Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants to “level up” the honours system by giving more knighthoods, damehoods, and other honours to people living in under-represented areas of the country, according to a new report. In the foreword to a new report on the operation of the honours system, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said that Sunak…

Russia-aligned cyber groups sympathetic to the invasion of Ukraine have been trying to disrupt or destroy the UK’s infrastructure, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Dowden said on Wednesday. In a keynote speech at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)’s annual cyber security event in Belfast, Dowden said the NCSC is issuing an official alert about these…

The chairman of Britain’s ruling Conservative Party has resigned after the party suffered two by-election defeats, dealing a fresh blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s authority. The Tories lost the Tiverton and Honiton constituency, a traditional Conservative stronghold, after a swing of almost 30 percent to the Liberal Democrats. And Wakefield, one of the so-called…

France and Germany could be doing more to help Ukraine defend itself against the Russian invasion, a UK minister has said. Oliver Dowden, a minister without portfolio who also serves as chairman of the Conservative Party, told the BBC on Sunday that the West needs to “continue to tighten the ratchet on Russia” as Moscow…

The United States and the UK cannot afford to indulge in the Left’s “painful woke psychodrama” that is weakening the West just when it is confronted with severe external challenges, the chairman of Britain’s ruling Conservative Party has warned. In a speech hosted by the Heritage Foundation in Washington, Oliver Dowden dubbed “woke” ideology as…

Britons should “keep calm and carry on” with their Christmas plans despite the detection of cases of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant in the country, the chairman of the ruling Conservative Party has said. Talking to Sky News on Friday morning, Oliver Dowden said the Conservative Party has no intention of cancelling its own Christmas…

Public history is being altered in the UK through removing statues, renaming streets, and changing school curricula without a rigorous and non-partisan process, a British conservative think tank has warned. A paper (pdf) written by broadcaster Trevor Phillips and released by the Policy Exchange think tank on Monday said there has been “widespread national concern…

Britain’s supply chain problems look set to continue after a senior government minister admitted that the UK’s offer of 5,000 temporary visas to foreign lorry drivers had attracted very little interest. Last month the government announced that it would issue 5,000 temporary visas to HGV drivers in an attempt to prevent shortages in the run-up…

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden will warn that “standing still is not an option” for Channel 4 following a UK government consultation into the privatisation of the broadcaster. In a speech to the Royal Television Society Convention on Wednesday, Dowden is expected to outline how the channel could continue to thrive even if it is sold….

Museums should not be bullied by left-wing campaign groups into removing statues and rewriting history, British Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has said. Dowden highlighted the risk of museums being “pushed around by unrepresentative campaign groups, principally from the left.” These left-wing groups “put bullying pressure on institutions to rapidly change their approach, to remove our…