Political news

• Gavin Williamson interrupted by Siri during Commons statement

  03-07-2018 23:26 via bbc.co.uk
  Gavin Williamson apologises saying "it is very rare that you're heckled by your own mobile phone".
  
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• Home Office admits forcing immigrants to take DNA tests

  03-07-2018 22:30 via ft.com
  Caroline Nokes, immigration minister, denied the practice last month
  
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• Sadiq Khan hits out at ‘hard Brexit’ zealots

  03-07-2018 21:13 via ft.com
  London mayor says May being held hostage by handful of rightwingers
  
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• 'Gay conversion therapy' to be banned as part of LGBT equality plan

  03-07-2018 20:36 via bbc.co.uk
  The move is part of a £4.5m action plan to make society more inclusive for the LGBT community.
  
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• Steve Bell on the Tories and the UK's post-Brexit future – cartoon

  03-07-2018 20:00
  Continue reading...
  
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• NHS future: Why genome mapping could be good news

  03-07-2018 19:54 via bbc.co.uk
  Why genome mapping could make the case for saving the NHS.
  
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• Sheffield Hallam MP Jared O'Mara reinstated by Labour

  03-07-2018 19:16 via bbc.co.uk
  Jared O'Mara was suspended in October over abusive comments made on social media.
  
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• Corbyn says class still matters in politics

  03-07-2018 19:14 via bbc.co.uk
  Jeremy Corbyn says Labour will give a "real voice" to working-class communities neglected for years.
  
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• Theresa May pleads with EU leaders not to reject new customs plan

  03-07-2018 19:10 via ft.com
  PM fears backlash from Brexit hardliners if Brussels dismisses white paper
  
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• The UK must address its own human rights abuses

  03-07-2018 19:00 via ft.com
  A full inquiry should be held into cases of rendition and mistreatment
  
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• Westminster 'paedophile ring' accuser charged

  03-07-2018 17:46 via bbc.co.uk
  The man had claimed he was abused and tortured by senior politicians and members of the armed forces.
  
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• Unite says it is 'open to possibility' of 2nd Brexit referendum and Labour 'highly unlikely' to back May's deal – Politics live

  03-07-2018 17:25
  Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happenLunchtime summary 4.24pm BST At its policy conference in Brighton the Unite union, Labour most important financial backer, has just approved an executive statement on Brexit. It is potentially very significant.Here is the key extract.From manufacturing to finance, services and transport, a cliff-edge Brexit would jeopardise the livelihood of millions of working people and must be avoided at all costs. Unite has lobbied for
  
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• Gavin Williamson 'heckled' by Siri during Commons speech – video

  03-07-2018 17:21
  Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary, was heckled during his speech in the Commons – not by a member of the house but by his mobile phone. He was discussing matters about Isis when the voice assistant Siri started speaking to him Continue reading...
  
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• Call for transparency on MPs' second jobs

  03-07-2018 17:12 via bbc.co.uk
  The chairman of Parliament's ethics committee says an MP's "fundamental job is to actually be an MP".
  
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• Unite endorses ‘possibility’ of ‘popular vote’ on Brexit deal

  03-07-2018 16:43 via ft.com
  Shift at Britain’s biggest union will put pressure on Corbyn
  
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• Unite will aim to force election over Brexit deal

  03-07-2018 16:40 via bbc.co.uk
  The giant union also says it is "open" to a new referendum "depending on political circumstances".
  
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• Raising fuel duty would be ‘absolute madness’, says Tory MP

  03-07-2018 16:37 via ft.com
  Backbencher calls for cuts in overseas aid to fund government’s spending plans
  
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• Hopes of raising UK fuel duty run into opposition

  03-07-2018 16:37 via ft.com
  Campaigning Conservative backbencher says increasing the tax would be ‘madness’
  
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• UK immigration authorities separating children from parents

  03-07-2018 16:20
  Scores of children – and possibly hundreds – are separated from a parent or carer in the UK every year The British government is separating children from parents who have been taken into immigration detention – the practice that brought worldwide condemnation for the Trump administration.
  Scores of children – and possibly hundreds – are separated from a parent or carer in the UK every year, according to a charity that challenges immigration detention. Continue readi
  
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• Scotland records highest level of drugs deaths in Europe

  03-07-2018 16:17
  Ministers urged to up funding for addicts as figures reveal significant rise in overdosesScottish ministers have been urged to heavily increase funding for drugs addicts after Scotland recorded the highest level of drugs deaths in Europe last year.
  The latest figures showed a record number of 934 people died in Scotland as a direct result of drug overdoses, more than double the number a decade ago and two and a half times the rate UK-wide. Continue reading...
  
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• Hammond will tell cabinet on Friday cost of Brexit options – Politics live

  03-07-2018 15:53
  Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happenLunchtime summary 2.53pm BST Back at the European scrutiny committee, Crawford Falconer, the government’s chief trade negotiation adviser, says there is case for saying the UK can do more in terms of promoting exports even while it is in the EU. 2.51pm BST Labour will reinstate suspended MP Jared O’Mara after its ruling body was advised to issue him with a formal warning rather than refer him for expulsion, my c
  
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• Labour reinstates suspended MP Jared O'Mara

  03-07-2018 15:52
  Party’s ruling body gives MP formal warning rather than refer him for expulsionLabour will reinstate suspended MP Jared O’Mara after its ruling body was advised to issue him with a formal warning rather than refer him for expulsion, the Guardian understands.O’Mara, who has been suspended since 2017 for abusive comments made on social media, had his case considered by Labour’s national executive committee after waiting more than nine months for a decision, according to sou
  
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• UK to cover Trump Scottish visit bill

  03-07-2018 15:42 via bbc.co.uk
  The UK government confirms it will pay for up to £5m of policing costs if Donald Trump visits Scotland.
  
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• Brexit: Don't push PM too far, Tory MPs warned

  03-07-2018 15:12 via bbc.co.uk
  Accept a compromise customs plan or risk having a "watered-down" Brexit, Lord Hague warns MPs.
  
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• Theresa May, here’s my solution to the Brexit customs conundrum | Henry Newman

  03-07-2018 14:51
  The government should follow Open Europe’s compromise approach, where the UK aligns with EU goods regulationsAs the UK exits the EU, it will leave the EU’s customs union. Yet with just months remaining of the article 50 deadline, the government still doesn’t have a clear customs policy. It has not endorsed either of Whitehall’s two existing options, which the EU has pre-emptively dismissed. Theresa May needs to break the impasse at her Chequers Brexit cabinet meeting.Mean
  
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• Labour party activists are turning against Brexit

  03-07-2018 14:35 via ft.com
  Corbyn needs to keep an eye on shifting opinion among grassroots members
  
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• Fuel price rises will hurt the worst-off – just like other broken Tory promises | Gaby Hinsliff

  03-07-2018 14:06
  From the fuel duty freeze to the final Brexit deal, Tory commitments are struggling to survive contact with realityIt’s been one of the most successful lobbying campaigns in modern political history, successfully diverting billions from the Treasury with barely a squeak. But almost eight years on, it seems the campaign to freeze fuel duty has finally run out of road. The chancellor is now considering risking the combined wrath of white-van man, the Sun, and half his backbenchers by pushing
  
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• Fortnite video game: Ed Vaizey demonstrates floss dance move

  03-07-2018 13:59 via bbc.co.uk
  Conservative MP Ed Vaizey steals the limelight to give his version of the floss, a dance move in the video game Fortnite.
  
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• MPs 'being advised to quit Twitter' to avoid online abuse

  03-07-2018 13:53 via bbc.co.uk
  One MP says leaving the site was the "best thing has ever done" and had not harmed his work.
  
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• If this England team represents anyone, it’s the 48%: the remainers | Steve Bloomfield

  03-07-2018 13:20
  Some people in Britain seem to have forgotten – these young players are the sort of people they don’t usually like very muchEngland lost the Brexit derby to Belgium last week. Nigel Farage and Jean-Claude Juncker exchanged barbs, while the Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, surprised Theresa May with a Belgium shirt before a summit of EU leaders in Brussels. Meanwhile in Russia, fans were warned that if they sang songs celebrating Brexit the English FA could be fined. The result
  
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• Business running out of patience on Brexit, warn City organisations

  03-07-2018 12:41
  BCC tells government to stop ‘squabbling’ as PBSC says it needs assurances on travelBritish businesses have issued Theresa May with a list of Brexit demands after warning firms are losing patience over the lack of progress in talks with the EU. A group of Britain’s leading professional and business services firms has written to the prime minister with a list of requirements they say are essential to preserve the £188bn industry with its 4.6m jobs and “keep the wheel
  
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• The simple way to fix the gender gap

  03-07-2018 11:29
  
  Not all ways to fix the gender gap are complex - here is an easy option
  
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• Children's minister Nadhim Zahawi on nursery funding

  03-07-2018 11:27 via bbc.co.uk
  Nurseries could lose almost £60m a year of funding from 2020.
  
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• EU should grant UK free movement of goods

  03-07-2018 11:15 via ft.com
  If Britain asks in earnest, ‘Jersey model’ is the best available compromise
  
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• Demeaning gender recognition process urgently needs reform

  03-07-2018 11:13
  
  Gender Recognition Act was groundbreaking in 2004, but it urges imminent reform
  
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• Even on its 70th birthday, social care remains a Cinderella service | Anita Charlesworth

  03-07-2018 10:59
  For the sake of our ageing population, resolving the thorny issue of how to pay for this vital public service is essential
  On 5 July, 70 years of the NHS will be celebrated across the country with tea parties, live music, exhibitions and a host of other events. But on that day, what will the million-plus social care workforce be doing?This year is also the 70th anniversary of the social care system – but there will be no TV documentaries, prime ministerial funding announcement or national
  
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• UK to ban discredited 'gay cure' therapies under LGBT action plan

  03-07-2018 10:37
  Theresa May promises ‘real and lasting change’ following huge nationwide surveyThe government will appoint a national LGBT health adviser and take measures to end so-called conversion therapy as part of a plan to deliver what Theresa May has promised will be “real and lasting change”.The proposals form part of an action plan published by the Equalities Office on Tuesday. It follows a UK-wide survey of LGBT people that had more than 108,000 responses, billed as the largest
  
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• City properties should be homes for people first – not investments | Sadiq Khan and Ada Colau

  03-07-2018 10:00
  As the mayors of London and Barcelona, we see an emergency coming. The way housing works must be changedFor a number of years, cities around the world have been facing increasingly global and aggressive speculation in their property markets – from speculators who see housing in our cities as an asset from which to profit, rather than homes for the people we represent.In many cases, speculators take decisions from thousands of miles away. Yet for us their impact on the life and soul of our
  
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• Getting the Miliband back together: Ed to return as Radio 2 host

  03-07-2018 08:00
  Former Labour leader will once again be stand-in presenter of the Jeremy Vine showEd Miliband is to return as a stand-in host of BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show, as part of his continued push into the world of broadcasting.The former Labour leader also hosts a successful podcast called Reasons to be Cheerful with the former Absolute Radio presenter Geoff Lloyd. Continue reading...
  
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• Balancing act May must perform to create a clear Brexit plan

  03-07-2018 08:00
  Prime minister has the near impossible task of dealing with her cabinet’s divided opinionTheresa May hopes to emerge from Chequers on Friday evening with her cabinet intact and a clear Brexit plan, but she faces an all but impossible balancing act. Here are some of the forces she must weigh: Continue reading...
  
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• Tory MPs warn ministers over nursery funding

  03-07-2018 07:21 via bbc.co.uk
  There is a warning that state-run nurseries which cater for children with special needs could close.
  
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• May’s problem: Brexit and Trumpism have become monstrous twins | Rafael Behr

  03-07-2018 07:00
  Her EU negotiations are hampered by the Brexiteers around her who laud a White House set on wrecking EuropeSo quickly has the unthinkable become unremarkable. US presidents never used to conspire to undermine European security. Nowadays it is normal. We learned last week that, when Emmanuel Macron was a guest in the White House in April, Donald Trump suggested France leave the European Union. And it hardly makes the top 20 Trumpian outrages of the year so far.It isn’t news that Trump despi
  
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• Services groups put Brexit case for £188bn sector

  03-07-2018 05:29 via ft.com
  May handed list of requirements calling for post-EU alignment with Brussels
  
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• Professions outline case for their survival after Brexit

  03-07-2018 05:29 via ft.com
  May handed list of requirements calling for post-EU alignment with Brussels
  
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• How UK business rates shake-up is deepening high street gloom

  03-07-2018 05:00 via ft.com
  Department stores hit by 26% rates rise as online rivals benefit from tax cut
  
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• 40% of LGBT+ people face abuse, government survey says

  03-07-2018 02:14 via bbc.co.uk
  The BBC's Jonathan Blake explains the results of the largest ever UK survey of LGBT+ people.
  
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• Call to scrap ‘hostile environment policy’ towards immigrants

  03-07-2018 01:02 via ft.com
  Windrush generation suffering ‘significant distress’, says MPs’ report
  
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• NHS launches its biggest recruitment drive

  03-07-2018 01:01 via ft.com
  Campaign to target teenagers in £8m effort to attract ‘home-grown nurses and midwives
  
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• Nearly one in five MPs have regular paid work outside parliament

  03-07-2018 01:01
  Analysis by public standards committee finds 119 MPs declared an annual total of £3.35m from second jobsNearly one in five MPs have regular paid work outside parliament, according to an independent committee report.
  In an analysis of MPs’ second jobs by the committee for standards in public life, 119 members were found to have declared total earnings of approximately £279,000 per month. Continue reading...
  
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• MPs call for total reform of Home Office after Windrush scandal

  03-07-2018 01:01
  Select committee condemns hostile culture and ‘callous’ system within departmentThe “appalling treatment” of thousands of Windrush victims shows that the Home Office has become a callous and hostile institution in need of “root and branch reform”, a damning report from the home affairs select committee has found.
  The introduction of a barrage of hostile environment policies at the same time as legal aid was removed for immigration cases meant the Windrush gene
  
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