Shadow minister says research shows even a no-deal Brexit would need Commons approval
Keir Starmer has warned Boris Johnson that MPs will “do everything to stand in his way” if he tries to force through a “bad deal or a no-deal Brexit”.
Johnson, the frontrunner in the race to be Britain’s next prime minister, has suggested he will “disaggregate” Theresa May’s “otherwise defunct” withdrawal agreement and implement its less contentious elements.
Continue reading...Prosecutors obtain warrant to arrest man over Denis Donaldson shooting in 2006
Irish authorities are preparing to charge a man for the murder of Denis Donaldson, a British spy within the IRA who was shot dead in 2006.
The news emerged on Wednesday when an Irish police officer told an inquest in Letterkenny, County Donegal, that prosecutors had obtained a warrant to arrest and charge the suspect with murder.
Continue reading...Beethoven’s Ode to Joy is a powerful symbol of love, humanitarianism and European unity. The Brexit party’s rejection of the EU anthem shuns our shared history
Yesterday, Brexit party MEPs led by Nigel Farage turned their backs while the anthem of the European Union played at a ceremony to mark the opening of the European Parliament. Their behaviour has been met with disdain by many, with #notinmyname trending on Twitter. This was an emotionally provocative act at a time of political sensitivity, and there is something about the shunning of the anthem itself, an instrumental arrangement of the Ode to Joy from the final movement of Beethoven’s iconic Ninth Symphony, that makes the demonstration particularly inflammatory.
The symphony has a long and chequered history: it has been a symbol of both dark and light. A favourite work of Hitler’s (he liked to hear it on birthdays), the Ninth was also used in Nazi propaganda films, and the closing choral section was performed at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It was also chosen as the national anthem of the Republic of Rhodesia under the racist administration of Ian Smith. This darkness has been appropriated in film soundtracks: the symphony is associated with extreme violence in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, and is a recurring motif representing Alan Rickman’s cultured villain Hans Gruber in Die Hard.
Continue reading...Public accounts committee says plan at mercy of spending review delayed by Brexit
A £2bn project to open a road tunnel beneath the Stonehenge world heritage site in 2026 is being put at risk by uncertainty over how it will be financed, MPs have warned.
Ministers have claimed the scheme is affordable, deliverable and will improve Stonehenge by taking the sight and sound of lorries and cars away from the ancient monument and reducing traffic congestion.
Continue reading...Politics at home and spreading anti-China sentiment in US mean Britain has limited options in how it responds
The foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, will be cursing his timing about Hong Kong. Faced with growing criticism from human rights groups over the UK’s muted response to the treatment of protesters in its former colony, he decided last Tuesday to take two decisive steps: to call for an independent inquiry into the police handling of demonstrations on 12 June and to suspend export licences for crowd control equipment that could be used in future against protesters.
A statement promising unwavering commitment was also issued by the Foreign Office on the eve of demonstrations held on Monday to coincide with the 22nd anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen
Boris Johnson has been tweeting from Belfast.
Fantastic to be here in Northern Ireland speaking to our Conservative & Unionist family. I will never accept a deal that seeks to bind us in the EU’s customs union forever, or which divides our United Kingdom. In everything I do as PM, I will strengthen our union of four nations. pic.twitter.com/hI3QLkuxrw
And this is what Boris Johnson said at the Belfast hustings about a no-deal Brexit. (See 12.58pm.) He called it at one point a WTO Brexit (which is what Nigel Farage calls no-deal.) Johnson said:
I think we should be very positive about Brexit, and we should not be terrified of a no-deal Brexit. We should not be terrified of coming out on WTO terms.
We will make sure we look after the agricultural interest ... whatever is necessary to protect farmers. We will make sure that just-in-time supply chains are protected, and I think a lot of the negativity about a WTO Brexit has been wildly over-done.
Continue reading...It has become associated with online mobs and prudishness, but shame can be a powerful tool to change our culture and hold governments and corporations to account
“First holiday snap!” read the faux-cheery caption on the picture Laura Muldoon posted, featuring a bunch of young men on a plane, one flipping the V sign and another giving the finger to the camera.
Muldoon, who was flying on Ryanair with her girlfriend to Spain for a wedding, tweeted that she had just been called a “miserable bitch”, a “dyke” and a “lesbo” after complaining about rowdy behaviour from fellow passengers. The picture went viral and was picked up by newspapers. Before long, some of the alleged perpetrators had been identified publicly, their social media feeds combed for incriminating details, their mothers tracked down for comment – named and shamed, along with the airline whose staff Muldoon accused of failing to intervene sufficiently.
Continue reading...Claim that victims could return to Africa ‘wealthy and held in high regard’ sparked outrage
The Home Office is to rewrite guidance on handling asylum claims for women trafficked into the UK from Nigeria after it emerged the advice claimed victims could return to the African country “wealthy from prostitution” and “held in high regard”.
The comments were found in an official policy and information note on the trafficking of women from Nigeria, which is used by Home Office decision-makers dealing with protection and human rights claims.
Continue reading...Labour’s leader in House of Lords at head of cross-party effort to establish joint committee of MPs and peers
Labour’s leader in the House of Lords, Angela Smith, is spearheading a cross-party bid to force the government to set up a powerful new committee to report by September on the risks of a no-deal Brexit.
Both candidates in the race to be Britain’s next prime minister are saying they are prepared to take Britain out of the EU without a deal if they cannot secure concessions from Brussels.
Continue reading...PM says Britain must leave EU with ‘a good deal’ in apparent rebuke to ‘do or die’ comment
Theresa May has made a thinly veiled attack on Boris Johnson’s “do or die” approach to leaving the EU on 31 October, insisting that the right approach for Britain was to leave with a deal.
Attending her last EU summit in Brussels as prime minister on Sunday, May took aim at the approach of the Tory leadership frontrunner, who has taken an increasingly hardline approach in recent days.
Continue reading...Constitutional experts say new Tory leader could be blocked from becoming prime minister without a Commons majority
Boris Johnson could be stopped from becoming prime minister even if he is elected as the new Conservative leader, two of Britain’s leading constitutional experts have said.
With Tory MPs threatening to withdraw support for the party under his stewardship, Johnson is warned that he could be prevented from ever entering Downing Street should it become clear he cannot command a majority in the House of Commons.
Continue reading...Analysis highlights key to success of Farage party and identifies dozens of pro-Brexit bot accounts
The Brexit party used simple messaging, an active social media presence and a “overwhelmingly negative” attack to win the online battle before the European elections, according to a new analysis of the campaign.
Nigel Farage’s party accounted for 51% of all shared content on Facebook and Twitter during the campaign, despite only producing 13% of the content. The analysis, by the 89up digital agency, said the “scale of their success went beyond what we were expecting”.
Continue reading...The musky aroma hits you from the car park at the headquarters of Canopy Growth, the world’s largest cannabis company.
Inside this nondescript warehouse – an abandoned Hershey’s chocolate factory in Smiths Falls, Canada – awaits the stuff of a stoner’s wildest dreams. Myriad rooms teem with row upon row of bushy marijuana plants at various stages of maturity, under intense lamplight, swaying in the breeze of dozens of fans.
Continue reading...Prime minister urges open legal process over murder and raises Yemen concerns
Theresa May has raised concerns about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the humanitarian cost of the conflict in Yemen during a face-to-face meeting with the Saudi crown prince at the G20 summit in Osaka.
The prime minister held a bilateral meeting with Mohammed bin Salman on Saturday at what will be May’s final global summit before she steps down in July.
Continue reading...Amélie de Montchalin says EU 27 countries are not putting pressure on Britain over Brexit
France’s minister for European affairs, Amélie de Montchalin, has said it is up to the UK to decide the next step on Brexit and no single European Union country was pressuring London, least of all France.
Asked to respond to a report that Boris Johnson, the Conservative leadership favourite, had called the French “turds” over Brexit, De Montchalin declined to comment, saying she was unfamiliar with the word.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including the G20 summit and Tory leadership contest
On Iran, Mr Johnson said: “We need to very vigilant about Iran and that government.
“They are bent on all sorts of mischief in the region. One of the areas that Donald Trump talks sense, and there are many areas, it is right to work with the Americans and Europeans friends to constrain Iran in the region.
Boris Johnson said that stamp duty land tax in London was causing “huge problems” amid reports he is pondering abolishing the levy on homes worth less than £500,000 and reversing the stamp duty increases on more expensive homes.
On reports that he called the French “turds” in a BBC documentary aired last year that was cut, he responded “I have no recollection of this comment”.
PM addresses Russian leader at G20 over ‘wider pattern of unacceptable behaviour’
Theresa May has upbraided Vladimir Putin for the Salisbury poisoning, calling it a “truly despicable act”, during a frosty one-to-one meeting at the G20 summit in Osaka that is likely to be their last encounter.
After exchanging a handshake, during which May appeared stern, the pair held the first half of their 80-minute meeting alone, with only translators in the room.
Continue reading...Let’s put it in plain words: the people of Hong Kong haven’t defeated the proposed extradition law to China yet – we have only earned a small window to catch our breath. And so have the hardliners in the administration and the Chinese government.
Related: Hong Kong protesters hold noisy rally outside police headquarters
Continue reading...PSA Group’s decision is boost to British car industry and workers at Ellesmere Port plant
PSA Group said it will build its new Vauxhall Astra car at its Ellesmere Port plant but only on the condition the government secures a good Brexit deal.
The decision is a major boost for the embattled British car industry and the 1,100 employees at the plant, whose future had been thought to be dependent on winning the Astra contract.
Continue reading...EU Brexit coordinator likens Tory frontrunner’s claims to ‘false promises’ of referendum
Boris Johnson’s claims about the prospects of rewriting the Brexit deal have been compared by the European parliament’s Brexit coordinator to the “false promises, pseudo-patriotism and foreigner-bashing” he is said to have used to win the EU referendum.
The suggestion from the Conservative leadership frontrunner that he will be able to dump Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement, withhold the UK’s £39bn divorce bill and still negotiate a free-trade deal in Brussels was savaged by Guy Verhofstadt.
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