Political news

• Donald Trump To Scrap Bathroom Choice Rules For Transgender Students

  22-02-2017 23:23
  
  Donald Trump’s administration is to scrap guidance enacted by Barack Obama allowing transgender pupils to use toilets of their choice.
  White House spokesman Sean Spicer confirmed the President firmly believes “this is a states’ rights issue” against a backdrop of criticism that the rules represented government overreach that threatened other students’ privacy and safety.
  “I would expect further guidance to come out on that today,” Spicer told a news conf
  
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• Cressida Dick appointed first female Met police commissioner

  22-02-2017 22:08 via theguardian.com
  
  Met’s former head of counter-terrorism to take over from Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe as Britain’s top police officerCressida Dick is to become the first ­female head of the Metropolitan police, completing a remarkable career comeback by vowing to reform Britain’s largest police force.The former senior Scotland Yard officer – who had quit policing to take up a job in the Foreign Office – won the support of the home secretary, Amber Rudd, and the London mayor, Sadiq Kh
  
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• Sajid Javid: Budget help for firms hit by rates rise

  22-02-2017 21:42 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The government says it will make system "fairer" for businesses facing the steepest increases.
  
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• Daily Mail Responds To Tony Blair's Attack On Its Report On Suicide Bomber Jamal al-Harith

  22-02-2017 21:16
  
  The Daily Mail has hit back at Tony Blair, after he said the paper was guilty of “utter hypocrisy” for attacking him over the case of a British man who became a suicide bomber for Islamic State.
  The former PM took the rare step of responding to a story about himself, after the Mail attacked him for the release of Jamal al-Harith from Guantanamo Bay in 2004 and £1 million compensation he later received.
  The suicide bomber, born Ronald Fiddler, blew himself up in Mosul, Iraq
  
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• BBC to launch dedicated Scottish TV channel

  22-02-2017 19:36
  Director-general announces a £40m annual increase for programming in Scotland
  
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• Populists blame migrants – but hateful discourse starts at the top | Suzanne Moore

  22-02-2017 19:34 via theguardian.com
  
  An Amnesty report about toxic language in politics warns of its dehumanising effect. It is rightwing leaders who have fomented this “People just ain’t no good.” This is the refrain of the moment isn’t it? Everywhere you look, people are becoming more selfish, insular, nasty and uncaring. The coarsening of public discourse – often online – reveals anger, alienation and a dangerous kind of apathy that feeds on low-level anxiety and perpetual disappointment.Polit
  
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• Tony Blair attacks Daily Mail's 'hypocrisy' over suicide bomber

  22-02-2017 19:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Former PM denies his government paid compensation to British jihadi who died in Iraq and says Mail campaigned for his releaseTony Blair has denied that a Labour government paid compensation to the former Guantánamo Bay detainee who went on to blow himself up in Iraq, with a strongly worded statement in which he accused the Daily Mail of hypocritical coverage over the Manchester-born jihadi’s death.The former prime minister said compensation, estimated to be in six figures, was paid
  
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• UK energy market a ‘mess’, Scottish Power says

  22-02-2017 19:10
  ‘Big six’ company says ministers must decide on a competitive system or price regulation
  
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• The Washington Post's New Slogan Is A Stark Warning To Donald Trump

  22-02-2017 19:05
  
  The Washington Post has reminded Donald Trump of the importance of a free press by unveiling a new masthead underlining what’s at stake if he talks down the industry.
  The newspaper’s slogan, “Democracy Dies In Darkness”, has emerged as the US President has been railling against the media as an “enemy of the American people” who are purveyors of “fake news”.Although the slogan isn’t explicitly aimed at Trump, the new catchphrase was embl
  
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• A solid UK economy is showing a few cracks

  22-02-2017 19:02
  There is little case for the Bank of England to raise interest rates
  
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• May offers review of business rates relief

  22-02-2017 18:57
  Big tax rises for many companies from April 1 has sparked political ire
  
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• Chancellor to announce measures to help small firms with business rate rises

  22-02-2017 18:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Communities department says it will be revealed in 8 March budget whether fund for transitional rates relief will increaseThe government will offer extra help for small firms affected by an imminent change to business rates, the communities secretary has announced, saying that more should be done “to level the playing field”.
  Following increasing concern from some businesses and Conservative MPs about the impact of the first business rate revaluation in seven years, Sajid Javid said
  
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• Boss Of Royal Dutch Shell In The UK Describes Trump's Clean Energy Stance As 'Disappointing'

  22-02-2017 18:34
  
  The boss of Shell in the UK has labelled President Donald Trump’s stance on new, cleaner forms of energy as “disappointing”.
  Asked whether Trump had cast doubt the need for a global transition to green energy, Sinead Lynch, country chair of Shell in Britain, told The Huffington Post UK: “It’s disappointing. Obviously what we really want is a collaboration and alignment across all governments internationally, regionally, locally.”
  As part of a r
  
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• Brexit negotiations might take 10 years - if we're lucky | John Crace

  22-02-2017 18:25 via theguardian.com
  
  Sir Ivan Rogers patiently explains to the Brexit select committee exactly how the EU works, and why everything is going to end badly As the hearing ran into its third hour, almost all heads went down. The glamour of serving on the Brexit select committee had long since begun to pall. Now it was just a long, hard slog. Mostly about stuff that went completely over their heads.No one had warned them it was going to be this complicated. Nor how long everything was going to take. Theresa May was abou
  
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• Our Poor Poll Ratings Will Have An Impact On Stoke and Copeland By-Elections, Admits Labour

  22-02-2017 18:24
  
  Labour’s dire poll ratings have “implications” for tomorrow’s by-elections, a senior party source confirmed today in an attempt to brace supporters for potentially disastrous results.
  Voters will go to the ballot box tomorrow in Stoke Central and Copeland – both seats that Labour has never lost.
  Yet despite the party’s traditional strength in the areas, there is growing speculation that the Tories could win Copeland, and Stoke Central could fall to Ukip.
  The c
  
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• Stoke-On-Trent Central By-Election: Odds, Polls, Candidates And Results Time

  22-02-2017 17:30
  
  The constituents of Stoke-on-Trent Central are set to go to the polls on Thursday to choose a new MP following the resignation of Labour’s Tristram Hunt.
  Hunt, who quit in January, is taking up a post as director of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
  Ukip leader Paul Nuttall is the highest-profile figure running for the seat, although Labour’s Gareth Snell is currently favourite to win.Ukip came second in the constituency in the last general election with 7,041 votes to
  
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• Stoke-On-Trent Central By-Election: Odds, Polls and Candidates

  22-02-2017 17:30
  
  The constituents of Stoke-on-Trent Central are set to go to the polls on Thursday to choose a new MP following the resignation of Labour’s Tristram Hunt.
  Hunt, who quit in January, is taking up a post as director of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
  Ukip leader Paul Nuttall is the highest-profile figure running for the seat, although Labour’s Gareth Snell is currently favourite to win.Ukip came second in the constituency in the last general election with 7,041 votes to
  
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• Copeland By-Election: Odds, Polls, Candidates And Results Time

  22-02-2017 17:16
  
  Voters in the Cumbrian seat of Copeland are set to head to the polls on Thursday to choose a new MP following the resignation of Labour’s Jamie Reed.
  The former frontbencher, who announced his resignation in December, is leaving to take a job in the nuclear industry at the processing plant at Sellafield in the constituency.
  Labour are defending a majority of 2,564 in Copeland, making it the tightest by-election for the party since Jeremy Corbyn became leader in 2015.Previously, Jack Cunnin
  
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• Copeland By-Election: Odds, Polls and Candidates

  22-02-2017 17:16
  
  Voters in the Cumbrian seat of Copeland are set to head to the polls on Thursday to choose a new MP following the resignation of Labour’s Jamie Reed.
  The former frontbencher, who announced his resignation in December, is leaving to take a job in the nuclear industry at the processing plant at Sellafield in the constituency.
  Labour are defending a majority of 2,564 in Copeland, making it the tightest by-election for the party since Jeremy Corbyn became leader in 2015.Previously, Jack Cunnin
  
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• No.10 Refuses To Answer Questions About Theresa May's Role In Guantanamo Detainee Compensation Case

  22-02-2017 16:50
  
  Downing Street has flatly refused to discuss Theresa May’s role in a £1m compensation deal for a former Guantanamo Bay inmate who went on to become an IS suicide bomber.
  Despite repeated questioning, the PM’s spokesman said only that it was “an intelligence matter” and would not comment on claims by Tony Blair that the last Tory-Liberal Democrat government oversaw the deal.-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to
  
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• No.10 Refuses To Answer Questions About Theresa May's Role In Guantanamo Compensation Case

  22-02-2017 16:50
  
  Downing Street has flatly refused to discuss Theresa May’s role in a £1m compensation deal for a former Guantanamo Bay inmate who went on to become an IS suicide bomber.
  Despite repeated questioning, the PM’s spokesman said only that it was “an intelligence matter” and would not comment on claims by Tony Blair that the last Tory-Liberal Democrat government oversaw the deal.
  Here is how the prime minister’s spokesman responded when quizzed on the matter:type=t
  
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• Cressida Dick named Met Police commissioner

  22-02-2017 16:23
  Former UK head of counter-terrorism succeeds Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe
  
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• Former top diplomat warns EU will oppose specific Brexit deals

  22-02-2017 16:17
  Rogers says Merkel and other leaders will reject single market access for some sectors
  
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• Former envoy warns EU will oppose sectoral Brexit deals

  22-02-2017 16:17
  Rogers says Merkel likely to rule out single market access for some industries
  
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• Who Is Alex Jones And Why Is Donald Trump Speaking To Him On The Phone?

  22-02-2017 16:02
  
  Of all the disturbing stories to emerge surrounding the month-old Donald Trump administration, one of the latest threatens to, well, trump all the others.
  Alex Jones is reportedly taking on the role of “occasional information source and validator for the President of the United States” and the pair chat on the phone regularly. 
  Who the hell is Alex Jones? Well, let’s get the basics out of the way first.
   
    -- This feed and its contents are the property of T
  
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• Brexit talks could get 'gory, bitter and twisted', says former ambassador

  22-02-2017 16:02 via theguardian.com
  
  Sir Ivan Rogers, who quit as British ambassador to EU, says UK could be left in legal void if it leaves without dealA “hardball” EU will seek to avoid a future trade deal with special terms for different sectors of the economy as wanted by Theresa May, says Britain’s former ambassador to the bloc, warning that Brexit talks could get “gory, bitter and twisted”. Sir Ivan Rogers, who resigned in January complaining of the UK government’s “ill-founded argume
  
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• Five moments from the Lords debate

  22-02-2017 14:39
  It is to the peers’ credit that around a quarter of the chamber lined up to speak
  
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• MPs launch official inquiry into universal credit as criticism grows

  22-02-2017 14:38 via theguardian.com
  
  Investigation into benefits system comes amid mounting evidence that payment delays have left thousands facing evictionMPs have launched an official inquiry into universal credit amid growing concerns that design flaws in the new benefits system are leaving thousands of low-income claimants facing eviction and reliant on food banks.The Commons work and pensions committee said it was compelled to launch a full investigation after mounting evidence that built-in payment delays and administrative b
  
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• Consumer spending is key to UK growth figures

  22-02-2017 14:24
  If inflation picks up in 2017, shoppers will feel the pinch
  
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• Tony Blair Attacks Daily Mail For Jamal al-Harith 'Hypocrisy' After Newspaper Criticises Him Over Compensation

  22-02-2017 14:16
  
  Tony Blair has accused the Daily Mail of “utter hypocrisy” after the newspaper criticised him over the case of a British man who became a suicide bomber on behalf of Islamic State.
  Jamal al-Harith, a former Guantanamo Bay inmate, blew himself up in Mosul, Iraq, earlier this week.
  The Manchester-born man was picked up by US forces in Afghanistan in 2001 and imprisoned.
  However he was released in 2004 after Blair’s government lobbied the US to return him to the UK. Harith later
  
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• Income rules for foreign spouses upheld

  22-02-2017 14:12 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Cash threshold deemed lawful but Supreme Court judges criticise the hardship it brings to families.
  
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• Diplomat warns Merkel will not back sectoral Brexit deals

  22-02-2017 14:05
  Sir Ivan Rogers says EU will reject keeping specific industries in the single market
  
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• PMQs verdict: Jeremy Corbyn's NHS blows are losing their impact

  22-02-2017 13:57 via theguardian.com
  
  The Labour leader’s questions were too scattergun and May is now practised at fending off attacks about the health serviceJeremy Corbyn returned to his favoured winter theme of funding for the NHS and social care, resulting in an exchange with Theresa May of a type that has become wearily familiar in recent months. He began by asking why the government was cutting NHS hospital beds, citing figures from the British Medical Association that said 15,000 beds had been cut in the last six years
  
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• Labour is clapped-out banger on bricks, according to Stoke focus group

  22-02-2017 13:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Only three out of 10 Stoke Central residents who voted Labour in 2015 told focus group they would definitely do so again this weekIf they were cars, the Labour party would be a clapped-out old banger on bricks, the Tories would be a Rolls-Royce “mowing down the poor”, and Ukip would be a St George’s Cross-adorned tank “fighting for the people”. The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, were likened to a bicycle.This is according to a group of 10 Stoke Central residents who
  
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• Tom Watson Performs A Celebratory Dab After Jeremy Corbyn's PMQs Zinger

  22-02-2017 13:53
  
  Move over, Ed Balls - Labour has a new Lord of the Dance. 
  Tom Watson must have made political history today by performing a celebratory ‘dab’ after Jeremy Corbyn stung Theresa May with a question on the NHS. 
  The pair had been sparring at Prime Minister’s Questions when Corbyn asked: “It seems to me that some Members don’t want to be concerned about the fact that there are 1.2 million elderly people not getting the care that they need.“The
  
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• Arron Banks defends 'sick of hearing about Hillsborough' remarks

  22-02-2017 13:43 via theguardian.com
  
  Ukip donor calls criticism of his Twitter comments about disaster a smear campaign, as party fights Stoke byelection Arron Banks, the Ukip donor, has defended his comments on Twitter that he was “sick to death” of hearing about the Hillsborough disaster, calling the criticism a smear campaign.The Leave.EU founder posted his tweets after Ukip’s leader, Paul Nuttall, was forced to admit he did not lose “close personal friends” in the disaster, contrary to claims on hi
  
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• UK Supreme Court backs immigration income rule

  22-02-2017 13:10
  Restriction targeting non-Europeans have separated thousands of families, say critics
  
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• Lord Tebbit Told To 'Get On His Bike' By Labour Peer Looking To 'Make The Troops Laugh'

  22-02-2017 12:46
  
  Lord Tebbit is told to "get on his bike" by a heckler pic.twitter.com/AnP8Wt7qal— Esther Webber (@estwebber) February 21, 2017
  A Labour peer has told of the “delicious moment” he heckled Lord Tebbit by telling the former Tory cabinet minister to “get on his bike”.
  Lord Hunt said the achievement had been “high up on his list” and small joys such as the incident on Wednesday were “especially useful in these depressing times”. 
  He lan
  
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• France loves you

  22-02-2017 12:26 via bbc.co.uk
  
  French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron tells French Londoners to come home in pre-election rally.
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn Under Attack From Women MPs Over Momentum 'Threats'

  22-02-2017 12:00
  
  Jeremy Corbyn has refused to distance himself from the left-wing Momentum campaign group despite claims from Labour women MPs that they are being targeted by its supporters with online and offline abuse.
  The Labour leader came under pressure at a meeting of the Women’s Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) as a string of MPs, some on the edge of tears, gave accounts of the attacks they had suffered in recent months
  During the hour-long meeting in the Commons on Tuesday, Parliamentarians recoun
  
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• Ken Loach Denies Jeremy Corbyn Is Unpopular Despite Polls And Labour Membership Demographics

  22-02-2017 11:50
  
  Ken Loach has denied Jeremy Corbyn is losing popularity and blamed the Labour leader’s continuing political woes on his own MPs, despite continuing negative polls.
  Speaking to James O’Brien on LBC on Tuesday, the veteran filmmaker said the party’s leadership has been “left stranded” by the internal wrangling of MPs.
  He said: “They don’t promote the policies so the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell is left stranded and I think that’s th
  
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• Ukip Donor Arron Banks Stands By Complaint He Is 'Sick To Death' Of Hillsborough

  22-02-2017 11:46
  
  Ukip donor Arron Banks has said he stands by his comment that he is “sick to death” of hearing about the Hillsborough disaster.
  Banks complained to BBC Radio 5 Live this morning he was subject to a “Labour smear campaign”.
  He was condemned last week for downplaying in a tweet the impact of the 1989 tragedy in which 96 football fans died. 
  Banks made the initial comment after Ukip leader Paul Nuttall admitted claims on his website that he lost “close personal f
  
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• The busybody state: when it's a crime to sweep up leaves

  22-02-2017 11:15
  
  The public domain is being taken over by officialdom
  
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• Tories Accused Of 'Wasting Millions' On Free Schools After Report Finds Costs Ten Times Over Estimate

  22-02-2017 10:45
  
  A flagship education programme set up by former Education Secretary Michael Gove is in disarray after revelations that costs were more than ten times over estimate.
  The programme encouraged parents and independent groups to set up their own schools - called free schools - to be funded by the Government.
  A report by the National Audit Office (NAO), published on Wednesday, said that by March 2015 the Tories had spent £1.8 bn opening 305 free schools.
  In 2010 the Department of Education
  
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• Article 50 Author Lord Kerr Warns Brexit Will Only Benefit 'Bullingdon Boys'

  22-02-2017 10:35
  
  The British peer who devised Article 50 - the formal procedure for leaving the EU - has warned Brexit risks hurting the poor while protecting the rich “Bullingdon boys”.
  Lord Kerr said the country was still “in the dark” about what Theresa May’s plan for Britain outside the EU was.
  “It is a fact that if we leave the European Union, our economic relationship with it will be less advantageous than it is now—that has to be a fact,” he told the House o
  
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• Nicola Sturgeon Says Women Politicians Have '100 More Things' To Worry About Than Their Male Counterparts

  22-02-2017 10:25
  
  Nicola Sturgeon has spoken out about the sexism she faces as a woman politician.
  The First Minister of Scotland has been a subject of gendered scrutiny for the majority of her political career: from critiques of her appearance and whether she smiles enough, to discussion of the fact that she doesn’t have children with her husband Peter Murrell, CEO of the SNP.
  “Every time a woman politician goes in front of a camera, there are maybe 100 things that she has to worry about, consci
  
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• Young refugees urge ministers not to end unaccompanied minors scheme

  22-02-2017 10:03 via theguardian.com
  
  Seventeen refugees who made it to UK write letter calling for ‘safe, legal routes for young people to find protection’A group of young asylum seekers and refugees who arrived in Britain as children have urged the government not to close the Dubs scheme to help unaccompanied minors fleeing persecution. In an open letter published before Theresa May faces her first prime minister’s questions since it emerged that the government is to drop the scheme, the group accuses ministers o
  
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• The Waugh Zone February 22, 2017

  22-02-2017 09:42
  
  The five things you need to know on Wednesday, February 22…1) STORM WARNING
  It’s the first PMQs since MPs returned from the half-term break. But after a positively balmy few days, is the political weather about to change? Storm Doris is forecast to bring wintry gales and ‘multi-hazards’ to the midlands and north tomorrow. And an equally squally outlook looms in the two by-elections in Labour’s heartlands.
  I’d be amazed if Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn failed
  
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• Boris Johnson accused of bad taste for calling Brexit 'liberation'

  22-02-2017 09:39 via theguardian.com
  
  Footage from recent Munich security conference shows Swedish MEP being applauded as she confronts Johnson Boris Johnson has been taken to task by a Swedish MEP who accused the UK foreign secretary of “bad taste” and political insensitivity after he repeatedly referred to Brexit as “a liberation”, in a spat caught on camera at the recent Munich security conference.According to footage that emerged on Wednesday, Johnson was confronted about his choice of language by Anna Ma
  
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• Labour's Disgraceful Claim Babies Will Die If The Tories Win Copeland is Disgusting, Says Father Of Stillborn Boy

  22-02-2017 08:00
  
  The father of a stillborn baby has attacked Labour for its “disgusting” claim that mothers and babies will die if the Tories win the Copeland by-election.
  Will Quince, Tory MP for Colchester, Essex, was left “angry and sad in equal measure” by a Labour leaflet pushed through letterboxes in the Cumbria seat.
  The future of maternity services at West Cumberland hospital is one of the hot topics of the election, and Labour is centering its campaign around the NHS as it seeks
  
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