PMQs Live:

Watch Boris Johnson take questions in Parliament

Alex Salmond launches pro-independence Alba Party ahead of Scottish election

Scotland’s former first minister Alex Salmond has announced he is setting up a new political party to contest May’s Scottish Parliament election.

Latest stories

  • Biden’s White House communications strategy is driving Republicans insane

    In the words of one House Republican campaign operative, ‘It’s a nightmare’

  • Rate of people with Covid antibodies ‘levels off’ across most of UK

    ‘Clear pattern’ between Covid vaccinations and antibody positivity across UK, says Office for National Statistics

  • Penny Lancaster: I'm a fully qualified police officer ready to patrol the streets

    The 50-year-old model has received her warrant card and police badge after qualifying as a Special Constable.

  • Quarter of Covid deaths not caused by virus, new figures show

    Almost a quarter of registered Covid deaths are people who are not dying from the disease, new official figures show, as the Government was urged to move faster with the roadmap in the light of increasingly positive data. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that 23 per cent of coronavirus deaths registered are now people who have died "with" the virus rather than "from" an infection. This means that, while the person who died will have tested positive for Covid, that was not the primary cause of their death recorded on the death certificate. Other data also shows an increasingly positive picture of the state of the pandemic in the UK. Daily death figures by "date of death" reveal that Britain has had no more than 28 deaths a day since the beginning of April, even though the government-announced deaths have been as high as 60. This is because the Government gives a daily update on deaths based on the number reported that day, which can include deaths from days or weeks previously and therefore may not reflect the true decline in deaths. On Tuesday, the Government announced that there had been 23 further deaths.

  • Firm offers discounted PCR tests for holidaymakers

    The plan came after the travel industry expressed concern that testing requirements would make foreign holidays unaffordable for many people.

  • Lord Frost heads to Brussels to discuss post-Brexit trade tensions in Northern Ireland

    Lord Frost will travel to Brussels on Thursday to discuss post-Brexit trade tensions in Northern Ireland, as senior DUP MPs expressed fears of further rioting unless the issue was dealt with. The former Brexit negotiator, who is now in charge of EU relations, will hold talks with his European Commission counterpart Maros Sefcovic amid ongoing negotiations over the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol. The Telegraph understands that the pair will have dinner together on Thursday evening, most likely in the Berlaymont building, following “positive” discussions over the timing and implementation of new rules and checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea. While the outbreak of violence across Northern Ireland has given renewed impetus to the talks, Government sources insisted that the dinner was a long-standing engagement and played down the prospects of any imminent breakthrough. Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland Secretary, will also meet Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney on Thursday following the unrest in the province, which resulted in 88 police officers being injured. Meanwhile, figures released by the Office for National Statistics showed that UK trade with the EU bounced back in February following a record slump in January after the end of the transition period. February’s export figures rose by almost half on the previous month, although they were still 11 per cent down compared to the same period last year.

  • Queen will have to sit alone at Prince Philip's funeral because of strict Covid rules

    The Queen faces the prospect of having to sit on her own during the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral because of strict Covid rules, it has emerged. The law states that anyone attending a funeral must stay at least two metres apart from anyone who is not part of their household, meaning all members of the Royal family will have to spread out in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. The Queen is not eligible to be in a support bubble because she does not live on her own, meaning the only person who could sit with her during the service would be a member of her Windsor Castle staff. The Duke’s private secretary, Brigadier Archie Miller-Bakewell, is expected to be one of the 30 mourners allowed at the ceremony, and as a member of “HMS Bubble” at Windsor may be the only attendee eligible by law to sit with the Queen.

  • ‘If we don’t support them we’ll never get them back’: Punters brave Covid and the cold in return to the pub

    After months of disruption, Vincent Wood reports, a minority of the nation’s pubs are getting back to business – weather permitting

  • Death rate for British cancer patients with Covid far higher than in Europe at nearly 50 per cent

    Nearly half of UK cancer patients who caught coronavirus died – a much higher rate than counterparts in Europe, a study suggests. Researchers found that UK patients were less likely to be receiving cancer treatment during the pandemic and less likely to be given the best life-saving therapies once they had caught the virus. The worse death rate also reflects the fact that British cancer sufferers tended to be less fit generally. The study, published in the European Journal of Cancer, included 1,392 patients from the UK, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and Germany, tracking their progress between Feb 27 and Sep 10 last year. It found that, 30 days after a Covid diagnosis, 40.34 per cent of the UK cancer patients had died, with the figure standing at 26.5 per cent of the European patients. After six months, the proportion had risen to 47.6 per cent of the UK cohort compared to 33.3 per cent of the European. Scientists at Imperial College London pointed to disastrous guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which recommended pausing cancer treatment for many patients in order to stop them catching Covid in hospital.

  • Public ready to accept vaccine passports – and keep them after pandemic is over

    Exclusive: Almost a third think Boris Johnson is ending lockdown too soon

  • ‘The fear is much worse is coming’: Loyalist leaders call for political action as Northern Ireland violence returns

    ‘The young people feel that violence has paid off for the republicans, so why shouldn’t it pay off for them?’ hears Kim Sengupta in Belfast

  • Homophobic couple jailed for torturing gay magistrate in his own home and forcing fire poker down his throat

    A couple who tortured late magistrate Vince McMahan in a violent homophobic attack have been jailed for a total of nearly six years.

  • ‘I can’t accept that’: Daunte Wright’s parents hit out at ‘mistake’ explanation for son’s death

    ‘That doesn’t even sound right. This officer has been on the force for 26 years,’ says Aubrey Wright

  • Prince Philip funeral: Duke's respect for Navy fliers to feature in adapted hymn

    The hymn Eternal Father, Strong To Save will feature in the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral on Saturday, with the possible addition of a little-known extra verse at his request. Better known as "For Those in Peril on the Sea" after the last line, the usually four-verse hymn is considered especially poignant by military sailors. Rarely heard outside military circles, however, are two verses written specifically for aviators. They are inserted between the second and third verses. The additional words are understood to feature occasionally at Fleet Air Arm funerals, the aviation branch of the Royal Navy. One such was sung at the funeral of the man who taught the Duke to fly, while he was a Royal Navy officer. Unexpectedly turning up to the funeral many years ago, the Duke further surprised the congregation by singing, along with just a couple of other attendees, the unfamiliar words, which are not included in standard hymn books.

  • Bride-to-be tries on wedding dress after lockdown easing

    Bride-to-be Erin Barwell tries on dresses for the first time since non-essential retailers reopened this week. Erin, from Stoke-on-Trent, is due to get married next February and tried on dresses at Roberta's Bridal in Burslem.

  • A gold nose pin, boxes of eggs, or a tax rebate: Covid vaccine incentives around the world

    A gold nose pin, boxes of eggs, or a tax rebate: Covid vaccine incentives around the worldMembers of the public are being offered gifts and discounts to encourage vaccine take-upSee all our coronavirus coverage A man receives a dose of Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine in Dhaka Photograph: Suvra Kanti Das/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

  • 'Rapping jihadi' who boasted about wanting to behead British soldiers sentenced to 19 years in prison

    A jihadist who plotted a lone-wolf knife attack has been jailed for life after a judge said he ought to have turned his back on extremism when two of his brothers were killed fighting for Islamic State in Syria. Sahayb Abu, an aspiring rapper, bought an 18-inch sword, a knife and combat clothing as he prepared to strike last summer. The 27-year-old, who is the fifth member of his family to be linked to extremism, also used a rap song to boast about wanting to behead British soldiers. Abu’s half-brothers, Wail and Suleyman Aweys, were killed in Syria after leaving the UK to fight for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (IS). His half-sister, Asma Aweys, 32, was jailed in January 2019, alongside her partner Abdulaziz Abu Munye, 29, and half brother Ahmed Aweys, 34, after she called Ariana Grande 'the devil' in the wake of the Manchester Arena attack in a family WhatsApp chat. Asma was imprisoned for 19 months for collecting terrorist information, while her partner received 15 months for dissemination. Ahmed was jailed for 25 months for also disseminating terrorist material. Last month an Old Bailey jury found Abu guilty of preparing to engage in terrorist acts and on Tuesday he was jailed for life and told he would have to spend a minimum of 19-years behind bars.

  • ‘A tsunami of cases’: desperation as Covid second wave batters India

    ‘A tsunami of cases’: desperation as Covid second wave batters India. Doctors speak of a new variant of the virus that appears to be spreading faster than ever before

  • English universities despair as in-person teaching ruled out before 17 May

    English universities despair as in-person teaching ruled out before 17 MayMove likely to fuel demands for compensation with students saying they have already missed outCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage Students walk past Coventry University library. University leaders had hoped to persuade ministers to ease Covid restrictions in line with the lifting of other lockdown measures in England. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

  • Burkina Faso ex-president Compaoré to be tried for Thomas Sankara's 1987 murder

    In Burkina Faso, judges have ruled that exiled former president Blaise Compaoré must stand trial for his role in the assassination of Thomas Sankara, whom he overthrew in a coup d'état in 1987. Also, a Tuareg leader in Mali has been shot dead in the capital Bamako. Sidi Brahim Ould Sidati was a key figure in a 2015 peace accord. And in a major step forward for the protection of women and children in Gabon, customary marriages are finally recognised by the state.