Political news

• Ministers spend £100m on Brexit consultant contracts

  22-02-2019 23:59 via bbc.co.uk
  The government has agreed £104m of Brexit consultancy and other contracts since the referendum.
  
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• Flexible working: Labour pledges new employee rights

  22-02-2019 23:43 via bbc.co.uk
  A right to flexible working for new recruits will open up work to more women, the party says.
  
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• Tory ministers signal they will rebel to stop no-deal Brexit

  22-02-2019 23:37 via ft.com
  Greg Clark, Amber Rudd and David Gauke prefer delaying exit over crashing out
  
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• Tory ministers say they will rebel to stop no-deal Brexit

  22-02-2019 23:37 via ft.com
  Greg Clark, Amber Rudd and David Gauke would opt to delay exit rather than crash out
  
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• HMRC delays late-penalty letters to focus on no-deal

  22-02-2019 23:00 via ft.com
  Hundreds of thousands of taxpayers at risk of facing increased penalties
  
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• Ian Austin quits Labour blaming Jeremy Corbyn's leadership

  22-02-2019 21:11 via bbc.co.uk
  Ian Austin, the ninth MP this week to leave, blames anti-Semitism but will not join new Independent Group.
  
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• Labour hijacked by hard-left clique, claims Chris Leslie

  22-02-2019 21:09
  Independent Group MP says Labour MPs ‘played’ by the leadership over BrexitChris Leslie, one of the seven MPs who quit Labour on Monday to join the fledgling Independent Group, says his former party has been “hijacked” by a “clique”.The Nottingham East MP, who was briefly shadow chancellor in 2015 under Harriet Harman’s caretaker leadership, told the Guardian he believed Jeremy Corbyn was promulgating “hard-left” policies, which did not deser
  
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• MP’s resignation caps a difficult week for Corbyn

  22-02-2019 21:06 via ft.com
  Departure of Ian Austin sparks talk of senior Labour figures backing second referendum
  
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• ECB’s Mario Draghi takes veiled swipe at Brexit

  22-02-2019 21:01 via ft.com
  Central bank chief says EU membership confers sovereignty through leverage over world
  
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• Soubry says it was inevitable she would leave Tories

  22-02-2019 20:26 via ft.com
  MP suggests newly formed Independent Group will focus on stopping no-deal Brexit
  
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• From Thatcher to Brexit: how UK carmakers were forced into the slow lane

  22-02-2019 19:55 via ft.com
  Honda’s planned plant closure in the UK reflects not just Brexit but a wider set of pressures forcing the industry to change gear
  
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• Carmakers: forced into the slow lane

  22-02-2019 19:55 via ft.com
  Honda’s planned plant in the UK reflects not just Brexit but a wider set of pressures forcing the industry to change gear
  
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• The Guardian view on Britain’s political parties: Brexit is breaking the mould | Editorial

  22-02-2019 19:30
  It would be ironic if, as Britain prepares to leave the EU, the country’s fragmentary politics became more characteristically EuropeanAcross Europe, old two-party political systems have been fragmenting for a generation and more. In most western European countries, the left-right split has long been overlaid by others, notably on social values and identity. Germany now has seven significant parties in the Bundestag. France has at least nine in a national assembly dominated by a party that
  
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• Has Theresa May finally exhausted her colleagues' patience?

  22-02-2019 19:27
  Departure of ‘three amigos’ is a sign that Tory MPs may defy the whip in Wednesday’s Brexit voteTheresa May has emerged, battered but unbowed, from so many confrontations with one or other wing of her fractious party over the past two years that survival against the odds has become her best known political trait.But the dramatic departure of three MPs on Wednesday, to cross the floor and join eight ex-Labour colleagues on the opposition benches, sharpened the extraordinary risk
  
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• Nicola Jennings on Pope Francis at the Vatican abuse summit – cartoon

  22-02-2019 19:16
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• Shamima Begum: decision risks 'creating second class of citizenship'

  22-02-2019 19:01
  London mayor says decision to strip citizenship could affect Britons with roots overseasThe decision to strip Shamima Begum of her UK citizenship on the basis she is of Bangladeshi heritage could have implications for millions of people who have family roots overseas, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has warned.Khan said the home secretary’s decision earlier this week “risks creating a second class of citizenship – one that can be removed at the whim of a politician”, and
  
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• The odds are against them, but these MPs could yet change our politics | Jonathan Freedland

  22-02-2019 18:32
  Those who say the Independent Group is bound to fail forget that the political playbook has been shreddedWestminster has a new parlour game. Since Monday, a conversation with anyone in or around politics will open with a round of “So what are the chances for this new Independent Group?” Players are encouraged to produce ever smarter reasons why the cluster of 11 MPs who broke from their former parties – eight from Labour, three from the Tories – is doomed to fail. Bonus p
  
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• What the EU no-deal negotiations mean for Brexit

  22-02-2019 18:31 via ft.com
  EU aims to make UK pay its €45bn budget bill and agree Irish backstop
  
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• Just when the country needs Tom Hanks, we get Derek Hatton | Marina Hyde

  22-02-2019 18:26
  The shortage of heroes in British politics is acute. All that seems to be on offer is fighty extrasDerek Hatton, George Galloway, Chris Williamson, Ken Livingstone: these guys may not physically sit together in public life, but I definitely think of them as “a grouping”. In fact, it is perfectly possible that over time they could be joined by “like-minded individuals” from the right. Galloway got on like a house on fire with Nigel Farage during the referendum. Unfortunate
  
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• Theresa May must go in three months, cabinet ministers say

  22-02-2019 17:59
  Senior Tories to make clear PM should give way to new leader for next phase of BrexitCabinet ministers will make it clear they believe Theresa May should step down after the local elections in May and allow a new leader to deliver the next phase of the Brexit negotiations, the Guardian understands.Senior figures in government have suggested they want the prime minister to leave shortly after the first phase of the Brexit negotiations finishes – or risk being defeated in a vote of no confid
  
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• Shamima Begum: IS teenager's family challenge citizenship move

  22-02-2019 16:50 via bbc.co.uk
  In a letter to the home secretary, they say that - as her family - they "cannot simply abandon her".
  
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• Week in Review: May's very-quiet admission of her total failure

  22-02-2019 16:41
  
  Slipped out in a statement and cloaked in deceptive language - the government's admission that it already failed to open the withdrawal agreement.
  
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• Calling everyone who criticises Corbyn ‘Blairite’ is crazy | Suzanne Moore

  22-02-2019 16:38
  Many people, socialists included, have qualms about the Labour leadership. But for some in the party, this is heresySplitters. Traitors. The People’s Front of Judea. I am quite enjoying the current shenanigans of those people who say they just can’t take it any more. Some are sick of Brexit. Some want a people’s vote. Some are disgusted at the acceptance of antisemitism. Some are probably terrible careerists out only for themselves, though this seems a rather unlikely way to do
  
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• Labour will survive but must remember its past

  22-02-2019 15:55 via ft.com
  For most of its history, the party has been multitudinous and contradictory
  
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• Police chief appointed to anti-slavery role

  22-02-2019 15:47 via bbc.co.uk
  Sara Thornton is named as the government's new independent adviser on tackling modern slavery.
  
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• Brexit: Can Remainers and Leavers come together?

  22-02-2019 15:42 via bbc.co.uk
  A Remainer from Glasgow and a Brexiteer from Liverpool visit Westminster to meet MPs, questioning them and giving their views, on the UK's exit from the EU.
  
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• Brexit: Irish government hopes no-deal plan 'sits on shelf'

  22-02-2019 15:23 via bbc.co.uk
  The Irish government hopes its legislation for managing a no-deal Brexit will "sit on the shelf".
  
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• Michel Barnier says there is high chance of 'accidental' no-deal Brexit

  22-02-2019 15:20
  EU’s chief negotiator says UK needs to make faster decisions with deadline looming in five weeksMichel Barnier has said he is more concerned than ever after a week of talks with Theresa May and the British negotiators that has left Brussels fearing an accidental no-deal Brexit in five weeks.As the British prime minister heads to Egypt for an EU-Arab summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, the bloc’s chief negotiator publicly said he believed there remained “a chance” of ratifying the
  
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• Funereal TIG launch distracts from Grayling's latest humiliation

  22-02-2019 15:03
  Also this week: Labour mayoral candidate’s disastrous interview and the thrilling return of TutankhamunThere had been so much speculation that had come to nothing in recent weeks about Labour and Tory MPs resigning the whip to form a new party that I was rather wrong-footed to get an email at 8am saying it was actually happening on the Labour side and I needed to be in central London in the next hour. The launch was a curious affair at a rented office space in Etc Venues – not quite
  
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• Retailers battle to stock shelves for no-deal Brexit

  22-02-2019 15:00 via ft.com
  Cabinet battle over imposing tariffs could signal break with era of cheap food
  
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• Brexit: Nadine Dorries on ERG members backing PM's deal

  22-02-2019 14:54 via bbc.co.uk
  Conservative MP Nadine Dorries says only one member of the European Research Group (ERG) of Brexiteers wants to leave the EU without a deal.
  
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• Parents shun government’s tax-free childcare scheme

  22-02-2019 14:50 via ft.com
  Only £32m of estimated £390m has been claimed during the first year
  
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• UK universities fear review could starve funding for arts

  22-02-2019 14:42 via ft.com
  Ministers eye cuts after rapid expansion in English of higher education in England
  
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• Austin: Extremism and intolerance in Labour

  22-02-2019 14:34 via bbc.co.uk
  Explaining his decision to leave the Labour Party, Dudley North MP Ian Austin claims Jeremy Corbyn is "incapable" of dealing with anti-Semitism.
  
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• 'Move-away' Cambridge councillor Donald Adey gives up part of allowance

  22-02-2019 14:29 via bbc.co.uk
  Donald Adey, who lives 400 miles from his ward, had been the only councillor not to do so.
  
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• Britain’s political deadlock may finally be breaking

  22-02-2019 14:23 via ft.com
  The independents’ rebellion has changed the atmosphere at Westminster
  
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• Ireland publishes emergency laws to cope with no-deal Brexit

  22-02-2019 11:50 via ft.com
  Measures will empower Dublin to rescue stricken companies and maintain electricity supplies
  
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• Who is the latest Labour MP to quit party?

  22-02-2019 11:36 via bbc.co.uk
  A profile of the West Midlands MP who has become the latest to quit Labour over Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.
  
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• Tory defectors are just getting involved in a Labour party tussle | John Redwood

  22-02-2019 11:35
  The Independent Group is just an anti-Corbyn faction – and no place for Conservatives who made promises about Brexit• John Redwood is the Conservative MP for WokinghamI find it difficult to fathom why three Conservative MPs would wish to join the Independent Group formed by Labour MPs. They argue that the Conservative party has shifted away from them under Theresa May over the last year and a half. There is no evidence to support this. Related: Ian Austin becomes ninth MP to quit Labo
  
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• Moderate Tory MPs ready to rebel over no-deal Brexit

  22-02-2019 11:14 via ft.com
  Chief whip warned of plan to back Cooper amendment
  
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• Ian Austin latest MP to quit Labour party

  22-02-2019 10:21 via ft.com
  Vocal critic of party’s handling of anti-Semitism will not join new Independent Group
  
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• Labour MPs must stay and fight – the country needs strong Tory opposition | Clive Efford

  22-02-2019 10:00
  Now is not the time to walk away. We must unite to reassert our traditional values and ready ourselves for the next electionLabour MPs understand that splitting our party risks giving power to an undeserving Tory party for the foreseeable future. Unchecked Tory rule, almost certainly dominated by the extreme right of that party, will be devastating for our public services, NHS, schools, economy and for the manner in which Brexit is completed.There are deep divisions in our country that have fest
  
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• Corbyn vs the Independent Group: Will the left ever stop splitting?

  22-02-2019 09:43
  
  The same old splits by the same old people: When will the left show the same pragmatism as the right?
  
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• The breakdown on breakaway MPs

  22-02-2019 09:13 via bbc.co.uk
  MPs from the Tories and Labour have resigned and formed a new political group, but what do they want?
  
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• The lessons infantile adults can learn from children go far beyond climate change | Richard Russell

  22-02-2019 09:00
  As a teacher, how do I show my pupils the right values when they see so little of it from their adult ‘role models’?The children’s climate strike has become another lightning rod in the never-ending culture war. Those on the left applauded them for their brave moral stand. Jonathan Freedland – not without basis – pointed to the strike as evidence that children were acting more like adults than the adults. But on the right the focus seemed to be on chiding them and t
  
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• What price pension freedoms?

  22-02-2019 06:01 via ft.com
  George Osborne’s key policy had unintended consequences for millions which are only now becoming apparent
  
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• Pinn’s illustration of the week: Westminster alarm

  22-02-2019 06:00 via ft.com
  Brexit tensions split parties
  
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• Friday, February 22

  22-02-2019 06:00 via ft.com
  Eurosceptic MPs warn they’ll try to end the UK government if Prime Minister Theresa …
  
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• No-deal sets stage for Brexit’s big showdown

  22-02-2019 05:00 via ft.com
  EU goal will be to make UK pay its €45bn bill and agree backstop
  
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• How part-privatising UK probation system backfired

  22-02-2019 05:00 via ft.com
  Management of ex-offenders was so poor that public safety was ‘put at risk’
  
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