Political news

• Plaid Cymru assembly member Steffan Lewis dies aged 34

  11-01-2019 22:13 via bbc.co.uk
  Mr Lewis, who was one of Wales youngest AMs, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in late 2017.
  
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• Juncker makes late bid to avert no-deal Brexit

  11-01-2019 21:17 via ft.com
  European president works with May to prevent ‘catastrophic’ vote result
  
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• Odey homes in on UK assets ahead of key Brexit vote

  11-01-2019 20:48 via ft.com
  Investors say scrapping EU exit would trigger ‘monster’ rally in stocks and sterling
  
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• Universal credit: Single mums win High Court battle

  11-01-2019 20:39 via bbc.co.uk
  The women say they are struggling financially because of the way their payments are calculated.
  
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• Martin Rowson on Amber Rudd and changes to universal credit – cartoon

  11-01-2019 20:32
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• Plaid Cymru rising star who worked on through cancer

  11-01-2019 19:55 via bbc.co.uk
  Steffan Lewis had a big impact on Welsh politics in a promising career cut short by cancer.
  
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• Karen Bradley: No-deal Brexit could create 'feelings of unrest'

  11-01-2019 19:54 via bbc.co.uk
  The NI secretary says she believes a no-deal Brexit could put UK constitutional arrangements in jeopardy.
  
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• 'People's vote': backers bide their time to force Labour's hand

  11-01-2019 19:41
  Campaigners believe best moment to win over Corbyn will come after Commons voteBacking for a second Brexit referendum in parliament is unlikely to be tested until after next week’s meaningful vote, as campaigners weigh up the best moment to try to win over the Labour leadership.The Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston has scrapped plans to table a “doctors’ amendment” calling for the public to be allowed to exercise “informed consent” about Theresa May’s deal
  
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• The Guardian view on universal credit: flawed calculations | Editorial

  11-01-2019 19:30
  This week’s court defeat for the government is further evidence of the system’s shortcomings, and the suffering these can causeThe four single working mothers who took the government to court over the way that universal credit payments are calculated should be applauded. That two high court judges have ruled in their favour is further evidence of flawed judgment at the Department for Work and Pensions. Ministers must now decide whether to appeal, or make a new set of adjustments to t
  
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• Green Party 'should have queried' agent sex charges

  11-01-2019 19:23 via bbc.co.uk
  David Challenor was found guilty of 20 offences, including the rape of a 10-year-old girl.
  
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• Annual parliamentary pancake race falls flat over Brexit bad feeling

  11-01-2019 18:54
  Event called off due to ‘intense activity’ around Westminster, with ‘yellow vests’ protestingWhile the grievances of the self-styled “yellow vest” protesters outside parliament can seem varied and opaque, it is unlikely that they include pancakes. But it is pancakes – more specifically pancake racing – that has paid the price for their activities.The annual parliamentary pancake race between MPs, peers and political journalists has been cancelled b
  
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• Beneath the bonnet of the UK economy, there are plenty of faults | Larry Elliott

  11-01-2019 18:45
  Manufacturing is struggling, growth is unbalanced – and solving Brexit won’t fix our woesJudged by what is happening in the rest of Europe, Britain’s economic performance in late 2018 was reasonably good. France was paralysed by the gilets jaunes protests, while Germany and Italy flirted with recession. The UK is likely to have grown by 0.3% in the final three months of 2018, and by contrast with the other major European economies that’s not too shabby.Look beneath the bo
  
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• Delay Brexit if deal is rejected, Dominic Grieve tells Theresa May

  11-01-2019 18:25 via bbc.co.uk
  Tory rebel Dominic Grieve says the PM should strike 29 March as Brexit day from UK law if her deal is voted down.
  
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• Brexit disaster looms. Can MPs unite quickly enough to save us? | Jonathan Freedland

  11-01-2019 18:23
  For pro-Europeans, the moment of truth is coming. To avoid no deal, they have to choose: Norway or a second referendumThe iceberg is approaching and now the scramble for the lifeboats begins. The iceberg in question is the catastrophe of a no-deal crashout from the European Union, its contours and texture becoming ever sharper as 29 March gets closer. For now, most MPs are vehement in their insistence that they dislike the iceberg very much, and that they are passionately opposed to sailing righ
  
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• Redesign patient care to treat the health system

  11-01-2019 18:18 via ft.com
  Defuse the politics and leave doctors and managers to bridge divides in the medical service
  
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• Even Mordor was less toxic than Brexit Britain, this nation beyond parody | Marina Hyde

  11-01-2019 17:45
  John Bercow’s maniacal defence of a car sticker beats the competition to enter the Brexit madness time-capsuleWell, there you are, then. Another epic political week has passed in off-brand Westeros, a septic isle from which there is no real escape, only a bloodstained booth where Chris Grayling is offering to sell you a ferry ticket.Every few days I change my mind about what I’d pop in the time capsule to explain to future generations just how inspirational this era was. This week, t
  
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• Iran should realise jailing Nazanin Zaghari‑Ratcliffe harms its security | Simon Tisdall

  11-01-2019 17:30
  It is Tehran’s hardline clerics who are endangering the nation, not innocents languishing in the nation’s jailsIran’s merciless persecution of Nazanin Zaghari‑Ratcliffe, the Iranian-British woman held in Tehran’s Evin prison on spurious charges of spying, is deeply disturbing. What possible purpose was served by the airing this week on state television of a video showing her arrest in April 2016, as she prepared to board a plane to London?When accosted by security m
  
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• Juncker hints at helping out Theresa May over Brexit deal

  11-01-2019 17:24
  But EC president remains sceptical over PM’s chances of success in next week’s voteJean-Claude Juncker has signalled that he will offer a last-minute helping hand to Theresa May in her bid to get her Brexit deal passed by MPs – but hinted at deep scepticism in Brussels at her chances of success.A letter from the European commission president is expected on Monday offering further reassurances to MPs that, should it be triggered, the Irish backstop would keep the UK in a customs
  
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• Parliament security boosted ahead of Brexit vote

  11-01-2019 17:16 via bbc.co.uk
  MPs' work should not be impeded by 'intimidating' protesters, says Commons Speaker.
  
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• Universal credit payment to be given to household's main carer

  11-01-2019 17:13 via bbc.co.uk
  The new plan, announced by Amber Rudd, is expected to benefit women more when it comes in later this year.
  
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• MPs attack ministers over delay to tax havens' public registers

  11-01-2019 17:03
  British overseas territories win reprieve after threatening legal action or secessionThe government has been accused of defying parliament by delaying plans to require British tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands to bring in public registers that reveal the true identity of owners of companies sheltering assets.Foreign Office ministers have caved in after a rebellion in the British overseas territories, including threats to take the government to court or even to secede from the UK. The
  
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• Brexit Britons circulate ‘hamster list’ of vital supplies

  11-01-2019 16:30 via ft.com
  ‘Terror’ of going hungry starts to take hold as people fret about gridlocked ports and empty shelves
  
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• Pulp's Jarvis Cocker calls for new EU referendum in UK

  11-01-2019 15:28 via bbc.co.uk
  People behind the 2016 EU referendum walked away and so much has changed since that the common people need a new vote says Jarvis Cocker.
  
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• Four single mothers win high court benefits battle against DWP

  11-01-2019 15:16
  Women succeed with action over ‘fundamental problem’ with universal credit systemFour working single mothers have won a legal victory that could force the government to radically overhaul the way it operates the controversial universal credit scheme.Two high court judges ruled the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was wrongly interpreting universal credit regulations after the women – who had argued they were struggling financially because of how the welfare system worked
  
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• Brexit Briefing: When Theresa called Len

  11-01-2019 14:42 via ft.com
  Theresa May phones Len McCluskey, leader of the Unite union, to seek his support for her Brexit deal
  
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• Don’t be fooled by Amber Rudd’s phoney attempt at compassion | Owen Jones

  11-01-2019 14:08
  The work and pensions secretary’s universal credit tweak is a PR exercise that will do little to help children living in povertyImagine launching a leadership bid by promising not to rob quite as many children as you were originally planning to do. The work and pensions secretary, Amber Rudd, is far from alone in circling the carcass of Theresa May’s premiership – although quite how a remainer is to triumph in a vote of the Ukip-ised Tory grassroots is difficult to answer &ndas
  
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• Theresa May is about to find out that Brexit is bigger than her | Rafael Behr

  11-01-2019 13:56
  The need for a viable deal means the prime minister will shortly become a bit-part in this national tragedyWhatever else happens with Brexit, no one in British politics will ever again underestimate the power of a timetable. The pressure of the article 50 clock ticking down forced Theresa May into the compromises that make her deal unpalatable to MPs. She has tried to pass the pain on to MPs, hoping that the grim consequences of missing the deadline would force them to settle for her plan. Earli
  
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• Brexit: Holyhead lorry backlog plan in case of no-deal

  11-01-2019 13:18 via bbc.co.uk
  There are fears leaving the EU with no deal could lead to more border checks and delays at ports.
  
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• Brexit: Hunt warns of Brexit 'paralysis' if deal is rejected

  11-01-2019 13:14 via bbc.co.uk
  But Tory rebel Dominic Grieve says MPs have a duty to "stop people committing national suicide".
  
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• Dominic Grieve: No-deal Brexit would be national suicide

  11-01-2019 13:13 via bbc.co.uk
  Tory rebel Dominic Grieve says MPs have a duty to stop a no-deal Brexit by backing another referendum.
  
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• Liberalism’s most brilliant enemy is back in vogue

  11-01-2019 13:10 via ft.com
  Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt appeals to opponents of democracy and the rule of law
  
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• Is Brexit the result of post-imperial arrogance?

  11-01-2019 12:34 via ft.com
  Two professors argue that an exit from the EU could be a ‘disaster with silver linings’
  
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• Why don't MPs say these words any more?

  11-01-2019 12:11 via bbc.co.uk
  MPs and peers talk more about Brexit and social media, but less about Afghanistan and the deficit.
  
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• No-deal Brexit cannot be ‘managed’, warns CBI head

  11-01-2019 12:02 via ft.com
  Carolyn Fairbairn also says immigration regime plans fall short of what economy requires
  
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• Question Time: Praise for Fiona Bruce's first episode

  11-01-2019 11:55 via bbc.co.uk
  Viewers react warmly to the presenter's handling of panellists on the new-look political programme.
  
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• UK economic growth hits six-month low

  11-01-2019 11:47 via bbc.co.uk
  UK grows by 0.3% in the three months to November, but manufacturers are suffering.
  
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• UK universal credit scheme dealt High Court blow

  11-01-2019 11:41 via ft.com
  Working mothers win case against controversial welfare scheme
  
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• Rudd begins universal credit reforms amid court blow

  11-01-2019 11:41 via ft.com
  Working mothers win case against contentious welfare scheme
  
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• Jeremy Hunt: Speaker 'frustrating' government

  11-01-2019 11:36 via bbc.co.uk
  The foreign secretary says that no Brexit is possible and blames Speaker John Bercow.
  
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• Defeated Oxford MP given peerage and ministerial post

  11-01-2019 11:07 via bbc.co.uk
  Nicola Blackwood lost her seat in 2017 and has now been given a role at the Department for Health.
  
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• Now parliament must produce a Brexit plan

  11-01-2019 11:00 via ft.com
  Taking back control demands more responsibility from MPs
  
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• Car sector drives fall in UK industrial production

  11-01-2019 10:48 via ft.com
  Figures echo weakness across Europe and heighten concern in the run-up to Brexit
  
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• Car sector drives fall in industrial production

  11-01-2019 10:48 via ft.com
  Figures echo weakness across Europe and heighten concern in the run-up to Brexit
  
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• UK faces prospect of no Brexit if May's deal rejected, says Hunt

  11-01-2019 10:33
  Foreign secretary says vote against withdrawal agreement could lead to UK staying in EU
  Today’s political developments - live updates
  Brexit: what happens next?
  A rejection of Theresa May’s deal could lead to “Brexit paralysis” and prevent the UK from leaving the EU at all, Jeremy Hunt has said.Such an outcome would be “enormously damaging” for politicians’ relationships with voters and Britain’s global reputation, the foreign secretary said. Conti
  
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• Hunt warns on Brexit ‘paralysis’ ahead of vote on May’s deal

  11-01-2019 09:48 via ft.com
  UK foreign secretary in bid to corral Eurosceptic Tory MPs
  
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• Hunt warns on Brexit ‘paralysis’ ahead of vote on deal

  11-01-2019 09:48 via ft.com
  UK foreign secretary steps up pressure on Eurosceptic Tory MPs
  
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• Week in Review: Brexit's third act

  11-01-2019 09:32
  
  We're finally reaching the climax of this horrible story - and something is going to have to give.
  
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• Where should Britain go post-Brexit? Eight foreign secretaries respond

  11-01-2019 06:00 via ft.com
  Boris Johnson, David Owen, Margaret Beckett and others share their vision of the country’s future
  
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• Where should Britain go post-Brexit?

  11-01-2019 06:00 via ft.com
  Eight foreign secretaries respond
  
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• Trump, May and the art of political brinkmanship

  11-01-2019 06:00 via ft.com
  Elected politicians are threatening harm to their own country as a bargaining tactic
  
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