Politics

Commuters must be prepared to “stay the course” in the face of the “unnecessary aggravation” caused by rail strikes, Boris Johnson has warned. He made the remarks came at the start of a Cabinet meeting on the first day of walk-outs across the network that are the biggest for three decades, leaving millions facing inconvenience.

Downing Street has confirmed it was in conversation with The Times around the time the newspaper dropped a report claiming Boris Johnson tried to appoint his now wife to a government role when he was foreign secretary. In a story published on Saturday morning, the paper reported that Mr Johnson attempted to hire Carrie Johnson,

Boris Johnson is resting after undergoing a minor operation during which he was briefly under general anesthesia, Downing Street has said. Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab will take any “significant decisions” that are required to be made ahead of the PM returning to work on Tuesday. The prime minister’s official spokesperson said Mr Johnson went

Tearing up post-Brexit trade arrangements in Northern Ireland would inflict “economic vandalism”, the Irish prime minister has warned. Micheal Martin said it would be a “very serious situation” if the UK Government pressed ahead with legislation to ditch key parts the Northern Ireland Protocol. He insisted the European Union wanted to avoid a trade war

Cabinet minister Grant Shapps has revealed  he predicted to within one vote the scale of the recent revolt by Tory MPs against Boris Johnson. In doing do so, the transport secretary was far more accurate in forecasting the scale of opposition against the prime minister’s leadership than the Conservative whips. The backroom fixers were taken

The RMT’s decision to proceed with train strikes next week will “punish millions of people”, the transport secretary has said. Grant Shapps warned the UK is “now on the cusp of major disruption which will cause misery for people right across the country”. He also claimed the RMT union had been repeatedly urged not to

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned the world against letting “Ukraine-fatigue” set in as he returned from a surprise visit to the war-torn country. Mr Johnson had pulled out of a planned appearance at conference of northern Tories on Friday in order to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Asked if he had timed the visit

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has returned a questionnaire to police investigating the so-called “beergate” episode. Sir Keir has been under pressure over the event in Durham in April 2021, when he was filmed having a drink and a takeaway curry with party colleagues. He has pledged to resign as party leader if he is

Travel turmoil at UK airports caused by severe labour shortages could be solved by staff opting to work longer hours, a business minister has suggested. Speaking to Sky News, Paul Scully highlighted the scope for part-time workers to be “more productive” as he was tackled over months of misery faced by air passengers. His comments

Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser told the prime minister he was quitting after being placed in an “impossible and odious position”. Downing Street published Lord Geidt’s resignation letter a day after he unexpectedly decided to step down, becoming the second in the role to do so under Mr Johnson. Lord Geidt admitted this week that he

This month’s Platinum Jubilee was a celebration of permanence. Seventy years on the throne by the same Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Union Jack decked the streets as an emblem of that union, combining the crosses of the patron saints of England, Scotland and Ireland. There is no

Lord Geidt has resigned as the prime minister’s adviser on ministerial interests. He tendered his resignation to Boris Johnson, according to a brief statement on the government’s website on Wednesday evening. “With regret, I feel that it is right that I am resigning from my post as Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests,” the statement reads.

Priti Patel has said the government’s Rwanda migrant policy has not been ruled unlawful after a last-minute intervention by a European court blocked the first deportation flight. The home secretary told MPs that the injunctions was not an “absolute bar” on the removal of the asylum seekers due to have been on the flight –

The first deportation flight due to take asylum seekers to Rwanda will not be taking off tonight following a series of last-minute legal appeals, the Home Office has confirmed. A Home Office source said the plane, which was stood ready on a Ministry of Defence runway at Boscombe Down in Amesbury, would not be departing

SNP MP Patrick Grady is facing suspension from the House of Commons after an allegation of sexual misconduct was upheld by a parliamentary probe. The independent expert panel recommended that Mr Grady should be suspended from the House for two days for making an “unwanted sexual advance” to a member of party staff at a

Boris Johnson has said it would be “preposterous” for Brussels to launch a trade war over “trivial” planned changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol – as senior EU figures warned of the damage they could cause. The government is preparing to table legislation to override parts of the deal, which governs Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading

Boris Johnson has been told that the majority of Northern Ireland assembly members reject the government’s “reckless new protocol legislation”. A letter on behalf of 52 of the 90 members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) said the proposal “flies in the face of the expressed wishes of not just most businesses, but most people in

For a leader on the backfoot, offence can be the best form of defence. For Boris Johnson, there’s no better way to try and move the conversation on from his own political woes than picking a big fight with the EU. But when the prime minister unveils controversial legislation on the Northern Ireland Protocol that

The Northern Ireland secretary has insisted that plans to override the Northern Ireland Protocol are within the law – but critics say the move is “disgraceful”. Brandon Lewis defended the proposals as the government prepares to publish legislation on Monday despite growing concern about the legalities of the move. One senior Tory MP has told

The House of Commons is to become a “menopause-friendly” workplace with a range of new measures including better-ventilated rooms and flexible working. Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle will sign a Menopause Workplace Pledge on Monday in the presence of campaigners Penny Lancaster, Lisa Snowdon, Liz Earle and Mariella Frostrup. He said he wanted to “break

A leaked version of the government’s new food strategy advises people to eat wild venison as a low-carbon alternative to beef and grow their own cucumbers to save the planet, reports claim. The 27-page document, due to be officially released on Monday, follows two reports carried out by the co-founder of restaurant chain Leon, Henry

As Westminster lurches to the end of the worst week so far for the prime minister, there is only one clear winner evident as the fog of war subsides. It’s not Sir Keir Starmer – Labour folk are fretting about their lack of impact at the moment. Nor is it the 148 Tory rebels who

Boris Johnson has until the autumn to save his premiership, his former Brexit minister Lord Frost has warned. The prime minister must set out a clear Conservative vision of the future or face being ousted by his own MPs, he said. Mr Johnson narrowly survived a confidence vote on Monday, with 41% of his own

Boris Johnson is not a good role model for children, according to a top government adviser who is known as Britain’s strictest headmistress. Katharine Birbalsingh, chair of the social mobility commission, told Sky News’s Beth Rigby Interviews that from his personal life to his messy hairstyle, the three-times married prime minister causes her to “raise

Michael Gove has said he would not run against Boris Johnson for leader of the Conservative Party after admitting he “made a mistake” when he scuppered the prime minister’s chances in 2016. The levelling up secretary told Sky News he “enthusiastically” voted for the prime minister to stay as party leader in Monday night’s confidence

Boris Johnson will announce new measures to help people to get on to the property ladder during a speech in which he pledges to hard-pressed UK households that “things will get better”. The prime minister will set out the plans during a speech in Lancashire on Thursday that will also commit him to reforms in

Conservative MPs should not change the rules to allow another confidence vote in the prime minister within a year, Sajid Javid has said. The health secretary said it was a “clear and decisive result” on Monday night when Boris Johnson won a confidence vote among his MPs – although 148 voted against him. There have

Boris Johnson has sought to draw a line under a bruising confidence vote by urging Cabinet ministers to focus on tax cutting and levelling up. The prime minister won the backing of Tory MPs by 211 votes to 148 – leaving allies to say it is now time to move on from questions about his

It was a vote the PM was desperate to avoid. And when it came, one that Boris Johnson was keen to put behind him quickly, calling the vote as soon as possible after the trigger threshold (54 letters of no confidence) had been reached, and then declaring the result “decisive” and “convincing” once it was

The prime minister’s anti-corruption tsar has resigned over Boris Johnson’s response to the Sue Gray report into partygate – and will vote for him to go tonight. John Penrose has sent his resignation letter to the PM just hours after it was announced a confidence vote in Mr Johnson’s leadership will take place between 6pm

His supporters say he got Brexit done and saved the country by making the vaccine rollout happen before any other developed nation. His opponents say his record was marred by allegations of sleaze and mismanagement and that he was unfit for top office. Here are the main events – the highs and lows – of

A new law prohibiting the sale of ivory goods in the UK from today is a “landmark moment” in the protection of elephants, according to the government. But despite being widely welcomed by conservationists, there are concerns it doesn’t go far enough to protect other species. It has taken four years for the Ivory Act

Boris Johnson will make the NHS a key feature of a series of expected policy announcements in the coming days, as the PM bids to move on from a bruising week which reignited reports of an impending confidence vote. More than 40 Conservative MPs have publicly called on the prime minister to resign over the