Category Archives: Politics

UK must decide next step on Brexit, says France’s Europe minister

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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.

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Tory leadership: Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt at Exeter hustings – live news

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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”.

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‘Despicable act’: May confronts Putin over Salisbury poisoning

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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.

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Beijing will not rest until it controls Hong Kong. We must keep fighting | Joshua Wong and Johnson Yeung

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In Hong Kong, we have pushed back against the extradition bill. But China is finding other ways to attack our freedom

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

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Vauxhall Astra to be built in UK if ministers avoid no-deal Brexit

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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.

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Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal claims rubbished by Guy Verhofstadt

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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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‘Warren’s to lose’: who won the first Democratic debate? | Panelists

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Bold ideas on the debate stage in Miami – and an unexpected breakout star. Here’s the verdict from our panelists

Generously speaking, Democratic presidential candidates tonight spent a little less than 10 minutes after nearly an hour and a half had gone by answering a handful of direct questions about a climate crisis that could make large swathes of the planet horrifically uninhabitable by the end of this century. (NBC’s technical difficulties took nearly as long.) The best you can say is that tonight’s climate bit was still longer than the time spent on climate during the entirety of the 2016 debates.

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Boris Johnson: chances of no-deal Brexit are ‘a million-to-one against’

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Tory leadership frontrunner’s claim comes one day after he said UK will leave EU ‘come what may, do or die’

Boris Johnson has said the chances of a no-deal Brexit are a “million-to-one against”, despite promising to leave on 31 October whether or not he has managed to strike a new agreement with the European Union.

Johnson, the frontrunner to be prime minister, told a hustings that the chances of a no-deal Brexit were vanishingly small, as he believed there was a mood in the EU and among MPs to pass a new Brexit deal.

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Theresa May to meet Vladimir Putin at G20 summit in Japan

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Russian president aiming to improve relations with Britain, Kremlin says

Vladimir Putin will meet Theresa May at this week’s G20 summit in Japan with a view to seeking improved relations between the countries, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

The outgoing UK prime minister’s spokesman stressed that the meeting with the Russian president did not represent a normalisation of ties.

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Rory Stewart: Boris Johnson win would bring DfID tenure to ‘heartbreaking’ end

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Development minister fears impact of no-deal Brexit on UK role in reducing global poverty

Rory Stewart has said it would be “heartbreaking” to leave his job as international development secretary were Boris Johnson to become the next prime minister.

Stewart, an anti no-deal candidate who was knocked out of the Tory leadership contest after last week after a television debate, has vowed not to serve in a Johnson cabinet.

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Jeremy Hunt says Boris Johnson can’t be trusted on Brexit promises

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Foreign secretary says Conservative leadership rival cannot fulfil promises

Jeremy Hunt has suggested there is “no trust” in Boris Johnson to fulfil his promises on Brexit, telling the BBC he believes he has the better personality to be prime minister.

Speaking after a war of words with his Conservative leadership rival, whom Hunt branded a coward for turning down a debate with him on Sky News on Tuesday night, Hunt said 31 October was a “fake deadline” and could lead to a snap general election.

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Boris Johnson will not say who released photo with partner, or when it was taken

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Frontrunner to be PM refuses to comment on picture that emerged in wake of row

Boris Johnson has repeatedly refused to say whether his campaign team passed a photograph of him and his partner to newspapers as a PR strategy during a radio interview which saw the Tory leadership frontrunner quizzed again about his personal life.

Speaking to LBC, Johnson refused at least half a dozen times to comment on the photo of himself and Carrie Symonds seemingly sitting in the garden of a pub. He would not answer when the host, Nick Ferrari, pressed: “This is quite an old picture isn’t it?”

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Boris Johnson begins media blitz but refuses to discuss family life

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Tory leadership frontrunner has faced mounting criticism that he has been dodging public scrutiny

Boris Johnson broke cover on Monday night, vowing he would never reveal the events that led to the police being called to the home of his partner Carrie Symonds last week, after neighbours reported a loud row between the couple.

Amid mounting criticism that the frontrunner in the Conservative leadership campaign has been dodging public scrutiny, Johnson is now understood to be rolling out a “media blitz” for the coming days, beginning with five closely controlled events on Tuesday, in an attempt to defy accusations that he is in hiding.

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Woman ‘poses as dead cyclist’s aunt’ to oppose new London bike lane

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Heather Cairns says woman ‘masqueraded’ as her daughter Eilidh’s aunt at council meeting

A woman posed as the aunt of a cyclist who was killed in London in order to oppose plans for a new segregated bike lane, according to the victim’s mother.

Eilidh Cairns, a television producer from Alnwick in Northumberland, died aged 30 in 2009 after being hit by a tipper truck while riding in Notting Hill in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

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German Greens are on the rise. But the nation is divided | Anna Lehmann

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The party has to address the concerns of groups beyond its urban base if it is to ultimately succeed

The Greens in Germany could hardly believe it. Leading party members were bouncing up and down when the public broadcasters sent the first, still uncertain results on the evening of the European Union elections. The green column rose to 20% and above, close to the black column of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, which ended up with 22.6%. Party manager Michael Kellner was beaming as the numbers came in.

Over the course of the evening it became clear that the Green party had nearly doubled its seats in the European parliament and had overtaken the Social Democrats, the former “people’s party”. A historic victory for us, a historic disaster for them.

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Brexit: alternative to Irish backstop ‘feasible in three years’

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Report on keeping border open, backed by Nicky Morgan and Greg Hands, suggests special economic zones

Alternative arrangements for keeping the Irish border open in the event of a no-deal Brexit or the collapse of future trade talks with the EU could be up and running within three years, a report concludes.

The interim report by a non-government organisation calling itself the Alternative Arrangements Commission will be unveiled at a special conference on the Irish border in London on Monday.

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Ekrem İmamoğlu defeats AKP in Istanbul mayoral election

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Voters embrace CHP party campaign bridging religious, class and ethnic divides

Turkey’s opposition has won a high-stakes rerun of the Istanbul mayoral election, a serious blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and a landmark victory in a country where many feared democracy was failing.

Shortly after initial results pointing to a landslide win for the opposition coalition candidate, Ekrem İmamoğlu, emerged on Sunday evening, the candidate of the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP), Binali Yıldırım, conceded and congratulated his rival.

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Jeremy Hunt piles pressure on Boris Johnson to explain police visit

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Tory leadership candidate says his rival ‘needs to show he can answer difficult questions’

Jeremy Hunt has joined calls for Boris Johnson to explain why police were called to his home after an argument with his partner by warning that his Conservative leadership rival “needs to show he can answer difficult questions”.

The foreign secretary followed cabinet ministers, backbenchers and a major party donor in demanding that the frontrunner to succeed Theresa May speak out about the loud, late-night altercation with his partner, Carrie Symonds, which was heard by several neighbours.

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Tory faithful trust Johnson more than Hunt, says poll

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Conservative voters regard the favourite as better at making decisions and negotiation

Boris Johnson is more trusted by Tory members to make big decisions and negotiate with the EU than Jeremy Hunt – as well as being regarded as more competent than the current foreign secretary – according to the latest Opinium poll for The Observer.

The findings reinforce Johnson’s position as the strong favourite to succeed Theresa May when Tory party members vote on who should be the next prime minister in the coming weeks. Last week Conservative MPs voted to send Johnson and Hunt into the final round of the contest.

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Boris Johnson under fire over row with partner as top Tories raise fears

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Leadership campaign falters as he refuses to respond to questions at hustings about late-night argument with Carrie Symonds

Boris Johnson was struggling to keep his campaign to become prime minister on course on Saturday night as he repeatedly refused to explain why police had been called to his home after a loud, late-night altercation with his partner.

Senior Tories were quick to raise fresh concerns over the former foreign secretary’s suitablity for No 10 as the favourite to succeed Theresa May stonewalled question after question about the incident at the first hustings of the leadership contest in front of party members.

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