Politics

The brilliant but troubled footballer Mario Balotelli once scored a goal in a Manchester derby match and then lifted up his jersey to reveal a t-shirt with the slogan: ‘Why always me?’ Those who had followed his chaotic career closely could have told him that being the sort of bloke who allows fireworks to be let off in his own bathroom — as he had done the night before, starting a fire that caused £400,000 worth of damage to his house — probably had something to do with it. Today Boris Johnson would seem to have pulled off a similar feat, as he faces the increasingly likely prospect of police

There is no room for wriggling here and not just because multiple witnesses put Boris Johnson and his wife at the scene of the stupidity. If Boris Johnson had not been aware that 100 people who work in the same building as him had been invited to a post-work BYOB shindig, even he might have noticed a crowd of 30 to 40 gathering in his garden. And he might then have popped a prime ministerial head out of the window and asked what the bloody hell the partygoers thought they were doing. But of course nothing like that happened because the Prime Minister must surely have known about it all

Andy Burnham has been undergoing something of a transformation in recent years. Gone is the Cambridge-educated career politician who underperformed in successive Labour leadership contests. Now he’s reborn as the king of the north, an omnipotent Manchester mayor with fans across the capital and the country.   His pugilist credentials have been honed by savvy social media skills, with Burnham always keen to take a pithy pop at Westminster/the Tories/London for another egregious slight visited on the north by those avaricious creatures down south.  But could honest Andy’s love of Twitter be his downfall? For the high-flying mayor is so keen to comment on every passing development that he appears to have tripped up on today’s

The Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi was in the hotseat this morning as the Sunday interview shows make their return. He spoke to Trevor Phillips and immediately scotched reports in the Sunday Times from Whitehall sources suggesting that the current policy of providing free lateral flow tests could soon be on its way out: NZ: I don’t recognise [this] at all… TP: There are no plans at the moment to stop lateral flow tests being free? NZ: Absolutely not. Cutting isolation to 5 days ‘would certainly help’ Zahawi also spoke to Sophie Raworth, who is now filling the role vacated by Andrew Marr. Raworth asked Zahawi about proposals which could see the mandatory

Once upon a time it was the ‘Notting Hill set’ which ran the Tory party, with David Cameron, George Osborne and Michael Gove all boasting homes there. Now though, the Cameroons are largely gone and if there can be said to be an alternative London clique, it will be found seven miles south, in the leafy surroundings of Richmond. For the district is the power base of Carrie Johnson, who worked there for local MP Zac Goldsmith, the defra minister who now sits in the Lords alongside longtime Richmond council leader Nicholas True. The latter’s daughter Sophia also works in No. 10 as a special adviser. But now a little-noticed answer by Lord True has made life