PM cancels stop-off in Glastonbury after being heckled on visit to school
Boris Johnson has been accused of refusing to meet members of the public and running scared of protests during a visit to Somerset.
Johnson was in south-west England to try to bolster the campaigns of Tory colleagues against strong Liberal Democrat challenges. But in Taunton he was heckled by protesters as he visited a school and a planned stop-off at a bakery on the edge of Glastonbury was ditched.
Continue reading...More people given temporary status as backlog of unresolved cases reaches half a million
The proportion of EU citizens being granted a temporary, more precarious “pre-settled status” in the UK has continued to rise, the latest Home Office statistics show, and the backlog of unresolved cases has grown to more than half a million, causing unease among campaign groups that support EU nationals living in Britain.
All of the estimated 3.4 million EU citizens resident in the UK must apply for settled status if they want to continue living here legally after Brexit. The latest EU settlement scheme statistics show that 590,300 people applied for settled status in October, bringing the total number of applications to 2,450,000.
Continue reading...At least 11 media workers have been murdered in the country since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office
Mexico’s new human rights commissioner has questioned if journalists are actually killed in the country, which has become a cemetery for reporters over the past two decades – and has not become any safer since the arrival of a leftwing government late last year.
After being elected commissioner on Tuesday night, Rosario Piedra Ibarra blithely responded to reporters’ questions on the murder of reporters in the country by asking, “They’ve killed journalists?”
Continue reading...Britain will lose influence in international affairs after it leaves the EU, the outgoing president of the European council has said. Speaking at the College of Europe, Donald Tusk said Brexit would be the 'real end' of the British empire
Continue reading...Donald Trump cared more about investigating his political rival Joe Biden than the fate of Ukraine, according to dramatic testimony from a key witness in the first impeachment inquiry hearing before the American public. As Adam Schiff, the Democratic chair, gaveled the House intelligence committee into session, cameras from every major network carried the proceedings to millions of Americans, some of whom were encountering the allegations against Trump for the first time
Continue reading...The prime minister delivers the first big set-piece speech of the campaign as Labour pledges £26bn extra per year for NHS
That’s all from us for this evening. Thanks for reading and commenting. For a comprehensive rundown of the day’s events, see my colleague Andrew Sparrow’s daily election briefing:
Related: Andrew Sparrow's election briefing: Johnson won't change Brexit stance to please Farage
Related: Boris Johnson heckled over floods but does not apologise for 'slow response'
Hoey also said complained that MPs had spent the last two years trying to thwart Brexit, telling LBC:
We’ve had two years of parliament – a remain parliament – doing everything they can to stop us leaving; by different methods and some not so serious as others. But most of the Labour MPs in there and a substantial number of Conservatives have tried to stop it.
Continue reading...Government working ‘round the clock’ to help deluged regions, prime minister says
Boris Johnson declined to apologise over his government’s slow response to the flooding across parts of the north of England, insisting that a huge amount of work was going on to help and compensate victims.
The prime minister faced difficult questions over whether enough had been spent on flood defences in deluged regions of Yorkshire, the east Midlands and Lincolnshire, after giving a speech on how he would give billions of pounds to research and development.
Continue reading...Minister says planned new legislation could be used in response to rights violations
Foreign Office ministers have for the first time threatened to use new sanctions laws against individuals in Hong Kong found guilty of human rights abuses during the government’s efforts to suppress street protests.
The threat, picked up on social media by Hong Kong protesters, was made in a letter from the minister for Asia and the Pacific, Heather Wheeler, setting out the government’s response to the crisis.
Continue reading...Gauke said he would contest South West Hertfordshire seat he has held since 2005
The former Tory cabinet minister David Gauke has announced he will stand as an independent candidate at the general election.
The former justice secretary said he would contest the South West Hertfordshire seat he has held since 2005.
Continue reading...Hillary Clinton has said she is 'dumbfounded' as to why the UK government has not yet published a report on alleged Russian interference in British politics. Speaking to BBC's Radio 4 Today programme, the former US presidential candidate said: 'Every person who votes in this country deserves to see that report before your election happens.'
Continue reading...Party says it has experienced ‘sophisticated and large-scale attack’
The Labour party has said it has experienced a “sophisticated and large-scale cyber-attack” on its digital platforms.
A Labour spokeswoman said the attack had “failed” because of the party’s “robust security systems” and that they were confident no data breach had occurred.
Continue reading...Simon Coveney says ‘law must apply to all’ after Conservative promise to end ‘unfair’ trials
Ireland has expressed concern over a Conservative party pledge to change the law to protect former soldiers in Northern Ireland from possible prosecution over deaths during the Troubles.
The Tories have promised to end what they describe as “unfair trials” of soldiers accused of unlawful killings in Northern Ireland by amending the Human Rights Act to exclude any case dating from before the act came into force in 2000.
Continue reading...Ex-secretary of state says it is unacceptable to keep report from public before election
Hillary Clinton has called Downing Street’s suppression of a report into potential Russian infiltration of British politics “damaging, inexplicable and shaming”.
The 2016 US presidential candidate told the Guardian it was “incredibly surprising and unacceptable that in your country there is a government report sitting there about Russian influence and your current government isn’t releasing it”.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary lambasts Labour leader for saying Evo Morales was forced out by coup
Dominic Raab, the UK foreign secretary, has accused Jeremy Corbyn of putting Marxist solidarity ahead of democracy after the Labour leader said Evo Morales had been forced to resign as Bolivia’s president due to a military coup.
Morales stood down on Sunday after 14 years in power following a report by the Organization of American States found that “clear manipulations” of the voting system in the first round of elections on 20 October had occurred. The findings prompted the military and civilian police to call on him to stand aside.
Continue reading...Party leader announces election climbdown in effort to avoid splitting leave vote
Nigel Farage has said the Brexit party will not field any candidates against the Conservatives in the 317 seats they won at the last general election, after Boris Johnson committed to leaving the EU by 2020 and pursuing a Canada-style trade deal.
Farage said his party’s climbdown came after months of trying to create a leave alliance with the Tories, but he felt it was time to put the country before his party and make a “unilateral” move.
Continue reading...Party leader has stressed benefits of immigration, but some fear policy could hurt Labour in Tory seats
Labour activists are urging Jeremy Corbyn to incorporate the radical pro-migration policy passed at the party’s conference into its manifesto this week as the Tories prepare to weaponise the issue in the election battle.
Senior Labour figures are expected to meet on Monday to thrash out the details of the party’s policy, but a final decision will not be made until next weekend.
Continue reading...While hi-tech cosmopolitan centres like Milan flourish financially and culturally, former industrial towns continue to decline
Night-time haunts go in and out of fashion, but the Bar Basso in Milan, which opened in 1967, remains one of the city’s most venerable social institutions. Embodying a very Milanese combination of stylish prosperity and tasteful design, it is a favourite destination for the area’s creative elite and the discreetly wealthy.
Tucked away in a corner, Pierluigi Dialuce is explaining why, if a political nightmare unfolds in the rest of Italy, the city he has made his home will be able to cope.
Continue reading...What next for John Bercow – Speaker for 10 years, and a household name thanks to Brexit? One thing he knows is that it won’t be Strictly…
When John Bercow bowed out as Speaker of the House of Commons last month – in the chamber, he listened uncomplainingly for just under three hours to MPs lavishly buttering him with praise – the attention of one newspaper diarist was drawn by rumours of the sight of a somewhat unlikely observer in the gallery. Who was this attentive fellow, and what was it that he was scribbling so assiduously in his notebook? Later, a name was supplied. Apparently, it was none other than the actor Tom Hollander, who may or may not be preparing to play the former Speaker on screen.
If Bercow the biopic is shortly to become a reality, Hollander will have his work cut out. It’s not only that he’ll have to get the voice right (at his best – or worst, depending on your point of view – Bercow sounds like Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh in the 1935 movie Mutiny on the Bounty). Actually, that’s the easy part (“Order, orr-duu-rrr!”). It’s the personality that’s trickier to catch. Crikey, but he’s a strange mix. Yes, as even he admits, he is pompous, irascible, long-winded, pig-headed and, at times, utterly irritating. But he’s also quick, warm, quite funny and, most surprisingly of all for a politician, capable of great, almost dazzling, honesty. In summary, all of his emotions are perilously close to the surface and you must be prepared for spillages, even as you struggle to follow his endlessly unspooling paragraphs. In 25 years, I’ve never interviewed someone more difficult to interrupt, or more prone to tears.
Continue reading...Labour ‘shocked’ as police watchdog freezes investigation into Jennifer Arcuri scandal
The scandal over Boris Johnson’s friendship with technology entrepreneur Jennifer Arcuri was reignited on Saturday after the Observer revealed that the independent police watchdog has delayed its announcement on whether the PM should face an investigation into possible criminal misconduct until after the election.
The decision prompted fury from Westminster politicians and London assembly members who said it appeared that a ruling had been “suppressed” in order to protect Johnson from potentially damaging headlines at a crucial stage of the election campaign.
Continue reading...The Guardian’s Rory Carroll is reporting from the constituency of Belfast East to find out what issues people there care about most – and he wants your help
Are you a Belfast East voter? The Guardian will be reporting from Belfast East next week ahead of the General Election, as part of a series of pieces from across the country focused on finding out what matters to the people who live there.
Traditionally a unionist seat, Belfast East is facing deep political uncertainty. It’s held by the DUP which supports Brexit but is not happy with Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal in case it weakens Northern Ireland’s position in the UK.
Continue reading...