Politics

Former Carillion boss Mark Davies has been appointed as the managing director for the HS2 joint venture between Balfour Beatty and VINCI. The project is one of the world's largest construction projects with billions of pounds-worth of contracts put up for the first phase between West Midlands and London.  Davies joined Carillion in 2008 and rose to managing director of its UK Infrastructure business until the firm went bust in January 2018. The liquidation cost hundreds of jobs and was the most...

A Brexit-led spoof of the Titanic is going viral on social media. The animation, created by Josh Pappenheim, depicts the famed sinking scene and includes politicians from across the spectrum.  It leads with Boris Johnson's speech that "Brexit means Brexit, and we are going to make a Titanic success of it", before cutting to the sinking of the ship as shown in its namesake film.  David Cameron stars alongside Nigel Farage, Michael Gove and Theresa May. Jeremy Corbyn gets a...

UK unemployment fell by 65,000 to 1.36 million in three months to June - the lowest for more than 40 years. They also show a rise in productivity, but a slowdown in wage growth. The official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on unemployment revealed that: 5% unemployment in London is near record low (persons aged 16-64, April-June 2018), driven in particular by fewer young people and fewer women out of work. The young person (18-24 year old) unemployment...

Jeremy Corbyn has faced fresh calls to stand down following controversy over a visit to a cemetery in Tunisia in 2014.  Sajid Javid called for the Labour leader to quit after the Daily Mail claimed he was photographed holding a wreath near the graves of those responsible for the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The calls from the Conservative front bench come a week after former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson compared women in burqas to "letter boxes"...

New analysis into voting intentions over Brexit have changed considerably since the vote was held. The model puts Remain on 53% support, with 47% backing Leave. Among the constituencies that appear to have switched voting intentions from Leave to Remain is arch-Brexiteer Boris Johnson‘s Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat and Surrey Heat, Michael Gove’s constituency. The analysis, obtained by The Observer, were from figures produced by consumer analytics company Focaldata, drawing on two YouGov polls of a total of more...

Lord Cooper, a Conservative peer, took to Twitter to attack Boris Johnson. He didn't pull any punches claiming the ex-foreign sec of 'moral emptiness,' racism and 'courting fascism.' Mr Cooper, who previously worked as an aide to ex-PM David Cameron, was reacting to Johnson's recent newspaper article where he compared women wearing burqas to “letterboxes” and “bank robbers.” Donald Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon has praised Boris Johnson, he told the Sunday Times Johnson had “nothing to apologise for” Bannon...

This June, in light of lack of public trust after the Grenfell disaster, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, James Brokenshire promised that a green paper on social housing would be published before the parliamentary recess. Its failure to appear, despite a worsening housing crisis and the fact that the Labour party published its own review of social housing back in April, has led to widespread anger across the housing sector. A freedom of information request...

Researchers say the political context the respondents grew up in - during the ages of 15 to 25 - is the time when people form key opinions and are most sensitive to social events

Entrepreneurial Tim Baker plans to 'make bog roll great again' at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival after its popularity at Christmas