Political news

• Brexit: Sturgeon steps up no-deal planning

  13-02-2019 23:28 via bbc.co.uk
  The first minister says she still believes no-deal can be avoided, but her government has a duty to plan for the possibility.
  
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• Brexit is national crisis, former diplomats tell Theresa May

  13-02-2019 23:00
  Ex-ambassadors and high commissioners say UK is weakened by ‘fiasco’More than 40 former British ambassadors and high commissioners have written to Theresa May warning her that Brexit has turned into a “national crisis” and urging her to delay proceedings until the government has greater clarity about Britain’s likely future relationship with Europe.The letter, signed by many of the most senior diplomats of the last 20 years, underlines concerns that British influenc
  
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• Labour MPs warn Corbyn: back a second referendum or we quit

  13-02-2019 22:53
  Labour leader struggling to balance conflicting forces in his party over BrexitJeremy Corbyn faces up to 10 resignations from the Labour frontbench if he fails to throw his party’s weight behind a fresh attempt to force Theresa May to submit her Brexit deal to a referendum in a fortnight’s time, frustrated MPs are warning.With tension mounting among anti-Brexit Labour MPs and grassroots members, several junior shadow ministers have told the Guardian they are prepared to resign their
  
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• Brexit: Theresa May plays down 'deal or delay' report

  13-02-2019 22:51 via bbc.co.uk
  Theresa May tells MPs not to rely on hearsay, as Brexit dominates Prime Minister's Questions.
  
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• Winston Churchill was a villain, says John McDonnell

  13-02-2019 22:03
  Shadow chancellor condemns wartime PM over his role in quelling of 1910 riots in WalesThe shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has said that Winston Churchill was a villain rather than a hero, because of his role in the quelling of rioting in a south Wales town.When asked at an event organised by Politico in London on Wednesday whether the wartime British prime minister was a hero or a villain, McDonnell replied: “Villain – Tonypandy.” Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Living in poverty’: workers at business ministry go on strike

  13-02-2019 21:27
  Outsourced cleaners, catering staff and security guards say they cannot live on their payCatering staff earning as little as £7.83 an hour danced and sang outside their work at the business department as they staged a 26-hour strike in protest at what they described as poverty pay.Many of the outsourced catering team at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) earn no more than the minimum wage, well below the £10.55 that the Living Wage Foundation calculate
  
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• Banks’ Brexit costs are one-off, but asset relocation is one-way

  13-02-2019 20:55 via ft.com
  BofA has spent $400m on shifting employees and operations to Dublin and Paris
  
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• No-deal Brexit would lead to vote on united Ireland, says Sinn Féin

  13-02-2019 20:50
  Mary Lou McDonald says a referendum is a ‘democratic imperative’ if UK leaves EU with no-deal Sinn Féin has urged Theresa May and Ireland’s taoiseach Leo Varadkar to plan for a referendum on a united Ireland in event the UK crashes out of the EU without a deal.Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Féin leader, which has seven seats in Westminster, made the same call in an hour-long meeting on Wednesday with the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, as part of a campaign to lay the
  
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• Browder questions UK politicians’ role on Russia sanctions

  13-02-2019 20:45 via ft.com
  Kremlin critic advocates ban on peers and MPs lobbying for foreign states
  
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• Let’s give citizens free cash to save not-for profit journalism | Owen Jones

  13-02-2019 19:58
  The Cairncross review into the media wants public-interest news outlets to benefit from tax reliefs. That’s not radical enoughA flourishing, diverse media is essential to a functioning democracy. We have neither. An already broken model faces an existential crisis. Back in 1948, the media mogul Lord Beaverbrook told a royal commission on the press that he ran the Daily Express “purely for the purpose of making propaganda and with no other object ... I look at it as a purely propagand
  
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• Theresa May faces defeat in no-deal Brexit vote

  13-02-2019 19:55 via ft.com
  PM allies fear MPs and quitting ministers will back amendment to stop UK crashing out
  
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• Seaborne ferry contract with Grayling office had no written backing

  13-02-2019 19:37
  Transport department just accepted verbal ‘guarantees’ from firm with no ships, parliament watchdog toldThe top civil servant from Chris Grayling’s department has admitted the government did not have a written guarantee of secure financial backing before handing a £13.8m contract to a ferry company with no ships.Bernadette Kelly, the Department for Transport’s permanent secretary, told the public accounts committee that instead officials accepted verbal guarantees f
  
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• London’s scrapped Garden Bridge cost taxpayers £43m

  13-02-2019 19:33 via ft.com
  Official figures reveal outlay on project labelled a ‘folly’ by opponents
  
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• Ignore the free-trade evangelists. Brexit can create a fairer economy | Larry Elliott

  13-02-2019 19:18
  Free market economics created a world fit for multinationals. But we need less frictionless trade and more local controlIt all seemed so simple back in the 1990s. Barriers were coming down, the free market was advancing to all corners of the world, and in return for production being shifted to low-cost countries, consumers in the west were getting cheaper clothes and gizmos. Globalisation was said to be unstoppable. The end of history was nigh.The financial crisis and its aftermath have changed
  
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• BofA warns no going back on $400m Brexit move

  13-02-2019 19:16 via ft.com
  Vice-chair warns other financial groups also spending large sums ahead of March 29
  
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• Mouldy jam: Should you eat what's beneath?

  13-02-2019 19:04 via bbc.co.uk
  Theresa May is said to eat jam after scraping mould off the surface. Is that safe?
  
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• EU officials: UK only 'pretending to negotiate' over Brexit impasse

  13-02-2019 18:53
  Donald Tusk says EU27 are waiting for ‘realistic’ proposals from the UK to break the deadlock
  The British government is “pretending to negotiate” with the European Union and has not presented any new proposals to break the Brexit deadlock, according to EU officials.Theresa May’s de-facto deputy, David Lidington, and the Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, met senior EU officials and MEPs in Brussels and Strasbourg this week, but the talks yielded no obvious results.
  
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• UK urged to stop deportations to Zimbabwe

  13-02-2019 18:50
  Labour’s Peter Hain says Zimbabwe is currently a ‘human rights-free zone’The UK government has been called on to suspend deportations to Zimbabwe in light of human rights abuses in the country.Speaking in the House of Lords after it emerged that two Zimbabwean nationals refused asylum were set to be returned, the crossbench peer Lord Alton of Liverpool said it would be “prudent” to suspend deportations given reports of arrests and torture under President Emmerson Mn
  
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• Theresa May 'scrapes the mould off jam'

  13-02-2019 18:47 via bbc.co.uk
  The PM's critics have a field day on social media after she reportedly offers food advice to the cabinet.
  
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• Dutch PM warns of ‘devastating’ no-deal Brexit for UK

  13-02-2019 18:15 via ft.com
  Mark Rutte says he sees ‘benefits’ of hard Brexit with companies shifting jobs to continent
  
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• The country is stockpiling beans and body bags – but they won’t save us from Brexit’s bad politics | Zoe Williams

  13-02-2019 18:02
  A survival kit of condensed milk and tinned peaches is no defence against the fallout of chaos and disintegrationWith the health minister admitting to stockpiling body bags in the event of a no-deal Brexit, rather than take to the streets to demand a better government (one that doesn’t meet imminent catastrophe with catastrophe storage solutions), our thoughts naturally turn to what we should stockpile ourselves. Perhaps the first place to start is a Brexit emergency kit, available for &po
  
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• Brexit threatens surge in market abuse, warns watchdog

  13-02-2019 17:15 via ft.com
  FCA fears companies may allow oversight controls to slip following UK’s departure from EU
  
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• Hardline Brexiters threaten to vote down Theresa May's motion

  13-02-2019 16:13
  ERG Tories say PM is effectively ruling out option of no deal, which is ‘madness’Hardline Brexit supporters are threatening to inflict yet another Commons defeat on Theresa May because they fear the government is effectively ruling out leaving the EU with no deal.Members of the Tory European Research Group are unhappy with the wording of a No 10 motion because it endorses parliament’s vote against any Brexit without a withdrawal agreement. Continue reading...
  
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• Border technology 'could take 10 years'

  13-02-2019 15:57 via bbc.co.uk
  A trade expert told MPs that a technical solution should not be ruled out, but that it would take time.
  
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• Olly Robbins reveals the May game plan

  13-02-2019 14:46 via ft.com
  Private remarks to colleagues were overheard by reporter in Brussels bar
  
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• For Theresa, bad jam is better than no jam – that's just common sense | Hannah Jane Parkinson

  13-02-2019 13:54
  Apparently if we just trust our gut, Brexit will be fine. Does she know we’re stockpiling bodybags?Yesterday in Brexit news: stockpiling bodybags. Today: scraping the mould off jam. Because this is where we are now. Never mind the special place in hell Donald Tusk hopes is reserved for key Brexiters, we are already there. Truly, daily, the flames are licking.There was a time when waking up in the morning and seeing the headline, “Theresa May: I scrape the mould off the top of jam and
  
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• Corbyn blasts May over ferry contract ‘fiasco’

  13-02-2019 13:52 via ft.com
  Labour leader says Seaborne Freight climbdown symbolises government’s handling of Brexit
  
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• The Brexit proposals MPs could vote on this Thursday

  13-02-2019 13:36
  A quick guide to Theresa May’s motion and the amendments MPs have suggestedTheresa May has put a new motion before parliament that effectively asks parliament to allow her to continue negotiating to seek changes to the backstop. MPs are permitted to amend the motion, which will be voted on on Thursday.This is the second time May has submitted an amendable parliamentary motion after the defeat of her Brexit deal. In January, MPs successfully amended the motion twice. Continue reading...
  
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• Home secretary: 'Sweep the net, take down knife-crime posts'

  13-02-2019 13:21 via bbc.co.uk
  Sajid Javid tells Newsbeat new laws are needed to crack down on knife-crime-related content online.
  
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• UK inflation falls to two-year low in January

  13-02-2019 12:57 via bbc.co.uk
  Falling energy prices push inflation to 1.8% in January, from 2.1% the previous month, official figures show.
  
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• Ford warns no-deal Brexit would be 'catastrophic'

  13-02-2019 12:35 via bbc.co.uk
  The carmaker says it will do "whatever is necessary", following a report it could move production abroad.
  
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• No ministers could become NI 'new normal'

  13-02-2019 12:34 via bbc.co.uk
  Northern Ireland's top civil servant said services have seen 'slow decay and stagnation' since 2017.
  
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• Bank of America spends $400m on Brexit preparation

  13-02-2019 11:38 via ft.com
  Vice-chair warns other banks also spending large sums ahead of March 29 divorce
  
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• This government has bungled every negotiation it faced and now it's even bungling its bribes

  13-02-2019 09:31
  
  When they throw money at companies, they can't convince them to stay. When they try to buy MP support, they still vote against them.
  
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• Car crash: The Brexit clear-out of UK manufacturing has already begun

  13-02-2019 09:25
  
  Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and Nissan are voting with their feet. Project Fear is now Project Reality.
  
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• MI6 chief in talks to extend term over Brexit fears

  13-02-2019 09:04 via ft.com
  Officials concerned that change of spy boss could exacerbate turmoil as UK leaves EU
  
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• Wednesday, February 13

  13-02-2019 06:00 via ft.com
  Chief Brexit negotiator Olly Robbins has suggested that Theresa May is bluffing over…
  
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• Weak margins drag on ‘safe’ Irish banks’ ambitions

  13-02-2019 05:00 via ft.com
  Ireland’s lenders have moved past crisis-era write-offs yet they are struggling to make money
  
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• Irish central bank has bigger stick to win respect

  13-02-2019 05:00 via ft.com
  But the regulator’s toughened stance since the crisis has sparked irritation among some
  
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• Ireland’s rising house prices lead to tough choices

  13-02-2019 05:00 via ft.com
  Executives looking to rent in Dublin’s financial district post-Brexit are being met with soaring costs
  
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• Ireland: Financial Services

  13-02-2019 05:00 via ft.com
  Dublin’s ‘Brexit dividend’ is coming into view as London-based financial services companies turn to the city to retain access to European markets. But in a country that still bears the scars from a banking crisis a decade ago, Irish policymakers are proceeding with caution
  
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• Ireland finance minister: banks can ride out Brexit

  13-02-2019 05:00 via ft.com
  The recent sale of soured home loans boosted lenders’ resilience to a disorderly exit
  
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• Euronext Dublin beefs up European fund-listing role

  13-02-2019 05:00 via ft.com
  Exchange’s new owner has plans to expand the hub but the path is unlikely to be smooth
  
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• Dublin has power to lure business without Brexit

  13-02-2019 05:00 via ft.com
  An early mover to the financial centre, JPMorgan was drawn by the character of Ireland’s workforce
  
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• Cautious Dublin reaps benefits of Brexit exodus

  13-02-2019 05:00 via ft.com
  Ireland’s gains could be greater but for its own scars from the last financial crisis
  
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• Brexit healthcare worries for Brits in Spain

  13-02-2019 01:10 via bbc.co.uk
  British pensioners in Europe worry about healthcare costs in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
  
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