Former PM says he has not seen party ‘soaring in the polls as a result of saying what rubbish net zero is’
Boris Johnson has warned the Conservatives they will not win the next election by “bashing the green agenda”.
The former prime minister said he had not seen the Conservatives “soaring in the polls as a result of saying what rubbish net zero is”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Leaked files offer a glimpse of the ex-prime minister’s relationship with Christopher Harborne
As he boarded the night train to Ukraine, Boris Johnson had the usual entourage of aides and bodyguards – plus the man who had given him £1m.
Less than a year had passed since Johnson accepted what is thought to be the largest donation ever to an individual MP. It was from Christopher Harborne, one of the UK’s biggest and most private political donors.
Continue reading...Reform UK plans to force non-citizens to apply for visas with high salary thresholds and no access to NHS services
Nigel Farage has said Reform UK would scrap the main route that migrants take to gain British citizenship, leaving tens of thousands of legally settled people facing deportation unless they met strict rules.
Farage said the plans would tackle the “Boriswave” – the increase in the number of legal migrants who came to work in the UK under post-Brexit migration rules established under Boris Johnson. Much of that increase was because of schemes from Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan to settle refugees.
Continue reading...Viktor Orbán claims death of Turning Point USA’s founder was ‘result of international hate campaign’ as prominent figures pay tribute
European far-right leaders have lauded Charlie Kirk, the influential 31-year-old conservative US activist who was fatally shot on Wednesday, with several also claiming his death was a consequence of violent leftwing rhetoric.
The European parliament briefly descended into chaos as far-right MEPs demanded a minute’s silence to honour Kirk, a rising star of Trump’s Maga movement, who was hit in the neck by a single bullet as he addressed students at Utah Valley University.
Continue reading...Johnson’s office sent invoice to hedge fund manager, which was paid, weeks after meeting Venezuelan leader last year
From a private jet somewhere over the Caribbean Sea in February last year, Boris Johnson called his old political adversary David Cameron, then the foreign secretary, to notify him of a visit.
Johnson had taken a day out from a family holiday in the Dominican Republic for an unlikely meeting with the leftwing president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, a man whom Johnson, when in office, had likened to a “dictator of an evil regime”.
Continue reading...PM says Trump has ‘changed global conversation on Ukraine’ as he pledges more military aid and sanctions
Keir Starmer called for support for Ukraine to be boosed in three ways in his virtual speech to the conference in Kyiv.
First, military support should increase, he said.
The UK is doing that, providing £4.5bn pounds in military aid this year, more than ever before. We’re doing more than ever to train Ukrainian troops helping Ukraine to mobilise even further. And we are proud to have taken on the leadership of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
So today, we’re announcing the UK’s largest packet of sanctions since the early days of the war, going after Russia’s shadow fleet and going after companies in China and elsewhere who are sending military component.
Later day, I will be discussing further steps with the G7. But I am clear that the G7 should be ready to take on more risk, including the oil price cap, sanctioning Russia’s oil giants and going off the banks that are enabling the evasion of sanctions.
President Trump has changed the global conversation over the last few weeks, and it has created an opportunity.
Now we must get the fundamentals right if we want peace to endure. Ukraine must have a seat at the table, and any settlement must be based on a sovereign Ukraine backed up with strong security guarantees.
Continue reading...Civil servant Josie Stewart found to have been unlawfully dismissed in 2022 after she told BBC about failures
A civil servant who blew the whistle about the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and Boris Johnson’s involvement in a decision to evacuate a pet charity from Kabul has won her case for unfair dismissal against the government in a legal first.
An employment panel of three judges unanimously found the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) unfairly dismissed Josie Stewart in 2021 after she leaked information in the public interest.
Continue reading...Martin Rosenbaum fought for 18 months to reveal who had supported nominations of two former special advisers
The reasons given for a peerage awarded by Boris Johnson have been described as “inadequate” and a “mystery” by a freedom of information campaigner after an 18-month struggle.
Charlotte Owen, a former special adviser in the Conservative government, was appointed to the House of Lords in Johnson’s resignation honours list in 2023.
Continue reading...Former UK prime minister cancels Melbourne event but will proceed with Sydney show on Friday
Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson will cut short his Australian book tour after cancelling a Melbourne event this week.
Johnson was due to speak at a dinner at the Sofitel hotel in Melbourne on Saturday to promote his political memoir, Unleashed. The event was to follow another show in Sydney, which will go ahead on Friday.
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Continue reading...Kremlin bans UK cabinet ministers including Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Yveette Cooper from entering country
The Federation of Small Businesses applauds the ambition in the government’s Get Britain Working, but says that overcoming the “pervasive poverty of ambition” about employment in the public sector won’t be easy. This is from Tina McKenzie, the FSB’s policy chair.
This is a start – but only a start – in fixing the pervasive poverty of ambition in the Jobcentre, health and other state systems when it comes to getting people back into work. Increasing employment is ultimately the most sure-fire way to drive up living standards and economic growth.
Ministers have a huge job to persuade public institutions that work is good for health and that everyone who needs work should be helped to get a job or start-up in self-employment – not least getting rid of the idea that the only good work is in graduate jobs, the public sector or volunteering.
The ambition behind the 80 per cent employment target is both clear and important ..
To deliver on this policy agenda, government and small businesses must work in partnership to drive real change through the whole employment system and make sure the country is helping those who most need work.
It is right to ensure that young people who are seeking work are helped to find a job or training. Positive early experiences in the jobs market are vital for young people’s future life chances. They must be supported to take part, not faced with self-defeating sanctions.
Success will also depend on ministers making the investment that’s needed in health services and quality training. Jobcentre staff must have a central role in redesigning their services, and devolution must never come at the cost of staff terms and conditions.
Continue reading...Force says Telegraph writer accused of inciting racial hatred, rather than committing a non-crime hate incident as she had claimed
Essex police have defended their decision to investigate the Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson over a social media post, saying she is accused of “inciting racial hatred” not of committing a “non-crime hate incident”, as she had claimed.
The row over Pearson’s tweet has been splashed across the front pages of the Times, Telegraph and Mail this week. Leading figures on the right, including the new leader of the Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch, and the former prime minister Boris Johnson, have leapt to her defence.
Continue reading...Families group calls Tory leader ‘deeply misguided’ after telling BBC that Boris Johnson-era scandal was ‘overblown’
Families bereaved by the Covid pandemic say they feel insulted by Kemi Badenoch’s claim that the Partygate scandal was “overblown”.
The new Conservative party leader also told the BBC that Boris Johnson had fallen into a “trap” of breaking lockdown rules that should never have been introduced.
Continue reading...New Tory leader calls Boris Johnson a ‘great prime minister’ who fell into a ‘trap’ over Covid rules
The new Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, has said the Partygate scandal was “overblown” as she rejected the need to “churn over” everything that went wrong with previous Tory prime ministers.
Badenoch won the party leadership on Saturday and said she was going to be “honest” about what went wrong in the party under her predecessors.
Continue reading...Latest PMQs comes as sources say chancellor is briefing ministers that £40bn will need to be found in the budget
Robert Jenrick has finished his speech, and he is now taking questions.
Q: Kemi Badenoch says she is Labour’s worst nightmare. Is she right?
I think that our party faces an existential challenge right now. Our party has no divine right to exist. That’s why we need to get the choice right in this leadership election, and that’s why I stand for ending the drama, ending the excuses, and actually delivering for the British people.
Continue reading...Party donor Dale Vince warns that urging homeowners to switch to clean-power technology risks political storm bigger than Ulez
The government risks a huge political backlash if it keeps pushing the public to install heat pumps to replace their boilers, one of Britain’s leading green entrepreneurs has warned.
Dale Vince, a major Labour donor and renewable energy advocate, called on Keir Starmer to rethink national programmes, championed by Boris Johnson, pushing the technology. Vince argued that Whitehall should explore alternatives to the devices, which he said were expensive, caused serious disruption and could end up increasing energy bills for some people.
Continue reading...Beth Rigby’s withdrawal after not being allowed to record conversation follows BBC cancellation over notes gaffe
Sky News has pulled out of an interview with Boris Johnson after its political editor, Beth Rigby, was told she could not make an audio recording or transcript of the talk.
The former prime minister had promised to “reveal what really happened during my time as [London] mayor, foreign secretary and PM” during the conversation next week as he promotes his memoir Unleashed. Johnson’s interview with the BBC was dropped earlier this week after the presenter Laura Kuenssberg mistakenly sent him her briefing notes.
Continue reading...Move over European convention on human rights likely to put pressure on Tory leadership candidates to follow suit
Boris Johnson has called for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European convention on human rights, a move likely to increase pressure on those vying for the Conservative leadership to follow suit.
The former prime minister told the Daily Telegraph there was a “strong case” for a vote on the ECHR, which some Tories blame for hampering their efforts to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Continue reading...The prime minister said he’d paid back £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality, including Taylor Swift tickets and his wife’s rented clothing
The UK has agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain’s last African colony, Haroon Siddique reports.
Today’s homelessness figures highlight the need for the government to press on with banning no-fault evicitions, campaigners say.
It’s frankly ridiculous section 21 still exists – we’re approaching 6 years since the previous government first promised to abolish it, while every indicator on the dashboard has been going in the wrong direction. And now we discover homelessness caused by evictions is up almost 5% on the previous year. It’s clear from today’s data that that the renting crisis is driving the homelessness crisis …
Amid this escalating social crisis, the government’s renters’ rights bill is absolutely crucial. This legislation is a significant improvement on the last government’s effort. As drafted it will already make a difference for a lot of people.
Briefing notes mistakenly being sent to ex-PM meant it was ‘not right for the interview to go ahead’, says presenter
The BBC has cancelled a prime-time interview with Boris Johnson after the presenter Laura Kuenssberg accidentally sent the former prime minister her briefing notes.
Kuenssberg said she sent Johnson the notes “in a message meant for my team”. The former BBC political editor said it was “embarrassing and disappointing”, adding the error meant it was “not right for the interview to go ahead”.
Continue reading...Former prime minister’s claims about wanting to seize Covid vaccines being held in the EU ‘may have been a joke’
Senior Tories have cast doubt on Boris Johnson’s claim that he seriously considered invading the Netherlands to seize vaccines during the pandemic, saying the story had obviously been overblown and reheated to boost sales of his memoirs.
The former prime minister says in his new book, Unleashed, that he asked senior members of the armed forces about the possibility of conducting an “aquatic raid” on a warehouse in Leiden in March 2021 in order to get hold of 5m doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine which he believed the EU did not want to be exported to the UK.
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