Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages have now been retrieved from his old phone and will be handed over to the COVID inquiry unredacted, his spokesman has said. The probe into the government’s handling of the pandemic demanded to see the former PM’s messages from the height of lockdown as part of its ongoing work. But after
Politics
Boris Johnson and Liz Truss both received £18,660 as severance payments after they stood down as prime minister, annual accounts have shown. Both leaders quit amid mounting pressure from their own MPs, but were still entitled to the payout – with Mr Johnson having served just over three years in the job and Ms Truss
BBC boss Tim Davie says the corporation has been in touch with the family of a person at the centre of allegations surrounding Huw Edwards. Speaking at a pre-arranged Lords Communications Committee session on Tuesday, the director-general said: “We have been in touch with the complainant, we want to be engaged and appropriately listening and
Boris Johnson has called for NATO to set out a clear timetable for Ukraine to join the alliance – and claimed some member nations still want to negotiate a peace deal with Vladimir Putin. The former prime minister made the intervention following the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, earlier in the week. At the meeting,
The government has “no strategy” to tackle the threat from China and has left the UK “severely handicapped” due to its “short-termist approach”, a new report has claimed. The Intelligence and Security Committee has published its work on the threat the country poses, saying China has managed to “successfully penetrate every sector of the UK’s
Joe Biden will meet Rishi Sunak in Downing Street before having tea with King Charles during his visit to the UK. The US president touched down at Stansted Airport on Sunday evening, before he was taken by helicopter to the residence of the US ambassador in central London. Mr Biden’s stopover in Britain comes ahead
The Home Office will today launch an appeal after a court ruled its policy to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda was unlawful. The government wants to send tens of thousands of migrants more than 4,000 miles away to Rwanda as part of a £120m deal agreed with the government in Kigali last year. Politics live:
The UK’s special forces are the focus of an inquiry into allegations of unlawful activity in Afghanistan, the defence secretary has confirmed. An independent inquiry, commissioned by Ben Wallace last December, is set to focus on alleged illegal activity by British armed forces in the war-torn nation between 2010 and 2013. The probe will also
Two investigations into partygate gatherings involving senior Tories have been announced by the Met Police. One is a re-investigation into claims of a Covid rule breaching party by staff of former Conservative London mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, in December 2020. In a press release, the force said: “The Met is now re-opening an investigation into
Campaigners and asylum seekers have won a Court of Appeal challenge over the government’s planned Rwanda deportation scheme. Three judges have overturned a High Court ruling that previously said the east African nation could be considered a “safe third country” for migrants to be sent to. It is the latest court verdict in a long-running
Nurses’ strikes are set to end in England after the profession’s largest union failed to secure enough votes to carry out further action. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) had planned to stage more walk-outs after its members rejected a pay offer from the government last month. However, unions have to hold ballots every six
With the Bank of England trying to bring down inflation, interest rates have been raised to 5% – the highest level since April 2008. The government is now urging people to “hold their nerve”, as Rishi Sunak put it. But Britain may be headed for another “summer of discontent”, with one Treasury minister unable to
Disgraced Scottish MP Margaret Ferrier has urged her constituents not to trigger a by-election in a last-ditch attempt to avoid losing her job. The former SNP MP, who is now an independent, was convicted of putting people at risk after travelling by train to a debate at Westminster while suffering from coronavirus in 2020. She
In the end, it was excoriating, damning and unanimous: Boris Johnson was found not only to have deliberately misled the House of Commons over events in Number 10 during COVID lockdowns, but had attacked the fabric of our democracy itself by seeking to undermine the committee and investigation. The conclusion of the 14-month privileges committee
Boris Johnson has done everything he possibly could to discredit the Privileges Committee’s report on claims that he lied to MPs over partygate. But so far he has met fierce resistance. After declaring war with allegations of a “witch-hunt” and kangaroo court”, his latest attack was directed at committee member Sir Bernard Jenkin, after a
A defiant Boris Johnson vowed “I’ll be back” as he called on the Tories to deliver on Brexit and the promises of the 2019 manifesto. The former prime minister hinted at a political comeback on the day he formally resigned as an MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. In a message in the Daily Express
Rishi Sunak has launched a broadside at Boris Johnson after the former prime minister resigned from the House of Commons last week. Mr Johnson was left furious after some of his political allies – Nadine Dorries, Alok Sharma and Nigel Adams – were not given the places in the House of Lords he nominated them
After an explosive weekend, former prime minister Boris Johnson has resigned as an MP, taking supporters Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams with him in exiting the Commons, with whispers that more may follow. It’s left his successor, Rishi Sunak, with an almighty by-election-related headache, as Westminster rolls towards the summer break. Sir Keir Starmer says
Plans for a giant cruise ship to house asylum seekers near Liverpool have been scrapped after being declined by port officials. A government source has told Sky News the vessel was due to house 500 men seeking asylum in Birkenhead, but that will no longer happen following objections from Peel Ports. Politics Live: Boris Johnson’s
It reads like a declaration of war – but in reality, Friday’s resignation statement matters because Boris Johnson is throwing in the towel on his political career. Yes, there are hints of a third political comeback in his kinetic resignation statement. “Never write him off,” say the pundits in the cheap seats. Yes, there will