Politics

Conservative Party MPs hope to force Boris Johnson to reverse cuts to the foreign aid budget in a vote this afternoon. Thirty Tories, including former prime minister Theresa May and four former cabinet ministers, are backing a rebellion against the £4bn reduction. They will need the support of around 45 Conservatives to defeat the government.

Tony Blair has said it is “time to distinguish” between people who have and haven’t had a coronavirus vaccine. The former prime minister has warned it “makes no sense at all to treat those who have had vaccination the same as those who haven’t” – and said relaxing measures for those who have had both

Labour is planning to force a parliamentary vote on the government’s “totally insufficient” education catch-up plan. The Opposition has described the £1.4bn scheme as “inadequate” – days after Sir Kevan Collins, who was advising the government on how to support children affected by school closures during the pandemic, resigned. Sir Kevan claimed that the government

The G7 has agreed a deal on tackling corporate tax avoidance by big tech companies. “It’s a proud moment” says Chancellor Rishi Sunak. Mr Sunak said G7 finance ministers had committed to a global minimum tax of at least 15%. Mr Sunak said it “meant the right companies pay the right tax in the right

The government is being urged to remove all restrictions on hospitality businesses on 21 June, as reports suggest that the final stage of England’s roadmap out of lockdown could be delayed by two weeks. The British Beer & Pub Association has warned that thousands of pubs “could still be lost forever”, even though indoor service

Welsh leader Mark Drakeford has expressed concern about the Indian coronavirus variant spreading across the border from England hotspots as his country moves to further ease lockdown restrictions. While ruling out a ban on travel, the first minister has urged visitors from the North West to take “all the precautions” in order to keep themselves

Michael Gove has received an alert from the COVID app less than a week after attending the Champions League final in Portugal with his son. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster had to abandon a meeting with Boris Johnson and the devolved leaders on Thursday afternoon after receiving the notification that he had come

Boris Johnson is set to face a major Commons rebellion next week over his policy to slash foreign aid. Rebel Tory MPs believe they have enough support for new legislation that will see aid spending increase by 2022. Conservative former chief Whip Andrew Mitchell is leading the parliamentary push, backed by a further 14 Tory

Boris Johnson’s COVID catch-up tsar has resigned after the government failed to provide enough money to fund a schools recovery plan. In a letter to Boris Johnson, Sir Kevan Collins said: “I do not believe it will be possible to deliver a successful recovery without significantly greater support than the government has, to date, indicated

Boris Johnson has seen “nothing in the data” to mean the 21 June easing of lockdown measures can’t go ahead – although he said there was a need to wait “a little bit longer” for a firm decision. Speaking in Downing Street, the prime minister said: “I can see nothing in the data at the

A COVID rescue plan to help children in England catch up on lost lessons, costing £1.4 billion, is being unveiled by the government. But plans to add half an hour to the school day, extending it from 8am to 5pm or 6pm, are reported to have been postponed after a Whitehall row over the cost.

The vast majority of Scotland’s central belt will remain in Level 2 restrictions as Nicola Sturgeon delayed the easing of COVID measures for many parts of the country. The first minister said there would be a “slight slowing down” in the lifting of lockdown rules for much of Scotland due to spread of the Indian

Boris Johnson’s approval rating has slumped in the wake of Dominic Cummings’ explosive evidence about the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, an opinion poll suggests. According to the Opinium study, the prime minister’s approval rating now stands at -6% -compared with +6% two weeks ago. But it seems that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer

Carrie Symonds is now married to the prime minister – but her influence inside Number 10 has already been under scrutiny. The former Tory Party communications chief – who is taking her husband’s surname – was first romantically linked to Boris Johnson in media reports in early 2019, before he became Tory leader. The couple

The UK’s coronavirus failures have revealed the need for a “revolution in the way we run this country”, a former head of the civil service has said. Whitehall needs to be “more agile” and “we crucially need to be more prepared”, Lord Kerslake told Sky News. While stressing that he was not attacking Whitehall, which

Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds have released a photograph of their wedding day after the couple tied the knot in a surprise ceremony. The prime minister, 56, married Ms Symonds, 33, in a small ceremony at Westminster Cathedral on Saturday. The image shows the couple in the Downing Street garden after the wedding. The ceremony

Boris Johnson has reportedly married fiancée Carrie Symonds in a surprise ceremony. The prime minister, 56, is said to have tied the knot with Ms Symonds, 33, in a small ceremony at Westminster Cathedral earlier on Saturday. Downing Street would not comment on reports in the Mail On Sunday and The Sun. “I have been

Downing Street has defended a meeting between Viktor Orban and Boris Johnson amid renewed criticism over the Hungarian leader’s derogatory comments about migrants. Mr Orban has previously spoken of “Muslim invaders” and said migration is “a poison”, forcing Number 10 to condemn the comments as “divisive and wrong” ahead of their meeting on Friday afternoon.

Matt Hancock committed a “minor breach” of the ministerial code when a coronavirus contract was awarded to his sister’s company in which he had share holdings, an independent report has found. Lord Geidt, the independent adviser on ministers’ interests, found that the health secretary made a “technical” breach of the ministerial code of conduct by

More than 1.5 million people flew into the UK between January and April while the UK’s borders were supposed to be heavily restricted, new figures reveal. Home Office data shows that about two-thirds of arrivals in 2021 were non-UK nationals. Labour says the figures demonstrate that the government’s border policy is “weak and dangerous”. Shadow