United Kingdom

David Cameron has hit back at claims Greensill Capital had been begging for access to the government-backed Covid loan scheme. Cameron said it was “nonsense” to say the finance firm has been “in difficulty” when he lobbed on its behalf. But Labour said the company, which later collapsed, had been “desperate for access to taxpayer […]

A Tory minister has been left humiliated live on-air after she admitted to not having Boris Johnson’s private number. Culture minister Caroline Dinenage said the prime minister did not give his number out “willy-nilly” in an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, adding she did not even have it. Dinenage then defended billionaire businessman James Dyson for possessing […]

Downing Street is embarking on an incompetent battle to preserve the Union Boris Johnson doesn’t care about Scotland. There are a lot of complex elements to the government’s anti-independence strategy, but at the heart of it is that one simple fact. He doesn’t understand Scotland and he isn’t interested in it. There couldn’t be a worse […]

As Gregory’s Girl turns 40, Richard Luck chronicles his decades-long love affair with Bill Forsyth’s masterpiece  It was made for next to nothing, it starred nobody famous and it was written and directed by a man whose only previous film had been seen by next to nobody south of the border. Still, no sooner had […]

A committee of senior MPs has rejected a Labour call to launch an investigation into Boris Johnson’s conduct over “cronyism”. Shadow frontbencher Rachel Reeves issued the call after it emerged the prime minister exchanged text messages with billionaire Sir James Dyson over the tax status of employees involved in creating new ventilators as the coronavirus […]

Boris Johnson’s former aide Dominic Cummings has been blamed for the leaking of the prime minister’s text messages. An internal inquiry has been launched into how messages between the prime minister and billionaire Sir James Dyson were leaked to journalists. But reports said Downing Street sources are pointing the finger at Cummings, who quit as […]

Downing Street has announced an internal inquiry into the leak of private text messages between Boris Johnson and billionaire James Dyson over the tax status of his employees. Johnson promised the entrepreneur he would “fix” the issue after personal lobbying from Dyson as he sought to build ventilators at the height of the coronavirus crisis, […]

An industry body representing Scottish salmon producers has insisted that the figures demonstrating a significant drop in exports are “very, very wrong”. The Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO) told the Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee it believed more salmon had been exported than in January last year despite the UK leaving the EU. New post-Brexit rules came […]

Whitehall officials still fail to take working-class people seriously, Boris Johnson’s former communications director has said in his first public comments since departing No 10. Lee Cain also suggested on Thursday that the government could have averted its “terrible tangle” over free school meals if more senior politicians had experienced food poverty. He left Downing […]

David Cameron repeatedly lobbied Bank of England officials as he grew increasingly frustrated about Greensill Capital’s failure to access a state-backed coronavirus support scheme. The former prime minister, who worked as an adviser for Lex Greensill’s financial firm, also contacted the Treasury as he tried unsuccessfully to get the firm’s activities covered by the Covid […]

Parliament is scheduled to dissolve on April 29 ahead of next month’s Queen’s Speech, the government has said. Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg, announcing forthcoming business, confirmed the Commons will prorogue next Thursday once royal assent has been signified for all necessary legislation – such as the Domestic Abuse Bill. The Queen’s Speech to start the […]

Dominic Raab has clashed with MPs as he sought to defend a cut to the government’s foreign aid budget by £8billion. Raab faced the International Development Committee on Thursday after last night’s confirmation that official development assistance (ODA) was being slashed from 0.7% to 0.5% of gross national income. Committee chairwoman Sarah Champion accused the foreign secretary of  […]

Keir Starmer's time will come - but he must start to take risks.

The SNP could miss out on a majority at the Holyrood election, according to a new poll. The Savanta ComRes survey for The Scotsman predicts the party will return 63 MSPs – two short of a majority and the same number as in 2016. However, there would still be a pro-independence majority at Holyrood, with […]

Downing Street has scrapped the Pick for Britain campaign to recruit British workers for seasonal farm roles after as little as 5% signed up. According to The Grocer, the government is now focusing on removing barriers to recruitment rather than running another national campaign. This comes as estimations suggest Britons made up between 5% and 11% of the […]

A former defence minister has described Boris Johnson’s government as a “cesspit” and the “most distrustful, awful environment” that he has ever worked in. A day after quitting his job, Johnny Mercer launched an extraordinary attack on Johnson and fellow ministers, accusing them of being “cowards” for backtracking on promises to end “vexatious historical investigations” of veterans who […]

The opposition has demanded that the powerful Liaison Committee of MPs holds an urgent investigation into Boris Johnson’s conduct after fresh revelations about Tory sleaze. The call came after it emerged the prime minister exchanged text messages with billionaire James Dyson over the tax status of his employees. Johnson promised the entrepreneur he would “fix” […]

Brexiteer James Dyson has moved his address to the UK, two years after relocating the Dyson head office to Singapore. Details for Weybourne Limited – Dyson’s parent company – were updated on Tuesday, records on the Companies House website show. The entry is listed as “change of details for Sir James Dyson as a person […]

The scandal surrounding David Cameron’s lobbying lays bare exactly what is meant by ‘selling off the NHS’ Seen from afar, the running saga of David Cameron’s efforts to meet with every minister in the UK (and beyond) on behalf of his clients can be a strange one. To even a casual observer, it seems like […]

Bill Kenwright’s Love Letters and the National’s After Life have announced opening dates – but a full return for the London stage seems as far away as ever As a theatre critic, I am sometimes asked when am I going to start reviewing theatre again. It is not an unreasonable question, especially now that there appear […]

Comedian Mitch Benn hands out his alternative awards of another week in politics… REPEAT OFFENDER OF THE WEEK Rishi Sunak, who followed up last week’s excruciating “I’m just a guy, standing in front of a country, commending my budget to the House” video with an equally bizarre sequel in which he was interviewed by a […]

It’s the 1246-page document that changed the lives of millions at the stroke of 11pm on New Year’s Eve – but has Boris Johnson read it? The prime minister’s spokesperson was earlier repeatedly unable to confirm whether Johnson had read every word of the treaty setting out the UK’s new trading relationship with the EU. […]

A former Ofsted chair has called for education secretary Gavin Williamson’s resignation, amid the continuing lack of certainty over what will replace cancelled GCSEs and A-Levels. In a letter to exams regulator Ofqual yesterday, Williamson said he would like “to explore the possibility of providing externally set tasks or papers, in order that teachers can […]

The paintings of JMW Turner tell the fast-paced story of the modern age bursting into being. Claudia Pritchard reports on a new exhibition which recounts this gripping tale. At first glance, the silvery mound of fresh-caught fish in the foreground looks ready for pan and the plate, but the pilchards in Joseph Mallord William Turner’s […]

Tory ministers past and present have defended Boris Johnson’s father for not wearing a face mask in public and say he should not be fined. Environment minister George Eustice and former health secretary Jeremy Hunt said penalties, which range from £200 to £10,000 for failing to follow government advice on new Covid measures, should only be reserved for […]

UK car manufacturers could be hit hard with tariffs whether or not the government succeeds in getting a Brexit deal. The European Commission (EC) has rejected proposals for components from Japan and Turkey used on UK car production lines to be considered British. According to a letter to the car industry from Britain’s chief Brexit negotiator […]

Piers Morgan has called Boris Johnson a “drongo” and a “bumbling fool” as he reacted to the prime minister’s confusion over the latest Covid-19 restriction rules. The Good Morning Britain presenter said Johnson was the “captain of the Titanic taking us down” as he renewed calls for him to go. He told viewers: “He not […]

A government minister has admitted No 10 “looked to Europe” for help developing the latest of coronavirus lockdown rules. Speaking on Sky News, skills minister Gillian Keegan said Downing Street was trying to strike a balance between keeping pubs open and suppressing a second spike in Covid cases. Asked if the 10pm curfew was leading […]