Political news

• Conservative Manifesto 2017: Theresa May To Scrap Winter Fuel Payments For Richer Pensioners

  17-05-2017 23:45
  
  Millions of pensioners will lose winter fuel payments under Conservative plans to increase funding for social care, Theresa May will announce on Thursday.
  The Conservative Party general election manifesto, published tomorrow, will pledge that no elderly people will have to sell their home to pay for care - until they die.
  The prime minister will say her manifesto, titled “Forward, Together”, will ensure social care is “fundamentally fairer, better funded and more sustainable&r
  
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• May to ditch pledge on capping care costs for the elderly

  17-05-2017 23:18 via ft.com
  Manifesto will disappoint rich Tories by exposing pensioners to huge liabilities
  
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• Tory manifesto: more elderly people will have to pay for own social care

  17-05-2017 23:14 via theguardian.com
  
  Theresa May unveils ‘difficult but necessary’ measure to pay for elderly care and is expected to retain promise of limiting immigration to ‘tens of thousands’
  More elderly people will have to pay for their own social care in the home and lose universal benefits under a new Conservative policy which, Theresa May will say on Thursday, is difficult but necessary to tackle the crisis in funding.Introducing the party’s election manifesto, the prime minister will say it i
  
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• Lib Dems unveil some sick moves at Manifestofest | John Crace

  17-05-2017 22:20 via theguardian.com
  
  Tim Farron was sure an evening launch would give the party’s election push a crucial edge. Say goodbye to hard Brexit – and hello to hard house!
  Tim Farron had a plan. Manifesto launches were always so boring. A few tired-looking suits droning on for a few minutes in front of a handful of hacks and a dozen or so bussed-in party activists. Tim would go mega. The Liberal Democrats would pull an all-night rave.“There’s just one snag,” said his advisers. “If we st
  
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• Steve Bell on the prime minister's endorsement of her chancellor – cartoon

  17-05-2017 21:58 via theguardian.com
  
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• The Guardian view on the economy: it’s bad | Editorial

  17-05-2017 20:48 via theguardian.com
  
  It’s becoming slowly apparent that modern-day Britain suffers from poor productivity and a system where owners of capital accumulate faster gains than workers. Best to call an election before too many people notice“You’ve never had it so bad” has rarely been a good election-winning pitch. There’s a good reason why governing parties are usually reluctant to go to the country if voters are getting poorer: when they do, they lose. Historical precedent therefore suggest
  
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• The Guardian view on the Lib Dem manifesto: to boldly go | Editorial

  17-05-2017 20:47 via theguardian.com
  
  The party brand is now unmistakable. But it is unlikely to get the vote outWant to know what the Liberal Democrats stand for? The answer is that leaving Europe isn’t inevitable. The party’s big election message is that when a Brexit deal has been agreed, there should be a second referendum. This unblushing defence of Lib Dem principle shuns concessions to those who voted leave, even though that might include as many as a third of Lib Dem voters. This is an attractive strategy, but fl
  
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• Brexit: Lib Dem manifesto pledges new EU referendum

  17-05-2017 20:41 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Lib Dem leader says his party will not "roll over" as he puts another EU referendum centre of manifesto.
  
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• Nationalisation returns to centre of political debate

  17-05-2017 20:26 via ft.com
  Labour-Tory conflict marks widening of political divide after decades of convergence
  
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• Merkel warns Britain ‘will pay a price’ if it limits immigration

  17-05-2017 20:24 via ft.com
  Chancellor highlights complexity of problems ahead
  
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• Labour and Tories send spin doctors, but no leaders, to ITV debate

  17-05-2017 20:04 via theguardian.com
  
  Broadcaster says Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, who have refused to appear, have until 8pm Thursday to change their mindsThe Conservatives and Labour will send spin doctors to Thursday’s televised leaders’ debate despite Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn refusing to take part. Advisers to the two main parties are due to brief the media after a two-hour election special involving the leaders of the SNP, Liberal Democrats, Ukip, Plaid Cymru and the Greens.Continue reading...
  
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• Labour suspends Aberdeen councillors over coalition with Tories

  17-05-2017 19:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale acted because of fears that power-sharing agreement would cause more austerityThe Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale, has suspended every Labour councillor in Aberdeen after they ignored orders to abandon a power-sharing deal with the Conservatives.Dugdale said the nine councillors, including the newly elected lord provost of Aberdeen, Barney Crockett, would now be disciplined for refusing to tear up a coalition deal with the Tories in a bid to prevent the
  
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• Donald Trump's Speech At US Coast Guard Academy Class of 2017 Graduation Was Quite Something

  17-05-2017 19:32
  
  For the young folk of US Coast Guard Academy Class of 2017, today was possibly the most special day of their lives as they graduated after four years of intense study and training.
  To mark the magnitude of the occasion, the President himself was there to make the keynote speech.
  So it possibly came as a disappointment that the majority of it was either incoherent or about himself as Donald Trump once again lambasted the media and tried to portray the struggles of public scrutiny of potentia
  
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• Labour councillors in Aberdeen suspended over Tory coalition

  17-05-2017 19:26 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Labour councillors are suspended after ignoring an order to end an agreement with the Conservatives.
  
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• Lib Dem Manifesto 2017: Tim Farron Accuses Theresa May Of Putting 'Time Bomb' Under UK Economy With Brexit

  17-05-2017 19:25
  
  Tim Farron has accused Theresa May of voluntarily putting a “time bomb” under the British economy with her plan to take the UK out of the single market.
  The Lib Dems have put fighting a so-called hard Brexit at the heart of their election campaign and are pushing for a second referendum to be held on the eventual deal struck with Brussels.
  It comes as Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has said Brexit talks will start hours after the general election result.
  At
  
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• Inquiry launched into targeting of UK voters through social media

  17-05-2017 19:11 via theguardian.com
  
  Information commissioner’s investigation to go further than current exploration of practices used in EU referendumGeneral election 2017 – latest updatesThe information commissioner has launched an investigation into the way UK political parties target voters through social media with a warning that if they send political messages to people based on their individual data, they could be breaking the law.The investigation “into the use of data analytics for political purposes&rdqu
  
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• Tory Stuns Radio Show With Description Of Role He Played In Executions

  17-05-2017 18:56
  
  A Tory election agent in a crucial marginal seat stunned radio listeners, after he said his past as an “execution consultant” in the United States would enable him to hang condemned people.
  Tony Homewood phoned BBC Three Counties Radio where he described how he had consulted on executions, including on the hanging of a child murderer in the 1990s, in an extraordinary conversation that left one lawyer’s “jaw on the floor”.The "execution consultant" @TonyHomewoo
  
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• No senior minister backs immigration pledge, Osborne's Standard says

  17-05-2017 18:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Former chancellor’s paper says top Tories assumed May would bury pledge to reduce net immigration to tens of thousandsSenior cabinet ministers privately do not support Theresa May’s desire to keep the Conservative target of reducing net immigration to the tens of thousands, according to an editorial in the London Evening Standard newspaper run by the former chancellor George Osborne.In a leader column, the newspaper said there had been an assumption at the top of the Conservative par
  
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• Election 2017: Tories should drop migration target, says Osborne's Evening Standard – as it happened

  17-05-2017 18:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Live coverage of the day’s campaign news, as Tim Farron spells out his message to voters, and Len McCluskey overshadows Jeremy Corbyn’sThe Snap: sign up for our daily election email – and read today’s
  10 thing we learnt from the May/Hammond press conferenceAfternoon summary 5.08pm BST 5.01pm BSTSinn Fein and the DUP are “punishing” the people of Northern Ireland through their refusal to restore powersharing, the SDLP leader has claimed. As the Press Associatio
  
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• Work with the EU, not against it, Michel Barnier tells May

  17-05-2017 18:18 via theguardian.com
  
  EU’s chief negotiator dismisses notion that Brussels is seeking to punish UK for Brexit or create problems for its governmentThe EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has appealed to Theresa May to work with the union during the negotiations and not against it, following the prime minister’s claim that Brussels had sought to attack both her leadership and British interests.
  Addressing the European parliament in Strasbourg, Barnier cautioned against an aggressive approach to th
  
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• Lib Dem manifesto summary: Key points at-a-glance

  17-05-2017 18:18 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Liberal Democrats launch their manifesto ahead of the general election. Here are some of the key points.
  
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• Lib Dems pledge to outflank Corbyn on reversing welfare cuts

  17-05-2017 18:09
  
  Tim Farron's manifesto pledges to axe the benefit freeze - but commits far less education spending than Labour
  
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• Electoral Commission wants powers to tackle election meddling from abroad

  17-05-2017 17:48 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A probe into the political use of private data has been opened by the information commissioner.
  
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• Diane Abbott Gets Lost On Stage After Police Federation Conference Speech

  17-05-2017 17:44
  
  Diane Abbott has suffered another embarrassment after struggling to find her way off a stage after addressing a police conference.
  The shadow home secretary had already been jeered by the audience while she spoke at the Police Federation’s annual conference on Tuesday, according to the Sun.
  Abbott was critical of the police’s use of highly controversial spit hoods.
  Officers have argued that the hoods prevent the spread of infections like hepatitis C, while opponents claim they a
  
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• Theresa May refuses to confirm Philip Hammond’s job is safe

  17-05-2017 17:23 via ft.com
  Chancellor’s future in doubt amid rumours of a cabinet reshuffle after election
  
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• Boris Johnson criticised by Sikh woman over whisky comment in Gurdwara

  17-05-2017 17:04 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The foreign secretary says sorry to a woman who is unhappy about his comments while visiting a Sikh Gurdwara.
  
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• #grime4Corbyn – why British MCs are uniting behind the Labour leader

  17-05-2017 16:49 via theguardian.com
  
  Can the support of stars such as JME, Stormzy and Novelist help Jeremy Corbyn beat the election odds?Last Sunday, Snapchat users seeking the latest updates from Jeremy Corbyn were greeted with something unexpected. “It’s JME on Jeremy’s Snapchat and I’m here right now to tell you to register to vote!” grinned the Tottenham-based grime MC, while the words “Jeremy Corbyn” hovered in the background.To grime fans, this was not an unexpected development. The
  
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• The Lib Dems’ defence of the 48% is starting to look like rubbish politics | Anne Perkins

  17-05-2017 16:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Tim Farron’s manifesto is tied to the mast of a second Brexit referendum. But with the remain vote flaking away, his pitch to a tolerant, open Britain is flailingThe parties’ manifestos tell a new tale of political division. The deep gulf in national opinion revealed by the Brexit referendum is reflected across the main parties; each is struggling to adjust to the uncomfortable discovery that its voters are not thinking what it thought they were thinking. The Tories and Labour are in
  
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• British MPs targeted by hackers in co-ordinated attack

  17-05-2017 16:29 via ft.com
  Incident raises concern over foreign meddling in forthcoming general election
  
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• Liberal Democrats: we would raise £1bn in tax by legalising cannabis

  17-05-2017 16:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Manifesto pledge figures based on Treasury report and evidence of recent legalisation in Colorado, Washington state and UruguayLegalising cannabis would raise £1bn in tax revenues, according to the Liberal Democrat manifesto, which backs a regulated market for the drug.The document calls the war on drugs “a catastrophic failure” in which billions were flowing into organised crime rather than the Treasury’s coffers. Continue reading...
  
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• General election 2017: Lighter moments from election campaign

  17-05-2017 15:52 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Talk of bridge tolls, free sanitary products and Diane Abbott addressing the Police Federation.
  
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• Corbyn’s inspiring manifesto takes me back to Labour 1945 blueprint for hope | Harry Leslie Smith

  17-05-2017 15:51 via theguardian.com
  
  My generation is the last to remember the destitution of life in Britain before the NHS and the welfare state. Heed our warnings, before we are goneIt was at Bradford University on Tuesday that Jeremy Corbyn unveiled the Labour party’s election manifesto. In the grand hall, Corbyn spoke to an enthusiastic gathering of students and party faithful about the concrete plans Labour has to transform Britain into a country where the many will prosper instead of the few. Corbyn spoke about the nee
  
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• General election 2017: Alliance for Green Socialism policies

  17-05-2017 15:49 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Mike Davies on how its policies varied from what Labour and the Greens were offering.
  
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• Lib Dems pledge to hold second Brexit referendum

  17-05-2017 15:37 via ft.com
  Party’s pro-EU manifesto proposes higher spending and legalisation of cannabis
  
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• Lib Dems in manifesto pledge to hold second Brexit referendum

  17-05-2017 15:37 via ft.com
  Party’s pro-EU manifesto proposes higher spending and legalisation of cannabis
  
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• Groundhog May: we're all trapped in Theresa's campaign time loop | Marina Hyde

  17-05-2017 15:33 via theguardian.com
  
  May and Hammond’s press conference revealed nothing new – except that their relationship is anything but strong and stable• General election 2017 - latest updatesTo watch Theresa May and Philip Hammond conduct a joint press conference is to be made powerfully aware of one thing: their chemistry is deader than Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise’s in Eyes Wide Shut. Let’s face it, that wasn’t just dead; it was at a fairly advanced stage of decomposition. And it’s
  
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• Hartlepool: voters spark civic revolution to lift the gloom

  17-05-2017 15:02 via theguardian.com
  
  In the run-up to the general election, six Guardian reporters are writing from constituencies across the country to find out what matters to you and your area. In the second of a series of dispatches from Hartlepool, Josh Halliday and photographer Gary Calton meet residents trying to reverse the long-term disillusionment that some believe has allowed Ukip to prosperHuddled around a laptop in a Hartlepool pub, three self-styled “old duffers” put the finishing touches to a newspaper th
  
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• GP Louise Irvine: ‘Jeremy Hunt has not been a good steward of the NHS’ | Hélène Mulholland

  17-05-2017 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  GP and activist Louise Irvine explains how the crisis in the NHS has pushed her to stand against the health secretary in the forthcoming electionShe has beaten Jeremy Hunt in the courts but Dr Louise Irvine is now determined to unseat the health secretary at the ballot box. Irvine, who is standing for the National Health Action party , is giving it her best shot. “All change is possible,” she insists. “You owe it to people to fight to win.”The 59-year-old GP first clashed
  
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• Boris Johnson apologises after discussing alcohol in Sikh temple

  17-05-2017 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Foreign secretary taken to task by worshipper who spoke of the alcoholism in her family during visit to a gurdwara in BristolGeneral election 2017 – live updatesBoris Johnson has apologised after he caused a “livid” reaction in a worshipper in a Sikh temple by discussing his enthusiasm for a boost in the whisky trade, apparently without realising that alcohol is forbidden under some Sikh teachings.The foreign secretary, who is widely seen as having been sidelined during the ele
  
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• Lessons from EU judgment on Singapore deal

  17-05-2017 14:51 via ft.com
  A UK trade agreement ought to be possible without risk of Wallonia-style resistance
  
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• Reality Check: Could legalising cannabis raise £1bn?

  17-05-2017 14:50 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Liberal Democrat manifesto says legalising cannabis would raise £1bn for the Exchequer.
  
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• General election? Here's what you need to know

  17-05-2017 14:45 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The UK will have a general election on 8 June. Here's what you need to know.
  
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• The special interest group no party seems to care about: young people | Ed Howker

  17-05-2017 14:35 via theguardian.com
  
  The message people of my generation are getting from all the election manifestos is ‘It’s OK, under-25s don’t vote’ – unless we go foxhunting, that isElections always offer rich rewards to special interest groups, but some pledges are more striking than others. A recent masterstroke in the Conservatives’ play for power offered a free vote on foxhunting should Theresa May be returned to lead the government. Related: Young people are so bad at voting – I'm
  
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• Emily Thornberry Continues Labour Confusion Over Benefits Freeze In Channel 4 News Interview

  17-05-2017 14:24
  
  Labour’s manifesto launch on Tuesday was overshadowed somewhat by mass confusion within the party over whether or not it was going to scrap the freeze on welfare.Jeremy Corbyn gave seemingly conflicting answers when asked if Labour would reverse the Tories’ benefit freeze, introduced last year.
  A Labour spokesperson tried to clear up matters by saying the policy would be axed.
  In a statement they said: “As our manifesto and costings documents explain, Labour is committed t
  
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• Lib Dems make opposition to Brexit manifesto priority

  17-05-2017 13:50 via theguardian.com
  
  As well as vowing to ‘protect Britain’s place in Europe’, Tim Farron’s party says it could raise £1bn in taxes by legalising cannabis• General election 2017 - live updatesA defiant Tim Farron vowed the Liberal Democrats would fight to keep the UK in the European Union at a manifesto launch in which he sought to entrench the Lib Dems as the party of remain.Bathed in yellow strobe lights at an east London club, the Lib Dem manifesto launch put opposition to Brexi
  
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• Election 2017 poll tracker

  17-05-2017 13:48 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Who is on course to win the 2017 general election? Use our poll tracker to see the latest polls and analysis.
  
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• A coalition of the decent can stop Theresa May bringing back foxhunting | Brian May

  17-05-2017 13:48 via theguardian.com
  
  The prime minister proposes to repeal the Hunting Act. We must vote intelligently to prevent Britain being dragged back into the dark agesSince the sudden announcement in April of a general election, people have asked me what I plan to do with the Common Decency campaign I conducted during the 2015 election. This is my answer.Theresa May must be stopped. Continue reading...
  
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• Unite leader backtracks on claim that 200 seats would be Labour 'success'

  17-05-2017 13:34 via theguardian.com
  
  Len McCluskey says his remarks to Politico were taken out of context and that he was ‘full of optimism’ about a Labour government General election 2017 – live updates
  A key ally of Jeremy Corbyn has been forced to make a statement saying Labour has a chance of winning the general election, just hours after he said losing 30 seats would be considered a success.Len McCluskey, the head of the union Unite, which is Labour’s biggest funder, said on Wednesday he was “full
  
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• UK wage growth lags inflation for first time since mid-2014

  17-05-2017 13:11 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Pay increases fall behind inflation as UK unemployment drops by 53,000 in the three months to March.
  
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• General election 2017: Len McCluskey 'now optimistic Labour can win'

  17-05-2017 13:04 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Unite boss distances himself from an interview in which he predicted Labour would lose the election.
  
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