Category Archives: UK news

Rees-Mogg lambasts critics of EU laws bill after quitting government

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Former business secretary tells opponents of bill they are fighting a Brexit battle all over again

The former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg launched a scathing attack on opponents of legislation he has tabled to sweep away EU law, telling them they are fighting a Brexit battle all over again.

Rees-Mogg quit his role after Rishi Sunak became prime minister, and less than two hours later returned to the backbenches to see a stand-in, the business minister Dean Russell, opening the second reading of the retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill.

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‘Groundbreaking milestone’: world reacts to Rishi Sunak as next British prime minister

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World leaders lauded the significance of Sunak’s victory as the UK’s first prime minister of colour

Rishi Sunak’s arrival in No 10 as Britain’s third prime minister in less than two months drew calls for stability from Europe and continued support from Ukraine, as well as cheers in New Delhi and praise as a “groundbreaking milestone” from the US.

In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wished the UK’s new head of government success in overcoming “all the challenges facing British society and the whole world today”, adding: “I’m ready to continue strengthening the strategic partnership together!”

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Rishi Sunak reshuffle: Braverman named home secretary, Gove returns as levelling up secretary, Mordaunt not promoted – as it happened

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Braverman reappointed to post after resigning days ago; James Cleverly retained as foreign secretary; Oliver Dowden becomes Cabinet Office minister

The BBC’s political correspondent, Nick Eardley, has just summed things up on BBC Radio 4 like this: “Liz Truss faced one of the most daunting entries of modern times, Mr Sunak faces an even more daunting one – plus he has to pick a cabinet that will unite the party.”

When he becomes PM, Rishi Sunak will be doing many things for the first time in modern politics – he will be the first PM of colour, the first Hindu, the youngest since William Pitt the Younger.

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Starmer urges focused Sunak attack lines as Tories expect ‘poll bounce’

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The Labour leader said the shadow cabinet should stick to tried and tested criticism of the new PM

Labour has a stock of well-honed attack lines to use against Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer told his shadow cabinet on Tuesday, though he warned the new prime minister was likely to get “a significant poll bounce” as the UK breathed a sigh of relief over Liz Truss’s departure.

Starmer told the meeting Sunak “has only ever fought one leadership election battle his entire life and got thrashed by Liz Truss. And no wonder he doesn’t want to fight a general election”.

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Jacob Rees-Mogg and Brandon Lewis quit as PM begins reshuffle

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Rees-Mogg resigns as business secretary and Lewis relinquishes justice secretary role as Sunak begins to assemble cabinet

Jacob Rees-Mogg and Brandon Lewis have resigned from the government as Rishi Sunak begins to assemble his new cabinet, with the prime minister also sacking Chloe Smith and Wendy Morton.

Sunak is expected to keep Jeremy Hunt as chancellor, at least for the short term, and return Suella Braverman to the cabinet, as well as handing new posts to key leadership allies Oliver Dowden, Mel Stride and Dominic Raab.

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Peterborough libraries offer amnesty on fines to recover 22,000 missing books

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Service says the move is aimed at encourage the return of borrowers who stopped using the library during the Covid pandemic

Libraries in Peterborough are holding a fine amnesty to try to recover 22,000 missing books.

The service, which runs 10 libraries across the area, will not fine anyone for returning overdue books and will clear accounts of debt.

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Liz Truss aide Mark Fullbrook pushed for advisers to get honours

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Exclusive: chief of staff said to have wanted ex-PM to sign off resignation honours list featuring her advisers

Mark Fullbrook, Liz Truss’s chief of staff, pushed for many of her advisers to get resignation honours despite her government only being in place for seven weeks, according to multiple sources.

Fullbrook, whose tenure in No 10 has been overshadowed by questions over his private lobbying interests, is expected to depart along with Truss’s other advisers as Rishi Sunak takes her place.

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Peter Tatchell stopped in Qatar while staging LGBT+ rights protest

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Incident outside National Museum in Doha comes less than a month before start of men’s football World Cup

The human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has been stopped by police in Qatar while staging a protest against the Gulf state’s criminalisation of LGBTQ+ people.

Tatchell’s protest outside the National Museum of Qatar in the capital, Doha, comes less than a month before the start of the Fifa World Cup, which is expected to attract 1.2 million visitors from around the world.

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Court rules abandoned wives should be allowed to return to UK

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Judge finds woman unlawfully discriminated against in case of transnational marriage abandonment

A woman who was abandoned in Pakistan by her British husband and forcibly separated from her two-year-old daughter has won a high court case against such practice.

In a landmark ruling, a judge found that women in her situation have been unlawfully discriminated against and should be allowed to return to the UK.

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Huge margin of support gives Rishi Sunak a free hand in choosing cabinet

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New prime minister likely to prioritise unity in offering ministerial jobs, although leading Trussites can expect the chop

Rishi Sunak has pledged to build a cabinet of all the talents but, given the swiftness of the leadership competition, relatively little has been briefed about his potential cabinet.

His team say no roles have been promised to any backers and Sunak was in the enviable position as the frontrunner of not needing to promise roles to anyone.

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Rishi Sunak to meet King Charles on Tuesday morning before taking over as PM and says UK faces ‘profound economic challenge’ – as it happened

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Rishi Sunak to meet monarch after Liz Truss chairs her final cabinet meeting at 9am

I’m Helen Sullivan, with for the next while. If you have questions or see news we may have missed, you can get in touch on Twitter here.

We’re expected to hear from Nadhim Zahawi, who made a dizzying U-turn from supporting Johnson to supporting Sunak yesterday, on Sky News at 07.05 this morning.

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Rishi Sunak tells Tories to ‘unite or die’ as he prepares to become PM

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New Tory leader says he will put an end to party’s psychodrama and focus on ‘policies not personalities’

Rishi Sunak warned the Conservatives it was time to “unite or die” as he prepared to enter No 10 as the first person of colour to become UK prime minister.

He said he would put an end to the Conservative psychodrama and vowed to prioritise “policies not personalities”, starting with a cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday . His allies briefed he would reach across the party, in stark contrast to the divisive purges of Liz Truss or Boris Johnson.

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Last morning in No 10 is straightforward – but what now for Liz Truss?

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Practicals may be sorted, yet Truss will face her most difficult task, carving out role on Tory backbench as former PM

While Liz Truss’s official spokesperson insisted she was still “working from Downing Street” on Monday, in reality she has just one more real task left from what will be precisely 50 days as prime minister: departing from the role.

In a chronology now familiar to UK politics watchers, after chairing a farewell cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning, the much used No 10 lectern will be brought outside for Truss to make a final, brief statement, at about 10.15am.

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Nearly man to next PM: Rishi Sunak’s rapid change of political fortune

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Former chancellor looked finished when he lost to Liz Truss – but out of chaos has come a ‘coronation’

One of the many unlikely knock-on effects of Liz Truss’s ultra-brief time as prime minister is the fact that when her successor walks into No 10, the political obituaries that calmly wrote him off as the nearly man of modern UK politics will be just seven weeks old.

Had Boris Johnson successfully returned it would have been viewed, with reason, as an extraordinary and unprecedented comeback. But in some ways Rishi Sunak’s career resurrection has been just as unlikely.

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Gagging for Rish! It’s a second coming for Sunak, the silent messiah | John Crace

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As Boris Johnson and Penny Mordaunt drop out, the 1922 Committee manages to dodge a democratic vote

It all panned out about as well as the Conservative party could have hoped. A new leader – the right leader, as far as MPs were concerned – elected in a matter of days. No general election. Heaven forbid. A failed state couldn’t be doing with that level of democracy. Never trust the people you’re intending to govern.

Not even a parochial, controlled election of the Conservative gerontocratic membership. That hadn’t worked out so well the last time they had tried it. No, now was the time to reduce the electorate from 180,000 down to 357 MPs. That was the way to govern the UK. Men and women who could be trusted to put the interests of themselves and their party ahead of those of the country. A higher calling than simple patriotism.

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Rishi Sunak urged to scrap ‘undemocratic’ proposals to axe 2,400 laws

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Charities and trade unions among those calling on new PM to shelve bill that would scrap EU-era legislation protecting workers’ rights and the environment

Employers, trade unions, lawyers and environmentalists are calling on Rishi Sunak to scrap Jacob Rees-Mogg’s legislation that would sweep away 2,400 laws derived from the EU.

The retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill is due for its second reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday, which would scrap protections including the ban on animal testing for cosmetics, workers’ rights and environmental measures.

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‘A moment of pride’: Hindus in India hail Rishi Sunak’s victory

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Indians react to news UK will have its first Hindu PM and consider how it will affect bilateral ties

As Rishi Sunak prepares to become the UK’s next prime minister at the start of the festival of Diwali – when Hindus pray to the goddess Lakshmi for prosperity and success – in India some Hindus celebrated the fact that someone sharing their religion had reached such high office in the UK.

“To have a Hindu inside 10 Downing Street is something astonishing and of great joy, and that too on Diwali,” said Satish Verma, a supermarket owner in Delhi. “Although he is British, it will make us Hindus proud that one of us made it so big.”

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Accept Brexit protocol talks and return to powersharing, DUP urged

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Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker also says new elections will be called if deadline to return to Stormont passes

The Northern Ireland minister, Steve Baker, has made a direct appeal to the Democratic Unionist party to accept EU-UK negotiations on the Brexit protocol and return to powersharing in Stormont.

He also warned that if the DUP did not return to Stormont by Friday’s deadline, the government would call fresh assembly elections .

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Tory backer says UK economy is ‘frankly doomed’ without Brexit renegotiation

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Guy Hands says Conservatives are putting country ‘on a path to be sick man of Europe’

The billionaire businessman Guy Hands has accused the Conservatives of putting the UK “on a path to be the sick man of Europe”, as he issued a series of stark predictions about what could lie ahead for the post-Brexit economy, including higher taxes and interest rates and fewer social services.

The founder and chair of the private equity firm Terra Firma, a longtime Tory supporter, called for the government to renegotiate Brexit, stating that otherwise the British economy was “frankly doomed”.

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‘Bojo: It’s a no’: what the papers say as Johnson pulls out and Sunak surges ahead

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The UK newspaper front pages cover the latest in twist in the Tory leadership battle

Boris Johnson’s sudden exit from the Tory leadership race fills the UK front pages on Monday.

The Guardian goes with, “‘Not the right time’: Johnson out of race to lead the Tories”. The paper writes that the “Former PM struggled for backing” and that his “withdrawal leaves Sunak as frontrunner in battle for No 10”.

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