Political news

• We will deliver a Brexit that MPs and Northern Ireland can support, PM to say

  04-02-2019 23:30
  May to give speech on trip to Northern Ireland underscoring her commitment to avoiding hard borderTheresa May will insist she can find a way to deliver a Brexit deal that can win the backing of MPs when she visits Belfast in an attempt to reassure businesses and politicians in Northern Ireland she can break the deadlock in Westminster.The prime minister is due to chair a cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning before departing for a two-day visit to Northern Ireland to underscore her commitment to av
  
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• May to promise Brexit deal that Northern Ireland can support

  04-02-2019 23:30
  Prime minister’s speech in Belfast to underscore pledge to avoid hard borderTheresa May will attempt to reassure businesses and Northern Irish politicians by insisting during a visit to Belfast that she can find a way to deliver a Brexit deal MPs can support.The prime minister is due to chair a cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning before departing for a two-day visit to Northern Ireland to underscore her commitment to avoiding a hard border with Ireland. Continue reading...
  
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• May heads to Belfast in search of backstop solution

  04-02-2019 23:30 via ft.com
  Two-day visit comes as Trimble vows to sue government for breaching peace accord
  
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• Labour official accused of cover-up over antisemitism

  04-02-2019 22:18
  General secretary Jennie Formby faces claims she’s been too slow in tackling abuse and threatsAt an angry meeting, Labour MPs have accused the party’s most senior official of covering up the number of complaints alleging antisemitic threats and comments from party members.Margaret Hodge, Ruth Smeeth and Catherine McKinnell criticised the party’s leadership following claims that the general secretary, Jennie Formby, has been slow to tackle dozens of claims of abuse and threats f
  
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• Nissan was offered secret state aid to cope with Brexit, minister concedes

  04-02-2019 21:42
  Business secretary vowed to maintain manufacturers’ capacity to trade with EULong read: Will Nissan stay once Britain leaves?
  The business secretary has been forced to admit the existence of a previously secret package of state aid to Nissan that could have been worth up to £80m had the carmaker gone ahead with plans to manufacture a new model X-Trail in Sunderland after Brexit.Greg Clark released a letter dated October 2016 in which he pledged tens of millions of taxpayer support an
  
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• Nissan’s U-turn is all about the EU — but not Brexit

  04-02-2019 20:51 via ft.com
  Carmaker’s decision on X-Trail SUV has more to do with fuel and manufacturing costs
  
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• North-east England will pay the price for decades of dishonesty about Nissan | David Conn

  04-02-2019 20:34
  Thatcher’s ministers knew EU membership was vital in attracting the Japanese carmaker. No one told the publicThe sprawling site near Sunderland of the giant Japanese car manufacturer Nissan is a fine-tuned product of Britain’s participation in the European Union. The company’s decision to pull the making of its proposed new X-Trail model out of that plant is a disastrous consequence of the failure to explain this to the British people.The virtual absence of public explanation a
  
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• Government vowed to shield Nissan from Brexit fallout

  04-02-2019 20:31 via ft.com
  Letter promised Japanese carmaker it would not be ‘adversely affected’ by leaving EU
  
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• Martin Rowson on Brexit, the backstop and 'alternative arrangements' – cartoon

  04-02-2019 20:25
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• May taps business leaders to help push EU compromise on Brexit

  04-02-2019 20:19 via ft.com
  PM reassures European executives that she will deliver agreement by deadline
  
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• EU imports to be waved through under no-deal Brexit

  04-02-2019 19:57 via ft.com
  HMRC moves to reduce feared congestion at ports
  
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• Japan's EU deal 'threatens post-Brexit UK industry'

  04-02-2019 19:54
  Alarm raised after Nissan decision to halt expansion of Sunderland car plantExperts have warned that a new EU-Japan trade deal could pose a post-Brexit threat to British industry in the wake of Nissan’s decision to backtrack on expanding its Sunderland plant.The world’s biggest free trade deal came into force on 1 February and there are fears that Japan will stop using the UK as a manufacturing base, especially with a 0% tariff on car imports built into the EU-Japan agreement. Contin
  
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• Tory truce frays as Brussels highlights risk of no-deal

  04-02-2019 19:49 via ft.com
  Merkel says no to reopening withdrawal agreement despite call for creative approach
  
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• Tory truce frays as Brussels highlights no-deal risk

  04-02-2019 19:49 via ft.com
  Merkel says no to reopening withdrawal agreement despite call for creative approach
  
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• The Guardian view on fracking: the end can’t come soon enough | Editorial

  04-02-2019 19:23
  Launching a new fossil fuel industry was a bad idea, and a coalition of localists and environmentalists appears close to defeating itLess than four months after what was supposed to be a new beginning for fracking in England, when Cuadrilla resumed operations at its Preston New Road site in Lancashire, it appears increasingly unlikely that there is a future for this industry in the UK at all. Minor earthquakes rapidly halted fracking at Preston New Road, and led to a row about whether the legal
  
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• Nick Clegg betrayed the public – and now he’s failing upwards at Facebook | Suzanne Mooore

  04-02-2019 19:13
  The ex-deputy prime minister broke his promise to the public with tuition fees. Now he’s defending the social media monolith. It’s time to stop apologising and start taking actionNo amount of Auto-Tuned apologies will make me forgive Nick Clegg. Ever since he shone in televised electoral debates by remembering audience members’ names, this trick is used by every snake-oil salesman on the planet. I do not want earnest young men in Currys or on my doorstep calling me Susan. And t
  
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• Why did Nissan cancel X-Trail production in the UK?

  04-02-2019 18:56 via ft.com
  Diesel market decline and group’s business conditions as critical as Brexit uncertainty
  
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• Norway urges students to avoid UK universities in Brexit warning

  04-02-2019 17:55
  Higher education minister says Norwegians should study in countries other than BritainNorway’s government is advising its citizens against studying in the UK because of Brexit, in a warning that will fuel concerns from universities about falling enrolment from Europe.In blunt comments, Iselin Nybø, Norway’s minister responsible for higher education, urged students to avoid British universities. Continue reading...
  
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• Trimble to take UK to court over Brexit backstop

  04-02-2019 17:42 via ft.com
  Former NI first minister wants protocol removed from withdrawal agreement
  
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• Brexiter MPs unmoved by EU hint at legal assurance on backstop

  04-02-2019 17:19
  Cross-party group unable to tell EU official that MPs would back deal with added protocol
  A suggestion by one of the EU’s most powerful officials of possible further legal assurances on the Irish backstop has failed to win over Brexiter MPs, leading to heightened talk of the UK leaving the bloc with no deal.After a meeting with Martin Selmayr on Monday, the cross-party Brexit select committee emerged clear that the European commission secretary general had floated the possibility of a lega
  
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• Brexit moderates must act like blue Corbynites

  04-02-2019 16:30 via ft.com
  Rightwing hardliners are winning because numbers are tight and they are not compromising
  
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• Clark’s deadline against no deal

  04-02-2019 14:45 via ft.com
  Business secretary wants decision by mid-February to avoid a cliff edge
  
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• UK letter vowed to protect Nissan from Brexit fallout

  04-02-2019 14:33 via ft.com
  Clark’s assurances to Ghosn in 2016 were contingent on new X-Trail production at Sunderland site
  
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• Faith should be no barrier to schools teaching respect for LGBT rights | Masuma Rahim

  04-02-2019 13:56
  Some parents may not be happy about it, but programmes like No Outsiders are important and should be expandedRecently we’ve seen several clashes between local communities and education leaders over the application of the Equality Act in Britain’s schools. Shraga Stern, the Orthodox Jewish activist, warned earlier this year that Haredi Jews would “leave the UK” if faiths schools were forced to teach children about same-sex relationships and gender reassignment. And last mo
  
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• Tory MPs back youth group with apparent links to US far right

  04-02-2019 13:46
  Rees-Mogg and Patel support UK branch of Turning Point, accused of anti-Islam viewsA number of Conservative MPs have praised the work of a new UK rightwing youth pressure group that is said to have links to far-right conspiracy theorists, and has in the US been accused of anti-Islam views and connections to racism.On Sunday, MPs including Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel tweeted supportive messages for Turning Point UK, the offshoot of a controversial organisation established in the US. Continue
  
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• Theresa May to visit Northern Ireland in attempt to ease Brexit fears

  04-02-2019 13:19 via ft.com
  UK prime minister plans to travel to region on Tuesday
  
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• May to visit Northern Ireland in attempt to ease Brexit fears

  04-02-2019 13:19 via ft.com
  UK prime minister plans to travel to region on Tuesday
  
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• UK is still going round in circles over Brexit

  04-02-2019 11:50 via ft.com
  Latest parliamentary events can only return the country to the same place  
  
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• Saudi female activists face jail conditions akin to torture, say UK MPs

  04-02-2019 10:35
  Panel finds detained activists subject to sleep deprivation, assault and threats to life
  Saudi Arabia is detaining female activists in cruel and inhumane conditions that meet the threshold of torture under both international and Saudi law, a cross-party panel of three British MPs has found.The conclusions indicate growing unease among western allies over alleged rights abuses under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto leader, who is already facing opprobrium over the mu
  
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• Ministers urged to relax immigration rules on family reunions

  04-02-2019 08:00
  Campaigners want amendments to government bill to ease refugees’ anguishThe government is under pressure from MPs and charities to relax family reunion rules for refugees settled in the UK.Current immigration rules only allow adult refugees to apply for their married or civil partners and dependent children under 18 to join them. Grandparents, parents, siblings and children who are 18 or older are ineligible. Continue reading...
  
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• Brexit: What are the new ideas for the Irish backstop?

  04-02-2019 07:27 via bbc.co.uk
  As the PM plans to return to the EU with new ideas on the Irish backstop, what could be discussed?
  
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• Monday, February 4

  04-02-2019 06:00 via ft.com
  Prime Minister Theresa May says she is still committed to renegotiating her Brexit d…
  
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• Banks fret over investor inaction on Brexit

  04-02-2019 06:00 via ft.com
  Few clients have returned documents allowing them to trade smoothly in event of no-deal
  
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• Brexit: Talks on backstop 'alternative arrangements'

  04-02-2019 05:45 via bbc.co.uk
  The government gathers Leave and former Remain Conservatives to try to find a way forward on Brexit.
  
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• Varadkar beset by Brexit backstop worries

  04-02-2019 05:00 via ft.com
  Irish prime minister is vital to any deal — and would face dilemma over border checks
  
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• Investors push for access to dual-listed shares after hard Brexit

  04-02-2019 05:00 via ft.com
  European funds want to retain ability to trade London shares of Shell and Unilever
  
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• Investors fret about dual-listed shares under a hard Brexit

  04-02-2019 05:00 via ft.com
  Funds want to keep ability to trade London stocks of groups such as Shell and Unilever
  
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• Parole Board system to be reviewed after Worboys case

  04-02-2019 02:34 via bbc.co.uk
  Further changes could be introduced following the case of black-cab rapist John Worboys.
  
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• MPs must compromise before Brexit breaks our country

  04-02-2019 01:15 via ft.com
  We hide behind delaying tactics but Labour must pursue conditions for an agreement
  
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• UK finance chiefs say Brexit is biggest risk to business

  04-02-2019 01:02 via ft.com
  Other factors include weak demand and US protectionism, Deloitte report shows
  
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• UK CFOs say Brexit is biggest risk to business

  04-02-2019 01:02 via ft.com
  Other factors include weak demand and US protectionism, Deloitte report shows
  
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• Hermes couriers awarded union recognition

  04-02-2019 01:02 via ft.com
  Deal with GMB seen as example for improving workers’ rights
  
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• Help NHS obtain cystic fibrosis drug, ministers urged

  04-02-2019 00:11
  Exclusive: Ministers urged to consider revoking patent on life-extending Orkambi, which NHS cannot affordThe patients facing shorter lives due to drug’s expense Campaigners are calling on the government to urgently intervene over the cost of a drug that could extend the lives of thousands of children but which manufacturers have set at £105,000 per patient per year, a price the NHS cannot afford.For more than two years an emotive battle has been raging over Orkambi, which tackles the
  
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