DEBATE: Did Boris Johnson’s ‘Build, build, build’ speech succeed in rebooting his premiership? June 30, 2020 Did Boris Johnson’s speech succeed in rebooting his premiership? John Oxley, a Conservative commentator, says YES. Boris is back in business. He has mastered his own recovery from coronavirus and is now ready to tackle the nation’s. It is a challenge he would have never expected when he entered Downing Street, and an important evolution [...]
Barnier confirms UK has missed Brexit equivalence assessment deadline June 30, 2020 EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has confirmed claims that the UK has not completed necessary equivalence assessments by today’s deadline, marking a blow to the UK’s efforts to determine the City’s access to EU markets after Brexit. Valdis Dombrovskis, a European Commission executive vice-president, yesterday said the UK had so far answered only four of [...]
Oliver Dowden flags potential government U-turn on Huawei’s 5G role June 30, 2020 US sanctions on Huawei may result in the Chinese telecoms giant being frozen out of the UK’s 5G network, according to culture and digital secretary Oliver Dowden. Dowden said today that the government was “clear eyed” about the security risks Huawei pose in helping build 5G infrastructure and flagged a potential U-turn on their involvement. [...]
Huawei: Johnson vows to protect UK from ‘hostile vendors’ June 30, 2020 Prime Minister Boris Johnson has beefed up his rhetoric on Chinese tech firm Huawei, warning China that he will protect British infrastructure from “hostile state vendors”. Johnson has faced mounting criticism over his deal with the Chinese firm allowing Huawei to produce 35 per cent of the UK’s 5G infrastructure. Senior figures from both sides [...]
Sadiq Khan slams Johnson’s New Deal for ‘failing to grasp’ scale of economic crisis June 30, 2020 Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has slammed Boris Johnson’s pledge to pump £5bn into British infrastructure, saying the government has “fundamentally failed to grasp” the scale of the economic challenges facing the UK. In a major speech this morning, the Prime Minister set out government plans to inject billions into a new infrastructure project to [...]
EU removes US, Brazil and Russia from ‘safe visitors’ list June 30, 2020 The US, Russia and Brazil are excluded from a list of safe countries to travel to or accept visitors from, passed by EU member states this afternoon. Those featured on the list have now gained approval for business or leisure travel to a number of countries, which will come into effect tomorrow. The list of [...]
‘The worst is yet to come’: WHO casts doubt on global coronavirus recovery June 30, 2020 The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is “yet to come” if governments around the globe do not overcome their divisions. Head of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, yesterday said that “although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up”. “Unless we address the problems [...]
Furious Theresa May attacks PM’s political choice for national security adviser June 30, 2020 Former Prime Minister Theresa May has lashed out at Boris Johnson and his allies for appointing loyalist Brexit adviser David Frost as the country’s new national security adviser. May said Frost, who is a close ally to the Prime Minister, was a political appointment and undermined the impartial role of national security adviser. Frost was [...]
Puma, Adidas, Microsoft and Ford join Facebook boycott June 30, 2020 Major global brands have joined a long list of companies that have withdrawn adverts from Facebook amid mounting pressure for the social media site to remove harmful and false content. Sportswear giants Puma and Adidas joined a raft of almost 200 major companies around the world including Reebok, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks, that have signed up [...]
Boris Johnson’s New Deal: PM invokes Roosevelt in ‘radical’ infrastructure overhaul June 30, 2020 Boris Johnson has today set out plans to overhaul the UK’s planning system, to make building new homes easier, in order to fix what he termed “intergenerational injustices” in access to property. The overhaul will allow developers to change the use of buildings and land in town centres without planning permission, meaning that vacant buildings [...]