Political news

• Leaked deportation memo heaps doubt on Rudd’s future 

  27-04-2018 23:37 via ft.com
  Note suggests Home Secretary knew about targets for removal
  
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• Amber Rudd Apologises She Didn't Know About Deportation Targets

  27-04-2018 22:53
  Amber Rudd has apologised for not knowing the Home Office had a target for the number of people to deport, amid calls for her to resign as home secretary.Earlier this week, she told MPs she did not know of any targets but on Friday The Guardian published a leaked memo sent to her in June 2017 that specifically acknowledged them.Rudd said she would make a statement to the House of Commons on Monday to answer “legitimate questions that have arisen on targets and illegal migration”.She
  
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• Amber Rudd Apologises For Not Knowing About Home Office Deportation Targets

  27-04-2018 22:53
  Amber Rudd has apologised for not knowing the Home Office had a target for the number of people to deport, amid calls for her to resign.Earlier this week, the home secretary told MPs she did not know of any targets but on Friday The Guardian published a leaked memo sent to her in June 2017 that specifically acknowledged them.Rudd said she would make a statement to the House of Commons on Monday to answer “legitimate questions that have arisen on targets and illegal migration”.Sh
  
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• Peter Skinner, Ex MEP, Ordered To Repay £85,436 In Expenses Spent On Divorce And Hawaii Honeymoon

  27-04-2018 22:36
  A former Labour MEP has been ordered to repay £85,436.96 after falsely claiming more than £100,000 in expenses to spend on a car, his divorce settlement and holidays.Peter Skinner, 56, of Snodland, Kent, was jailed for four years in 2016 after being convicted of wrongfully claiming cash from the European Parliament that should have been used to cover staff costs.Some of the cash was used to buy a Land Rover Discovery for his ex-wife and monthly maintenance payments as part of his div
  
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• May, Macron and lessons of Trump diplomacy

  27-04-2018 20:43 via ft.com
  The French leader shows the way to work with the US president
  
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• Leaked deportation memo heaps doubt on Rudd’s future

  27-04-2018 19:53 via ft.com
  Note suggests Home Secretary knew about targets for removal
  
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• Meat is crucial to balanced diet, Michael Gove tells farmers

  27-04-2018 19:40
  Environment secretary’s vision for UK agriculture post-Brexit sees farmers playing a vital role in improving public healthMeat is a crucial part of a balanced diet, the environment secretary has said, as he told farmers about his “health and harmony” vision for food.Michael Gove’s new vision for British agriculture post-Brexit envisages farmers playing a critical role in improving public health.Continue reading...
  
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• Isis ‘sim card’ man sentenced to 8 years for UK terror offences

  27-04-2018 19:13 via ft.com
  Rabar Mala used Telegram apps to help Syrian fighters communicate
  
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• May faces cross-party push for public company registers in overseas territories

  27-04-2018 18:48
  Amendment has enough Tory backers to implement measure Cameron and Osborne proposed in 2013A group of Tory and Labour backbenchers are increasingly confident they can force Theresa May to introduce public ownership registers in Britain’s overseas territories in an attempt to prevent them from being used to hide “dirty money”.Nineteen Conservative MPs have signed an amendment scheduled for debate in the Commons on Tuesday – theoretically a sufficient number to defeat the g
  
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• Two Men Hit By Car Outside Birmingham Mosque

  27-04-2018 18:43
  Two men have been injured after they were hit by a car outside a mosque in Birmingham. Officers from West Midlands Police were called to Ettington Road in Aston at about 2.15pm on Friday after they received reports that two men in their 20s had been hurt. Police say a potential terrorism link cannot be ruled out.The force said one victim was described as having sustained a head injury and the other as walking wounded.The car failed to stop and police are searching for the car and its driver
  
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• David Davis excels in this government of all the talentless | Marina Hyde

  27-04-2018 18:39
  After another languid week, even the Brexit secretary’s allies are worried. But he’s safe – his colleagues are even worseIt’s long been traditional to describe a lazy performance by an actor as phoned in. In the case of DExEu’s David Davis, however, he doesn’t even text it in. The secretary of state’s performance in front of the Brexit select committee this week basically amounted to a series of emoticons. He can’t do you an explanation of how
  
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• 'Peter Kay's Car Share': BBC Reveals First Look At Improvised Episode

  27-04-2018 18:35
  Peter Kay fans have been served up a Friday treat, with the BBC revealing a teaser for the upcoming, improvised episode of ‘Car Share’. The all-new episode of the hit series will air on Monday 7 May, and as always, it will feature John and Kayleigh (played by Sian Gibson) on their way home from work. The short teaser gives us a glimpse at what to expect, showing the pair singing together before Kayleigh’s (questionable) Heather Small impression. When the episode
  
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• Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother’s Ball Gown Is The Epitome Of Fast Fashion

  27-04-2018 18:09
  Remember Cinderella? How she wanted to go to the ball, but didn’t have the right dress, so her Fairy Godmother came over and at the touch of a magic wand made her a beautiful gown that disappeared only a few hours later?That’s fast fashion to me.Fast fashion (and when I talk about fast fashion I don’t just mean cheap fashion, I also mean mass-produced luxury goods because luxury is not slow, nor necessarily better made, and certainly not less exploitative or polluting) gives th
  
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• UK and EU agree to prepare for market turmoil in worst-case Brexit

  27-04-2018 17:24 via ft.com
  BoE and ECB will hold joint talks on what to do if links between City and Europe are cut
  
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• How The Political Kaleidoscope Of Brexit Poses The Greatest Risks To Animal Welfare

  27-04-2018 17:16
  The dawning reality of Brexit means that we live in interesting times. By extension, the sentient animals that we share our island of Great Britain also live in interesting times. Much ink has been spilled since the British people voted in a 2017 referendum to leave the EU. Brexiteers claim that leaving the EU will release our beloved nation from the chains of EU bureaucracy; Parliament will be sovereign once more and free to make laws for the good of British people. Remainers, in contrast, argu
  
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• Music Like Max Richter's And Sigur Rós' Must Be Celebrated For Transcending Genres

  27-04-2018 17:10
  As humans we love to label things, and to find the right boxes in which things can sit. This is often particularly true for us music nerds. I remember the days of record stores, where things were firmly in different zones and classical music was kept behind a hushed glass door.One of the dividends of our digital world is that if you can now open yourself to the riches of the web and don’t have to just stick to what you know - you can now discover bits of music you love in genres you may no
  
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• History Has Been Made Between South And North Korea But The Future Is Still Unpredictable

  27-04-2018 17:04
  It was an historic moment indeed, when Kim Jong-un became the first North Korean leader to set foot in South Korea by crossing the Demilitarized Zone, since the signing of the Korean War armistice in 1953. The shaking of hands between Mr Moon and Mr Kim at Panmunjom was lauded as catalysing the path towards a peaceful and prosperous peninsula. Peace and prosperity were two key themes featuring in the third inter-Korean summit – the first and second held in 2000 and 2007 respectively &ndash
  
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• Who Were The Autistic People Of History?

  27-04-2018 17:02
  There’s often precious little for the autistic community to celebrate. Rates for anxiety and depression are extremely high, our average age of death is frighteningly early, attitudes and awareness of our neuro-type are usually pretty poor and now we’re being smeared by some with the Nazi brush due to our un-asked for association with Dr Hans Asperger. This latter moment of misery came right smack in the month of April, which is traditionally a rough time for autistic people anyway, a
  
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• World's Fastest Charger For Electric Cars Provides 120-Miles In Eight Minutes

  27-04-2018 16:59
  Swiss company ABB has unveiled what it’s calling the world’s fastest charger for electric cars.The Terra High Power charger can add 200km of range to a car in just eight minutes, finally overcoming one of the biggest headaches that face most electric car owners.While electric cars are being heralded as the future of transportation, they do have one major setback which is that they can take a very long time to charge.Most standard cars can be filled up with fuel in a matter of minutes
  
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• Getting The Tube Can Be A Terrifying Ordeal For Me - But Being Offered A Seat Can Make All The Difference

  27-04-2018 16:48
  Even though all buses, tubes, trains and trams have clearly marked priority seats for anyone who needs them, I wince at the thought of having to use public transport due to my condition. I was born with a rare genetic condition, called Osteogenesis Imperfecta - known as brittle bones. It means I have a short stature of 3″10 and my bones are liable to break without any trauma.A few years ago, I was waiting for a tube and nearly got knocked onto the track by a woman running to the exit
  
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• How To Raise A (Prince) Louis

  27-04-2018 16:47
  Louis. That’s right - silent ’s’. No it doesn’t end with an ‘e’. Yes it’s French. No it’s not ‘Lewis’, that’s spelt like that. Yes I know some people pronounce it that way anyway. They’re American. Also they’re wrong. When we chose this name for our son, nearly four years ago, I thought we were opting for a less common, but fairly straightforward name. I didn’t envisage the almost daily battle for people to
  
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• Shadow Of The Tomb Raider Trailer And Gameplay Screenshots Unveiled

  27-04-2018 16:29
  The first official trailer for Shadow of the Tomb Raider has now gone live along with screenshots from the game itself.If the trailer is anything to go by then Lara Croft is as lethal as ever but this time the Tomb Raider series is taking a very very dark turn.While we still don’t know much about where the game will be set, the game’s developers have revealed that Lara will be tasked with preventing a ‘Mayan apocalypse’.Shadow of the Tomb Raider will be the third game in
  
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• Trump can come. But let him know Britain won’t stand for his bigotry | Owen Jones

  27-04-2018 16:28
  The president’s visit should not be a means to normalise his ugly politics. He must be greeted by mass street protestsThe normalisation of racism, bigotry and misogyny: this has always been one of the principal dangers of Donald Trump. Here is a man who described Mexicans as rapists and criminals and claimed a judge was biased against him because of his “Mexican heritage”. He has bragged of grabbing women’s genitals, faces multiple accusations of harassment and assault, d
  
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• Labour activist expelled after remarks to MP at anti-Semitism event

  27-04-2018 16:22 via bbc.co.uk
  Marc Wadsworth accused Ruth Smeeth at an anti-Semitism event of working with the media to hurt Labour.
  
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• A lesbian with family values: why Tories love Ruth Davidson | Katy Balls

  27-04-2018 16:16
  Even before her pregnancy, the Scottish party leader had caused the most Conservative members to rethink their prejudicesIf a decade ago anyone had told you that the leader of the Scottish Conservatives was the bookies’ favourite to be the next first minister of Scotland, you’d have given them a funny look. If they’d then told you that this same person had announced, to widespread jubilation from the Tory party, that she was having a baby with her lesbian partner through IVF, y
  
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• 'Thick-skinned' Trump will 'definitely' visit London despite protests, says US ambassador - Politics live

  27-04-2018 16:03
  Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happenAfternoon summary 3.02pm BST3.00pm BST This is from the Labour MP Chris Bryant, referring to his private member’s bill. (See 2.47pm.)Really pleased my #ProtectTheProtectors Bill has just passed its final hurdle in the Commons. It goes to the Lords now and with any luck should be on the statute book by this autumn. Continue reading...
  
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• Amber Rudd Told About Home Office Deportation Targets In 2017, According To Leaked Memo

  27-04-2018 16:03
  Amber Rudd’s claim she did not know the Home Office had deportation targets has been undermined by a leaked memo, amid pressure on the home secretary to resign.An internal Home Office document passed to The Guardian on Friday, said the department had “a target of achieving 12,800 enforced returns in 2017-18” and that this target had been exceeded.The June 2017 memo from Hugh Ind, the director of the Immigration Enforcement agency, was sent to Rudd and the then immigration minis
  
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• Chocolate Can Make You Less Stressed, Claims Study

  27-04-2018 15:50
  Research has confirmed what chocolate fans have known for years: the sweet stuff can make us feel happier. Two studies from the Loma Linda University in California found consuming chocolate has positive effects on stress levels, and is also linked to beneficial changes to inflammation, mood, memory and immunity. Sadly for milk choc fans, the findings were only found in dark chocolate products with a minimum of 70% cacao and 30% organic cane sugar. So if you want an excuse to eat m
  
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• Being My Brother's Best Man Was One Of The Proudest Days Of My Life

  27-04-2018 15:49
  Being asked to be best man is a huge privilege. It’s not every day someone close chooses you to play such an important role in a major life event. Naturally when my brother asked me to be his best man, I instantly said yes. And then I panicked... There’s a lot to think about when you’re a best man but we all know the two things you really can’t mess up are the stag do and the speech. In contrast to my older brother, the groom, I would say that I’m the diso
  
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• Barbara Castle role in UK politics and Labour history

  27-04-2018 15:47 via bbc.co.uk
  Speed limits, seats belts and breathalysers were brought in by the non-driving Barbara Castle when she was Labour's transport secretary.
  
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• Juggling Brexit and the Irish border

  27-04-2018 15:43 via ft.com
  Can Theresa May keep the frontier open, quit the customs union and still reach a deal?
  
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• Is Philip Hammond right to be so Tiggerish over the economy? | Larry Elliott

  27-04-2018 15:36
  Weak GDP growth of first quarter could be low point but chancellor faces serious headwindsPhilip Hammond was in an upbeat mood when he held a breakfast at the British embassy in Washington DC during last week’s spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund. The economy had turned a corner, the chancellor insisted, once again comparing his mood to the ever-cheerful Tigger in AA Milne’s Winnie the Pooh stories.Whether Hammond remains quite so Tiggerish in the light of the latest UK
  
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• 'Untold Misery For Passengers': What You Need To Know About The UK's 'Failing' Railway Franchises

  27-04-2018 15:23
  Tens of thousands of trains have been cancelled in the last two years, travellers face daily misery on their commutes to work, and the running of the UK’s rail franchises is plagued by a “catalogue of failures”. This is what a new report from the Government has said about the management of the country’s three most important rail franchises. The report has focused on Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern – services that are used by millions of Briton
  
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• How My Faith Helped Me Get Fit

  27-04-2018 15:14
  Whatever you want to achieve in life, all it takes is a little faith. Faith in yourself, faith in your abilities, and faith that you have the strength to realise your ambitions. Faith is something I’d lost along the way as a 28-stone teenager and practising Muslim, but it helped me lose 80kg, become more confident and outgoing, and even build a career as a personal trainer with Ultimate Performance, where I now help other people with their own body transformation journeys.It was back in my
  
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• Pragmatists can’t defeat austerity. Labour needs radical local councillors | Beth Foster-Ogg

  27-04-2018 15:08
  In Momentum, we are supporting councillors to create inspirational change around the countryPaul Dennett was elected mayor of Salford in May 2016. Dennett, a former councillor whose political hero is the Jewish socialist stalwart and housing crusader Frank Allaun, campaigned for Jeremy Corbyn in both leadership elections, believing a change of direction was not only desirable but necessary for Labour.Overseeing a budget of £200m, Dennett’s administrative philosophy is that free marke
  
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• SATs Are Pointless And Damaging

  27-04-2018 15:04
  Times change. Plastic, once the best thing since sliced bread, now vilified as we hang our heads in shame to see the monster we have created. Smoking was once deemed as having health benefits and drink driving not something to worry about. We thankfully moved on from thinking nothing of smacking a child and as was recently stated by Jill Wood, the brave headteacher who refused to enter her children for SATs, we ‘no longer send children up chimneys’.When we know things need to change,
  
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• 'Big Brother': An Eight-Point Plan Bosses Should Follow To Save It From The Axe

  27-04-2018 15:02
  ‘Big Brother’ was once the most talked-about show on TV, but 18 years on, its future has been left hanging in the balance after a string of poorly executed series and tumbling ratings. One of Channel 5′s top bosses has spoken out to say the show will not be returning “in its current form” after its deal expires later this year, with many fans now questioning whether this is the final death-knell for the former reality juggernaut. If you are to believe what
  
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• 50 Years Of The Abortion Act: Meet The Next Generation Of Family Planning Doctors

  27-04-2018 14:41
  Fifty years ago today the Abortion Act 1967 came into effect, making it possible for women to access safe and legal abortion in Britain on the NHS.Yet half a century later, a shortage of doctors trained in abortion care means women are sometimes face long delays in securing an appointment, when the legal cut-off for an abortion is marked at 24 weeks.The British Pregnancy Advisory Service, BPAS, one of the leading abortion providers in the UK, has said a lack of doctors “who are willin
  
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• A predictable defeat for Spurs, but the Maybot is pitch perfect | John Crace

  27-04-2018 14:37
  Tottenham are a model of FA Cup consistency and the PM proves adept at robotic speechCongratulations to Spurs for extending their record-beating run of losing in the FA Cup semi-final to eight games. Though not for the pain inflicted on me and 30,000 other fans who forked out £80 for the privilege. Still, there has been some progression, if not improvement. In the past, Tottenham teams would usually make a point of underperforming badly right from the start in big cup games, which at least
  
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• From Two Kids To Three: The Year 1 Audit

  27-04-2018 14:22
  As with any big organisational change, it seems fitting for me to do a review of this whole ‘Having three kids instead of the perfectly rational two kids that most other people have’ malarkey. An audit if you like.Being an official report, I have broken it down into easy-to-digest sections for the auditors.Section 1: Emotional wellbeing of the team members.Anyone who has met me for the first time since I’ve had Ellis has been sorely misled as to what kind of person I am. I real
  
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• ‘Suspiria’: ‘Call Me By Your Name’ Director’s Horror Remake Preview Sparks Extreme Reactions

  27-04-2018 14:21
  Luca Guadagnino is best-known for the tear-jerker, coming-of-age film ‘Call Me By Your Name’, but the director is going in a completely different direction with his next project, ‘Suspiria’.He is currently preparing to release a remake of the 1977 horror movie and a handful of industry insiders were shown a surprise clip from the film at a CinemaCon event on Thursday (26 April).None of the attendees knew what was going to be shown, or that Luca and star Dakota Johnso
  
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• 39% Of Ambulance Staff Suffer Post-Traumatic Stress As Sexual And Physical Assaults Rise, New Study Reveals

  27-04-2018 14:13
  Nearly 40% of ambulance staff have suffered post-traumatic stress during service – more than five times as high as soldiers returning from active duty - new figures have revealed.The 999 workers suffered PTSD as a result of sexual and physical assaults and other traumatic experiences while helping the public, according to a survey conducted by the GMB union and shared with HuffPost UK.The study came as the Commons heard the latest stages of a private members’ bill by Labour MP Chris
  
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• 39% Of Ambulance Staff Suffer Post-Traumatic Stress As Assaults By Public Rise, New Study Reveals

  27-04-2018 14:13
  Nearly 40% of ambulance staff have suffered post-traumatic stress during service – more than five times as high as soldiers returning from active duty - new figures have revealed.The 999 workers suffered PTSD as a result of sexual and physical assaults and other traumatic experiences while helping the public, according to a survey conducted by the GMB union and shared with HuffPost UK.The study came as the Commons heard the latest stages of a private members’ bill by Labour MP Chris
  
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• ABBA Reunion: Band Confirms Two Brand New Songs, Their First New Material In 35 Years

  27-04-2018 14:03
  More than 35 years after calling it a day, ABBA have confirmed that they have recorded two brand new songs.All four members of the original group have come back together for the new tracks, the first of which, ‘I Still Have Faith In You’, will be debuted at the end of this year.In a joint statement, band members Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad said: “The decision to go ahead with the exciting ABBA avatar tour project had an unex
  
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• The numbers get harder for May

  27-04-2018 13:56 via ft.com
  More Conservatives who oppose the government’s line on a customs union have emerged
  
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• The voice of the 12-year-old Jacob Rees-Mogg

  27-04-2018 13:55 via bbc.co.uk
  Jacob Rees-Mogg, aged 12, tells the Today Programme of his great ambitions and how he invests stocks and shares.
  
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• Labour Expel Activist Marc Wadsworth Over Anti-Semitism Row

  27-04-2018 13:52
  Labour has expelled the party activist who was accused of anti-Semtism for launching a verbal tirade against Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth.Marc Wadsworth was kicked out of the party on Friday afternoon for his behaviour at the launch of the Chakrabarti report into anti-Semitism nearly two years ago. Welcoming the ruling from Labour’s National Constitutional Committee, Smeeth said she hoped it would be the “first step towards a return to the values of decency and respect throughout&rdquo
  
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• Week in Review: Don't trust anyone who is confident on Brexit

  27-04-2018 13:40
  
  Supporters of leaving the EU are trying to insist that any Brexit effect is in the past, but the argument is increasingly unconvincing.
  
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• Local elections: Batten 'confident' UKIP can retain seats

  27-04-2018 13:37 via bbc.co.uk
  UKIP Leader Gerard Batten says his party faces "difficult" local elections in England but hopes to retain seats.
  
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• UKIP facing 'difficult' local elections - Gerard Batten

  27-04-2018 13:34 via bbc.co.uk
  The party is campaigning for a "complete exit" from the EU but fielding fewer candidates, leader Gerard Batten says.
  
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