Political news

• Arron Banks refuses to appear before Commons committee

  08-06-2018 21:01
  Leave.EU founder and colleague Andy Wigmore claim to be victims of a ‘witch hunt’Arron Banks and his Leave.EU colleague Andy Wigmore risk being summoned to give evidence to MPs after the Brexit-backing duo suddenly said they would not appear before a select committee next week, claiming they were victims of a “witch hunt”.The two men had been due to give evidence at the committee’s inquiry into fake news next Tuesday but the campaigners for British parliamentary sov
  
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• Met police pose as delivery drivers to combat moped crime

  08-06-2018 21:00
  Covert tactic being used in London to tackle surge in offences involving the vehiclesOfficers from the Metropolitan police are being disguised as takeaway delivery drivers as part of operations to catch and disrupt moped-riding criminals in London, the Guardian can reveal.
  The covert tactic forms part of a range of measures deployed by authorities to combat last year’s surge in thefts, robberies and violent crime involving mopeds, when delivery drivers were frequently targeted. More than 2
  
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• Theresa May’s soft approach to facing down a hard Brexit

  08-06-2018 20:11 via ft.com
  Staunch Leavers are losing arguments as their threats prove empty
  
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• Barnier says UK’s Irish border plan raises more questions

  08-06-2018 20:08 via ft.com
  May’s woes increase as EU Brexit chief rebuffs temporary “backstop”
  
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• Daily Mail change of guard puts journalists and politicians on edge

  08-06-2018 20:07 via ft.com
  Geordie Greig has clashed regularly with Paul Dacre
  
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• Theresa May brushes aside Boris Johnson's criticism of her Brexit policy – as it happened

  08-06-2018 19:02
  Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happenWhat Boris Johnson told private Tory dinner What Barnier said about UK’s Brexit backstop planAfternoon summary 5.46pm BST5.19pm BST Some 15% of people think the UK will end up staying in the EU, a YouGov poll suggests.Whether or not you support it, do you think Britain will or will not go ahead with leaving the European Union:
  All Brits: 70% leave, 15% stay
  Leave: 77% leave, 13% stay
  Remain: 69% leave, 18% stay https:
  
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• PM resists calls to sack Boris Johnson over Brexit remarks

  08-06-2018 18:57
  May declares confidence in foreign secretary despite his attack on the TreasuryBoris Johnson has “strong views on Brexit … but so do I”, Theresa May has insisted, after resisting calls for the sacking of the foreign secretary in the wake of an explosive leaked recording.In a private speech to the Conservative Way Forward group, Johnson is heard dismissing the cautious approach of Philip Hammond’s Treasury, which he said had focused on “mumbo jumbo” prediction
  
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• Martin Rowson on Boris Johnson's Brexit 'meltdown' claims – cartoon

  08-06-2018 18:46
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• 'Acerbic and firm': Mary Wilson remembered fondly after death at 102

  08-06-2018 18:38
  Wife of Harold Wilson was much more formidable than her public image suggestedShe hated the limelight, she rarely gave interviews and she remained a fiercely private woman right to the end. But the death of Mary Wilson this week at the age of 102 has triggered a wave of public affection and respect for the former Labour prime minister’s wife that she probably never even guessed existed.The 1960s satirists mocked Mary Wilson as the epitome of middle-class domesticity. But the real woman was
  
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• Keep calm – the Top Guns of Brexit have got our backs | Marina Hyde

  08-06-2018 18:36
  Here’s hoping the EU negotiations can be fixed with a little psychopathic machismo. Because the Tories are awash with itBarely two weeks after Russian phone pranksters taped him being indiscreet, I see Boris Johnson’s been the victim of another leaked recording. Speaking at a private dinner for Conservative Way Forward, the foreign secretary asked his audience not to panic during the coming Brexit “meltdown”, warned we may not get the Brexit we want, and implied the UK ne
  
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• Northern rail woes make case for more UK devolution

  08-06-2018 18:35 via ft.com
  Train chaos shows a government incapable of delivering fair transport infrastructure
  
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• Tangled in Brexit, the Tories are failing their business supporters

  08-06-2018 18:33 via ft.com
  Leaving the EU has tied the party to positions that fail to promote prosperity
  
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• Oxford Street – and its traffic – will make or break Sadiq Khan’s mayoralty | Christian Wolmar

  08-06-2018 18:33
  Westminster council has blocked plans for pedestrianisation. The mayor must fight back to safeguard London’s future
  Westminster city council’s decision to block the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street threatens to undermine Sadiq Khan’s hopes of a legacy that will be remembered for decades. Khan is now facing the biggest test of his mayoralty. If he allows the scheme to fall by the wayside, his tenure will be seen as a failure and London will be left with a shabby, polluted stre
  
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• SNP delegates rebuke ministers with vote for state-run financing

  08-06-2018 18:17
  Party’s spring conference overwhelmingly supports call to replace private schemesScottish National party delegates have voted heavily to replace privately financed schemes with a state-run infrastructure agency, in an implied rebuke to SNP ministers.The party’s spring conference overwhelmingly supported calls for Scottish ministers to set up a publicly funded infrastructure agency after the Guardian disclosed new evidence that firms in offshore tax havens invest heavily in Scottish g
  
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• The Guardian view on Labour and Brexit: too timid, too tactical | Editorial

  08-06-2018 18:14
  Corbyn too often looks as if he has been bounced or coaxed into pro-European positions when he should be leading the argumentIf Labour followed Napoleon’s advice never to interrupt an enemy who is making a mistake, it would never speak of Brexit. It has sometimes felt as if this is the opposition strategy: letting the Conservatives stew in their own calamity, avoiding engagement with the issue except when forced to say something. Events of the past week demonstrate the pattern. Labour
  
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• In full: Theresa May on G7, Russia, Boris and Brexit

  08-06-2018 18:01 via bbc.co.uk
  The BBC's Vicki Young asks the UK PM about Brexit negotiations and recorded comments by Boris Johnson.
  
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• Grenfell inquiry: mayor calls for move to venue nearer tower

  08-06-2018 18:00
  Sadiq Khan raises concerns over survivors’ difficulties in attending hearings in HolbornThe mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has called for the Grenfell inquiry to be moved closer to the homes of the survivors and bereaved, warning that continuing with hearings in the city’s legal district could undermine confidence in the process.The first phase of the inquiry started this week at Holborn Bars, close to the offices of many of the dozens of solicitors and barristers involved. Survivors h
  
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• Boris Johnson calls for more 'guts' in Brexit talks

  08-06-2018 18:00 via bbc.co.uk
  Theresa May says she has "strong views" too after Boris Johnson suggests Donald Trump could do a better job.
  
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• Windrush victims say government response is a 'shambles'

  08-06-2018 17:57
  People tell of relatives still stuck abroad, debt problems and official ‘incompetence’Eight weeks after the government promised to resolve the Windrush scandal, numerous victims of the debacle say the government has broken repeated pledges to fix their problems swiftly.The Guardian has heard accounts from dozens of people affected, who set out a range of serious concerns about the government’s response. Accounts from victims indicate that: Continue reading...
  
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• Covering Brexit from Brussels: 'It's like a high-stakes poker game'

  08-06-2018 17:49
  The Guardian’s Brussels bureau chief explains how the last 18 months have looked from the heart of European politicsBetween the Guardian’s offices in Brussels, two floors above the Old Hack pub on one side of Boulevard Charlemagne and the headquarters of the European commission on the other, stand 28 EU flags, towering over the passing traffic and pedestrians. At the stroke of midnight here, on the evening of 29 March 2019, one of those fluttering flags will be lowered. My view of Je
  
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• Barnier criticises May's UK-wide Brexit backstop plan

  08-06-2018 17:48
  EU negotiator warns Britain checks will be needed on goods travelling across Irish SeaMichel Barnier has warned that Theresa May’s backstop solution to avoid a border on the island of Ireland raises “more questions than answers” as he ruled out the whole of the UK staying in the customs union and key parts of the single market after Brexit.“Backstop means backstop,” the EU’s chief negotiator told a press conference in Brussels, as he insisted the UK needed to
  
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• Proof that excellent bus services are still possible | Letters

  08-06-2018 17:36
  Letters from Alan Bond of west Somerset and Angus Skinner of EdinburghJo Hillier’s letter (8 June) regarding bus services could apply to most of Britain these days. Those of us who were working in the bus industry before, through and beyond the 1980s, warned of the perils of deregulation and privatisation and were ignored by the Thatcher government. Everything we warned about has come to pass, due to the failings of both the Tories and the Blair government as they took no action to ad
  
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• Ministers try to water down changes to 'meaningful' Brexit vote

  08-06-2018 17:24 via bbc.co.uk
  Ministers reject a bid to give MPs a more decisive say over Brexit ahead of an expected Commons battle.
  
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• Barnier warns UK on ‘backstop’ plan

  08-06-2018 17:15 via ft.com
  EU’s Brexit negotiator says proposal ‘raises more questions than answers’
  
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• Brexit: Michel Barnier questions Theresa May's 'backstop plan'

  08-06-2018 17:13 via bbc.co.uk
  EU Brexit negotiator casts doubt on the UK's latest proposals to avoid a hard Irish border.
  
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• Andrew Neil analyses PMQs with Mel Stride and Andy McDonald

  08-06-2018 16:48 via bbc.co.uk
  Andrew Neil has highlights and analysis of PMQs with Mel Stride and Andy McDonald.
  
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• What's happened since 2017 UK general election

  08-06-2018 16:43 via bbc.co.uk
  Archive footage and updated statistics looking back at 2017 general election.
  
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• Brexit backstop furore: what's going on and can the PM stay in control?

  08-06-2018 16:28
  The EU is waiting, while in Westminster every policy wrangle becomes a new front in an internal Tory culture warAfter the week she’s had, Theresa May could be forgiven for finding discussions at this weekend’s G7 summit in Québec – which could take in disarming North Korea, preventing a catastrophic trade war between the world’s economic superpowers;, and taming Iran’s nuclear ambitions – reassuringly straightforward.The past few days in Westminster hav
  
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• Mindfulness by itself won’t cure loneliness – ending austerity is key | Moya Sarner

  08-06-2018 15:50
  The government has a minister to fight this modern-day epidemic, but still decimates services for those at riskAre we living through an epidemic of loneliness? Well, it depends who you ask. One Red Cross study found that more than 9 million people in the UK – almost a fifth of the adult population – are often or always lonely, and in January Tracey Crouch was appointed the so-called “minister for loneliness” to tackle the problem.But the experts can’t decide if thin
  
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• With Paul Dacre gone, will the Daily Mail change its tune on Brexit? | Hugo Dixon

  08-06-2018 15:43
  The arch-Brexiter’s retirement could spell the end of the paper’s anti-Europe bile – if new editor Geordie Greig holds to his principlesWill a lame-duck editor be able to bully people over Brexit as much as he could in his heyday? That’s one of the key questions raised by Paul Dacre’s upcoming retirement as editor of the Daily Mail. The other is whether an editor shapes readers’ views or merely reflects them. We’ll soon have a real-life experiment when t
  
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• NHS staff vote for 6.5% pay deal

  08-06-2018 15:37 via bbc.co.uk
  More than one million NHS staff in England will receive the three-year pay deal backdated from April.
  
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• Scottish judge rejects attempt to get ruling on UK stopping Brexit

  08-06-2018 15:15
  Lord Boyd dismisses question of whether article 50 can be revoked as ‘academic’A Scottish judge has rejected an attempt by a cross-party group of parliamentarians to get the European court of justice (ECJ) to rule on whether the UK can unilaterally cancel Brexit.Lord Boyd, sitting in the court of session, said the question of whether article 50 could be unilaterally revoked was “hypothetical and academic”, and criticised the applicants for taking their action.Continue rea
  
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• 'Is Boris Johnson unsackable?': your best comments today

  08-06-2018 15:15
  The foreign secretary’s leaked comments on Brexit provided the day’s main talking pointWhat Boris Johnson told private Tory dinner We’re highlighting some of the most interesting comments beneath articles around the site today. Boris Johnson’s comments got people talking this morning, and you were divided in sharing your reaction to Heathrow’s new runway, announced earlier in the week.
  To join in the conversation you can click on the links in the comments below to e
  
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• Brexit: Best for Britain launches campaign for another referendum

  08-06-2018 15:03 via bbc.co.uk
  Best for Britain chief Lord Malloch-Brown says "it's time for the truth" about Brexit.
  
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• Irish unity poll a 'bad idea', warns Varadkar

  08-06-2018 14:48 via bbc.co.uk
  Leo Varadkar says a border poll would be divisive, while a former NI first minister warns of chaos.
  
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• Boris Johnson rages in a bad week for Brexiters

  08-06-2018 14:25 via ft.com
  The louder foreign secretary complains, the more certain he’s losing Whitehall battle
  
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• NHS staff to receive 6.5% pay rise under deal agreed with unions

  08-06-2018 14:23 via ft.com
  Unison and Royal College of Nursing accept government offer, while GMB rejects it
  
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• Clare Short is wrong. No wonder sexual abuse is rife in the aid sector | Shaista Aziz

  08-06-2018 13:53
  Months after Oxfam whistleblowers went public, nothing has changed. And the plight of women of colour is still hidden• Oxfam sexual abuse scandal fallout was ‘out of proportion’, says Clare ShortAllegations of sexual abuse against Oxfam are “completely distorted and out of all proportion”. That was the verdict of Clare Short, the former international development secretary, this week when she appeared before the parliamentary committee investigating abuse scandals in
  
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• Best for Britain recruits MPs to back second Brexit referendum

  08-06-2018 13:40
  Around 40 MPs appear willing to sign up to remain campaign group’s proposed amendment Best for Britain has lined up a group of MPs to put down an amendment in parliament this autumn calling for a second referendum on the country’s membership of the EU once Theresa May has obtained a final exit deal.The pro-remain campaign group, which has raised £2.3m and is partly backed by George Soros, unveiled a timetable at the launch of its manifesto, designed to avoid the risk that &ldqu
  
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• Britain’s brittle strengths

  08-06-2018 13:36 via ft.com
  Even the best post-Brexit opportunities risk being undermined
  
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• Other countries tackle claims of arms trade corruption. Why not the UK? | Paul Holden

  08-06-2018 13:12
  Italy and India acted over allegations involving Anglo-Italian AgustaWestland. But the Fraud Office seems reluctant to investigateA former UK defence secretary accused of directing the illegal lobbying of another former minister in a foreign country. Another British citizen in another country defending allegations that he acted as a conduit for bribes to win a contract the company should never have won. And apparently no formal UK investigation. Such is the way in the controversial world of UK a
  
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• I’ll say this for the Brexiteers – they’ve made radical rhetoric respectable | Owen Jones

  08-06-2018 13:04
  The Tory ploy of stirring up fear of leftist hotheads won’t work now that it’s the Brexit ultras who use the fieriest language
  The revolution is being betrayed! That is the battle cry of the Tory Brexiteer ultras: that a dastardly counter-revolutionary assault on their sacred project is under way. Yesterday’s latest non-resignation by the Brexit secretary David Davis – having secured a time-limited backstop that the EU will never accept and that has no actual time limit &
  
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• Week in Review: Was this the week Brexit fell apart?

  08-06-2018 12:44
  
  A week in which a series of body blows left Brexit reeling.
  
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• SNP conference: Keith Brown elected deputy leader

  08-06-2018 12:01 via bbc.co.uk
  Mr Brown, the Scottish government's economy secretary, succeeds former MP Angus Robertson in the role.
  
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• Sturgeon issues 'uncharted territory' warning over Brexit bill

  08-06-2018 11:27 via bbc.co.uk
  Nicola Sturgeon says pushing through the Brexit bill without Holyrood consent would be a "seriously retrograde step".
  
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• Sadiq Khan plans to extend London's ultra-low emission zone

  08-06-2018 11:00
  Scheme will cover North and South Circular roads, as well as capital’s centre, in 2021Sadiq Khan has unveiled details of his plan to introduce an “ultra-low emission zone” covering a huge swath of London in the next few years.The scheme, which will see the most polluting vehicles charged for entering the centre of the capital from April next year, will be extended to the North Circular and South Circular roads in 2021. Continue reading...
  
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• Theresa May to urge measured response to Trump tariffs

  08-06-2018 07:00 via ft.com
  UK prime minister will warn EU allies against reprisals that could damage global trade
  
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• Theresa May seeks to finalise main Brexit bills by summer

  08-06-2018 07:00 via ft.com
  Hectic weeks of debate at hand as PM chooses to force decisions before recess
  
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• Public sector pension funds put millions in tax haven-linked PFIs

  08-06-2018 07:00
  Report traces nearly 30% of investments in Scottish schemes to offshore firmsPublic sector pension funds have invested hundreds of millions of pounds in Scottish private finance schemes linked to offshore tax havens, a new report has found.
  The pension funds, which act for tens of thousands of retired council workers, bus drivers and Environment Agency officials and scientists, have invested money in dozens of privately financed projects in Scotland to build new schools, hospitals and colleges a
  
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• May refuses to give 'cast iron guarantee' over customs backstop

  08-06-2018 06:00
  PM says end date for plans to prevent hard border in Ireland is ‘temporary’Theresa May has refused to give a “cast iron guarantee” that her backstop plan to prevent a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland would only be temporary.Speaking to reporters as she flew to Canada for the G7 heads of government meeting, May insisted that the inclusion of a fixed end date for the arrangement – which in an alleged stand off nearly cost her her Brexit secr
  
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