Politics

Robin Cook preempted the findings of the Chilcot inquiry more than 13 years ago in his 2003 resignation speech. Tony Blair's first foreign secretary echoed many of the findings of the report released by Sir John Chilcot yesterday. Cook said he "cannot support a war without international agreement or domestic support" and went on to criticise the government for going in to battle without a second resolution from the UN Security Council and without exhausting all other options. He said...

Theresa May, favourite to become the UK's next Prime Minister, nodded off in David Cameron's statement on the Chilcot Enquiry. A video emerged of the front-runner for Conservative Party leadership falling asleep as current PM Cameron made his speech on the monumental report findings. The Chilcot report revealed the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted and that military action at that time was not a last resort. Watch the...

The official Twitter account for the Russian Embassy in the UK posted a picture reading "keep calm but I told you so" following the Chilcot report revelations. Russia stayed out of the Iraq War in 2003, stating that we could not ignore the fact that "substantial progress" had been made since chief weapons inspector Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed El Baradei first visited the country. Although Russia did have oil interests in Iraq and the country owed...

The Labour Party has gained 100,000 new members since the EU referendum, taking it up to around half a million members. The previous peak under Tony Blair of 405,000 has now easily been surpassed under Jeremy Corbyn's reign, as the outspoken leader appeals to more grassroot supporters. Despite Corbyn losing the faith of Labour MPs it seems the EU referendum has bolstered his popularity among the party's members. Indeed, it is thought the boost in membership has come in a...

Ken Clarke and Sir Malcolm Rifkind have been caught on tape giving an unguarded opinion of the Tory leadership candidates. Michael Gove, Theresa May, Andrea Leadsom, Stephen Crabb and Liam Fox are running to take charge of the Conservative Party, but a scathing review of their policies by Clarke and Rifkind could dampen their chances. The full transcript broken down by candidate is below: On Gove:  Rifkind said:  "I don't mind who wins as long as Gove comes third. As long as...

Support for the European Union in Denmark has surged to new highs with Danish people keen to avoid putting themselves in the "kind of mess the British have created for themselves". A new poll has countered fears that the Scandinavian nation might be the next country to hold a referendum, revealing 69 per cent of Danish people now endorse the country’s membership of the union, up 10 per cent from the week leading up to the Brexit vote. The Voxmeter poll also...

Britain started the process of detaching itself from continental Europe following news that George Osborne plans to slash corporation tax to 15 per cent. The chancellor unveiled a five-point plan to protect the UK economy in the wake of the referendum vote, announcing that we are to remain competitive as an island by becoming more offshore in nature. Osborne says he also wants to secure new investment from China, boost banking lending, attract investment into the North of England and maintain...

Social research specialists NatCen have confirmed that the UK class divide is "alive and well" following a social attitudes study. The research revealed 77 per cent of people interviewed thought the class divide was either fairly wide or very wide, and just 26 per cent thought it was not very difficult to move between social classes, compared with 35 per cent in 2005. The British Social Attitudes survey is a tracker study that has been carried out every year since 1983, with...

Hundreds of racist incidents have been reported following the UK's decision to leave the European Union. The police online hate crime reporting site has been inundated with reports, with Twitter hashtag #postrefracism created to shame those involved on social media. One Twitter user, Ben Zen, wrote that two Britons waved an English flag towards him and, having heard him speak in Romanian, said: "We voted you out. Go home you f*****g immigrants." On Facebook, Ai Sha shared a video showing members of...