Day: April 5, 2018

    The Conservatives in London have reportedly held secret discussions about a potential breakaway from the national party, amid fears of an electoral wipeout in the local elections next month. Senior Tories have hosted a series of meetings over the past year in order to draw up plans for a separate party which would boast its own brand, ­policies and figurehead separate to Theresa May . The disclosure is deeply embarrassing for Mrs May, who is braced for the party’s worst performance in the ­capital in its 184-year history, when the ballots are cast next month. According to analysis conducted by Lord Hayward and Tony Travers, a ­respected academic, the Conservatives are expected to lose almost 100 seats in the capital, falling from 612 to 519, while all nine councils...

    Russia has been working overtime this past month to absolve itself of alleged involvement in the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on British soil. It has claimed that it does not possess Novichok, the military-grade nerve agent used in the attack. It has accused the United Kingdom and its allies of spearheading an anti-Russia crusade. It has even gone so far as to suggest that the U.K. might itself have been behind the attack. But, lacking evidence to back up such claims, Moscow’s effort to cast doubt on the accusations against it have been futile. That is, until British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson stepped in. The deletion came just one day after Gary Aitkenhead, Porton Down’s chief executive, told Sky News the lab was unable to pin...