Nicola Sturgeon is facing off a growing rebellion in the ranks of the SNP and has been accused of using “weasel words” to question the innocence of Alex Salmond, who was cleared of committing sexual offences in March last year. Former deputy leader of the SNP, Jim Sillars has lodged a formal complaint that Sturgeon […]
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Matt Hancock’s blueprint to reform the NHS, better integrate social care and “do away with irksome bureaucracy” will also hand greater power over the NHS to ministers. Conservatives have broadly welcomed Hancock’s shakeup to the health service, laid out today, while Labour has been questioning the health secretary’s priorities and timing given the UK is […]
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Arlene Foster claims she is “absolutely astounded” at suggestions her Democratic Unionist Party is stoking tensions to undermine the Northern Ireland protocol that has rocked post Brexit relations and put at risk the Good Friday Agreement. Foster’s comments follows revelations that border staff at Northern Ireland’s ports were stood down by a DUP minister who […]
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Matt Hancock has said the UK must “come down hard” on the South African coronavirus variant after community cases were found in eight areas across England. “Surge testing” will be carried out in the eight postcodes where a total of 105 cases of the SA variant – called 501Y.V2 – have been identified. Worryingly, 11 […]
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The EU’s decision to trigger a Brexit clause to block the export of Covid vaccines to Northern Ireland has been roundly condemned in Belfast, Dublin and London. The governments of the UK and Ireland have held “frantic talks” to try and “avert a full scale crisis” after the European commission triggered article 16 of the […]
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Nicola Sturgeon is being accused of undermining the UK in its escalating battle with the EU over vaccine doses. The Scottish first minister is “threatening to publish details of confidential supplies” that the “UK government wants to keep secret”, the Times is reporting today (Thursday). The other pro-Conservative broadsheet, the Telegraph has also piled in, […]
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Priti Patel is cracking down on travellers with British people to be banned from leaving the UK and facing £200 fines if they fail to provide a valid reason for travel. The home secretary will deploy police to interrogate people at borders and ports, while travellers will have to complete new declaration forms – which […]
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The UK government has been warned that Northern Ireland is “one storm or boat breakdown away” from “a collapse of the NI supply chain”. Michael Gove has received an 11-page report forecasting the grim scenario that could occur within five days without urgent action from ministers. Cabinet office minister Gove said the post-Brexit trade chaos […]
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England is entering its third national lockdown with Boris Johnson warning the next weeks will be the “hardest yet” in the fight against the coronavirus. The prime minister put England into its strictest restrictions since the start of the pandemic on the same day that vaccinations using the Oxford/AstraZeneca dose began. Vaccination is the promised […]
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Matt Hancock has warned the “NHS is facing unprecedented pressures” from the coronavirus while a senior medical adviser expressed “extreme concern” about infection rates across the UK. Boris Johnson is meeting with ministers tonight (Tuesday) to discuss what changes need to be made to England’s tier system to curb the virus spreading. Concerns have been […]
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