Political news

• Stormont talks: Sinn Féin calls for government intervention

  28-06-2017 23:10 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Sinn Féin calls on the UK and Irish governments to intervene as power-sharing talks enter final hours.
  
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• Forgotten language?

  28-06-2017 22:12 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Demands for an Irish language act are a stumbling block at the Stormont talks, but what about Ulster-Scots?
  
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• EU children may have to apply to stay in UK after Brexit – leaked report

  28-06-2017 22:12
  
  European commission analysis of No 10’s proposals concludes there was a ‘lack of clarity’ and no reciprocityTheresa May’s proposal on citizens’ rights after Brexit does not offer EU citizens the certainty being sought by Brussels, and it would even force children to apply to stay in the UK, according to a leaked European commission analysis of the British government’s position.
  A preliminary assessment of what Downing Street has called its ‘generous offe
  
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• Steve Bell on the Conservative public sector pay U-turns – cartoon

  28-06-2017 22:01
  
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• Public sector pay cap under review, No 10 suggests

  28-06-2017 21:54 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ministers hint the 1% limit could be lifted as a Labour move to scrap it is defeated in Parliament.
  
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• Commons rejects Labour's amendment to Queen's speech - as it happened

  28-06-2017 21:44
  
  Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn at the first PMQs of the new parliamentPMQs - Snap verdictPMQs - Verdict from the Twitter commentariatLunchtime summaryAfternoon summary 8.44pm BSTThat concludes our live coverage. Here is a summary of the evening’s events: 8.38pm BSTThe Lib Dems have now released a statement on the defeat of the amendment. The party’s leader, Tim Farron, said:This evening, the DUP have
  
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• Nicky Morgan: Tories should consider replacing Theresa May

  28-06-2017 21:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Former education secretary Nicky Morgan says the PM may have to consider standing down by end of 2018.
  
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• Downing Street backtracks on end to public-sector pay freeze

  28-06-2017 21:00
  Government says no change in policy after pre-emptive shift prompts Treasury fury
  
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• Confusion after No 10 backtracks on end to public sector pay cap

  28-06-2017 20:48
  
  PM’s spokesman insists annual 1% pay rise cap remains in place, hours after source suggested it could be easedGovernment hints at a possible end to the cap on pay rises for public sector workers have descended into utter confusion after Downing Street rapidly changed tack, insisting that the policy of limiting annual rises to 1% would remain in place.Hours after a senior Conservative source indicated that ministers would review the cap at the next budget, saying people were “weary&rd
  
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• Bull semen contains seed of discord for Brexit talks

  28-06-2017 20:37
  EU starts listing how to treat every traded item at precise moment of UK departure
  
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• PMQs returns – with a spot of role reversal for Corbyn and the Maybot | John Crace

  28-06-2017 20:30
  
  May decides to let the Labour leader play at being prime minister for a little while, and he gratefully steps up to the plateIt was all most irregular. At the first prime minister’s questions of the new parliament, Jeremy Corbyn had asked serious and probing questions about the Grenfell Tower fire and the Maybot had more or less applied herself to answering them in intelligible sentences.If not always with great conviction or logic. You can’t have everything. Her efforts to reassure
  
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• Public Sector Pay Cap Stays As Labour Lose Key Vote

  28-06-2017 20:20
  
  Labour’s call to end the pay freeze on public sector workers has been defeated in the Commons after a day of confusion over the Government’s position.
  The 10 Democratic Unionist Party MPs all voted with the Tories to block a move to give nurses, police officers and other public sector workers a pay rise about 1% - just days after it was agreed to pump an additional £1.5billion into Northern Ireland. 
  It seemed this morning the Government were considering abandoning the cap
  
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• Scotland’s indyref2 may have been delayed. But expect it by 2021 | Ruth Wishart

  28-06-2017 19:59
  
  Those who think Nicola Sturgeon’s statement this week means the end of the independence movement don’t understand her, or the SNPDoubtless the verb was carefully chosen. Nicola Sturgeon would “reset” the timetable for a second independence referendum, she told the Scottish parliament in Holyrood this week. Having, in March, demanded another poll between autumn 2018 and spring 2019, Sturgeon now indicated that another date with destiny would wait till after Brexit. She wou
  
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• ID cards plan for EU nationals 'will be Brexit talks flashpoint'

  28-06-2017 19:51
  
  Labour MEP says mandatory biometric residence documents will meet tough opposition from Michel BarnierThe UK’s plans to introduce mandatory biometric residence identity cards for EU nationals and new rules on family members joining them are expected to prove major flashpoints in the next set of Brexit talks in a fortnight’s time, a leading British MEP has warned.Claude Moraes, chairman of the European parliament’s civil liberties committee and a member of the parliament’s
  
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• Europe’s stake in Britain’s long-term prosperity

  28-06-2017 19:16
  A change of atmosphere allows the EU to adjust its Brexit goals
  
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• Brexit 'will blow hole in budget', EU commissioner warns

  28-06-2017 18:46 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Not only is the UK leaving but the EU also has pressing new spending demands, a commissioner warns.
  
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• Downing Street forced to signal ‘no change’ on public-sector pay freeze

  28-06-2017 18:42
  Hammond fury at PM’s pre-emptive shift on austerity policy
  
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• Man jailed for threatening to kill Labour MP Karin Smyth

  28-06-2017 18:36
  
  Matthew Niblett phoned Smyth’s office in Bristol repeatedly one night in runup to election because of her campaign leafletsA man has been jailed after threatening to kill a Labour candidate during the general election campaign. Matthew Niblett phoned Karin Smyth’s office in Bristol seven times in one hour because he had taken exception to her campaign leaflets.He left messages in the early hours of 3 June claiming he would kill Smyth, who was re-elected on 8 June, and saying that he
  
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• David Duckenfield faces Hillsborough charges with five others

  28-06-2017 18:26 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ex-Ch Supt David Duckenfield faces 95 charges of manslaughter while five others will be prosecuted.
  
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• Pressure Builds On Government Not To Turn Its Back On Child Refugees

  28-06-2017 18:15
  
  A Labour peer who has led the campaign for the government to allow lone child refugees to settle in the UK is urging the Home Office not to scrap the scheme opened in his name. 
  Alf Dubs paved the way for hundreds of children left marooned in Europe after fleeing war in their home countries to be allowed to enter the UK as part of an amendment he tabled to the last government’s Immigration Bill. 
  But earlier this year, the Home Office announced it would be closing the Dubs Schem
  
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• Angela Merkel Claims A Lesbian Couple Changed Her Long-Standing Opposition To Same-Sex Marriage

  28-06-2017 17:44
  
  Angela Merkel has claimed that meeting a lesbian couple made her re-think her long-standing opposition to gay marriage. 
  The German chancellor had previously argued that same-sex couples should not be allowed to marry, stating: “For me, personally, marriage is a man and a woman living together.”
  In 2013, Merkel also expressed worries about gay couples being allowed to adopt, saying she was concerned about the “children’s welfare”, the BBC reported. Bu
  
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• Kepco confirms talks on joining Moorside nuclear project

  28-06-2017 17:33
  Korean power company wants to install its own reactor technology in Cumbria
  
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• UK government signals commitment to Heathrow third runway

  28-06-2017 17:24
  Transport secretary says approval will be sought during this parliament
  
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• Grenfell Tower fire: was Tory austerity to blame or do problems date back to Blair?

  28-06-2017 17:18
  
  Jeremy Corbyn has linked tragedy to Conservative spending cuts but PM says matter has arisen after decades of neglect Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn have clashed over whether the tragic deaths of 80 people in Grenfell Tower fire is “one of the disastrous effects of austerity” or has been developing as a result of decades of neglect dating back at least to Tony Blair’s government in the 2000s. Continue reading...
  
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• Labour's Rosie Winterton elected as deputy Commons speaker

  28-06-2017 17:17 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The former opposition chief whip is one of three MPs chosen as deputies to John Bercow.
  
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• Grenfell Tower death toll rises to ‘around 80’

  28-06-2017 16:50
  Cladding on 120 blocks in England has failed flammability tests
  
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• Final death toll in Grenfell Tower could take ‘many months’ 

  28-06-2017 16:50
  Former judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick to head inquiry
  
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• Labour’s shift has been vindicated. The public is tired of austerity | Owen Jones

  28-06-2017 16:46
  
  Two years ago, Jeremy Corbyn challenged political orthodoxy by not attacking benefits claimants. Now public opinion has aligned with his stanceDo you resign yourself to public opinion as it is now, or do you attempt to change it? That is a question that has long divided Britain’s left and produced two competing strategies. The “centrist” approach is one that amounts to resignation. Voters are where they are, and it is largely futile to campaign to change minds when Labour is in
  
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• DUP MPs 'worth more than Ronaldo', Commons told

  28-06-2017 16:46 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Laughter in Commons as DUP MPs are compared to one of the world's most expensive footballers.
  
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• Tory Public Sector Pay Freeze Could Finally End After Seven Years, No10 Signals

  28-06-2017 16:29
  
  The Tories’ seven-year public sector pay freeze could finally be over after Downing Street declared Theresa May had “heard the message” from voters on austerity.
  As a string of Cabinet ministers hinted that the 1% wage cap would be lifted in the coming Budget this autumn, a
  No.10 spokesman suggested a review of the 1% wage cap policy was underway.
  In what would be a huge victory for Jeremy Corbyn and trade unions, the Government appeared to pave the way for an end to the contro
  
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• Canterbury: 'We made a difference. You don’t have to accept things as they are'

  28-06-2017 16:13
  
  After the most stunning election in recent history, Guardian reporters are writing from four key constituencies to make sense of the results. In Canterbury, Harriet Sherwood and photographer Martin Godwin find renewed enthusiasm for Labour in a previous Tory strongholdThe day before the deadline to register to vote in the general election, Conor Fitzmaurice went knocking on doors at the University of Kent’s halls of residence.Clutching leaflets on how to register, he told his fellow studen
  
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• PMQs: Theresa May tells councils to work now on safety checks

  28-06-2017 15:59 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Theresa May warns councils they should be "doing the fire safety checks now".
  
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• PMQs: Jeremy Corbyn warns Theresa May over council cuts

  28-06-2017 15:59 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Jeremy Corbyn tells Theresa May: "When you cut local authority budgets by 40%, we all pay a price in public safety"
  
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• Downing Street signals end to UK public sector pay freeze

  28-06-2017 15:09
  Next Budget to include new policy on state workers’ salaries, says Number 10 spokesman
  
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• Theresa May’s cabinet starts to split over Brexit

  28-06-2017 15:06
  Philip Hammond and David Davis have contrasting views on departing the EU
  
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• PMQs: Conservative and Labour leaders on prosecutions

  28-06-2017 15:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Theresa May say the decision to charge some people over the 1989 Hillsborough disaster would be a "day of mixed emotions" for the families.
  
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• What if the will of the people is now for a second referendum on Brexit? | Karan Bilimoria

  28-06-2017 15:00
  
  Britain’s weakness outside the EU is clear, and public opinion has swung sharply against Theresa May’s approach. Don’t think there is no turning backThe UK is in turmoil. Sixteen months ago, when David Cameron announced the date of the EU referendum, we were the fastest growing economy in the western world and the envy of Europe. The Brexiteers were convinced that Europe was on its way to ruin. Now Britain is becoming the laughing stock of Europe. The pound has weakened. Inflat
  
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• Labour's Jo Stevens Delivers PMQs Burn To Theresa May Over 'Reckless Gambling'

  28-06-2017 14:56
  
  Labour’s Jo Stevens delivered a ruthless burn to Theresa May during the first Prime Minister’s Questions of the new Parliament.
  The Cardiff Central MP wants to see a crackdown on casino-like betting machines, on which tens of thousands of pounds are lost by gamblers every year.
  She used the question as an opportunity to highlight Theresa May’s not-as-successful-as-she’d-hoped election campaign, telling the House: “I know the prime minister is well aware of the
  
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• Corbyn and May clash over Grenfell Tower at PMQs - video

  28-06-2017 14:42
  
  The Grenfell Tower disaster has highlighted ‘the disastrous effects of austerity’, Jeremy Corbyn argues during the first PMQs since the general election. Theresa May replies saying that the practice of cladding high-rise towers in insulation and panels which are not properly fire resistant started some years ago, and that a Labour government had first relaxed inspection regimesPMQs verdict: Jeremy Corbyn hits powerful notes but May unshaken
  Continue reading...
  
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• Tory MP Reveals Swastikas Were Carved Into Her Election Posters

  28-06-2017 14:41
  
  A Tory MP has revealed her office door was urinated on and swastikas were carved into her election posters.  
  Sheryll Murray appeared to blame Labour supporters for the torrent of abuse she received during the general election campaign.
  She told the House of Commons that, while running as the Conservative for South East Cornwall, photos were taken of Labour banners on her home and posted through her letterbox. She added it was “hardly kinder, gentler politics” and called on
  
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• David Cameron On Social Media Shows The Former PM Is Basically Living His Best Life

  28-06-2017 14:06
  
  When David Cameron handed over the keys to 10 Downing Street in June 2016, he may well have breathed a sigh of relief (particularly given the bumpy ride his successor Theresa May is currently enduring).
  But how does one go from being the man running the country to just a mere civilian?
  It sounded like poor old David found re-acclimatising to normal life a little tricky at first. According to the Spectator, one friend said: “He would ring up mates and suggest a game of lunchtime tennis
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn Says Grenfell Tower Deaths Result Of Tory 'Austerity', As Theresa May Blames Tony Blair

  28-06-2017 14:01
  
  Shouts of "shame on you" as Jeremy Corbyn raises issue of 40% cuts to council budgets in relation to #GrenfellTower https://t.co/7wnK7YZXYC pic.twitter.com/AnkAvfrbOw— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) June 28, 2017
  Jeremy Corbyn faced down Tory shouts of “shame” today as he blamed government cuts to local authority budgets for the tragedy at Grenfell Tower.
  Theresa May hit back with an attack on Tony Blair for having changed fire regulations.
  Corbyn used the first prime minister&rsquo
  
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• PMQs verdict: Jeremy Corbyn hits powerful notes but May unshaken

  28-06-2017 13:57
  
  In the first prime minister’s questions since the election, a civil exchange gave way to a blame game over Grenfell TowerThe first PMQs since the election began on a civil note, with both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn welcoming the criminal charges brought as a result of the Hillsborough inquiry, before moving on to some fairly procedural questions from Corbyn about the fallout from the Grenfell Tower fire, during which May revealed that 120 tower blocks had now failed cladding safety test
  
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• Six people charged over Hillsborough football disaster

  28-06-2017 13:21
  Match commander David Duckenfield charged with manslaughter of 95 people
  
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• Hillsborough police commander charged with manslaughter

  28-06-2017 13:21
  David Duckenfield and five others face charges over 1989 disaster that killed 96 people
  
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• Ooooh Jeremy Corbyn: Never chant a politician's name

  28-06-2017 13:20
  
  Hero worship and the cult of personality are as dangerous on the left as the right
  
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• The Grenfell inferno has burst Kensington’s bubble

  28-06-2017 13:01
  London’s second-richest borough symbolises government failures and gaping inequality
  
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• Public Sector Pay Freeze Could End, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon Suggests

  28-06-2017 12:54
  
  The Tories’ seven-year public sector pay freeze could soon be over, a senior Cabinet minister has signalled.
  Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said that the idea of a wage rise was “something we have to consider not just for the army, but right across the public sector as a whole”.
  His words, to a think tank on Wednesday morning, follow a similar hint from Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt last week that he would lobby the Treasury to end the 1% pay cap on nurses.
  Theresa May is
  
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• British Attitudes Survey: More Britons 'back higher taxes'

  28-06-2017 11:47 via bbc.co.uk
  
  People are also becoming more sceptical of the EU and more socially liberal, a survey suggests.
  
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• Brexit is not a poker game: How political metaphors mislead us

  28-06-2017 11:42
  
  We're living in a soundbite culture where the snappiest summation wins - regardless of accuracy
  
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