Political news

• Ministers expected to soften impact of business rate changes

  21-02-2017 22:03 via theguardian.com
  
  Communities secretary Sajid Javid likely to join chancellor Philip Hammond in adopting sympathetic tone to businesses after backlash by Conservative MPsBeleaguered cabinet ministers are expected to take steps to ameliorate the impact on the companies hit hardest by a shake-up in business rates that has fuelled a backlash among Conservative MPs.
  Communities secretary Sajid Javid is likely to join the chancellor, Philip Hammond, in adopting a more empathetic tone about the anger triggered by the d
  
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• Milo Yiannopoulos Quits Breitbart News After Child Abuse Comments And The Internet Sends Its Best Wishes

  21-02-2017 21:13
  
  Milo Yiannopoulos has announced his resignation from his post as senior editor of Breitbart News after comments emerged suggesting he was defending child abuse.
  “Breitbart News has stood by me when others caved,” he said in a statement.
  “They have allowed me to carry conservative and libertarian ideas to communities that would otherwise never had heard them. They have been a significant factor in my success. I’m grateful for that freedom and for the friendships I forged t
  
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• ‘No pot of money’ for extra Budget cash, Hammond warns

  21-02-2017 21:00
  Chancellor refuses to spend £27bn set aside for Brexit uncertainty
  
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• Peter Mandelson: I try to undermine Jeremy Corbyn 'every single day'

  21-02-2017 20:46 via theguardian.com
  
  Ex-minister speaks out against Labour leader as Blairite peers express fury about Corbyn’s position on Brexit in Lords debatePeter Mandelson, the architect of New Labour, has said he is working every day to undermine Jeremy Corbyn, as Blairite peers stood up in the House of Lords to lambast their party’s leadership for backing Brexit.Mandelson, a former cabinet minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, told an event for the Jewish Chronicle that he was actively working to bring an
  
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• Emmanuel Macron, French Presidential Hopeful, Signals Raid On UK Talent After Brexit

  21-02-2017 20:12
  
  The French Presidential hopeful seen as the great liberal hope in Europe has attempted to woo UK talent to attract them across the Channel after Brexit.
  Emmanuel Macron, who is standing as an independent and leads some polls over the National Front’s Marine Le Pen, made the audacious bid for British bankers and academics after a meeting with Theresa May at Downing Street. 
  Macron was on a visit to London for a rally for 200,000 French voters who live in the capital and could sweep him
  
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• Producers balk at proposals for biofuel cap

  21-02-2017 19:39
  Government plans to limit or ban crop-based renewable fuel to encourage use of waste
  
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• Holyrood to cap business rates for two sectors

  21-02-2017 19:25
  
  Derek Mackay uses revisions to government forecasts to forgo £40m without making cuts
  
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• Holyrood caps business rates for two sectors

  21-02-2017 19:25
  Derek Mackay uses revisions to government forecasts to forgo £40m without making cuts
  
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• Labour fears historic defeat in Copeland by-election

  21-02-2017 19:18
  Fingers start pointing at Corbyn, media — and oncoming Storm Doris
  
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• UK votes to tackle human rights abusers financially

  21-02-2017 19:10
  Move could help London counter reputation as safe heaven for wealth of kleptocrats
  
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• Social Care Funding Boost Speculation Grows As Downing Street Cancels Key Meeting With MPs Until After The Budget

  21-02-2017 19:03
  
  MPs are quietly confident the social care crisis will be tackled in the upcoming Budget as a key meeting with the Prime Minister’s new health adviser was today moved until after the financial statement.
  Theresa May’s new health adviser James Kent was set to meet with members of a cross-party group of MPs this afternoon to discuss what steps the Government can take to help social care provision.
  The meeting was cancelled at the eleventh hour, and MPs were told it would now take place
  
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• Losing banking jobs to EU 'threatens financial stability across Europe'

  21-02-2017 19:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Concern growing in the City that Brexit-related bank moves could unravel related professions and risk wider financial turmoil The City of London has warned that the loss of banking jobs to EU countries due to Brexit could threaten British and European financial stability.Interviews with more than half a dozen senior bankers and business leaders reveal growing certainty that the threat of losing single market access will force a wave of relocations this year and may cause an “unwinding&rdqu
  
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• Patients Living In the EU May Not Be Eligible For NHS Healthcare After Brexit, MPs Told

  21-02-2017 18:55
  
  Expats who return to the UK from the EU after Brexit may not be eligible for free healthcare on the NHS, MPs were told on Tuesday.
  Jean McHale, a professor of Healthcare Law at Birmingham Law School, told the Commons Health Select Committee that British patients living in the EU could be left “stranded” after Britain leaves the EU.
  McHale was responding to a question by Committee chair Sarah Wollaston, who asked: “the day after we leave the EU, if pensioners return but they ar
  
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• Come to France post-Brexit, banks urged

  21-02-2017 18:34 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Presidential contender Emmanuel Macron calls his country an "attractive space" for UK-based companies.
  
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• Teacher shortage getting worse, say MPs

  21-02-2017 17:44 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The government is failing to tackle "significant teacher shortages"' in England, MPs say.
  
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• Lamont: Remainers' 'duty' not to undermine Brexit talks

  21-02-2017 17:32 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Lord Lamont urges peers not to amend the Brexit bill during a marathon debate.
  
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• Business Rates Row: Tory MPs Urged To Back Labour Move To Review Tax Hikes

  21-02-2017 17:23
  
  Theresa May is coming under fresh pressure to protect small shops and GPs from crippling hikes in business rates amid plans by both Tory and Labour MPs to force a review of the system.
  Downing Street said it was “listening” after scores of Conservative backbenchers expressed their fury at a new property revaluation that threatens half a million firms with higher bills from April.
  Chancellor Philip Hammond is already being urged to use next week’s Budget to offer new cash to cu
  
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• Ken Loach Defends Jeremy Corbyn Over Brexit In James O'Brien's LBC Interview

  21-02-2017 17:11
  
  Left-wing film maker Ken Loach has defended Jeremy Corbyn against claims he failed to show leadership during Labour’s campaign to remain in the EU.
  The I, Daniel Blake director denied LBC host James O’Brien’s suggestion that Corbyn was losing support because of his “absence of leadership.”
  Labour backed Remain but Corbyn’s history of criticising the EU over decades on the backbenches left people in doubt over how he had even voted.
  He rated his own suppor
  
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• Twitter mystery

  21-02-2017 17:10 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Why are pro-Russian social media accounts suddenly targeting UKIP?
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn failed 'test' on Brexit says Labour peer

  21-02-2017 17:02 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Jeremy Corbyn is not a "true believer" on Europe and failed his "test" during the referendum campaign, says peer Lord Liddle.
  
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• Lords pose obstacle to May’s Brexit talks plans

  21-02-2017 16:39
  
  Peers want parliament to have a role in what EU exit deal will cover
  
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• For clues to the productivity puzzle, go shopping

  21-02-2017 16:04
  The bulge of jobs at the bottom makes it harder for people to climb up
  
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• Jean-Claude Juncker: UK faces hefty Brexit bill

  21-02-2017 15:20 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The European Commission's president warns of a "tough" two-year divorce negotiation with the EU.
  
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• Some peers 'contribute absolutely nothing'

  21-02-2017 15:16 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A former Speaker of the House of Lords has claimed that many peers contribute "absolutely nothing" to Parliament - despite claiming their full £300 daily allowance.
  
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• Meeting the candidates in the Copeland by-election

  21-02-2017 15:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Labour have held the seat for more than 80 years but with a majority of just 2,500 over the Conservatives, the party's long rule is under threat.
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn's Failure Led To Brexit, Labour Peer Claims

  21-02-2017 14:40
  
  Jeremy Corbyn is partially to blame for Brexit as he failed a “key test” of leadership during the campaign, a Labour peer has said.
  Lord Liddle, a longtime adviser to Tony Blair on EU policy who backed ‘Remain’, said today he had to “hang my head in shame” at the referendum result.
  And he pinned much of the blame on his own party’s leadership. “I do say this with terrible sadness, the debilitation of our own party contributed to Brexit,” he s
  
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• Councils Slam New Tory Funding Deal As 'Hugely Disappointing'

  21-02-2017 14:22
  
  The Tory chair of the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned councils will have to cut essential services, after they were given no extra cash for 2017.
  Gary Porter said local authorities would have to slash money for libraries, roadworks and bin collections to plug an approaching £5.8bn funding gap by 2020.
  He called the local Government finance settlement for 2017/18, quietly published late on Monday, “hugely disappointing”, and said that while councils have been forc
  
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• Johnson forgets the message

  21-02-2017 14:06
  Foreign secretary is not winning friends on the other side of the bargaining table
  
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• Government finances record £9.4bn surplus in January

  21-02-2017 14:02 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Analysts say the government could undershoot the forecast deficit for current financial year.
  
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• 'No One Else To Blame': Government Set To Miss Its Own Housing Target By 12 Years

  21-02-2017 13:39
  
  Sajid Javid is set to miss one of his key housing targets by 12 years, according to figures released today by his own department.
  In 2015 the Government vowed to sell enough public land to build 160,000 homes by 2020 – a pledge repeated by the Communities Secretary last month.
  Yet a report from Javid’s department today shows that since that announcement, land for just 13,817 homes has been sold off – less than 9% of the promised amount
  Under the current rate, it would take the
  
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• House of Lords is 'London's best day-care centre'

  21-02-2017 13:31 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A new behind-the-scenes documentary features criticisms of the way the Upper House works.
  
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• Tory Peer Baroness Wheatcroft Branded A 'Slut' And A 'Whore' For Opposing Brexit

  21-02-2017 12:42
  
  A Conservative peer has revealed how she was branded a “slut”, a “whore”, a “harlot” and “scum” for warning Brexit would be bad for Britain.
  Baroness Wheatcroft told the House of Lords of the “irrational hostility” she received while campaigning for a ‘Remain’ vote.
  The peer and former newspaper editor has argued there should be second referendum on the deal Theresa May strikes with Brussels.
  She said on Monday evening the
  
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• May's message 'we're watching you'

  21-02-2017 12:12 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Michael Cockerell says Theresa May's appearance in the House of Lords was to send a message
  
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• What future for E numbers after Brexit?

  21-02-2017 11:28 via bbc.co.uk
  
  How Brexit might create complications for the way food in the UK is labelled.
  
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• Philip Hammond 'listening' to business rates concerns

  21-02-2017 10:59 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Philip Hammond is under pressure to act with some businesses facing "eye-watering" rate rises.
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn Allies Hit Back After Peter Mandelson Reveals He Is 'Working Every Day' To Topple Him

  21-02-2017 10:41
  
  Allies of Jeremy Corbyn have hit back at Peter Mandelson after he revealed that he is working “every single day” to bring about the Labour leader’s downfall.
  The former Cabinet minister said that the Labour leader was living “in a parallel universe” and was incapable of taking the party to victory in a general election.
  His withering verdict on Corbyn, delievered at a Jewish Chronicle event in Hampstead, came hours after a new ICM/Guardian opinion poll gave the Tor
  
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• The Waugh Zone February 21, 2017

  21-02-2017 09:38
  
  The five things you need to know on Tuesday, February 21…1) BY-ELECTION BLUES
  What was most notable about last night’s Parliamentary Labour Party meeting was not the criticisms of Jeremy Corbyn from his own MPs. It was the way such criticism, combined with a mood of weary resignation, is now the new normal. The meeting was nowhere near as ‘charged’ as last summer’s angry confrontations, and Corbyn himself waited for all the questions before answering them, Zen-lik
  
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• Hammond ‘listening’ to concerns on business rates

  21-02-2017 08:44
  Chancellor under pressure to ease tax burden for businesses in spring Budget
  
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• Britons can argue over Brexit or talk to Europe

  21-02-2017 06:02
  Refighting the referendum makes sensible debate more difficult
  
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• Funding cuts threaten London schools’ progress

  21-02-2017 06:00
  Inner city areas squeezed as new formula switches resources to coastal towns
  
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• Benefits variations unacceptable - MPs

  21-02-2017 02:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Claimants in some parts of the UK have a far greater chance of losing benefits than those in others, a report says.
  
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• Many House of Lords members claim £300 a day 'for doing nothing'

  21-02-2017 01:52 via theguardian.com
  
  Lady D’Souza, former Lord Speaker, cites example of peer running in while taxi sat outside as BBC screens documentary on workings of LordsMany members of the House of Lords collect their full daily allowance while contributing nothing, a senior parliamentarian has claimed.Lady D’Souza, a former Lord Speaker, cited one example in which she said a peer ran into the Houses of Parliament “presumably to show that he’d attended”, while a taxi sat outside with the engine r
  
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• Trump state visit: Protests outside as MPs debate petition

  21-02-2017 01:45 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Protests take place in London as MPs debate whether Donald Trump should be given a state visit to the UK.
  
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• Hammond in ‘listening mode’ on business rates after backlash from Tories

  21-02-2017 01:27 via theguardian.com
  
  Chancellor signalled that the government could look at alleviating changes to the tax, which is set to change dramatically in the coming weeksPhilip Hammond has signalled that the government is looking at alleviating the impact of changes to business rates, which have triggered a fierce backlash among some Conservative MPs.The chancellor told his party’s influential 1922 committee that he was in “listening mode” over the policy, which will see rates rise by 13% in his own Runny
  
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• Peer Left Taxi Running While He Dashed In To The House Of Lords To Claim His Allowance, BBC Documentary Reveals

  21-02-2017 01:21
  
  A peer left a taxi running while he ran in to claim his daily allowance for attending the House of Lords, it was claimed in a BBC documentary.
  Crossbench peer Baroness D’Sousa told BBC Two’s Meet The Lords on Monday that a peer had “ran in, presumably to show that he’d attended, and then ran out again while the taxi was still running”.
  Members can claim between £150 and £300 for each sitting day they attend the House.
  “There are, sad to say,
  
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• Gender Pay Gap Will Take 62 Years To Erase Without Plan You Just Dismissed, Government Told

  21-02-2017 01:13
  
  The Government will fail to erase the gender pay gap without implementing an action plan it has just dismissed, MPs have said.
  Ministers were accused of “dragging their heels” and failing to tackle “the root causes of the gender pay gap” for dismissing the Women and Equalities Committee’s recommendations.
  These included making flexible work more available, encouraging more fathers to take time off work to look after children and creating a new scheme to help stop wo
  
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• Gender Pay Gap 'Will Take 62 Years To Erase' After Government Dismisses Action Plan

  21-02-2017 01:13
  
  The Government will fail to erase the gender pay gap without implementing an action plan it has just dismissed, MPs have said.
  Ministers were accused of “dragging their heels” and failing to tackle “the root causes of the gender pay gap” for dismissing the Women and Equalities Committee’s recommendations.
  These included making flexible work more available, encouraging more fathers to take time off work to look after children and creating a new scheme to help stop wo
  
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• MPs attack ministers' lack of action on gender pay gap

  21-02-2017 01:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Women and Equalities Committee calls government response inadequate and deeply disappointing.
  
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• Benefit claimants face poverty at hands of erratic sanctions system

  21-02-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  MPs call for review as PAC report finds sanctions are being unevenly applied and are forcing some people into homelessnessBenefit claimants are subjected to an unacceptable “postcode lottery” that can determine whether or not they are driven into poverty by sanctions, MPs have said.A report by the public accounts committee found that some Work Programme providers and jobcentres withhold payments to twice as many people as others in the same area. Continue reading...
  
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• Think-tank calls for investment in social care

  21-02-2017 01:00
  NHS integration with local authorities at risk without more money, says King’s Fund
  
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