Boris Johnson

Levelling up has become a government cliche. But that doesn’t mean we should dismiss the concept. SUNA ERDEM talks to enthusiast Lord Kerslake about the reality and necessity Does levelling up harm the south? Amid the soul-searching following the Tories’ shock by-election loss of leafy Chesham and Amersham, this issue was raised so much that […]

Those who are grabbing their new-found freedom don’t deserve our criticism.  People rush to judgement very quickly. All it takes is for a crowd to congregate on a beach, or for young people to go clubbing, and a great puritanical curtain-twitching mania is unleashed on them. This week, Twitter is ablaze with sneering commentary about […]

The sovereignty promised in the EU referendum only benefits the Tory party

Editor-at-large ALASTAIR CAMPBELL on a concept that helps explain the politics of Boris Johnson

One spectator sport this summer has been watching politicians try to tie their fortunes to the England team. Such efforts are as doomed to failure as, ultimately, Gareth Southgate’s team was.

Theresa May has been rated as one of the worst two post-war prime ministers in a survey of UK university academics specialising in British politics and contemporary British history.

Six months after his role as chief Brexit negotiator for the European Union came to an end, Michel Barnier has told Euronews that he would “prefer not to say” what he thought of UK negotiators.  The interview coincides with the Frenchman releasing a book, My Secret Brexit Diary: A Glorious Illusion, documenting the arduous 1600 […]

One reader has his doubts about Boris Johnson’s plan for unlocking England

Five years after she took office, we should resist a rose-tinted view of Theresa May’s time in Downing Street

The PM understands the importance of narrative and has turned government into a soap opera… how long can its leading character last?

He might seem to be unharmed by the scandals he presides over, but Boris Johnson’s position is more vulnerable than it looks. The fall will come, and it will be swift, brutal and comprehensive

British politics now exists in a moral vacuum. It cannot last

Brexiteers promised mobile phone roaming charges would not return if we left the EU. It was just another lie It has been a gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain, where mobile phone users are discovering what Matt Hancock has already learned: Roaming can be costly. If UK tourists are ever allowed into […]

GAVIN ESLER on the frustrations of political debate in an era where reason counts for little Recently an American reader sent an email to my website angrily denouncing a newspaper feature I had written. It was about gun control, or rather the lack of it. I’ll call him ‘John’ and he wrote: “I have lived in Texas for […]

He was sitting on one of the iron-framed and wooden-bottomed chairs there are dotted about beneath the chestnut trees lining the Esplanade des Feuillants, and as I recall – although, I concede with such a brief encounter, my memory may well have embellished – he was tilted back on its rear legs. His then-wife and […]

Bonnie Greer says the US president’s ambitious plans could see a break in the special relationship I still don’t know why I had my outburst about Ireland on that Question Time episode in 2019. I said then that Ireland owed the UK nothing at all. That in fact, the UK did not and still does […]

Dominic Cummings has explained why Tory officials prevented Boris Johnson from being interviewed by Andrew Neil during the 2019 general election. In the latest of his sustained war of words with his once long-standing ally, Cummings claimed the prime minister is a “gaffe machine” who is “clueless” on policy. During the 2019 December election campaign, […]

The environment secretary is reportedly one of the cabinet ministers who could be demoted by Boris Johnson in the next reshuffle. George Eustice is said to be among those “due for the chop” after a disagreement over the post-Brexit trade deal with Australia, with the minister expressing concerns over the impact on farmers. MPs have heard […]

Boris Johnson is a “massive supporter” of health secretary Matt Hancock despite criticising him as “f**king hopeless” in messages revealed by Dominic Cummings, a minister has claimed. Financial secretary to the Treasury Jesse Norman said the prime minister is “firmly behind” Hancock following the extraordinary revelation of private WhatsApps from his former chief aide. No […]

Boris Johnson’s faults and failings are blindingly obvious, but the media don’t seem interested in that story It was a great question. “When the history books are written, will Boris Johnson still get away with it?” It was asked by a woman in the Q and A when I spoke at the Wimbledon Book Festival, […]

Ian Blackford has kicked off parliamentary scrutiny of the government’s post-Brexit trade deal with Australia by asking the prime minister multiple questions on the subject at PMQs. The leader of the SNP used his questions to ask for more “details of the disastrous trade deal with Australia”. He said these details were “busy being celebrated in Canberra, but […]

Boris Johnson described health secretary Matt Hancock as “hopeless” early in the coronavirus pandemic, according to a message published by former aide Dominic Cummings. Cummings, who has blamed Hancock for failings during the Covid response, published a screenshot apparently showing a WhatsApp exchange between himself and the prime minister. On March 3 last year, the […]

Boris Johnson has said that a path through the “thicket of burdensome and restrictive regulation” must be cleared to fulfil the potentials of Brexit. A report from Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform (TIGRR) led by Iain Duncan Smith has described Brexit as a “one-off opportunity” to reduce red tape and set out a new […]

Boris Johnson faces the prospect of a Tory rebellion when MPs are asked to approve the extension of coronavirus restrictions in England until July 19. The House of Commons will vote on Wednesday evening on the four-week delay to the end of lockdown measures, aimed at buying more time for the vaccine programme. Labour has […]

Boris Johnson’s government risks another tragedy like the hate-fuelled killings of Jo Cox or Stephen Lawrence by stoking a “culture war”, a former race adviser has said. Samuel Kasumu, in his first interview since quitting as the prime minister’s most senior black adviser, said some Conservatives believe the path to victory includes exploiting division. “There […]

Boris Johnson is set for showdown talks with the Commons speaker following stinging criticism of the government’s handling of the road map delay announcement. Hoyle initially accused Downing Steet of “running roughshod” over MPs by opting to release details of the unlocking delay to July 19 via a press conference at 6pm on Monday rather […]

Prime minister Boris Johnson is to unveil details of the UK’s first trade deal negotiated from scratch post-Brexit. He will welcome his Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, to Downing Street on Tuesday after the two countries agreed on the broad terms of the pact. The deal is reported to have been sealed by the two premiers […]

Priti Patel has said she does not support England’s footballers taking the knee in protest against racial injustice, labelling the act “gesture politics”. The home secretary did not condemn football fans who had booed players for taking the knee, calling it a “choice for them” after Gareth Southgate’s side faced jeers from a minority of […]