BORIS Johnson has pledged to defend the UK with a new ‘Union army' as SNP chiefs prepare to unveil a new independence referendum bill.

Rolls-Royce Holdings, the FTSE-100 engineering group, will this week name a former Deloitte partner as its next finance chief as it tries to navigate through the headwinds of the COVID-19 crisis.

A group of lockdown-sceptic MPs has told Boris Johnson that coronavirus restrictions must be fully lifted by the end of April.