‘One rule for black boys and another for white’: Corbyn attacks PM

Jeremy Corbyn confronts Boris Johnson on drug use after deportation of ex-offenders

Jeremy Corbyn launched a scathing personal attack on Boris Johnson over the way black and white children connected to class A drugs are treated by the government in the wake of the deportation of ex-offenders to Jamaica.

Speaking in the Commons, the Labour leader called out the prime minister over allegations of Johnson’s own drug use, saying: “If there was a case of a young white boy with blond hair who later dabbled in class A drugs, and conspired with a friend to beat up a journalist, would he deport that boy?

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UN passes UK-backed resolution calling for a ceasefire in Libya

Proposal for multinational operation to oversee truce comes as fighting grew more complex by the day

The UN security council has passed a resolution mandating a multinational operation to oversee a ceasefire in Libya, despite serious doubts that any of the conflict’s key players will abide by its terms.

The UK-backed resolution, calling for a ceasefire without preconditions and an immediate end to the supply of arms to both sides, was passed by 14 votes to zero, with one abstention from Russia.

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This government has failed Shamima Begum | Letter

The woman who travelled to Syria as a teenager was born and radicalised in this country, writes Anish Kapoor, and the decision to strip her of her citizenship is shameful

I am saddened and appalled to hear of the British government’s refusal to allow Shamima Begum the right to return to Britain, the country of her birth. This decision is shameful and politically motivated (Begum loses first stage of fight to be British citizen, 8 February). The home secretary, Priti Patel, declared in advance of the recent Special Immigration Appeals Commission judgment that Shamima would never be allowed back into the UK.

The land where she was born and bred radicalised her and ultimately failed her. Lest we forget, Shamima left the UK when she was 15, after she had been extensively groomed under the noses of the very authorities tasked to protect her.

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Critics pour scorn on Scotland-Northern Ireland bridge idea

Architect and PM’s enthusiasm for Celtic crossing tempered by local cynicism of ‘pipe dream’

“The stars are aligning” for a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to the principal advocate for a Celtic crossing, the leading architect Alan Dunlop.

Although engineering experts have dismissed the concept as “bonkers”, Dunlop has been pressing for serious discussion of Boris Johnson’s latest grand infrastructure scheme since he conducted a feasibility study into the proposal in 2018, when he first raised the prospect.

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Tunisia to shelve plan for UN vote on Trump’s Middle East plan

Security council vote was seen as test of support for deal and of Britain’s relations with US

Arab plans for a UN security council vote on Tuesday designed to show international opposition to Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan are expected to be shelved after the US and the UK raised separate objections to the draft text.

In what was being seen as a key test of the diplomatic support for Trump’s “ultimate deal”, Tunisia, with Arab League and Palestinian support, had tabled a resolution saying it breached basic undertakings to the Palestinian people.

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This election shows Ireland has moved on from Sinn Féin’s past | Siobhán Fenton

Voters now appear more concerned about social justice and housing than the party’s historical connections

For almost a century, political power in Ireland has been held by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The two centrist parties have ruled in some form or another, be it through coalitions or confidence-and-supply arrangements with other smaller parties. Saturday’s general election has upended this political duopoly.

Sinn Féin topped the poll in first-preference votes for the first time, with a share of 24.5%. Fianna Fáil received 22.2%, while Fine Gael, in government since 2011, came third with 20.9%. Under Ireland’s proportional representation voting system, it will take several days for the calculations to be made to establish exactly how many seats each party will win. Once that’s clear, negotiations will begin to see who can somehow form a government.

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What does the Irish election result mean for Brexit?

A Sinn Féin coalition will rattle unionists, who consider Boris Johnson’s EU deal a betrayal

Sinn Féin won the most first-preference votes in Saturday’s Irish general election, delivering a shock to the country’s political landscape after decades of domination by the centrist rivals Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

However, the fragmented results will produce a hung parliament with no party close to 80 seats, meaning there could be weeks – possibly months – of negotiations between party leaders before a government is formed.

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Government officials working on plans for bridge linking Scotland to Northern Ireland, No 10 confirms – live news

Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen

Q: Do you think there is any chance of Boris Johnson changing his mind in relation to ruling out an extension to the post-Brexit transition?

Sturgeon says she has to assume that what the UK government says about ruling out an extension is what they mean.

Q: Have you had any contact from the police in relation to Derek Mackay’s conduct? And do you think he should resign as an MSP?

Sturgeon says she has not had any contact over this from the police.

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Sinn Féin declares victory in Irish general election

Party leader Mary Lou McDonald calls for talks with main rivals to form coalition

Sinn Féin has declared victory in Ireland’s general election and called for talks with other main parties to form a coalition government.

Its leader, Mary Lou McDonald, urged Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to start negotiations with the republican party as the scale of its breakthrough confirmed a realignment of Irish politics.

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EU clamps down on free ports over crime and terrorism links

Moves comes as Britain launches consultation on creation of up to 10 of the zones

Brussels is clamping down on 82 free ports or free zones after identifying that their special tariff and duty status has aided the financing of terrorism, money laundering and organised crime.

A set of new rules was introduced by the European commission just weeks before the launch on Monday of a UK government consultation on the creation of up to 10 free ports in post-Brexit Britain.

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Jamaican-born deportees mount last-minute challenges against Home Office

Up to 50 people are due to be forcibly returned to Jamaica on a flight leaving this week

Dozens of Jamaicans in the UK are mounting last-minute legal challenges to try to halt their deportation on a Home Office charter flight scheduled for Tuesday.

Up to 50 people are due to be put on the flight, which is only the second the Home Office has chartered to Jamaica since the Windrush scandal broke. A group legal action and a flurry of individual legal actions are under way.

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Ireland election: polls open with Sinn Féin poised to play key role

Republican party is hoping poll surge will translate into a parliamentary breakthrough

Voters are going to the polls in Ireland after a tumultuous general election campaign during which Sinn Féin has surged into contention as a potential party of government.

The republican party hopes a rise in popularity among young and urban voters will translate into enough parliamentary gains to make it a kingmaker or participant in Ireland’s next coalition government.

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UN rapporteur condemns UK hosting of Israeli spyware firm

David Kaye speaks out over decision to allow NSO Group to exhibit at trade fair

An independent UN investigator has criticised the British government’s decision to host a surveillance company whose technology is allegedly used by repressive regimes to intercept the private messages of journalists and human rights activists.

David Kaye, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, who has called for a global moratorium on the sale of such technology, said democratic governments “should be outraged and should develop global standards for the exports of such tools” that respected the rule of law and human rights.

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Power is everything – and progressives forget that at their peril | Jonathan Freedland

As Boris Johnson and Donald Trump know, being in office means setting your own agenda

You take comfort where you can. Especially at a time like this, when the side of progress is beleaguered, when left or liberal values are taking a hammering on every front, apparently losing every battle, it’s natural to cling to whatever blanket of consolation we can find. When a single week can see Britain leave the European Union and Donald Trump bragging and swaggering in vengeful celebration as he escapes punishment for a high crime he clearly committed, the need for soothing can become intense. One such solace is that, despite the concrete defeats visible all around us, the left is somehow “winning the argument”.

Related: Without the BBC we could be facing a post-truth dystopia | Jonathan Freedland

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UK unprepared for COP 26 conference, warn climate leaders

Former UN climate envoy joins list of experts frustrated at Britain’s lack of leadership

The UK is showing a “lack of coherence” in its leadership of vital UN climate crisis talks this year and giving the damaging impression that the talks are not a high priority, one of the world’s leading voices on the climate crisis has said.

Mary Robinson, a former UN climate envoy and Ireland’s first female president, also said the perception that major British politicians, including the ex-prime minister David Cameron and former foreign secretary William Hague, were unwilling to take on the role of leading the COP 26 summit was damaging.

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Inquiry strikes blow to Russian denials of Syria chemical attack

UN watchdog’s investigation rebuts claims it manipulated evidence of Douma incident

A Russia-led campaign that claimed the UN weapons watchdog had manipulated evidence of a Syrian government chemical weapons attack has been dealt a blow by an official inquiry showing that two former employees hailed as whistleblowers had little direct access to the evidence and inflated their role.

The independent inquiry commissioned by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) shows that one of the two had never been on the team investigating the April 2018 attack in Douma and the other was only on the team for a brief period.

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No 10 says Johnson’s row with Trump over Huawei was ‘overblown’

US president was reportedly furious about PM’s decision to use Chinese 5G expertise

Downing Street has sought to play down the significance of a difficult phone call between Donald Trump and Boris Johnson over the UK’s decision to allow Chinese company Huawei to help build its 5G network.

Trump was reported by the FT to have been “apoplectic” about the decision taken by Johnson, and the phone call last week was said by one official to have been “very difficult” and tense.

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Failing to elect Long-Bailey risks return to 2015, union chief tells Labour

PCS union chief Mark Serwotka says party must not lose ‘radical anti-establishment, socialist message’

A key ally of Jeremy Corbyn has said failing to elect Rebecca Long-Bailey to be the Labour party’s next leader risks turning the clock back to 2015 and the leadership of Ed Miliband.

Mark Serwotka, head of the civil servants’ union PCS, said that the other candidates – Keir Starmer, Lisa Nandy and Emily Thornberry – would either struggle to maintain the radical policies of Jeremy Corbyn or have failed to realise that prevarication over the party’s Brexit policy was a key reason for the devastating 2019 defeat.

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German MPs taken aback by Johnson’s hardline trade rhetoric

In London for LSE symposium, politicians express confusion at Britain’s post-Brexit stance

A flood of senior German politicians visiting the UK this week have been left confused and unnerved by the hardline rhetoric set out by Boris Johnson on trade talks, prompting warnings that the risk of a breakdown, or a no-deal Brexit, is as high as it has ever been.

Germany takes on the EU presidency in the second half of this year, and will have a crucial role in helping the European commission to steer the talks on a future UK-EU trading relationship to a successful conclusion by the end of the transition period in December.

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Government to be challenged in court over Prevent reviewer

Legal action from Rights Watch (UK) comes amid spate of terror attacks in London

The government’s failure to appoint an independent reviewer of its Prevent strategy and assess the controversial de-radicalisation programme’s effectiveness is to be challenged in court.

The decision by Rights Watch (UK) to initiate legal action against the Home Office comes amid terror attacks in London that raise questions about whether young men can be successfully directed away from terrorist violence.

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