […]

WILL SELF on living in a Potemkin panopticon, the effects of which have been enhanced by the pandemic. Having been deeply sceptical about it I can now see at least some advantages to teaching online. Courses of study centred on texts would seem impoverished enough by being squeezed through the aorta of virtualisation – but my […]

First minister Nicola Sturgeon did not breach the ministerial code, an independent inquiry has concluded. The finding clears the first minister of any wrongdoing in the Salmond inquiry into sexual assault complaints. An investigation by James Hamilton found that Sturgeon did not breach the ministerial code, following allegations she failed to record meetings with Salmond and others in […]

TIM WALKER on an actor proud to have been called a luvvie. It was the word “luvvies” that introduced me to Peter Bowles. I’d used it in the way journalists generally do as a light-hearted, if lazy and cliched, way of describing actors and it had provoked a debate in the letters column of The Stage, […]

The government has acquired a second plane painted in the colours of the Union flag to ferry the prime minister and other dignitaries around on short-haul trips. The six-month-old Airbus A321 was captured at Stansted Airport at the weekend with the new red, white and blue paintwork, The Independent revealed. Downing Street came under fire last […]

Technical problems delayed Priti Patel’s appearance in the House of Commons ahead of an update on the protests in Bristol. MPs had assembled in the chamber for Home Office questions at 2.30pm, but problems in allowing MPs to appear virtually in the chamber caused speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle to suspend business immediately. He told the […]

The Scottish government has published a draft Bill for a second vote on independence. Constitution secretary Mike Russell said that while the timing of such a vote should be determined by the next Scottish parliament, ministers believe people living north of the border “have the right to decide how we recover from the pandemic and […]

Britain must brace for another wave of coronavirus infections being imported from Europe as cases rise on the continent, Boris Johnson has warned. The prime minister said he expected the third wave of Covid-19 infections, seen in countries such as France and Italy, to “wash up on our shores as well”. But Johnson said he […]

The independent inquiry into whether Nicola Sturgeon breached the ministerial code is expected to be released imminently, according to reports. An investigation by James Hamilton QC has been examining whether Scotland’s first minister misled parliament. He is also examining if she should have recorded meetings with Alex Salmond and whether she prolonged the government’s defence […]

A Good Morning Britain (GMB) presenter has criticised Nigel Farage for blaming the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement for some of the Bristol riots on Sunday evening. Thousands took the streets over the weekend to protest against legislation giving police increased powers to shut down peaceful protests. Demonstrations turned ugly when protesters began hurling projectiles at officers and set vehicles […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on the life of tightrope walker Karl Wallenda, a man tailed by tragedy. A pretty good crowd for a Tuesday, Karl Wallenda thought. Some 7,000 people had filled the Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit that night in January 1962 to see the Great Wallendas and the show was going well as it reached its […]

Sir Keir Starmer said Labour would not fight “yesterday’s wars” after rejecting criticism of a pro-EU choice for the Hartlepool by-election. Dr Paul Williams, who was an opponent of Brexit and backed a People’s Vote, is standing in the constituency in which almost 70% voted to Leave in the 2016 referendum. But the Labour leader has […]

Policing minister Kit Malthouse has sparked chaos in the Home Office after going to work while waiting for the results of a Covid test. Home Office staff in London were forced to self-isolate and a deep-clean was arranged and air vents changed after Malthouse’s test came back positive, the Sunday Times reported. Government guidance says workers […]

Independence for Scotland would be like Brexit on a rocket to Mars, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has said. Speaking at the UK Liberal Democrat spring conference, Rennie said now is not the moment for the “long, divisive, argumentative, exhausting, all-consuming event” of another referendum on the issue. SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford has […]

Questions are bring raised about David Cameron’s latest lobbying attempt after it emerged he pressured the chancellor in private texts to issue hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of emergency Covid loans to a company he was advising. The Sunday Times reported the former prime minister sent multiple texts to Rishi Sunak’s private phone in April 2020 badgering […]

MPs can “send a signal” to China and “give hope” to victims of human rights abuses by supporting a House of Lords amendment to the post-Brexit Trade Bill, a former Conservatives leader said. The government will seek in the Commons to overturn the amendment which would limit its ability to strike agreements with countries involved […]

Boris Johnson is expected to ask European leaders this week to dismiss any proposals to block coronavirus vaccine exports to the UK. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has ramped up the rhetoric this weekend, saying the EU has the power to “forbid” exports, adding: “That is the message to AstraZeneca.” The warning reflects […]

In these exclusive extracts from his diaries, ALASTAIR CAMPBELL recalls meeting David Cameron’s director of communications Craig Oliver. He felt Ed Miliband was outperforming his man.  Friday, May 18 Met Craig Oliver (Cameron’s communications director). Jeremy Heywood [cabinet secretary] still hadn’t replied to my complaint re. Cameron [Campbell had accused the PM of seeking to deflect criticism over Coulson […]

Much of the country is back in lockdown but the traumas of the pandemic look to have improved attitudes to the EU and blunted the appeal of populists. “It is our darkest hour: but we will make it.” In March 2020, the (now former) prime minister of Italy, Giuseppe Conte, echoed the words of Winston […]

PETER TRUDGILL on the many chapters of the Georgian language. As we have observed before in this column, Napoleon was not French, and Hitler was not German. King William III of England was not English, and King George I of Great Britain was not British. But there is another well-known example of the same kind of […]

While Indyref2 still looks the most likely end of the UK as we know it, and the SNP makes headlines, another constituent part’s fate is in the balance. Compare the British government’s approach to Scotland and Northern Ireland as it attempts to address the chaotic consequences of Brexit. The post-Brexit mood in both Scotland and […]