Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Good morning and welcome to the politics live blog.
Yesterday was a fairly extraordinary day on both sides of the Atlantic. Just hours after the supreme court handed down its ruling declaring Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament was “unlawful, void and of no effect”, Nancy Pelosi announced an official impeachment inquiry into US president Donald Trump. Quite the day for brash, blonde world leaders.
Majority of funding will go to UN population fund, which works across countries with highest maternal death rates
The UK government has pledged to spend an extra £600m to support family planning programmes in some of the world’s poorest countries.
Most of the money, which will be rolled out between 2020 and 2025, will be given to the UN population fund (UNFPA), which works in 150 countries, including the 46 with the highest rates of maternal deaths and lowest rates of modern contraceptive use.
NCA to take no further action over £8m funding claims against Brexit campaign group
The National Crime Agency says it has found no evidence of criminality after investigating a series of claims against the Brexit campaign group Leave.EU and the businessman Arron Banks.
Investigators interviewed Banks and the Leave.EU campaign’s chief executive, Liz Bilney, as they looked into potential offences concerning £8m of EU referendum campaign funding.
UK reverses decision not to send minister to meeting, a snub that was seen as a fresh sign of how Brexit is shifting foreign policy
The UK has moved to douse claims that it was snubbing a major Franco-German initiative on multilateralism announcing it would after all send a minister to the launch of An Alliance for Multilateralism, due to be attended by as many as 40 ministers.
Following diplomatic claims that Downing Street was distancing itself from the Franco-German plan by not sending a high level representative to the launch in New York on Thursday, the foreign office announced late on Monday that Lord Ahmad would now attend.
PM says president could come up with better pact, in apparent shift from European position
Boris Johnson has sided with Donald Trump in calling the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran a “bad deal”, while praising the US president as a “very brilliant negotiator” capable of achieving a better one.
The prime minister’s remarks, made in a NBC interview, marked a sharp change in UK rhetoric. British leaders, including Johnson, had until now upheld the 2015 accord between six major powers and Iran as a major diplomatic achievement.
PM says adverse supreme court ruling would not stop him proroguing parliament again
Boris Johnson has refused to rule out suspending parliament again if the supreme court rules on Tuesday that he abused his powers as prime minister in doing so earlier this month.
The British prime minister, who is in New York for a UN summit, also indicated he would not feel obliged to resign if the justices rule he misled the Queen in his reasons for suspending parliament.
Offers from Spain and Turkey to save firm reportedly had no support from Westminster
The government has been accused of sealing Thomas Cook’s fate, as claims emerged that the Spanish and Turkish governments had offered to help save the stricken tour operator, only for the deal to disintegrate due to a lack of support in Westminster.
As recriminations flew, government-chartered aircraft began flying 150,000 stranded Thomas Cook customers back to the UK after the 178-year-old tour operator collapsed into liquidation in the early hours of Monday under the weight of its debts.
Labour MP says Canadian PM’s scandal reveals ‘even liberal leaders’ succumb to racism
The Labour MP David Lammy has blamed the decision by Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, to blacken his face at a party on pervasive racist tropes that even “liberal leaders” succumb to, as he made calls to tackle white supremacy and privilege.
Speaking at a fringe event at the party’s conference in Brighton, the anti-racism campaigner spoke out about old pictures that have emerged of Trudeau in blackface, including one of him dressed up for an Arabian Nights themed gala while still a teacher in 2001.
En route to the UN general assembly in New York, prime minister raises possibility that the British military could become involved
The UK now believes Iran was responsible for a major attack earlier this month on Saudi Arabian oil facilities, Boris Johnson has said, also raising the possibility that the British military could become involved in helping secure the Saudis against future aggression.
Speaking to reporters on his plane en route to the UN general assembly (UNGA) in New York, the prime minister said there was “a very high degree of probability” that Iran was behind the drone and missile attack two major oil installation on 14 September.
In her speech to the conference Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, said Tory policies were to blame for rising crime. She said:
There is no question that the cuts in police numbers have contributed to the rise in crime. But other contributors are the cuts to education, the increase in school exclusions, all the zero-hours contracts, all the homelessness and inequality. All the cuts in mental health services have also played their part.
And these are all Tory policies. When they say they will lead the fight against crime – do not believe a word of it. They are the ones who have created the conditions for rising serious and violent crime. Senior police officers are increasingly going on record and saying that cuts to public services have created an environment where crime flourishes. Cuts have consequences. You cannot keep people safe on the cheap.
We will welcome refugees, including child refugees.
We will proudly uphold the torture ban and treat the victims of torture with humanity, not detentions and deportations.
Speaking at a fringe meeting about how Labour can win back support in its heartlands, Jon Trickett – shadow Cabinet Office minister and MP for Hemsworth – said he was fed up with the argument that the people who voted for Brexit were from “backwards” communities in the north of England. He said:
Here’s the point I want to make. Those held-back communities – the heartland communities – can be found in Hastings, they can be found in Hackney and they can be found in Hartlepool.
A very senior member of the Labour party, she said to me: ‘Well, no wonder they’re all coming down south, the young people, because you can’t be gay up north.’ That was said by somebody whose name you will have mentioned several times in the past few weeks.
Those people who are suggesting that the people who voted for Brexit did not know what they were voting for infantilises 17 million people.
Sir Alastair Graham, former standards watchdog chief, says there is prima facie case of PM having broken code of conduct
Boris Johnson is under growing pressure to explain why he allegedly failed to declare an interest in the allocation of public money to a close friend while he was mayor of London.
The Sunday Times reported that a company run by Jennifer Arcuri, an American technology entrepreneur and friend of Johnson, was given tens of thousands of pounds in public funds and access to overseas trade missions led by Johnson during the prime minister’s time as mayor.
Senior shadow ministers publicly defy Jeremy Corbyn with calls for Labour to back remain
Jeremy Corbyn was struggling to contain an open revolt by some of his most senior shadow ministers, MPs and party activists last night as anger over his refusal to back a policy of remaining in the EU threatened to wreck the Labour conference.
Downing Street tells Brussels negotiators documents must not be shared with 27 states
Downing Street’s secrecy over its “underwhelming” Brexit proposals has caused a fresh rupture in the negotiations in Brussels.
The row centres on a demand that the EU’s negotiating team treat a long-awaited cache of documents outlining the UK’s latest ideas as “Her Majesty’s government property”.
Justin Trudeau has apologised for the second time in 24 hours for wearing blackface – but said he was unable to confirm whether there were further instances yet to come to light. The Canadian prime minister claimed he was 'wary about being definitive' about how many times he had done so. Trudeau said he recognised his behaviour had been 'absolutely unacceptable' and caused hurt to minority communities.
Trudeau's re-election campaign was rocked when Time magazine published an image of him wearing blackface at a 2001 'Arabian nights' party. In an apology, Trudeau admitted to wearing blackface while at high school. Hours later, Global News published a video appearing to show a separate incident with Trudeau wearing dark skin makeup on his face, arms and legs.
Justin Trudeau has been branded 'hurtful' and 'hypocritical' by leaders of Canada's main opposition parties after images emerged of him in blackface.
Jagmeet Singh, leader of the Canadian New Democrats, said they showed a pattern of behaviour that 'makes light of the struggles people face' and raised questions about Trudeau's character. Andrew Scheer, leader of the Canadian Conservatives, said Trudeau had 'lost the moral authority to govern'.
Time magazine published an image of Trudeau wearing blackface as part of an Aladdin costume at a 2001 function at a school where he was teaching. Trudeau apologised and also acknowledged another incident where he had worn blackface during high school. Hours later, Global News published a video clip, apparently of another incident in which he had worn dark skin makeup.
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including the final day of the supreme court hearing to determine if Boris Johnson’s five-week suspension of parliament was lawful
From Joshua Rozenberg, the legal commentator
It looks as if Lady Hale hopes to produce a reasonably complete judgment over the weekend representing the view of the court — or of a majority if they are split. Individual sections could be written by different justices. Much better than a bald decision with reasons to follow.
Joanna Cherry says she would like the court to be as clear as possible about what should happen next if it finds against the government. She said parliament should sit again as soon as possible.
At the moment parliament is not due to reconvene until three weeks on Monday, 14 October.
Supreme court witnesses clash of two Tory PMs amid threats prorogation could be repeated despite verdict
Downing Street put out “misleading” statements about the prorogation of parliament and published excuses for Boris Johnson’s five-week suspension of the Commons that are “not the true reasons”, the supreme court has been told by a lawyer for the former prime minister John Major.
The extraordinary clash of evidence between a former Conservative prime minister and the current one surfaced on the third day of an emergency supreme court hearing before 11 justices about whether Johnson’s five-week prorogation of parliament was lawful.
Women’s affairs officials meet in Nairobi to devise fresh strategy on ending inequality
Ministers from across the Commonwealth are meeting in Kenya this week to discuss ways to accelerate efforts to end gender inequality.
Gender and women’s affairs ministers from 53 states will explore the gains and the gaping holes in progress in several key areas, including women in leadership, ending violence and increasing access to family planning services.
Ultimatum comes as sources say PM was ‘surprised’ by levels of checks on the border
Boris Johnson has been set a two-week deadline to table a plan for replacing the Irish backstop as further embarrassing details emerged of the prime minister’s chaotic visit to Luxembourg.
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, and Finland’s prime minister, Antti Rinne, told reporters in Paris that they were both “concerned about what is happening in Britain”.