Political news

• EU rules out early trade talks with UK in Brexit process

  31-03-2017 22:40 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Talks on a post-Brexit free trade deal may only begin after progress on other issues, the EU says.
  
  Read more

• Ken Livingstone: Ruling in Labour misconduct case due on Tuesday

  31-03-2017 21:18 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ex-London mayor says he is hopeful Labour will not expel him for remarks about Hitler.
  
  Read more

• UK may have to abide by EU laws during any Brexit transition phase

  31-03-2017 20:51 via theguardian.com
  
  EU negotiating guidelines say existing rules must apply during period between UK’s departure and agreement of trade deal
  Britain could be forced to accept EU law, immigration controls and budget payments after it formally leaves the bloc in 2019 if it wants a transitional period to cushion the blow of Brexit, the EU’s draft negotiating guidelines suggest.Published by the European council president, Donald Tusk, the guidelines contained a number of demands that could be difficult for
  
  Read more

• After months of bickering, the divorce talks begin

  31-03-2017 20:46 via ft.com
  Britain and EU try to follow choreographed path despite a few early hiccups
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Labour defers ruling on Ken Livingstone 'antisemitic' remarks

  31-03-2017 20:43 via theguardian.com
  
  As senior Labour figures trade insults, ex-minister Ian Austin accuses shadow cabinet of being ‘pitiful’ and ‘asleep’Labour has deferred its decision on whether to expel former London mayor Ken Livingstone for alleged antisemitic remarks as senior party figures broke ranks to claim the shadow cabinet was “sleeping” on the job.Livingstone – who has been suspended since last April – has been accused of bringing the party into disrepute by making pers
  
  Read more

• The Guardian view on Brexit divorce: full of needless but expected provocations | Editorial

  31-03-2017 20:28 via theguardian.com
  
  The two-year countdown to Brexit has begun badly. That’s to be expected in a breakup after four decades of marriageThis week Britain said goodbye to the European Union with a letter of divorce, which upset continental leaders with unsubtle demands that they open their markets up for trade on friendly terms or we might not be able to continue military cooperation. On Friday the EU had its chance to respond to British threats and, depressingly, did so in kind. Its leaders alighted on a piece
  
  Read more

• Believe it or not, Nigel Farage can now be an inspiration for remainers | Jonathan Freedland

  31-03-2017 20:27 via theguardian.com
  
  The years ahead will not be easy, but the Brexiteers showed that dogged determination can win throughIt’s tempting to go full Farage. Not, perhaps, the pint, cigarette and cartoon grin – there won’t be too many pro-European takers for that look – but surely the many millions feeling despondent at this week’s formal triggering of Brexit can learn from the arch-Brexiteer.Why shouldn’t remainers draw inspiration from those who refused to accept the 1975 referendu
  
  Read more

• Brexit sticking points: thorny issues diplomats must address

  31-03-2017 19:46 via theguardian.com
  
  From debt haggling to May’s push for an ‘ambitious’ free trade deal, negotiators are gearing up for two years of tense talksThe initial reaction to Theresa May’s request to leave the EU has echoes of Charles de Gaulle’s famously dismissive “non!” when Britain tried to join.There will be no special deal for the City of London, no parallel talks on trade (at least until divorce terms are agreed) and no privileged access to EU markets if Britain tries to be
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• EU officials set sights on ‘orderly withdrawal’

  31-03-2017 19:12 via ft.com
  Negotiating guidelines focus on what UK will lose when it becomes a ‘third country’
  
  Read more

• EU delay on Brexit trade deal hits Sturgeon's referendum timetable

  31-03-2017 19:11 via theguardian.com
  
  Insistence that trade deal follow British exit stymies Scottish first minister’s calls for independence vote shortly after BrexitNicola Sturgeon’s proposals for a vote on Scottish independence within weeks of a Brexit deal have been thrown into doubt by the EU’s decision to delay a trade deal.The first minister has insisted Scotland must be given a vote on staying in the UK or independence after the terms of Brexit and once the terms of the UK’s new free trade deal with t
  
  Read more

• MPs' expenses watchdog accidentally posts private data online

  31-03-2017 18:47 via theguardian.com
  
  Information on staff’s names, pay, working patterns and holidays was uploaded in error and stayed up for four hoursConfidential data about MPs’ staff pay, working patterns and holidays was accidentally posted on the internet for four hours by the House of Commons expenses watchdog.The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) said it was writing to all MPs and their staff affected to apologise for the distress caused. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• MPs' Staff's Names And Salaries Published After Standards Watchdog Suffers Data Breach

  31-03-2017 18:19
  
  Parliament’s standards watchdog is investigating a “serious data breach” after a document containing details of MPs’ staff’s personal details, including their pay, was posted online.
  The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) sent an urgent email To MPs on Friday afternoon, warning their staff’s names, salaries, rewards, working patterns and holiday entitlements had been published after the breach.
  “I would like to reassure you that no info
  
  Read more

• Data breach as details about MPs' staff published in error

  31-03-2017 18:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Watchdog apologises after the names and salaries of about 3,000 employees were published in error.
  
  Read more

• Britain starts the Brexit countdown – Politics Weekly podcast

  31-03-2017 17:58 via theguardian.com
  
  Anushka Asthana is joined by Alex Salmond, Ian Duncan, Gina Miller, Natalie Nougayrède and Graham Brady at the end of an historic week in British politics in which Britain triggered the EU exit clause and the Scottish parliament voted for a new independence referendum Nine months after British voters opted to leave the European Union, Theresa May formally notified the other member states and began the Brexit process. By the end of March 2019, Britain now expects to be out of the EU. Meanw
  
  Read more

• 'No surprises really': politicians react to Tusk's EU negotiating guidelines

  31-03-2017 17:52 via theguardian.com
  
  No 10 sanguine about proposals, but Tim Farron says Tory comments about special arrangements for car industry are worthlessDonald Tusk’s letter setting the terms for negotiating the UK’s departure from the EU was the moment when Theresa May’s rhetoric collided with reality, according to a string of politicians who have been warning against a hard Brexit.Chris Leslie, the former shadow chancellor, said the letter by the president of the European council marked the emergence of &
  
  Read more

• Green Party in 'extreme Brexit' warning

  31-03-2017 17:36 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The party's co-leaders claim the UK is facing a "right wing coup" for which the public did not vote.
  
  Read more

• David Davis: the old knuckleduster leading Britain out of the EU

  31-03-2017 17:26 via theguardian.com
  
  The Brexit secretary has limitless self-belief and ambition, and has even been likened to Winston Churchill – is this his finest hour?“There’s something rather Churchillian about him,” mused one of David Davis’s admirers in a recent TV profile. “He’s had his successes and he’s had his wilderness years – and now he’s back.” This a claim that not even Davis, a man said to be able to swagger sitting down, would make. But it is true t
  
  Read more

• Brexit, Gibraltar and a terrible bust – catch up on our live look at the week

  31-03-2017 17:15 via theguardian.com
  
  We discussed some of the biggest news and comment pieces of the week with our readers – catch up on the debate above the line and in the comments4.00pm BSTWe’re going to wrap up above the line here shortly, but you can, of course, continue the conversation in the comments. Thanks for joining us today for a debate that though dominated by Brexit did take in multiple angles – and veered off into talking about that bust as well as the breaking news issue of Gibraltar. Extra points
  
  Read more

• Sturgeon sends letter to May on Scottish referendum

  31-03-2017 17:12 via ft.com
  First minister says she intends to ‘ensure that progress is made’ towards a vote
  
  Read more

• Sturgeon sends formal request to May on referendum

  31-03-2017 17:12 via ft.com
  
  First minister’s official letter says there is ‘no rational reason’ not to hold vote
  
  Read more

• David Davis, Britain’s Brexit street fighter

  31-03-2017 17:09 via ft.com
  The former SAS reservist holds the UK’s economic and political future in his hands
  
  Read more

• Brexit: EU says no to free trade talks until 'progress' on final terms

  31-03-2017 17:07 via theguardian.com
  
  Donald Tusk rules out parallel talks – a key aim of Theresa May’s government – as he unveils draft EU negotiating guidelinesEU leaders have said there will be no talks on Britain’s future relationship with the bloc until the UK government makes “sufficient progress” on the Brexit divorce, including settling its bills and citizens’ rights.
  “Once, and only once we have achieved sufficient progress on the withdrawal, can we discuss the framework for o
  
  Read more

• The Westerners who go to fight against Islamic State

  31-03-2017 16:37 via bbc.co.uk
  
  How should Westerners who go to fight against Islamic State be treated when they return?
  
  Read more

• EU draft guidelines for Brexit annotated – what they say and what they mean

  31-03-2017 16:25 via theguardian.com
  
  A nine-page document containing the EU’s draft Brexit negotiating guidelines has been sent to national capitals as the EU27 reveals its approach to talks on the UK’s withdrawal ... we must proceed according to a phased approach giving priority to an orderly withdrawal. In these negotiations the union will act as one ... but it will prepare itself to be able to handle the situation also if the negotiations were to fail.Stern bureaucratic language underscoring EU determination to face
  
  Read more

• Public views sought on MP second jobs

  31-03-2017 16:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ethics watchdog sets terms of consultation in wake of George Osborne's new job as newspaper editor.
  
  Read more

• Fallon and Mattis strike hawkish tone on Russia

  31-03-2017 15:58 via ft.com
  
  UK and US defence ministers accuse Moscow of a global ‘pattern of interference’
  
  Read more

• Finding a design for a post-Brexit UK passport

  31-03-2017 15:51 via bbc.co.uk
  
  An online magazine is running a competition to find a post-Brexit design for UK passports.
  
  Read more

• Jeremy Corbyn Being Thrashed By Sadiq Khan In Damning New London Popularity Poll

  31-03-2017 15:37
  
  Jeremy Corbyn is polling worse in London than party leaders Theresa May, Tim Farron, Caroline Lucas - and even Paul Nuttall, new figures show.
  The Labour leader has a net negative approval rating of -44%, while his party’s Mayor in the capital, Sadiq Khan, is surging ahead in popularity on +35%.
  Many of Corbyn’s allies and shadow cabinet are concentrated in London. MPs representing constituencies next to his include Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, and Diane Abbo
  
  Read more

• Sulky MPs and death penalty nostalgia show Britain is far from united

  31-03-2017 15:35 via theguardian.com
  
  Theresa May’s claims of national unity sound increasingly deluded amid the conflicting visions of a post-EU BritainIt’s not just the fact that Scotland is demanding a second independence referendum, Northern Ireland is in political deadlock and the Welsh are becoming steadily more disaffected that makes Theresa May’s claims the country has never been so united sound increasingly deluded. The problems start rather closer to home in parliament. One of the unexpected joys of being
  
  Read more

• Superslow broadband hobbles a grumpy UK

  31-03-2017 15:20 via ft.com
  Business and homes suffer as the government and BT balk at investing in the industry
  
  Read more

• EU's Brexit negotiation guidelines: what you need to know

  31-03-2017 15:15 via theguardian.com
  
  The key points from the European council’s draft guidelines on how the EU proposes to negotiate the UK withdrawal from the blocDonald Tusk, the president of the European council, has presented the draft Brexit negotiating guidelines that have been issued to the bloc’s 27 remaining member states.The draft will be discussed in national capitals and refined during a summit of prime ministers and presidents at the end of April at which the EU27’s position will be finalised before t
  
  Read more

• Nicola Sturgeon: 'No rational reason' for Theresa May to block indyref2

  31-03-2017 14:53 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Nicola Sturgeon sends a letter to Theresa May seeking powers to hold an independence referendum.
  
  Read more

• Questioning the Brexit dividend

  31-03-2017 14:51 via ft.com
  
  Continuing austerity means the UK’s problems with public services will endure
  
  Read more

• Why America’s Sick Health Care System Turns British Conservatives Queasy

  31-03-2017 14:06
  
  If the cornerstones of your culture include the world’s most famous spy, its best-loved wizard and the band that redefined pop music, it might seem like a desperate piece of state propaganda to celebrate a health care system at the same time.
  But the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012 underlined a truism: Brits love the National Health Service. Alongside trumpeting James Bond, Harry Potter, and The Beatles, director Danny Boyle found space in his show to pay tribute to the do
  
  Read more

• Concerns as HMRC faces 'fivefold rise in customs checks' after Brexit

  31-03-2017 13:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Treasury committee says confidence in preparations has collapsed amid customs chiefs’ doubts that IT system will be readyThere will be a fivefold increase in customs checks at Dover and other UK ports after Brexit, an influential group of MPs has found.The figure came amid warnings that confidence in new border arrangements has collapsed. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• What has the EU done for the UK?

  31-03-2017 13:54 via ft.com
  
  The long-running debate over the economic benefits of membership remains unresolved
  
  Read more

• Boris Johnson joins UK attempts to calm Brexit security concerns

  31-03-2017 13:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Foreign secretary says UK commitment to EU security is unconditional amid concerns article 50 letter posed threatBoris Johnson has weighed in on the British government’s attempts to calm a potential diplomatic row sparked by its article 50 letter, assuring European capitals it had not intended to threaten EU security cooperation.The foreign secretary tweeted ahead of a Nato meeting in Brussels that he would “stress that the UK’s commitment to the defence and security of Europe
  
  Read more

• Angus Robertson: 'It's hard to take May at face value on Scotland' – video interview

  31-03-2017 13:35 via theguardian.com
  
  Angus Robertson tells Owen Jones that he and his Scottish National party colleagues have ‘yet to be convinced by Theresa May’s government’ and have ‘a whole load of reasons to be sceptical’ about her promises on Scotland. The SNP’s leader in Westminster discusses the possibility of a second referendum on Scottish independence and the chances of a success for the ‘yes’ vote this time roundAn extended version of this interview is available on Owen Jo
  
  Read more

• Row brewing over EU 'divorce bill'

  31-03-2017 13:31 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Theresa May faces testing time after EU's Donald Tusk rejects parallel Brexit talks, writes Iain Watson.
  
  Read more

• Brexit opportunities are either elusive or not new

  31-03-2017 13:29 via ft.com
  
  It is not the brave new world as some would want to us to believe
  
  Read more

• Stop the Brexit chest thumping and build up trust

  31-03-2017 13:06 via ft.com
  
  The UK must refrain from overplaying its strengths and consult widely to seal a good deal
  
  Read more

• Fallon and Mattis discussing Nato spending

  31-03-2017 13:05 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Defence secretary says other nations should be "shamed" into spending more as he meets US counterpart.
  
  Read more

• Caroline Lucas says Brexit trade deals need parliamentary approval

  31-03-2017 12:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Green party co-leader says scrutiny by MPs and peers vital to ensure environmental, health and business standards maintainedTheresa May should be forced to seek parliamentary approval for any trade deal with the US, Australia or others to make sure health, environmental and business standards are maintained, Caroline Lucas, the Green co-leader, will say on Friday.Speaking at the Green party spring conference in Liverpool, Lucas will demand proper oversight of trade deals, arguing it is not good
  
  Read more

• A seismic shift is needed for Corbyn to win in 2020. But it could happen | Maurice Mcleod

  31-03-2017 12:30 via theguardian.com
  
  So what if the Labour leader isn’t a whizz with a teleprompter? He has great policies, his integrity is rock solid – and with help, he could still sweep to powerMichael Crick’s doggedness in exposing the Conservative election expenses scandal may have weakened Theresa May’s desire to go for an early land-grab election and so political eyes slowly turn to 2020. The Labour party has been in an internal battle for its soul since losing the last election, but Jeremy Corbyn&rs
  
  Read more

• Ethics watchdog begins consultation on UK MPs' second jobs

  31-03-2017 12:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Committee on Standards in Public Life to re-examine rules on conflict of interest in wake of George Osborne appointmentThe ethics watchdog has launched a consultation on reforming rules governing MPs’ second jobs, in the wake of the appointment of George Osborne as editor of the Evening Standard.The Committee on Standards in Public Life announced it would examine whether former ministers and other MPs or peers who had held senior roles were likely to face greater potential conflicts of int
  
  Read more

• NHS operations: Waiting times to rise in 'trade-off', boss says

  31-03-2017 12:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Cancer care and A&E to be prioritised as health service leader in England says something has to give.
  
  Read more

• Simon Stevens' NHS gamble is probably the right choice - but price could be high | Richard Vize

  31-03-2017 11:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Will politicians and the public stomach longer waits for routine surgery if performance is improved in other areas?The NHS plan for the next two years represents a perceptible contraction of the health service’s offer to the public.The proposals in Next steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View, published on Friday, are shaped by shortages of money and staff. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Donald Tusk Says Theresa May Is 'Too Wise' To Use Security As A Brexit Bargaining Chip

  31-03-2017 11:53
  
  Donald Tusk has said he believes Theres May is too “decent” and “wise” to really threaten to withdraw security cooperation from the EU.
  The president of the European Council told a press conference in Malta that he did not believe the United Kingdom would use fighting terrorism as a “bargaining chip” in the Brexit negotiations. 
  His comments came as May was dealt a blow as the EU said it would not conduct the exit talks at the same time as negotiating th
  
  Read more

• What gifts has Theresa May been given?

  31-03-2017 11:38 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Like all prime ministers, Theresa May is showered with gifts but she does not keep many of them.
  
  Read more

• BBC Question Time Ruth Davidson Issues Unexpected Call For Lisa Nandy Labour Leadership Bid

  31-03-2017 11:09
  
  Ruth Davidson has issued an unlikely rallying call for Lisa Nandy to bid to become the next Labour party leader.
  The Scottish Conservatives leader used an appearance on BBC Question Time on Thursday to relay an unexpected message of support.
  She told Nandy: “Lisa, for God’s sake love, do something about it and get in there and if it’s not going to be you back someone else.”The appeal came at the conclusion of an impassioned speech for Nandy, a former shadow cabinet m
  
  Read more

Follow @political_UKnws on Twitter!