Interior minister said repatriation of alleged terrorists would include those rendered stateless
Turkey will begin deporting foreign members of Islamic State in Turkish custody back to their home countries from next week, the country’s interior minister has said.
Ankara has repeatedly criticised European nations for refusing to take back any of the 1,200 foreign nationals currently held in Turkish prisons on suspicion of links to the terror organisation.
Continue reading...PM says there will be no checks on goods going from Northern Ireland to rest of UK
Boris Johnson has been accused of misleading the public about his own Brexit deal, after footage emerged of him telling exporters in Northern Ireland they will not need to fill in extra paperwork.
After a rocky start to the general election campaign in which Jacob Rees-Mogg had to apologise for his comments about victims of the Grenfell Tower fire, and the Welsh secretary, Alun Cairns, resigned, footage emerged of the prime minister regaling businesses with the benefits of his deal.
Continue reading...Catalan separatism dominates debate ahead of poll that could redraw nation’s political map
The two women who stand chatting in the porch of San Ginés church in Guadalajara on a crisp November afternoon speak eloquently for a large portion of the Spanish nation.
“Estoy hasta el gorro,” says one after shaking her head and delivering a fusillade of sighs: I’m sick to the back teeth of it all.
Continue reading...Returning infrastructure investment to 1970s levels may be undeliverable, says IFS
Labour and the Conservatives have triggered a public spending bidding war, promising massive programmes of borrowing that will return public investment to levels last seen in the 1970s, according to Britain’s leading experts on the public finances.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said plans unveiled by Sajid Javid, the chancellor, and John McDonnell, his Labour shadow, would represent a decisive break with the past, but warned that a future government might have trouble delivering projects on the scale envisaged.
Continue reading...The Guardian’s Rob Booth is reporting from the constituency of Peterborough to find out what issues people there care about most – and he wants your help
The Guardian will be reporting from Peterborough 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. For example, the people of Peterborough have seen public spending fall by £262 a year per person since the start of austerity in 2010 – typical of the UK as a whole.
If you live in Peterborough, can you tell us what this has meant? We’d like to understand the big issues facing you and your family and which policies matter to you. How happy are you with the state of housing, work, community relations, policing and health services?
Continue reading...Move will reopen debate about party’s direction under Jeremy Corbyn
Tom Watson is quitting parliament and stepping down as Labour’s deputy leader, reopening the debate about the party’s direction under Jeremy Corbyn. Watson, who is one of Labour’s best-known figures, has represented the constituency of West Bromwich East since 2001.
In a letter to Corbyn released by Labour, he said his decision to step down was “personal, not political”.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson pressed to drop Cairns after he quit as Welsh secretary over rape trial claims
Boris Johnson is facing calls to remove Alun Cairns as a Conservative candidate after the Welsh secretary resigned over allegations that a former aide sabotaged a rape trial.
Cairns stepped down following huge pressure in recent days over the actions of his former adviser Ross England, with the furore threatening to derail the Tory campaign in Wales.
Continue reading...US presidential hopeful says fossil fuel firms will be free to promote themselves while critics are barred
Twitter’s plan to ban all political advertising risked muzzling climate activists while giving polluters free rein to promote themselves, the US presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren said.
“Twitter’s new ad policy will allow fossil fuel companies to buy ads defending themselves and spreading misleading info but won’t allow organisations fighting the climate crisis to buy ads holding those companies accountable,” she tweeted, linking to an environmental newsletter.
Continue reading...Former Speaker tells foreign media UK is better off as part of EU power bloc
Days after bowing out as Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow has described Brexit as the biggest mistake Britain has made since the second world war.
Bercow, who was persistently accused of bias by Brexit-backing MPs during his term as Speaker, gave a valedictory speech to the Foreign Press Association, revealing himself to be a remainer.
Continue reading...The Guardian’s political sketch writer is supposed to make up his own jokes. But politics has been so ludicrous and psychedelic that he’s just written down what happened and taken credit for the laughs
I didn’t think twice when I was asked to become the Guardian’s political sketch writer. Not only was it a huge honour to follow in the footsteps of so many great writers, such as Norman Shrapnel and Simon Hoggart, but what better job could there be for a satirist and lifelong politics nerd? Yet in February 2014, I imagined it would be a niche slot. Centre-stage, certainly, for the big set pieces of elections and budgets, but otherwise strictly for obsessives like me who could find humour in exchanges over proposed improvements to the Kettering bypass at transport questions on a Thursday morning.
Yet almost from the day I started, it was as if our politicians had chosen to overdose on psychedelics. The surreal rapidly became the all too real. Sketches that used to be comedic diversions, lighthearted puncturing of pomposity, incompetence and duplicity through exaggeration and flights of imagination, became almost straightforward reportage. I didn’t have to make anything up, I just had to more or less write down what people said and claim the laughs for myself. A transcription service, if you like.
Continue reading...Exclusive: leaked briefing note advises candidates not to sign up to non-approved pledges – but supporting shooting is allowed
Conservative candidates in the general election will be told not to sign up to specific pledges on protecting the NHS from privatisation and trade deals or tackling climate change, according to a leaked internal document from party headquarters.
The 11-page briefing note explains the party’s position on nine key areas and “strongly advises” prospective Tory MPs “against signing up to any pledges” unless they have been agreed from the centre.
Continue reading...Chinese embassy appears to be coordinating efforts to curb academic freedom, say MPs
Universities are not adequately responding to the growing risk of China and other “autocracies” influencing academic freedom in the UK, the foreign affairs select committee has said.
The report, rushed out before parliament is suspended pending the election, finds “alarming evidence” of Chinese interference on UK campuses, adding some of the activity seeking to restrict academic freedom appears to be coordinated by the Chinese embassy in London.
Continue reading...Experts warn of dangerous consequences as nuclear deal continues to unravel
Iran has announced a tenfold increase in enriched uranium production as Tehran backs away from its nuclear deal with the west.
Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s atomic energy organisation, said enriched uranium production was now at 5kg per day, up from 450g two months ago. The announcement coincided with the 40th anniversary of the Iranian takeover of the US embassy.
Continue reading...No 10 refuses to clear release of report into Russian political interference before election
Boris Johnson was on Monday night accused of presiding over a cover-up after it emerged that No 10 refused to clear the publication of a potentially incendiary report examining Russian infiltration in British politics, including the Conservative party.
Downing Street indicated on Monday that it would not allow a 50-page dossier from the intelligence and security committee to be published before the election, prompting a string of complaints over its suppression.
Continue reading...Donald Trump says he would like to see his 'friends' Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage form a pact to secure a pro-Brexit parliamentary majority in the general election. Farage announced on Sunday he would not stand in next month's election, choosing instead to campaign nationally against Johnson's Brexit deal. His Brexit party will stand in every seat on 12 December, which has been seen as a potential setback to Johnson.
The president said Johnson was 'the right man for the time ... He's tough, he's smart and I think he's going to do something.'
'What I'd like to see is for Nigel and Boris to come together,' he added. 'I think that's a possibility.'
Continue reading...Exclusive: Labour leader says debate is over as he seeks to shift focus to social justice and climate
Jeremy Corbyn has told his fractious shadow cabinet “the debate is over” on Brexit, as he seeks to stamp his authority on the general election campaign and shift the focus to social justice and the climate emergency.
Speaking to the Guardian in the south-west London seat of Putney, the Labour leader claimed he had instructed frontbench colleagues to fall into line, after divisions over Brexit sparked a furious row over whether to go for an election.
Continue reading...Cross-party MPs vow to ‘promote compassion’ as part of #StopTheNastiness campaign
Leading politicians from major parties have signed a pledge to avoid hateful language during the general election campaign, as a growing number of MPs cite relentless abuse as their reason for stepping down from parliament.
The group Compassion in Politics has launched #StopTheNastiness, which aims to encourage candidates to “campaign with respect, call out hate, and promote compassion” over the next six weeks. It also urges the public to contact their local representatives and ask them to back the pledge, and calls on the media to avoid exacerbating abuse.
Continue reading...Labour’s candidate Ali Milani, 25, hopes student vote and Heathrow ‘betrayal’ could deliver shock result
If the ancient wood-panelled walls of the Crown and Treaty in Uxbridge could talk, they would speak to the perils of crossing parliament.
In the heart of Boris Johnson’s west London constituency, this former manor house hosted talks over the ill-fated treaty of Uxbridge in 1645, an abortive attempt to end the first English civil war, which arose from a battle between parliament and the executive and ultimately led to Charles I losing his head.
Continue reading...Prime minister accused of ‘sitting on information’ after EU referendum
Boris Johnson knew of Vote Leave’s overspend during the 2016 EU referendum, but appears to have failed to tell the authorities, according to explosive new claims from a senior MP. The payment was subsequently ruled to be illegal.
Ian Lucas revealed that he has seen correspondence obtained during the parliamentary inquiry into disinformation and democracy which showed that Johnson’s most senior aide, Dominic Cummings, told the Electoral Commission that the prime minister, and his cabinet colleague Michael Gove, knew of the overspend by the pro-Brexit organisation.
Continue reading...Chair of intelligence and security committee says dossier has facts ‘germane’ to election
Dominic Grieve has called for the publication of a report on Russian meddling in the democratic process to be published before the general election, saying it contains knowledge “germane” to voters.
The cross-party intelligence and security committee had expected Boris Johnson to approve publication of the 50-page dossier by Thursday.
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