Political news

• Queen's Speech clears Commons after abortion funding pledge

  29-06-2017 23:38 via bbc.co.uk
  
  MPs back the minority government's legislative plans for the next two years by 323 votes to 309.
  
  Read more

• Labour MPs warn ministers against ‘grubby deal with Murdochs’ over Sky

  29-06-2017 23:16
  
  Ed Miliband and Tom Watson sound sceptical note after culture secretary backs Ofcom recommendation for six-month review of Fox bid Labour politicians told ministers “not to do a grubby deal with the Murdochs” in order to push through 21st Century Fox’s £11.7bn takeover of Sky after Ofcom warned there were serious concerns that any takeover would hand the family increased influence over news and politics in the UK .The MPs’ intervention came in response to the cultur
  
  Read more

• UK workers 'frustrated by flatlining pay', says key economist

  29-06-2017 23:10 via bbc.co.uk
  
  UK pay has stagnated for a decade, Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane says.
  
  Read more

• Change we need: David Cameron vetoed plan to scrap 1p piece

  29-06-2017 22:59
  
  George Osborne backed adviser’s idea to launch move to cashless society – but No 10 reportedly thought symbolism too risky for Tories George Osborne came within weeks of announcing plans to take 1p and 2p pieces out of circulation but was stopped by David Cameron who feared the symbolism of the Conservative party scrapping the penny, the Guardian has been told. Senior figures said the previous chancellor wanted to make the change in late 2015, after winning the general election, beca
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Gary Lineker Describes Feeling 'Politically Homeless' As Jeremy Corbyn Sacks Soft Brexit Backers

  29-06-2017 22:20
  
  Gary Lineker has described feeling “politically homeless” after Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour backed a hard Brexit and he sacked shadow ministers who sought a soft one.
  The ex-footballer was dismayed by Corbyn’s decision to sack the frontbenchers who voted for a Chuka Umunna’s amendment to the Queen’s Speech that called for Britain to stay in the single market and customs union.Why are we so averse to anyone having a difference of opinion these days, even within
  
  Read more

• Pullback from Afghanistan may have come too soon, says James Mattis

  29-06-2017 22:11
  Nato debates military request for 3,000 more troops to train local forces
  
  Read more

• Kensington council meeting on Grenfell descends into chaos

  29-06-2017 21:52
  Leader blames presence of journalists for calling halt to cabinet session
  
  Read more

• Grenfell Tower: Councillors That Tried To Ban Journalists Defy Judge By Closing Meeting Straightaway

  29-06-2017 21:45
  
  BREAKING: #GrenfellTower council meeting decends in to chaos. Council leader scraps meeting due to media presence. pic.twitter.com/99BXLRwzrC— Connor Gillies (@ConnorGillies) June 29, 2017
  Councillors who presided over the Grenfell Tower disaster abandoned a meeting they wanted to hold in secret after a judge ordered journalists could attend.
  The Tory-led Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council opted to hold the first cabinet meeting since the blaze behind closed doors - shutting out survi
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Grenfell Tower Councillors Rebuked By No10 For Shutting Down Meeting After Judge Orders Journalists Can Attend

  29-06-2017 21:45
  
  Downing Street has rebuked Kensington and Chelsea council over an aborted meeting on Thursday about the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
  Councillors who presided over the disaster abandoned the meeting after a judge ordered journalists could attend.
  The Tory-led council opted to hold the first cabinet meeting since the blaze behind closed doors - shutting out survivors and any scrutiny from the media - claiming it would threaten public safety. 
  Journalists appealed for a court order to gain entry an
  
  Read more

• Steve Bell on the head of the Grenfell Tower inquiry – cartoon

  29-06-2017 21:40
  
  Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Now the government chaos is affecting real people’s lives | Gaby Hinsliff

  29-06-2017 21:29
  
  The pay cap U-turns have left Tory MPs looking heartless and hypocritical. This is no way to treat millions of public sector staffYeah, but no, but maybe yeah eventually, but no right now. To paraphrase Little Britain’s gormless teenager Vicky Pollard, that’s roughly where the government stands, at the time of writing, on whether public sector workers are going to get a decent pay rise. Although by the time you read this, who knows? Related: Applauding a public sector pay cap? Tories
  
  Read more

• The Guardian view on the Queen’s speech: a new, better balance of power | Editorial

  29-06-2017 21:20
  
  In a hung parliament, ministers must defer much more to MPs and that is a healthy development for democracyPrime ministers are lucky if the phrases they bequeath to posterity are cited in tribute more than ridicule. Theresa May is not fortunate in that respect. Her most memorable contribution may well be the tetchy denial of a policy U-turn over social care funding during the election campaign: “Nothing has changed.” That, or her now laughable claim to have been the candidate for &ld
  
  Read more

• Scottish government abandons 1% pay cap on public sector workers

  29-06-2017 20:40
  
  Holyrood’s finance minister says time is up for controversial policy after Westminster MPs voted down Labour motion to scrap it nationallyThe Scottish government has promised to unilaterally lift the cap on public sector pay in the face of threats by nurses to go on strike. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, said the devolved Holyrood government would abandon the UK-wide pay deal that has restricted annual pay rises for about 500,000 staff, including nurses and firefighters,
  
  Read more

• Democratic challenges to the Brexit decision | Letters

  29-06-2017 20:35
  
  The ramifications of leaving the EU are becoming clear, but readers are divided on the benefit of a second referendumBrexit devotees hold dearly to their slim majority and assert “democracy” in demanding this grave national error go unchallenged. But the real democrats are Carole Cadwalladr (The great British Brexit robbery, Observer, 23 June) and George Monbiot (Who paid for the leave vote…, 28 June) in questioning the very legitimacy of the 2016 EU referendum. David Cameron&
  
  Read more

• Study links insecticides to bee breeding problems

  29-06-2017 20:32
  Findings unlikely to calm debate on effect of neonicotinoids banned in EU
  
  Read more

• Theresa May wins Queen’s Speech vote with slender majority

  29-06-2017 20:23
  Corbyn suffers rebellion by Labour MPs on Brexit amendment
  
  Read more

• May wins Queen’s Speech vote with slender majority

  29-06-2017 20:23
  Corbyn suffers rebellion by Labour MPs on Brexit amendment
  
  Read more

• Corbyn fires pro-European rebels over Queen’s Speech vote

  29-06-2017 20:18
  Labour unity fractured over call to ‘remain within customs union and single market’
  
  Read more

• Jeremy Corbyn sacks three frontbenchers after single market vote

  29-06-2017 20:09
  
  Andy Slaughter, Catherine West, and Ruth Cadbury voted for amendment calling for UK to stay in EU single marketJeremy Corbyn has sacked three frontbenchers who voted against their party in favour of a Queen’s speech amendment calling for Britain to remain within the customs union and single market.The Labour leader, who has been emboldened by the election result, decided to take a tougher approach than for the original vote to trigger article 50, when shadow ministers who rebelled were all
  
  Read more

• The government’s abortion commitment is good news. But it’s not enough | Elizabeth Nelson

  29-06-2017 19:58
  
  As long as women from Northern Ireland have to travel for terminations they are still hugely disadvantaged. We need the law at home to change tooAbortion for women in Northern Ireland has become a high stakes issue in British politics for perhaps the first time ever, potentially exposing the first faultlines in the young Tory-DUP agreement to maintain a weakened Conservative government. Following Stella Creasy’s attempt to amend the Queen’s speech, the government has offered a new co
  
  Read more

• Stormont power-sharing talks extended to Monday

  29-06-2017 19:56 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Parties missed a 16:00 BST deadline to reach agreement to restore government in NI.
  
  Read more

• Heidi Allen: 'I can barely express my anger' at deal with DUP – video

  29-06-2017 19:52
  
  Heidi Allen, MP for South Cambridgeshire, speaks of her distaste at the use of public funds to garner political control. ‘We didn’t need to do it.’ Instead, Allen says, the Tories should have run as a minority government and shown the country what ‘mature, progressive politics looks like’. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Queen's speech passes as 50 Labour MPs defy Corbyn and back staying in single market - Politics live

  29-06-2017 19:41
  
  Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happenAfternoon summaryQueen’s speech debate - Summary 6.41pm BST 6.20pm BSTThis is from my colleague Anushka Asthana.Labour confirms that all frontbenchers who voted against government's demand for abstention on single market vote have been SACKED. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• DUP Come To Theresa May's Rescue As Queen's Speech Squeaked Through Parliament

  29-06-2017 19:40
  
  The DUP has saved Theresa May’s Government from collapse as the Queen’s Speech was finally voted through Parliament tonight. 
  MPs voted for May’s programme of laws 323 votes to 309 - a majority of just 14.
  May was at the Commons frontbench as the final result was read out.
  Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party said: “The Conservatives survived by the skin of their teeth today, supported by the DUP, but this is a government in chaos.
  “The Conservatives
  
  Read more

• Northern Ireland women to get free abortions in England

  29-06-2017 19:37 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ministers make concession ahead of threatened Commons rebellion over Queen's Speech.
  
  Read more

• Freewheelin' Phil emerges from captivity as a man with no plan

  29-06-2017 19:22
  
  ‘Don’t trust Labour with economy,’ Phil told the Commons, forgetting he’s still in charge of the funds, which he’s handing over to the DUP There are days when parliament is best understood as a piece of wilfully absurd, Dadaist performance art. Normally the debate on the Queen’s speech is just that, a debate on the measures the government intends to introduce in the forthcoming year. But when the subject matter turned to the economy the chancellor chose to rew
  
  Read more

• Judge orders council to allow media into Grenfell Tower meeting

  29-06-2017 19:21
  
  Court overturns Kensington and Chelsea council’s attempt to hold meeting in private, after challenge from Guardian and other mediaA judge has ordered a London council to lift a ban on the media reporting on the first meeting of councillors to discuss the Grenfell Tower disaster, after a legal challenge by the Guardian and other media groups.Downing Street had expressed concern after survivors of the fire and members of the media were barred from the Kensington and Chelsea council cabinet m
  
  Read more

• Jeremy Corbyn Sacks Shadow Ministers Who Voted For Soft Brexit

  29-06-2017 19:21
  
  Jeremy Corbyn has sacked three of his top team - and forced another two to quit - after they defied his orders not to back a ‘soft Brexit’ in the Commons.
  The Labour leader and his Chief Whip Nick Brown had warned all of the shadow frontbench that voting for Chuka Umunna’s amendment to the Queen’s Speech would mean them either resigning or being sacked.
  Shadow Transport Minister Daniel Zeichner and Gareth Thomas quit just before the vote, but Ruth Cadbury, Catherine West
  
  Read more

• Ireland says dozen City firms and banks to set up in Dublin over Brexit

  29-06-2017 19:09
  
  Authorities say institutions including ‘an American bank’ have agreed to move some operations from London to Irish capitalIrish authorities have said they have clinched deals with more than a dozen London-based banks and finance houses to move some of their operations to Dublin in preparation for Brexit.As Dublin continues to battle with Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Paris for the Brexit spoils, the head of international financial services at Ireland’s Industrial Development Author
  
  Read more

• Northern Irish women win access to free abortions as May averts rebellion

  29-06-2017 18:53
  
  Ministers announce funding for NI women to have abortions in England, in attempt to head off Tory revolt in Queen’s speech voteA decades-long struggle to give Northern Irish women access to terminations on the NHS in mainland Britain was unexpectedly won in the space of 24 hours on Thursday, as the UK government dramatically changed its policy in an attempt to head off a damaging Tory rebellion on the Queen’s speech.Dozens of Conservative MPs were understood to have expressed to Tory
  
  Read more

• Northern Ireland government talks extended

  29-06-2017 18:46
  Main political parties fail to agree power-sharing deal by Thursday deadline
  
  Read more

• Northern Ireland power-sharing talks extended after deadline passes

  29-06-2017 18:45
  
  DUP says there has been no breakthrough in negotiations to restore devolution, and talks could run on until MondayNegotiations to restore power-sharing government in Northern Ireland have been extended to yet another round of all-party discussions, the government has said.A 29 June deadline had been originally imposed by the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, James Brokenshire before the general election, but the main parties in the Stormont assembly have been given more time to reach a de
  
  Read more

• Tie dies

  29-06-2017 18:42 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The neck tie has been with us for centuries, but if even MPs don't have to wear them is it all over?
  
  Read more

• Theresa May's deal with the DUP – Politics Weekly podcast

  29-06-2017 18:41
  
  Anushka Asthana is joined by Ellie Mae O’Hagan, Sean Worth and Andy Beckett to discuss Theresa May’s post-election deal with the Democratic Unionist party in Northern Ireland to ensure a majority in the CommonsTheresa May’s deal with the DUP has bought her some time and a working majority in the Commons – but could it end up costing the Conservatives a lot more?Joining Anushka Asthana this week are commentator Ellie Mae O’Hagan, political writer Andy Beckett and for
  
  Read more

• Grenfell inquiry judge faces backlash over narrow focus

  29-06-2017 18:32
  Probe appears to exclude questions about wider causes and housing policy
  
  Read more

• Sky-Fox takeover deal likely to face competition probe

  29-06-2017 18:12 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Culture secretary is "minded to" refer Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox takeover of Sky to the competition authority.
  
  Read more

• Rejoice! Centrism in British politics is dead and big ideas are back | Giles Fraser: Loose canon

  29-06-2017 18:02
  
  Centrists claim that the middle ground is where grown-ups do politics. It isn’t. It’s where the elite try to manage things into staying the sameThe centre ground in British politics is dead. Or, at the very least, extremely poorly. A year after plotters tried to oust Jeremy Corbyn for being unelectably leftwing, those on the right of Labour have finally fallen silent. The Liberal Democrats made no electoral breakthrough, despite being the only go-to party for Brexit dissenters. And t
  
  Read more

• British parliament drops ties from male dress code

  29-06-2017 18:01
  Speaker John Bercow persuades House of Commons to make concession to modernity
  
  Read more

• Brexit Briefing: EU Gotta Fight For Your Rights

  29-06-2017 17:26
  
  You can sign up for this briefing by clicking here, and you’ll receive it straight to your inbox every Thursday afternoon.
  If you like what you read, make sure you subscribe to our Commons People podcast here for even more analysis about what goes on in Westminster.1) EU Citizens Can Stay In The UK After Brexit, But There Are Some Changes.A year after the referendum, and EU citizens living in the UK finally got some clarity on what the future holds for them after Brexit.
  On Monda
  
  Read more

• MPs don't need to wear ties in House of Commons, says Speaker

  29-06-2017 17:24
  
  John Bercow allows male MPs to dispense with neckties, ending longstanding conventionFirst, the Queen wore a hat instead of her traditional crown to the state opening of parliament – and the ravens did not abandon the Tower of London in shock. Now it appears another bastion of tradition could be about to fall: the requirement of men to wear neckties in the House of Commons.
  After some of the hottest June days on record – when even Ascot permitted men to remove their jackets during th
  
  Read more

• Derbyshire North-East: 'In our part of the world Corbyn wasn’t an asset'

  29-06-2017 17:22
  
  After the most stunning election in recent history, Guardian reporters are writing from four key constituencies to make sense of the results. In a former coalfield seat, Helen Pidd and photographer Christopher Thomond meet voters who bucked the national trend by deserting LabourThere was elation in Labour HQ as the election results came in, showing Jeremy Corbyn’s party had not only denied the Conservatives a majority but snatched seats such as Canterbury and Kensington, Tory strongholds e
  
  Read more

• Abortion law matter for Stormont, court rules

  29-06-2017 17:12 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Appeal judges rule it is not up to the courts to decide on NI abortion law in human rights case.
  
  Read more

• UK’s online junk food advertising ban welcomed

  29-06-2017 17:10
  New rules extending restrictions to social media come into effect on Saturday
  
  Read more

• Online junk food advertising ban welcomed

  29-06-2017 17:10
  New rules extending restrictions to social media come into effect on Saturday
  
  Read more

• Tory Attacks On Jeremy Corbyn For 'Supporting' The IRA Did Not Work, Says Nicky Morgan

  29-06-2017 17:03
  
  Theresa May’s decision to relentlessly attack Jeremy Corbyn with accusations he supported the IRA did not work as an election tactic as young people had no memory of the conflict, Nicky Morgan has said.
  In an interview with HuffPost UK’s Commons People podcast, the former Tory education secretary warned the Conservative Party made a mistake in thinking to win the youth vote it just needed to be “doing more on social media”.“What young people really respond to are p
  
  Read more

• Inside the real Brexit negotiations

  29-06-2017 16:57
  Forget Brussels, the Conservative party still has to heal its own divisions
  
  Read more

• Nicola Sturgeon's cutting response to Tory MSP's 'male pay gap' question – video

  29-06-2017 16:46
  
  First minister Nicola Sturgeon responds to a question from conservative MSP Gordon Lindhurst after he asks about the ‘male pay gap’. Lindhurst’s question was received with derision. Sturgeon responded: ‘Ruth Davidson is slowly sliding under that desk in front of her right now’ and later added that the question showed that the Conservative party needed to go away and think about gender pay gaps Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Private members' bill draw: Chris Bryant comes first

  29-06-2017 15:53 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The annual draw decides which MPs will get Parliamentary time for their proposed new laws.
  
  Read more

• Ministers make concession on abortion rights in Northern Ireland

  29-06-2017 15:45
  Conservatives make announcement to try to avoid a Commons defeat on Queen’s Speech
  
  Read more

• Ministers give Northern Irish women access to free abortions

  29-06-2017 15:45
  Conservatives make announcement to try to avoid a Commons defeat on Queen’s Speech
  
  Read more

Follow @political_UKnws on Twitter!