British public were failed by flawed planning for COVID pandemic, inquiry finds
London, UK Reuters Britain let down its citizens by leaving the nation ill-prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic because of significantly flawed planning and failures by ministers and scientific experts, a public inquiry concluded in a scathing report on Thursday. Britain recorded more than 230,000 deaths by December 2023, a similar death rate to the United […]
Britons vote in election expected to propel Labour to power
London, UK Reuters Britons were voting on Thursday in a parliamentary election that is expected to bring Keir Starmer’s Labour Party to power, sweeping away Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives after 14 often turbulent years. Opinion polls put Starmer’s centre-left party on course for a landslide victory but also suggest many voters simply want change […]
Boris Johnson issues surprise last-ditch UK election rallying cry
London, UK Reuters Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a surprise appearance in the British election campaign on Tuesday, issuing a last-ditch bid to rally support for the Conservatives and their leader Rishi Sunak, the man who helped turf him out of office. Johnson won a big majority at the last election in 2019 before […]
Britain’s Labour aims for closer EU ties without reopening Brexit wounds
London, UK Reuters For a decade, leaving the European Union was the question that dominated British politics. These days it barely comes up. Which is clearly how Labour Party leader Keir Starmer likes it. He has worked diligently to win back the support of working class voters, millions of whom were lured away five years […]
UK smoking ban for younger generations passes first parliamentary hurdle
London, UK Reuters British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plan to ban anyone aged 15 and under from ever buying cigarettes passed its first parliamentary vote on Tuesday, although dozens of his own lawmakers voted against it. Sunak’s plan to impose some of the world’s strictest anti-smoking rules has angered some members of his governing Conservative […]
Former UK PM Johnson denies he wanted to let COVID “rip”
London, UK Reuters Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Britain’s COVID inquiry on Thursday that any suggestion he wanted to allow the virus to “let rip” was “rubbish” and “completely wrong”. Johnson, Prime Minister between 2019 and 2022, faced a second day of questioning which examined the weeks before the country’s second national lockdown in […]
Tens of thousands march against anti-Semitism in London including UK ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson
London, UK AP Tens of thousands of people including former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson gathered in London on Sunday for a march against anti-Semitism, a day after large crowds turned out for a pro-Palestinian rally. Johnson was joined by UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and other senior government officials at the march to express solidarity with the […]
UK PM Sunak reportedly said “just let people die”, COVID inquiry hears
London, UK Reuters Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was quoted as saying the government should “just let people die” during the COVID-19 pandemic rather than impose a second national lockdown, the inquiry into how Britain handled the crisis heard on Monday. Patrick Vallance, who was the government’s chief scientific adviser during COVID, made a note in […]
“Terrible”: UK minister sorry for lockdown-breaking party video
London, UK Reuters Senior British minister Michael Gove on Sunday described a video showing a party at the ruling Conservative Party’s headquarters during a lockdown in 2020 as “terrible”, as COVID rule-breaking gatherings continue to hang over the government. The video was published by the Mirror newspaper just days after a parliamentary committee ruled that […]
Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament, says UK report dubbed “a charade” by ex-PM
London, UK Reuters Boris Johnson deliberately misled the British parliament in an unprecedented way over rule-breaking parties at his office during COVID-19 lockdowns, a committee said on Thursday in a damning verdict that further tarnished the former Prime Minister. Almost a year ago, Johnson was talking about remaining prime minister into the 2030s. But the […]