United Kingdom

UK Foreign Secretary

24 Dec 2023 (approx) 7 2

James Cleverly

Inserted 1 year ago

“No country could shield itself from the repercussions [of a conflict over Taiwan]. Distance would offer no protection from this catastrophic blow to the global economy - and least China's most of all. I shudder to contemplate the human and financial ruin that would follow. It's essential that no party takes unilateral action to change the status quo.”

British Foreign Secretary

25 Apr 2023 2 2

James Cleverly

Inserted 1 year ago

“We are closing the net on the Russian elite and those who try to help them hide their money for war. There's no place to hide. We will keep cutting them off from assets they thought were successfully hidden.”

British Foreign Secretary

12 Apr 2023 1 1

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon

Inserted 1 year ago

“Putin insinuating that they are some sort of nuclear weapon is bonkers. Depleted uranium is completely inert. There is no way that you could create a nuclear reaction or a nuclear explosion with depleted uranium.”

Former commander of the UK’s Royal Tank Regiment

21 Mar 2023 5 3

Ben Wallace

Inserted 1 year ago

“A whole Russian brigade was effectively annihilated. Moscow lost over 1,000 people in two days. The losses in Vuhledar showed the result of a president and a Russian general staff that defies reality or ignores reality and simply doesn't care how many people they are killing of their own, let alone of the people they are trying to oppress.”

UK Secretary of State for Defence

15 Feb 2023 4 1

Liz Truss

Inserted 1 year ago

“I wanted to act to help people with their energy bills and to deal with the issue of high taxes, but we went too far and too fast.”

UK Prime Minister

17 Oct 2022 2 3

Caroline Le Jeune

Inserted 1 year ago

“In 25 years of analysing budgets this must be the most dramatic, risky and unfounded mini-budget. Truss and her new government are taking a huge gamble.”

Head of tax at accountants Blick Rothenberg

23 Sep 2022 3 2

Elizabeth Norton

Inserted 1 year ago

“She always put duty first, long after others of her generation had retired. When she became queen, people anticipated a new Elizabethan age of peace and prosperity. Such optimism was justified, with decades of great change and mostly rising living standards. During her long life, she weathered many storms. Elizabeth II mostly stood apart from controversy in the royal family - particularly in her later years - and will justly be remembered as one of the best-loved monarchs of the modern period.”

Historian

08 Sep 2022 3 1

Jonah Hull

Inserted 1 year ago

“She [Liz Truss] picked up 57 percent of eligible votes among Conservative Party members. Rishi Sunak, former chancellor of the exchequer, got 42 percent. She promised that she campaigned as a Conservative and she will govern as a Conservative, she promised to cut taxes, to grow the economy, she promised to deal with the energy crisis.”

Al Jazeera’s journalist

05 Sep 2022 3 2

Rory Challands

Inserted 1 year ago

“Double resignations, a double bombshell for Boris Johnson and his future as the prime minister of the United Kingdom. I think it will be very, very difficult for him to survive such a step from two key allies.”

Al Jazeera’s journalist reporting from London

05 Jul 2022 3 2

Liz Truss

Inserted 1 year ago

“NATO must have a global outlook, ready to tackle global threats. We need to pre-empt threats in the Indo-Pacific, working with our allies like Japan and Australia to ensure the Pacific is protected, and we must ensure that democracies like Taiwan are able to defend themselves.”

Taipeitimes

British Foreign Secretary

27 Apr 2022 (approx) 9 3

Liz Truss

Inserted 2 years ago

“I'm very skeptical. What we've seen is an attempt to create space for the Russians to regroup. Their invasion isn't going according to plan. I fear the negotiation is yet another attempt to create a diversion and create a smokescreen. I don't think we're yet at a point for negotiation.”

British Foreign Secretary

19 Mar 2022 4 2

Boris Johnson

Inserted 2 years ago

“There are some around the world...who say that we're better off making accommodations with tyranny.... I believe they are profoundly wrong. To try to renormalize relations with Putin after this, as we did in 2014, would be to make exactly the same mistake again, and that is why Putin must fail. This is a turning point for the world and it's a moment of choice. It's a choice between freedom and oppression.”

UK Prime Minister

19 Mar 2022 3 4

Liz Truss

Inserted 2 years ago

“Putin should take note. We will not rest until he fails in Ukraine and the country's sovereignty is restored. Putin must lose, because the consequences if he doesn't are huge. So we will keep strengthening our response, replacing doubt with determination, and complacency with conviction. We must never let our guard down again. We will be tough - not because we want conflict, but because we want to prevent it. Be tough, get peace.”

Gov

British Foreign Secretary

10 Mar 2022 4 3

Liz Truss

Inserted 2 years ago

“Today's sanctions show once again that oligarchs and kleptocrats have no place in our economy or society. With their close links to Putin they are complicit in his aggression. The blood of the Ukrainian people is on their hands. They should hang their heads in shame.”

British Foreign Secretary

10 Mar 2022 6 4

Boris Johnson

Inserted 2 years ago

“In another economic blow to the Putin regime following their illegal invasion of Ukraine, the UK will move away from dependence on Russian oil throughout this year, building on our severe package of international economic sanctions. Working with industry, we are confident that this can be achieved over the course of the year, providing enough time for companies to adjust and ensuring consumers are protected.”

UK Prime Minister

08 Mar 2022 6 5

Boris Johnson

Inserted 2 years ago

“This is the first tranche, the first barrage of what we are prepared to do. It is absolutely vital that we hold in reserve further powerful sanctions...in view of what President Putin may do next. We want to stop Russian companies from being able to raise funds in sterling or indeed in dollars.”

UK Prime Minister

22 Feb 2022 5 3

Boris Johnson

Inserted 2 years ago

“Sanctions would hit very very hard, and could include restrictions on Russian businesses' access to the dollar and the pound. We have to accept at the moment that (Russian President) Vladimir Putin is possibly thinking illogically about this and doesn't see the disaster ahead.”

UK Prime Minister

20 Feb 2022 4 4

Boris Johnson

Inserted 2 years ago

“Every time that Western ministers have visited Kyiv, we have assured the people of Ukraine and their leaders that we stand four-square behind their sovereignty and independence. If Ukraine is endangered, the shock will echo around the world. And those echoes will be heard in east Asia, will be heard in Taiwan. People would draw the conclusion that aggression pays, and that might is right.”

UK Prime Minister

19 Feb 2022 7 3

Boris Johnson

Inserted 2 years ago

“You've got about 130,000 troops massing on the Ukrainian border. This is a very, very dangerous, difficult situation. We are on the edge of a precipice but there is still time for President Putin to step back.”

Themoscowtimes

UK Prime Minister

14 Feb 2022 5 3

Ben Wallace

Inserted 2 years ago

“The worrying thing is that, despite the massive amount of increased diplomacy, that military build-up has continued.”

UK Secretary of State for Defence

13 Feb 2022 2 1

Liz Truss

Inserted 2 years ago

“I can't see any other reason for having 100,000 troops stationed on the border, apart from to threaten Ukraine. And if Russia is serious about diplomacy, they need to remove those troops and desist from the threats.”

British Foreign Secretary

10 Feb 2022 4 3

Boris Johnson

Inserted 2 years ago

“I honestly don't think a decision has yet been taken. But that doesn't mean that it is impossible that something absolutely disastrous could happen very soon indeed. This is probably the most dangerous moment, I would say, in the course of the next few days, in what is the biggest security crisis that Europe has faced for decades, and we've got to get it right. And I think that the combination of sanctions and military resolve, plus diplomacy is what is in order.”

UK Prime Minister

10 Feb 2022 6 4

James Kariuki

Inserted 2 years ago

“In 2014, Russia denied to this council the presence of its forces in Crimea. In reality, its soldiers were annexing part of an independent, democratic Ukraine. Today, Russia denies that its forces are posing a threat to Ukraine. But yet again we see disinformation, cyberattacks and destabilising plots directed against an independent, democratic country.”

UK Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations

31 Jan 2022 5 3

Liz Truss

Inserted 2 years ago

“What the legislation enables us to do is hit a much wider variety of targets. So there can be nobody who thinks that they will be immune to those sanctions. Any company of interest to the Kremlin and the regime in Russia would be able to be targeted so there will be nowhere to hide for Putin's oligarchs, for Russian companies involved in propping up the Russian state.”

British Foreign Secretary

30 Jan 2022 6 2

Liz Truss

Inserted 2 years ago

“We'll be bringing forward new legislation to make our sanctions regime tougher so we are able to target more companies and individuals in Russia. We will be bringing that forward in the next few days.”

British Foreign Secretary

26 Jan 2022 3 3

Boris Johnson

Inserted 2 years ago

“We have a hard-hitting package of sanctions ready to go and what I think it would be fair to say is we want to see our European friends ready to deploy that package as soon as there should be any incursion at all by Russia into Ukraine. It is absolutely vital that ... the West is united now, because it is our unity now that will be much more effective in deterring any Russian aggression.”

UK Prime Minister

25 Jan 2022 5 3

Jeremy Shapiro

Inserted 2 years ago

“The most interesting thing is what it says about how frayed the U.K.-German relationship is. The disunity was on display for everyone who could track the planes.”

Research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations

23 Jan 2022 1 2

Malcolm Chalmers

Inserted 2 years ago

“The U.K. is differentiating itself from Germany and France, and to some extent, even the U.S. That comes out of Brexit, and the sense that we have to define ourselves as an independent middle power.”

Deputy director general of the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank in London

23 Jan 2022 5 2

Dominic Raab

Inserted 2 years ago

“There'll be very serious consequences if Russia takes this move to try and invade but also install a puppet regime.”

UK foreign minister

23 Jan 2022 3 3

Liz Truss

Inserted 2 years ago

“The information being released today shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine, and is an insight into Kremlin thinking. Russia must de-escalate, end its campaigns of aggression and disinformation, and pursue a path of diplomacy.”

British Foreign Secretary

23 Jan 2022 5 3

Tim Bale

Inserted 2 years ago

“Mr. Johnson is essentially now a prisoner of his more hawkish cabinet colleagues and the 100 or so MPs who seem to be allergic to any kind of public health restrictions. They just feel that the state has grown too big in trying to combat Covid and that they really don't want the government to grow any bigger.”

Professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London

08 Jan 2022 2 5

William Hanage

Inserted 2 years ago

“Even if Omicron were half as virulent as Delta, but infected four times as many people, twice as fast, that's still a wrecking ball aimed at a teetering healthcare system. The NHS is already seeing staff shortages from illness and quarantine, and weighing the possibility of reducing or cancelling services.”

Epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

05 Jan 2022 5 2

Matthew Knight

Inserted 2 years ago

“If you are planning to build a field hospital in a car park and to care for patients in an understaffed tent. I think you can justify stopping a few New Year's Eve parties and asking everyone to stay at home for a fortnight.”

Consultant Respiratory Physician at West Herts Hospitals

30 Dec 2021 2 3

Stephen Powis

Inserted 2 years ago

“We do not yet know exactly how many of those who catch the virus will need hospital treatment. But given the number of infections we cannot wait to find out before we act and so work is beginning from today to ensure these facilities are in place.”

Medical director for the National Health Service in England

30 Dec 2021 3 2

Wes Streeting

Inserted 2 years ago

“People are trying to do the right thing, follow the government's own advice, and test themselves regularly, but are prevented by the Conservative government's incompetence. They need to get a grip and provide enough tests so people can keep themselves and everyone else safe.”

Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom

28 Dec 2021 3 2

Sajid Javid

Inserted 2 years ago

“There will be no further measures before the new year. When we get into the new year, of course we will see then whether we do need to take any further measures. We will watch carefully what is happening in the hospitals. Should, in the future, we need to act, of course we won't hesitate to do so.”

Arabnews

UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

27 Dec 2021 1 2

Simon Spurrell

Inserted 2 years ago

“It turns out our greatest competitor on the planet is the UK government because every time they do a fantastic deal, they kick us out of that market - starting with the Brexit deal. The post-Brexit EU trade deal as the biggest disaster that any government has ever negotiated in the history of trade negotiations.”