LONDON — NATO should increase its defense spending target for member countries to 2.5 percent of GDP, U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps declared. “We’re now saying we think that should be 2.5 percent,” Shapps told Sky News. “We think in a more dangerous world that would make sense.” NATO countries are currently expected to spend […]
Category Archives: UK Politics
WARSAW — Rishi Sunak on Tuesday declined to shoot down reports that national security adviser Tim Barrow is heading to Washington as Britain’s next ambassador. The U.K. prime minister confirmed that Barrow, the U.K.’s current national security adviser, will be leaving his post to be replaced by Gwyn Jenkins — Britain’s vice chief of the […]
LONDON — Britain’s Conservatives look set for an election pasting this year. But anti-Tory campaigners want to make sure it’s a knock-out blow. As a general election looms, a host of flashy campaigns are springing up trying to convince Brits to vote tactically. Under the U.K.’s winner-takes-all system, that means asking voters in tight seats […]
LONDON — Boris Johnson failed to answer questions about his relationship with a hedge fund that helped organize a trip to meet Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Britain’s revolving door watchdog declared Friday. The former prime minister was branded “evasive” and in breach of Westminster lobbying rules by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), which […]
LONDON — Liz Truss wasn’t known for playing by the rules during her short-lived premiership. The Conservative former prime minister has spent the week plugging her new book about her time in government. Now the U.K. government has waded in, declaring Truss broke its rules by failing to get approval to include private conversations with […]
LONDON — Britain’s Conservatives suspended an MP over claims he requested campaign funds to pay off “bad people.” The Times reported that Mark Menzies called an elderly local party volunteer at 3.15 a.m. in December last year saying he was locked in a flat and needed £5,000 as a matter of “life and death.” According […]
LONDON — They say history is written by the victors, but that hasn’t stopped Liz Truss having a go. The former British prime minister — perhaps best known internationally for failing to outlast a lettuce — has a new call to arms hitting shelves Tuesday. Truss was ousted after just 49 days in office, making her the […]
LONDON ― In politics, reality rarely matches rhetoric. And the reality is Britain will probably never seize Russia’s money. Plenty of bold words have been bandied about since Russia launched its illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In Britain’s capital — nicknamed “Londongrad” for its reputation as a playground for Russian oligarchs — Cabinet […]
The U.K. prime minister’s residence in Downing Street was infested with fleas, former PM Liz Truss charges in her new memoir. Truss, who had the shortest tenure as leader in British history at just 49 days, made the revelation in her new book, excerpted on Saturday by the Daily Mail. The book, “Ten Years to […]
LONDON — The right-wing political party set up by U.K. Brexiteer Nigel Farage has apologized after publicly firing one of its election candidates for being “inactive” — when the candidate had in fact died. Reform UK admitted it didn’t realize that Tommy Cawkwell, its election candidate in York Central, had perished when he was sacked […]