Political news

• MI5 chief issues public warning to Russia in wake of Skripal attack

  13-05-2018 23:30 via ft.com
  UK spy chief accuses Moscow of ‘pernicious actions’ amid ‘fog of lies’
  
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• Oslo thaws on UK joining EEA after Brexit

  13-05-2018 22:00 via ft.com
  PM Solberg says London should reconsider Norwegian model despite its ‘political deficit’
  
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• Politicians pay tribute to Tessa Jowell after death from cancer

  13-05-2018 19:53
  Former Labour cabinet minister praised for Sure Start, London Olympics and campaigning for cancer researchThe dignity and courage of Tessa Jowell was praised by politicians across the spectrum on Sunday, after her family revealed she had died of brain cancer.Continue reading...
  
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• Tessa Jowell, New Labour politician and campaigner, 1947-2018

  13-05-2018 19:37 via ft.com
  Moderniser served on front bench for 18 years, championing Olympics and Sure Start
  
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• Dame Tessa Jowell was 'brave' and 'inspirational'

  13-05-2018 19:08 via bbc.co.uk
  Fellow politicians, sports stars and health campaigners pay tribute to her "bravery" and "decency", after her death aged 70.
  
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• The forgotten suffragette jailed for blowing up a post box

  13-05-2018 18:57
  The eventful life of Lady Rhondda, who fought to allow women in the House of Lords, is celebrated in a new musicalThe largely forgotten story of a Welsh suffragette who was jailed for blowing up a post box, survived a shipwreck, and played a key role in the fight to allow women into the House of Lords is being celebrated in a series of music events and talks. Despite a life full of adventure as well as political activism, Margaret Haig Thomas – Lady Rhondda – is not even a well-known
  
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• Tessa Jowell did exceptional work for those who’d lost loved ones | Letters

  13-05-2018 18:56
  She took on the role of humanitarian minister in addition to her role as secretary of state for culture, media and sport and was there in 2005 after the 7 July London bombings, writes Gerald OppenheimTributes have rightly been paid to Tessa Jowell’s courage and inspiration to others during her last illness after the diagnosis in 2017 that she had the most aggressive form of brain cancer (Tessa Jowell dies aged 70, 13 May). Much has also been said about her career as an MP and minister, as
  
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• A simple solution to the MoD’s budget shortfall | Letters

  13-05-2018 18:56
  Harriet Lamb writes in favour of peacebuilding as a saver of money and livesYour report (11 May) about the MoD’s £21bn budget shortfall is yet another reminder that the UK desperately needs “lower cost” complimentary efforts that reduce security threats in the long term. With global conflict at its highest level in 30 years, the UK should invest in sustainable solutions to resolving conflict, that go beyond putting a lid on the problem as our adventures in Iraq and Libya
  
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• Gove casts doubt on merits of customs partnership proposal

  13-05-2018 18:45
  Criticism of May’s preferred model brings cabinet customs union breakthrough into questionMichael Gove has cast fresh doubt on the possibility of a breakthrough in the cabinet customs deadlock, saying there were “significant question marks” about proposals for a customs partnership.The environment secretary expressed scepticism about the merits of Theresa May’s preferred customs partnership model, saying the proposal had flaws and needed to be tested. Continue reading...
  
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• The Guardian view on Brexit and parliament: another way is possible | Editorial

  13-05-2018 18:03
  A majority of MPs would help Theresa May sideline the wreckers in her party if she dared to make alliances across the floorUnder normal circumstances, a government with vital laws to pass in a short space of time would get a move on. But not much about Brexit is normal. The clock is ticking, yet the bill to enable an orderly withdrawal next March is marooned.Peers voted for amendments to soften the character of Brexit. Uncertain of how this will play out in the lower chamber, the
  
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• Campaigners call for UK to act on rights as Turkish president arrives

  13-05-2018 17:59
  Theresa May accused of ignoring ‘alarming oppression’ in order to win post-Brexit trade deal with ErdoğanTurkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, began a three-day state visit to the UK on Sunday amid claims that Theresa May was disowning Britain’s respect for human rights in pursuit of a post-Brexit trade deal with Ankara.On his arrival in the UK, Erdoğan, who is in the midst of a high-stakes domestic election campaign, insisted that Anglo-Turkish relatio
  
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• Theresa May’s Brexit options attacked by Conservative factions

  13-05-2018 17:52 via ft.com
  Rival wings of the party criticise prime minister’s customs plans
  
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• Conservative party factions attack Theresa May’s Brexit options

  13-05-2018 17:52 via ft.com
  Rival wings of the party criticise prime minister’s customs plans
  
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• Our ‘hostile environment’ towards migrants only exists with public consent | Nesrine Malik

  13-05-2018 17:34
  An uncomfortable truth is that British voters support the Home Office’s policy – only a battle over hearts and minds can end itThe Windrush storm is passing but in its wake we aren’t seeing a nation bridging the vast discrepancy between propaganda and the reality of its immigration policy. The waves of anger still lap at Theresa May’s feet, but this rage is oddly disembodied, with the hostile environment still as popular as ever. Windrush was never going to reverberate en
  
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• Give dormant charity’s £475m funds to good causes, urges Labour

  13-05-2018 17:27
  Shadow charities minister calls for closure of National Fund, which has paid nothing out since being set up in 1928A charity that is sitting on £475m but has not paid out a penny since being set up in 1928 to pay off Britain’s national debt should be closed and the money distributed to good causes, says Labour.The National Fund was set up when an anonymous donor supplied £500,000 – a decade after Stanley Baldwin appealed to citizens to help pay the country’s war deb
  
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• Tessa Jowell: my friend who never forgot the ‘human-sized picture’ | Matthew d'Ancona

  13-05-2018 17:10
  She declared war on cancer; we must take her death as an injunction to action She was my friend. It was one of the great privileges of my life to know Tessa Jowell well, and one I shared with so many. At the dinner table, at the tea party to celebrate her introduction to the House of Lords, at book launches, at Labour conferences, she was always surrounded by friends, making new ones, and bringing together previously unconnected members of her prodigious circle of affection and affinity.When Has
  
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• UK plan to extend civil partnerships revealed in government report

  13-05-2018 16:41
  Now-abandoned policy proposal emerges as heterosexual couple take legal fight to supreme court
  A confidential report drawn up for the former equalities minister Justine Greening proposed extending civil partnerships to opposite-sex couples and building “a consensus for legislation”, according to internal policy documents seen by the Guardian.The briefing has emerged ahead of a legal battle at the supreme court on Monday where a London couple, Charles Keidan and Rebecca Steinfeld, wil
  
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• Chakrabarti: Ken Livingstone should no longer be in Labour party

  13-05-2018 16:28
  Shadow attorney general says there are no circumstances under which disciplinary panel could not expel ex-mayor of LondonShami Chakrabarti has hinted she may quit the Labour frontbench if Ken Livingstone is not expelled from the party at his next disciplinary hearing.
  The shadow attorney general, who authored a report on dealing with antisemitism and racism in the party, said she did not believe there were circumstances where the party’s disciplinary panel could decide not to expel Livings
  
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• 'Class A drugs' found at Home Office headquarters

  13-05-2018 15:47 via bbc.co.uk
  Police seized the "small quantity" of drugs at the building in central London on 3 May.
  
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• The 'people politician': Tessa Jowell obituary

  13-05-2018 15:40
  Former Labour cabinet minister, described as ‘the ultimate sensible loyalist’ by Tony Blair, was not afraid to speak her mindUntil the revelation of her brain tumour last September, Tessa Jowell, Lady Jowell, the former secretary of state for culture, media and sport, who has died aged 70, was best known outside Westminster as the minister for the Olympics in the run-up to the hugely successful London games in 2012. It was directly as a result of her enthusiasm and personal pressure
  
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• Tessa Jowell: London 2012 and much more

  13-05-2018 15:13 via bbc.co.uk
  A look back at the life of former Labour cabinet minister Dame Tessa Jowell, who has died, aged 70.
  
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• 'Passion, determination and simple human decency': tributes pour in for Tessa Jowell

  13-05-2018 15:00
  Tony Blair and Theresa May lead tributes from politicians and public figures to Tessa Jowell, who died on Saturday
  • The ‘people politician’: Tessa Jowell obituaryTheresa May and Tony Blair have led the tributes to Tessa Jowell and her achievements – ranging from her time in government through to her work to raise awareness of cancer after she was diagnosed last year with a brain tumour.The former Labour MP and cabinet minister, who died on Saturday night, was described by
  
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• Ken Livingstone 'cannot stay in Labour', says Chakrabarti

  13-05-2018 14:54 via bbc.co.uk
  The ex-London mayor has "brought shame" on the party over Jewish remarks, Baroness Chakrabarti says.
  
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• Gove expresses doubts about Brexit customs plan

  13-05-2018 13:21 via bbc.co.uk
  Michael Gove is asked whether he agrees with Boris Johnson that a customs partnership with the EU after Brexit, thought to be favoured by Theresa May, is crazy.
  
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• Dame Tessa Jowell 'convinced me to make Olympic bid'

  13-05-2018 13:12 via bbc.co.uk
  Ex-PM Tony Blair says Dame Tessa persuaded him during a discussion in the garden at Number 10.
  
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• Brexit: Gove doubts whether No 10 customs plan is 'deliverable'

  13-05-2018 12:56 via bbc.co.uk
  Michael Gove doubts whether trade solution thought to be favoured by Theresa May is "deliverable".
  
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• UK smart energy meter rollout hit by rising costs and delays

  13-05-2018 12:47 via ft.com
  Fears grow that £11bn scheme will fail to meet 2020 deadline
  
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• UN education initiative is chance to show multilateralism is not dead | Larry Elliott

  13-05-2018 11:51
  It would be unwise to assume Trump’s US regime will back idea but other rich countries shouldAll things considered, the United Nations could have chosen a better week to launch an initiative designed to raise $10bn to invest in global education. That this is not exactly a golden age for multilateralism was underlined last week when Donald Trump decided that the US was going to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal despite strong lobbying from Germany, France and the UK. Trump has his own way o
  
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• Tessa was an 'incredible human being'

  13-05-2018 11:11 via bbc.co.uk
  Former Labour director of communications Alastair Campbell pays tribute to Dame Tessa Jowell.
  
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• The full plans for the porn president’s UK visit – revealed! | Stewart Lee

  13-05-2018 11:00
  Having stripped the world of its last decency, Donald Trump will visit the UK in July. A trip to Soho seems in order…Desperate for American co-operation with post-Brexit trade, Britain is hamstrung in her reaction to Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. A man in Southend-on-Sea, who just wanted bendy bananas, eats takeaway butterfly wings, and a nuclear missile hits Tel Aviv.In July, Guardian and Observer readers, their furious tofu-smeared faces red with righteous
  
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• Tessa Jowell – a life in pictures

  13-05-2018 10:58
  The former Labour cabinet minister Tessa Jowell has died following brain cancer aged 70. Jowell was one of only a handful of MPs to have served as a minister during the whole of Tony Blair’s and Gordon Brown’s premierships and helped secure the UK’s successful bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games Continue reading...
  
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• Labour’s Tessa Jowell dies at 70 after losing cancer fight

  13-05-2018 10:36 via ft.com
  Former cabinet minister helped to bring the Olympics Games to London in 2012
  
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• Labour’s Tessa Jowell dies at 70 after cancer fight

  13-05-2018 10:36 via ft.com
  Former cabinet minister helped to bring the Olympics Games to London in 2012
  
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• Tessa Jowell

  13-05-2018 09:17 via bbc.co.uk
  Former Labour minister Dame Tessa Jowell has died a year after being diagnosed with brain cancer.
  
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• This zombie grammar school policy will only harm crisis-hit schools

  13-05-2018 08:59
  Damian Hinds’s plan to give £50m to expand the selective system smacksof Tory desperationIt’s a mystery. In what are undeniably challenging times for schools, education secretary Damian Hinds last week had headteachers eating out of his hand with a major speech addressing concerns about school inspections, funding and workload.Barely seven days later, any political capital gained was squandered at a stroke with the news that, at a time of near-bankruptcy for some schools, &poun
  
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• The incontinent fury of the Brexiters who rage against everything British | Andrew Rawnsley

  13-05-2018 07:00
  Their denunciation of the Lords is not just hypocritical, it is syntheticThe hard Brexiters have a peculiar way of expressing their patriotism. They proclaim an unsurpassed love for Britain while trashing its institutions with an unbridled hatred. The supreme court, the Bank of England and the civil service have all felt the white heat of the hard Brexiters’ incontinent rage. The BBC is another of their “enemies of the people”, as are any parliamentary colleagues who have the t
  
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• In the Belhaj case, Britain set aside the rule of law and moral principles | Will Hutton

  13-05-2018 07:00
  Abdel Hakim Belhaj got his apology, but we still lost the moral high groundIt was one of the most shaming, self-abasing apologies ever made in the House of Commons, indeed arguably in any western legislature. On Thursday, the attorney general read the prime minister’s statement saying sorry for Britain’s complicity in the abduction of a free man to live through six years of imprisonment and torture at the hands of a dictator, through which we hoped to gain information. His crime? He
  
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• Disaster for Britain's entry in Eurovision – cartoon

  13-05-2018 07:00
  How the song contest all went pear-shaped for the Hammond, May, Johnson trio Continue reading...
  
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• Our new working class needs help with new struggles | Kenan Malik

  13-05-2018 06:59
  More insecure and less organised than ever, its members need supportWhat is it to be working class? The conventional image is of the industrial worker, usually male and white. But, as Claire Ainsley, executive director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, shows in her book The New Working Class, such traditional workers make up less than a third of the actual working class. Four out of 10 workers are in the service industry, while 30% form the “precariat” – lacking job security a
  
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• UK gender pay gap research heightens concern on corporate laggards

  13-05-2018 06:00 via ft.com
  Companies reporting late on wage disparities were more likely to give inaccurate data
  
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• Theresa May insists she can be trusted to deliver Brexit despite cabinet disarray

  13-05-2018 02:20
  Prime minister promises future funding boost to NHS as ministers argue over trade policy
  Theresa May has moved to try to ease cabinet tensions by insisting she can be “trusted” to deliver Brexit.Related: Boris Johnson’s ‘crazy’ remark is seismic: the cabinet Brexit split is out in the open | Steve RichardsContinue reading...
  
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• EU rough sleepers win damages for illegal deportations

  13-05-2018 02:15 via bbc.co.uk
  The UK government is to pay compensation after trying to deport EU nationals sleeping rough.
  
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