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Speaking at a book launch in Westminster on Tuesday Mr Farage told the PoliticsHome website that he would soon be doing Mr Sunak's job. Teasing Conservative MPs present at the event, the former Ukip leader initially said he was serious but later said he was joking. “I’d be very surprised if I were not Conservative leader by ‘26. Very surprised," he told the website. “They think I’m joking," he said, referring to others present, adding: "I’m serious.” He later tried to row back on his comments and said they were meant “in jest”. Mr Farage quit the Tories 30 years...

Having read Bill Ponton’s very clear “reality check” on the UK’s Net Zero project, you are probably wondering, what are the counter-arguments advanced by the supporters of Net Zero? After all, the Net Zero thing appears to have near-unanimous support in the UK. There is no significant political party in that country that advocates policies dissenting from the Net Zero program, unless you count the UK Independence Party, which at the moment holds zero seats in a House of Commons of 650 members. The currently-governing Conservative Party is fully on board with the Net Zero program, with the partial exception...

At the back of an altar in Westminster Abbey is a looted tablet deemed so holy by Ethiopian Christians that only priests from the country’s Orthodox church are able to look at it. But the abbey has been accused of gross cultural insensitivity for apparently failing to respond when leaders of the church asked to be able to pray beside the artefact. “I was very shocked and surprised,” said Samuel Berhanu, a deacon in the Ethiopian church in London, who contacted Westminster Abbey last year asking for permission for Ethiopian Orthodox church leaders “to organise a viewing and prayer session”....

JACOB Rees-Mogg has told Brexiteers to trust Boris Johnson to broker a deal with Brussels but warned to “expect compromise”. The Tory arch-Brexiteer said that concessions with EU chiefs were “inevitable” but the PM could be trusted to “deliver”. ...Mr Rees-Mogg wrote in The Telegraph: “In the final stages of the Brexit negotiation, compromise will inevitably be needed, something even the staunchest Leavers recognise albeit unwillingly - but as a Leaver Boris can be trusted. "He wants to take back control and has dedicated his political career to this noble cause. If he thinks the ship of state is worth...

Breaking News: A deal reached in Ecuador tonight between President Lenin Moreno and opposition leaders of indigenous groups..... A relative calm on the littered streets of Quito, Ecuador with military forces and police.... Its been a weekend of subdued protest in Hong Kong, but China's president offered up tough remarks on a visit to Nepal...... Extra police deployed in Catalonia amid concern over the verdicts for 12 leaders of the region.... The Turkish president speaking in Istanbul rejecting any offers of mediation with Kurdish side...... Another significant development related to Syria is the agreement between the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces...

In the midst of negotiations to implement Brexit, E.U. president Donald Tusk sneered that there was “a special place in hell” for those who pushed Brexit “without a plan,” a comment seemingly designed to foil an agreement. The Brexiteers have responded in kind. Nigel Farage tweeted that after Brexit, “we will be free of unelected bureaucrats like you and run our own country.” He added, “Sounds more like heaven to me.” Jacob Rees-Mogg, Conservative MP, said that Tusk’s comment “shows exactly why the British people rejected the EU in the first place.” “Britain is implementing the will of the people,”...

THE resignation of David Davis as Brexit Secretary has confirmed the UK government’s descent into “utter chaos”, Nicola Sturgeon has said. The First Minister said Theresa May’s administration was now simply a “shambles”. Ms Sturgeon tweeted her verdict as SNP MPs were being asked to attend a Downing Street briefing on the Prime Minister’s Chequers deal by her of chief of staff Gavin Barwell. Mr Barwell has offered a briefing on Mrs May’s Brexit proposals to all opposition MPs, in a sign Number 10 knows it cannot rely on the support of Tory MPs alone to make them work. Leading...

A leading Brexiteer has said the UK cannot become a "colony" of the EU during the two year transition period after Britain's withdrawal in 2019. EU leaders have agreed Brexit talks can move on, with the UK staying in the customs union, single market and under the European Court of Justice's jurisdiction during the transition. ... Mrs May suffered her first Commons Brexit defeat earlier this week when MPs voted to give Parliament a legal guarantee of a vote on the final Brexit deal struck with Brussels. Among the Tory rebels was Mr Clarke, who told Newsnight his actions had...