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.
Politics
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
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
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
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
A £200m national flagship will be used to promote British trade and industry around the world, Boris Johnson has said. The boat will sail across the world and be used to host trade fairs, ministerial summits and diplomatic talks as the UK seeks to build links and boost exports following Brexit, the prime minister added.
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
The government’s refusal to implement an insurance scheme for mass events this year means the festival industry is looking at a “lost summer”, according to a Commons report. Culture Minister Caroline Dinenage has previously ruled out the introduction of such a scheme, claiming it could “pull the rug out from underneath” organisers. Boomtown Festival, which
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.
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
Matt Hancock has insisted the government “worked as hard as we could to protect care homes” following scathing criticism from Dominic Cummings. The health secretary has defended himself for the second time in a day in the wake of the attacks from Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser. One of the key claims made by Mr
Health Secretary Matt Hancock says he did not watch all of Dominic Cummings’ testimony to MPs today because he was dealing with the vaccination rollout and “saving lives”. Mr Hancock came in for repeated attacks by the prime minister’s former adviser during a seven-hour-long committee hearing. Analysis: Hancock fighting for his political life after brutal
Matt Hancock is fighting for his political life after a brutal demolition job on the health secretary by Dominic Cummings. Amid a series of bitter barbs that sounded like a calculated political assassination, Mr Cummings accused Mr Hancock of “criminal, disgraceful behaviour that caused serious harm”. At Prime Minister’s Questions, while Mr Cummings was still
Former Conservative chair Baroness Warsi says a report into Tory Islamophobia shows the party is “institutionally racist” – despite the findings saying otherwise. She told Sky News: “I think the findings of this report show clearly that the Conservative Party is institutionally racist, that’s based upon the definition of what is institutional racism. “The way
An MP has had the Conservative whip removed after a complaints panel found that he broke Parliament’s sexual misconduct policy. Rob Roberts made repeated and unwanted sexual advances towards a male former member of staff, an Independent Expert Panel (IEP) found, as it recommended he face a six-week suspension. Following the publishing of the panel’s
Aircraft have been told by the British government to avoid Belarusian airspace after the alleged state-sponsored hijack of a Ryanair flight so one of President Lukashenko’s critics could be arrested. The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has suspended all foreign permits held by Belarusian carriers, including state-owned airline Belavia, following the fallout from Sunday’s controversial