Category Archives: UK news

Ireland steps up effort to shelter economy from no-deal Brexit

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Bill readied amid concerns over impact on agriculture, food processing and transport

Ireland is accelerating preparations for a no-deal Brexit amid growing alarm that parts of the Irish economy could face severe disruption and even collapse – and that the UK hopes to leverage that prospect to wring concessions from the European Union.

Leo Varadkar’s government is due on Friday to publish a mammoth omnibus bill incorporating 16 pieces of legislation to try to shelter Ireland from the doomsday scenario of the UK crashing out of the EU.

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No-deal Brexit ‘could disrupt London commuter trains’

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Buildup of freight at Channel tunnel might affect services into capital, operator warns

Rail passengers commuting into London could have services disrupted by freight trains if a no-deal Brexit causes logjams at the Channel tunnel, it has emerged.

Go-Ahead, the company behind the rail operator Southeastern, said it was working with the government to try to ensure commuters were not affected.

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Theresa May faces ministerial revolt over no-deal Brexit

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Up to 25 government members could vote for delay rather than allow UK to crash out

Theresa May is facing the most serious cabinet revolt of her premiership next week, with as many as 25 members of the government ready to vote for a Brexit delay unless she rules out “no deal” – in a move that will challenge her to sack them.

Rebel Conservatives believe there are now enough MPs across the House of Commons to pass an amendment that would require May to extend article 50 rather than allow the UK to leave without a deal.

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The Guardian view on Britain and China: it’s complicated | Editorial

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Beijing’s might and ambitions, and the approach of Brexit, make the path ahead more difficult. It’s time for careful thought

A few years ago, George Osborne announced that Britain’s relations with China were entering a “golden era”. On Thursday, his successor as chancellor gave a more measured assessment: they are “complex”, Philip Hammond said, noting that they “had not been made simpler” by the defence secretary Gavin Williamson’s threat to deploy an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea.

Britain, blanching as Brexit approaches, is more anxious than ever to keep Chinese cash flowing. Diplomats from other nations say London is already less willing to criticise Beijing because it knows how much it will need it. Yet some of the lustre is coming off bilateral dealings, as it is from China’s relationships elsewhere. The Trump administration is viscerally hostile, but Beijing’s increasingly repressive turn at home and forcefulness abroad has alarmed many who were more sympathetic to it.

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What is the truth about Shamima Begum’s citizenship status?

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Experts split over whether Sajid Javid’s move to revoke her UK citizenship is legal

According to the UK government, she is no longer a British citizen. The Home Office wrote to Begum’s parents on 19 February saying they had made the order to remove her citizenship that day.

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Shamima Begum’s family hope to bring her baby to UK

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Lawyer for family of 19-year-old who joined Isis in Syria is to ask her consent for plan

The family of Shamima Begum are exploring legal and practical options to bring her baby son to the UK without her while she embarks on the potentially lengthy appeal against the removal of her British citizenship, the Guardian has learned.

The lawyer representing the 19-year-old’s family is planning to travel to the refugee camp in Syria where she is living “as soon as possible” to set in motion the legal appeal process, and to ask her consent to bring her newborn son back to Britain while she awaits a resolution of her legally tangled case.

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Fresh concerns over Whirlpool’s ‘fire-risk’ tumble dryer repairs

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Which? calls for clarity after 30 consumers report ‘fixed’ dryers catching fire, producing smoke or burning smell

A consumer group is calling for the urgent publication of a report into Whirlpool’s fire-risk tumble dryers, amid fresh concerns about the manufacturer’s repair programme and its handling of an issue that may have left up to 500,000 potentially dangerous machines in UK homes.

Which? revealed it had been contacted by more than 30 consumers whose supposedly “fixed” tumble dryers had caught fire, produced smoke or the smell of burning. In some cases this appeared to be as a result of fluff catching on the heating element – the issue the modification was designed to fix, the consumer group said.

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Conservative split as rebels denounce grip of hardline Brexiters

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Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen say Tory modernising project has been destroyed

Three Conservative MPs who resigned to join a new independent group on Wednesday said Theresa May had allowed their former party to fall prey to hardline Brexiters and declared that the Tory modernising project had been destroyed.

In the latest evidence that Brexit is reshaping the political landscape, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston, all outspoken critics of May’s stance on Europe, said the Conservative party as they had known it under David Cameron was dead.

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No breakthrough for May after ‘constructive’ Brexit talks in Brussels

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PM asks Juncker for changes to Irish backstop as pair agree to meet again in February

Theresa May has told the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, she needed “legally binding changes” to the Irish backstop if MPs were to back her Brexit deal, during a high-stakes meeting in Brussels that yielded no obvious breakthrough.

With only 37 days until the UK leaves the European Union, EU expectations were low when May arrived in Brussels. Shortly before meeting the prime minister, Juncker predicted there would be no breakthrough.

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Why the zebra got its stripes: to deter flies from landing on it

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Pattern seems to confuse flies, researchers who dressed horses up as zebras find

The mystery of how the zebra got its stripes might have been solved: researchers say the pattern appears to confuse flies, discouraging them from touching down for a quick bite.

The study, published in the journal Plos One, involved horses, zebras, and horses dressed as zebras. The team said the research not only supported previous work suggesting stripes might act as an insect deterrent, but helped unpick why, revealing the patterns only produced an effect when the flies got close.

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Shamima Begum will not be allowed here, says Bangladesh

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Country at odds with UK over decision to strip 19-year-old of British citizenship

Shamima Begum is not a Bangladeshi citizen and there is “no question” of her being allowed into Bangladesh, the country’s ministry of foreign affairs has insisted, setting up a clash with the UK after Sajid Javid’s move to strip the teenager of her UK citizenship.

“The government of Bangladesh is deeply concerned that [Begum] has been erroneously identified as a holder of dual citizenship,” Shahriar Alam, the state minister of foreign affairs, said in a statement issued to the Guardian, adding that his government had learned of Britain’s intention to cancel her citizenship rights from media reports.

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Drone no-fly zone to be widened at airports after Gatwick chaos

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Police given powers to stop and search and use warrant to access drone electronic data

Flying drones will be illegal within five kilometres (3.1 miles) of airports after ministers decided to widen the no-fly zone to try to prevent a repeat of the chaos at Gatwick.

The enlarged zone will come into force from 19 March ahead of new drone legislation, which will give police new powers to stop and search those they believe are misusing the devices and a power to access electronic data stored on a drone with a warrant.

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Despite the slaughter in Yemen, Britain is still chasing arms sales | Andrew Smith

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Defence contractors are in Abu Dhabi this week for the Middle East’s biggest arms fair – supported to the hilt by UK ministers

A Khaleeji bagpipe band, a colourful aircraft display, a performance by the Armenian Military Orchestra and a big show of support from the Emirate royal families. These were some of the touches at Sunday’s opening ceremony for the International Defence Exhibition and Conference (Idex 2019) in Abu Dhabi, the Middle East’s biggest arms fair.

It’s a decadent and distasteful celebration of militarism and weaponry. Missiles, rifles, tanks, helicopters and warships are on display for anyone that can afford them. More than 100,000 people will attend this week, including representatives from all of the world’s biggest arms companies and military delegates from 57 nations. Among those looking to do business is the UK government, which has sent a team of civil servants to support UK arms company reps in doing as much business as possible. Particularly with the uncertainty of Brexit on the horizon, they will pull out all stops to cement sales.

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Shamima Begum ‘a bit shocked’ that UK has revoked citizenship

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Teenager who travelled from London to Syria to join Isis says decision is ‘kind of heart-breaking’

Shamima Begum, the teenager who travelled from east London to Syria to join Islamic State in 2015, has described Home Office plans to strip her of citizenship as “kind of heart-breaking”.

Related: Shamima Begum: will the plan to revoke her citizenship succeed?

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Jeremy Hunt urges Germany to rethink Saudi arms sales ban

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UK foreign secretary visits Berlin after raising concerns about impact of moratorium

Jeremy Hunt, the British foreign secretary, will visit Berlin on Wednesday after urging Germany to exempt big defence projects from its efforts to halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia, or face damage to both its economic and European credentials.

Related: UK's arms export supervisor attacks NGOs over Yemen deaths

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Green MEPs held after anti-nuclear protest at Belgian military base

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UK’s Molly Scott Cato among those held after action over stockpiling of US nuclear bombs

Three Green MEPs – including one from the UK – have been arrested after breaking into a Belgian military airbase to protest against its stockpiling of American B61 nuclear bombs.

The MEPs – Molly Scott Cato, Michèle Rivasi and Tilly Metz – unfurled a banner on a runway for F-16 fighter jets at the Kleine Brogel base in the east of the country calling for a nuclear-free Europe, before being taken into custody.

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Eighth Labour MP quits party to join breakaway Independent Group

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Joan Ryan says party has become ‘infected with scourge of anti-Jewish racism’

Joan Ryan has become the eighth Labour MP to resign and join the breakaway Independent Group, claiming Jeremy Corbyn’s party has become, “infected with the scourge of anti-Jewish racism”.

Ryan, the MP for Enfield North, said she had been a member for four decades – but could no longer remain as a Labour MP.

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Shamima Begum: Isis Briton faces move to revoke citizenship

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Family disappointed at Home Office decision and considering legal position, says lawyer

The family of a teenager who travelled to Syria to join Islamic State has been told the Home Office intends to revoke her British citizenship, according to their lawyer.

Shamima Begum, who left her home in Bethnal Green, east London, at the age of 15, is in a refugee camp in Syria, where she gave birth to a boy at the weekend.

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MPs fear May could exploit Labour split to call early election

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Despite the Tories’ plan for a 2022 vote, cross-party concern remains over a snap poll

Labour and Conservative parliamentarians are anxious that the new breakaway group formed by Luciana Berger and Chuka Umunna has increased the chances of Theresa May calling an early election.

On the Labour side, MPs and peers were worried that the prime minister would be tempted to exploit a split in the opposition if more of their number defected to the new political group.

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Honda’s decision is a vote of no confidence in Britain’s future

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There is a sense that while the Swindon plant’s days were numbered, Brexit tipped the balance

Honda claims Brexit had nothing to do with the decision to shutter its Swindon plant, but almost nobody seems to be buying it.

The consensus among industry pundits is that it suits Honda to avoid dipping its toe into the toxic pool of Brexit.

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