News and Opinion

There is “no clear evidence” the £22 billion Test and Trace scheme contributed to a reduction in coronavirus infection levels, a cross-party group of MPs have said. Meg Hillier, the chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) behind a critical report, urged the government to justify the “staggering investment of taxpayers’ money”. The MPs […]

Shadow business secretary Ed Miliband said that he does not believe the Budget passes the “Bevan test”. Speaking in the House of Commons the former Labour leader said: “120,000 people have died from Covid. Our way of life has been dramatically restricted. Our key workers have stepped up and put themselves in harm’s way for […]

As a senior minister becomes mired in a major corruption case, what is it about the country that makes it so susceptible to such scandals? When Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s first government was capsized in 2019 by the corruption of his coalition partners, it was largely shrugged off as the sort of accident that happens […]

Downing Street has declined to distance itself from a minister’s claim that the Duke of Sussex is “blowing up his family” after revealing that Boris Johnson watched the explosive interview. No 10 continued on Tuesday to refuse to comment on the allegations of racism within the royal family made by Harry and Meghan, claims that […]

Fifty years ago, Michael Caine strode onto screens as the eponymous hero of Get Carter. In a navy-blue three-piece suit, with shotgun in hand he not only dragged British cinema into the 1970s but captured a great city on the cusp of change. By Roger Domeneghetti As the thrumming sound of the train segues into Roy Budd’s classic funk […]

NHS staff in England were expecting to receive a higher pay rise than the 1% proposed by the government, the head of the health service has confirmed. Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of the NHS in England, confirmed that plans set out previously had budgeted for NHS pay to increase by 2.1% this year. It […]

Records of meetings between Nicola Sturgeon and lawyers about the investigation into Alex Salmond cannot be found, John Swinney has insisted. The deputy first minister has told the Holyrood inquiry into the government’s unlawful investigation of Salmond that he is unable to provide details that the committee had asked for. Swinney, who is facing a vote […]

UK businesses and exporters have urged Lord David Frost to scrap No 10’s abrasive approach to dealing with Brussels and seek to build a more mutually beneficial trade relationship. Trade groups warned a breakdown in trade would inflict long-lasting damage on the UK economy. James Withers, chief executive of the industry group Scotland Food and Drink, […]

A senior government minister has said he hopes NHS staff will be given an “appropriate” pay rise this year. The government is facing a furious outcry after calling for a headline increase of just 1% in its submission last week to the NHS pay review body. Ministers have argued that it was all that could […]

Matt Hancock’s department has signed off on two Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) deals worth more than £90million with a state-backed Chinese firm listed at a hotel room in Beijing, new documents show. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) struck two lucrative contracts during the first coronavirus wave with Beijing Union Glory Investment Co Ltd, […]

Labour is calling for regular military-style “germ games” to ensure ministers are properly prepared for any future pandemics. Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth says the country was “vulnerable and exposed” when coronavirus hit last year because the government had ignored warnings and weakened its defences. In a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research, […]

The UK government has unilaterally extended some grace periods associated with the NI Protocol in a bid to avoid a cliff-edge plunge into extra paperwork. The protocol is a post-Brexit arrangement designed to keep the Irish border open by ensuring Northern Ireland continues to follow the EU’s trading rules. The DUP has vowed to overthrow […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on the astonishing film CV of Max von Sydow. In the summer of 1959 Max von Sydow was attending the Cannes Film Festival. Two years earlier The Seventh Seal, his first high-profile starring role and arguably the best of his collaborations with director Ingmar Bergman, had picked up the Cannes jury’s Special Prize […]

A junior health minister has been sent to defend the government’s recommendation to give NHS workers in England a 1% pay rise. Health secretary Matt Hancock dodged questions from MPs after Labour called for a response at the despatch box. Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth had demanded Hancock appear in the House of Commons to make […]

The Jewish community is struggling to get kosher meat in time for the Passover festival due to post-Brexit arrangements, the DUP has claimed. Extra paperwork as a result of the Northern Ireland Protocol has caused a series of bureaucratic obstacles since the end of the post-Brexit transition period. Northern Ireland has a small Jewish community […]

Labour has said any allegations of racism should be investigated by Buckingham Palace after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex claimed a royal had raised concerns about how dark their son’s skin tone might be before he was born. During an Oprah Winfrey interview, Meghan said that when she was pregnant with Archie an unnamed […]

Tory party funds are not being used for the refurbishment of Downing Street, Boris Johnson’s press secretary has said. The Daily Mail reported that Conservative Party funds met a large part of the bill, which is said to be in the region of £200,000. But the prime minister’s press secretary Allegra Stratton told reporters: “Conservative […]

TIM WALKER on his friend, the director Michael Grandage. The first time I remember talking to Michael Grandage was as he was standing anxiously in the foyer of the Donmar Warehouse Theatre in Covent Garden. It was the first night of Frost/Nixon. “I’ve been looking forward to this one,” I said. He replied: “I’m terrified.”  The […]

US president Joe Biden’s climate envoy has visited London for talks with Boris Johnson. The visit by former secretary of state John Kerry is the latest sign of the new administration’s dramatic break from the approach to climate issues under Donald Trump. The UK is hosting the major United Nations Cop26 summit in Glasgow on […]

Support for Scottish independence has taken a hit after a poll suggested a lead for the ‘no’ side following the Alex Salmond inquiry. The survey by Savanta ComRes is the first to take place after the evidence given to the Scottish parliament inquiry by Nicola Sturgeon and Salmond over the government’s handling of sexual harassment […]

“Glaring ommissions” made during lockdown were due to a lack of women in cabinet, a former Tory minister has claimed. Caroline Nokes MP, chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, has previously accused Boris Johnson’s administration of having a “very blokey mentality”. The backbencher has said she wants a “gender-balanced cabinet” leading the government to ensure […]

Boris Johnson is famous for making babies. Now his Brexit is making babies unhappy. It has been a gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain, where Boris Johnson dismisses the unfolding post-Brexit trade fiasco as mere “teething problems”, Michael Gove talks of “issues which I would not describe as teething problems” and manufacturers […]

Richard Tice has replaced Nigel Farage as leader of the anti-lockdown party Reform UK. Farage told the media over the weekend he was stepping back from active politics after 30 years of campaigning. The former UK Independence Party and Brexit Party leader is set to become an “honorary president” of the campaign group instead. He tweeted: “I […]

The government has tried to give NHS staff “as much as we possibly can” after recommending a 1% pay rise, the prime minister has said. The proposal has sparked talk of industrial action and demonstrations were planned across England on Sunday, with senior Conservatives also speaking out. An Opinium poll has suggested as much as […]

There were “bound” to be issues that needed ironing out between the UK and Brussels, the prime minister has said, as post-Brexit difficulties continue. Lord Frost, the cabinet minister who negotiated Britain’s trade deal with the European Union, provoked the ire of Brussels last week by unilaterally making changes that impacted upon the Northern Ireland […]

One of the world’s richest cultural inheritances and a recent history unrivalled in its trauma, Baghdad’s music has drawn on both.  Music has always measured the rhythm of Iraqi life, whether in celebration or mourning. These sounds are ancient. Iraq was a cradle of civilisation, with Baghdad itself situated between the Tigris and the Euphrates in […]

Few politicians have fallen quite as far and quite as fast as Nicolas Sarkozy. Nicolas Sarkozy marked his finest political hour in characteristically brash style. The night of his election victory over Socialist rival Ségolène Royal on May 6, 2007, he spent celebrating at a private bash at the exclusive Le Fouquet’s restaurant on the Champs-Elysées. It was a select gathering […]

What impact will the SNP’s extraordinary internecine battle have on the prospects for Scottish independence? He wouldn’t… would he? Would Alex Salmond, smarting and furious at what he sees as a top-level plot not only to damage his reputation but to have him thrown in jail, really try to bring down his successor, and risk […]