Category Archives: Politics

Brexit: Cable to step down as Lib Dem leader to make way for next generation – Politics live

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Majority of 211 for government motion means Theresa May will now seek extension from EU for departure date

The Irish premier, Leo Varadkar, has said London needs to tell the EU about what purpose an extension would serve and how long it would last.

Varadkar said he welcomed Westminster’s vote to extend Article 50 as it reduces the likelihood of a cliff edge, no-deal Brexit at the end of the month.

There seems to be two emerging options – ratification of the withdrawal agreement followed by a short extension into the summer, or a much longer extension that would give the UK time and space to decide what they want to do, including considering options that had been taken off the table like participation in the customs union and single market.

I think we need to be open to any request they make, listen attentively and be generous in our response. This matter will be now discussed further at next week’s European Council meeting and hopefully we will have more clarity from London in the meantime about their intentions.

Why EUCO should allow an extension, if the UK gov and her majority in the House of Commons are not ready for a cross-party approach to break the current deadlock ? https://t.co/lj1Tm4kmIg

Cable has now released a statement on his impending departure:

I indicated last year that, once the Brexit story had moved on and we had fought this year’s crucial local elections in 9,000 seats across England, it would be time for me to make way for a new generation. I set considerable store by having an orderly, business-like, succession unlike the power struggles in the other parties.

So I wanted you, our members, to know that, assuming Parliament does not collapse into an early general election, I will ask the party to begin a leadership contest in May.

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Mind the gender pay gap: Berlin women to get public transport discount

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Gender-specific “Frauenticket” will be 21% cheaper than usual and available on 18 March in stunt to flag German pay gap

Women travelling on Berlin’s metro, buses or trams will pay 21% less than men next Monday in a stunt to boost the visibility of Germany’s gaping gender pay gap.

The city’s public transport operator, BVG, said its “Frauenticket” will be available on 18 March only, to mark Equal Pay Day in Germany. Under the slogan “Mind the pay gap”, it said its cut-price ticket was intended to flag the 21% difference between men and women’s average earnings, one of the biggest gender pay gaps in Europe.

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MPs told to pass Brexit deal by next Wednesday or face long article 50 extension – as it happened

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MPs vote by 321 to 278 to rule out no deal despite government whipping Tory MPs against motion, following 312-308 win for Spelman amendment

Folks, it’s time to wrap up the blog for the night.

I’ll be back in a few hours to launch a new Politics live blog, bringing you all of Thursday’s Brexit and other political news. A reminder of what’s on the agenda for Thursday:

There have been some remarkable turns of phrase from commentators and politicians in their attempts to capture just what exactly has gone on in British politics in the last few days.

This is a turd of a deal, which has now been taken away and polished, and is now a polished turd. But it might be the best turd that we’ve got.

The House of Commons was a Benny Hill chase on acid, running through a Salvador Dali painting in a spaceship on its way to infinity.

A vague, and vain attempt to make sense of the great mad nights in British political history.

Sketch here.https://t.co/4zCw505yNv pic.twitter.com/ZENHV8wTnz

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Syria, Skripal and MH17: how Bellingcat broke the news – podcast

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In 2012, Eliot Higgins began blogging about the news from his front room in Leicester. Seven years later, his investigative website Bellingcat has been responsible for revealing key aspects of some of the world’s biggest stories. And: Jonathan Freedland on the result of Theresa May’s meaningful vote

Eliot Higgins first became known for his investigations into the Syrian civil war, which he published on his blog Brown Moses. Higgins then went on to found Bellingcat, an investigative website that uses open source tools to expose the truth behind global news stories.

Higgins, who is the subject of a new documentary, tells Anushka Asthana how he and his international team of volunteers have gone about investigating some of the biggest stories of recent times, including the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in Ukraine and the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the UK. He examines the importance of this type of work in an era of fake news and the impact it has had on his professional and personal life.

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Brexit: DUP and ERG say they cannot support May as MPs debate deal – Politics live

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PM puts new plan to Commons as Geoffrey Cox says legal risk over backstop ‘remains unchanged’

Boris Johnson, the Brexiter former foreign secretary, is speaking in the debate now. He says he had hoped that the EU would make the wholly reasonable changes the UK wanted. But the EU refused to do that.

Like Adam and Eve, they sowed a fig leaf that failed to cover the embarrassment of the UK, he says.

This deal has now reached the end of the road. If it is rejected tonight, I hope that it will be put to bed.

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May wins ‘improved’ Brexit deal but it may not be enough for MPs

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British PM secures ‘legally binding changes’ in Strasbourg talks with Jean-Claude Juncker

Theresa May has called for MPs to “come together” to back her deal after claiming to have secured the legally binding changes parliament wanted to ensure the EU cannot trap the UK in the Irish backstop and a permanent customs union.

But within minutes of the start of a late-night joint press conference in Strasbourg, those words rang hollow, as Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission president, conceded the EU had not agreed to the prime minister’s central demand.

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The Guardian view on the Israeli elections: Netanyahu debases his office – again | Editorial

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Next month’s poll is a referendum on a prime minister who has triumphed by fuelling divisions

Israel is not a state of all its citizens, Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu declared on Sunday. His words should be shocking, but in truth they made explicit the message of last year’s nation state law, rendering Palestinians in Israel second-class citizens. They would be shameful if he were capable of shame. Mr Netanyahu’s campaign for re-election in the face of a bribery and fraud indictment shows he is not. He has prospered by fostering division.

This latest act of cynical bigotry is simply par for the course. The same is true of Mr Netanyahu’s awful turn to far-right parties for support. Mr Netanyahu orchestrated the merger of the racist anti-Arab Jewish Power and the pro-settler Jewish Home parties to help them pass the electoral threshold and him put together a coalition. Jewish Power includes followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose Kach party was outlawed in Israel and is designated by the US and EU as a terror organisation.

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Theresa May battles to save Brexit deal ahead of Commons vote

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Eurosceptics could move against the PM if Commons defeat leads to Brexit delay

Theresa May was battling on Sunday night to save her Brexit deal and prolong her premiership, amid signs Eurosceptics could move against her if there is a delay to leaving the EU.

The prime minister’s position looked precarious as she was unable to announce any progress in talks with the EU less than 48 hours before her House of Commons vote on the deal.

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Britain’s flawed dialogue with Sudan regime | Letters

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The UK should call for an immediate political transition to end nearly 30 years of repressive rule, say eight signatories including Lutz Oette

We wholeheartedly agree with your editorial (7 March) stating that the demonstrators in Sudan calling daily for freedom and the rule of law “do not want a different version of this regime, or more conflict”. The problem is indeed the regime, not just a president indicted for genocide by the international criminal court and for whom, despite their public claims to support the ICC, many external actors seek a “soft landing” in the name of stability. Sudan is not stable for the Sudanese people.

Nevertheless, Britain has engaged in a flawed strategic dialogue with the regime. It has spearheaded the Khartoum process, a supposed partnership with the brutal and corrupt Sudanese regime to “manage” (in other words, to stem) migration to Europe. That process relies on the notorious rapid support forces, mainly former Janjaweed, which the ICC has implicated in war crimes in Darfur. Most Sudanese migrants are in any case refugees fleeing their repressive regime, including the very forces now tasked with capturing them.

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Brexit secretary met Labour MPs championing second referendum plan

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Stephen Barclay held talks with Peter Kyle and Phil Wilson over their plan to break Brexit deadlock

The cabinet minister in charge of Brexit has held detailed talks with Labour MPs who are championing plans for a second referendum – amid signs of mounting desperation inside Theresa May’s government about what to do if the prime minister’s deal suffers another crushing defeat on Tuesday.

Stephen Barclay, the Brexit secretary, called the meeting with Labour’s Peter Kyle and Phil Wilson in Downing Street last Thursday as negotiations with Brussels to resolve the deadlock over the Northern Ireland backstop floundered and ministers privately began to concede that May’s plan could be doomed.

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Shamima Begum: Sajid Javid labelled ‘moral coward’ over baby death

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Former DPP accuses home secretary of treating UK like a ‘banana republic’ over decision to strip Isis bride of citizenship

Syrian camps: vulnerable children of Isis ignored by the outside world

Sajid Javid has been accused of moral cowardice and “treating the UK as a banana republic” in pursuit of his leadership ambitions following the death of Jarrah, the three-week-old son of Isis bride Shamima Begum.

A Church of England bishop and a former director of public prosecutions led the chorus of outrage directed at the home secretary as demand grew for him to review his controversial decision to strip the 19-year-old of British citizenship – a move that left her stateless and her baby in legal limbo.

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‘Find them a way to live’: the deadly plight of Isis refugee children

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Up to 3,000 children born to foreign nationals like Shamima Begum may be at risk in Syria

In a place the British government says remains too difficult for diplomats to reach, scores of its officials have been present for at least the past two years.

MI6 officers, as well as SAS troopers and commanders have formed strong ties with local Kurdish officials in north-eastern Syria, where two refugee camps teeming with the remnants of Islamic State (Isis) are located.

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Shamima Begum baby death ‘a stain on conscience of UK government’

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Sajid Javid accused of appeasing populists by ordering UK citizenship to be revoked

The home secretary, Sajid Javid, has come under fire for his decision to revoke the British citizenship of Shamima Begum, whose baby son has died in a Syrian refugee camp.

Begum, 19, left the UK in 2015 with two school friends to join Islamic State in Syria and said last month she wanted to return home. But Javid insisted he would do all in his power to prevent her coming back and ordered her citizenship to be revoked.

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Don’t try to silence populists – listen to them

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The Guardian’s textual analysis of political speeches from the past 20 years has resulted in some very surprising findings

Interactive: the rise and rise of populist language

Ever since Donald Trump’s presidential election and the UK’s Brexit vote, scholars have been trying to get a handle on populism. Who counts as populist? How does populism work? What are the conditions in which populists come to power or win referendums, and what tends to happen once they do?

Fortunately, political scientists have been asking these questions for decades – particularly those like me with an interest in Latin America, where populism has deep roots stretching back to the mid-20th century with leaders such as Brazil’s Getúlio Vargas and Argentina’s Juan Perón.

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‘A slap in the face’: Barnier sets May on course for Brexit defeat

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Prime minister rebuffed as she pleads for last-ditch EU concessions before MPs vote

Theresa May appears set for a second humiliating defeat when she brings her Brexit deal back to parliament next week, after the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, rebuffed her pleas for last-minute concessions.

The prime minister urged MPs to “get it done” and back her deal, in an impassioned speech at a dockside warehouse in the leave-voting town of Grimsby.

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UK vulnerable to money laundering on a massive scale, find MPs

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‘Fragmented’ system inadequate to prevent influx of dirty money, says Treasury committee

Hundreds of billions of pounds could be being laundered through the UK every year, but the government is unable to give a precise figure of the scale of the problem, MPs have found.

In a report on economic crime, the Treasury committee said the scale of the problem in the UK was very uncertain, with estimates ranging from tens of billions of pounds upwards.

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Karen Bradley ‘not fit to be NI secretary’ after Troubles comment, former police ombudsman says – Politics live

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen

Amber Rudd has apologised. According to the Press Association, she said she was “mortified at my clumsy language” and has apologised for describing Diane Abbott as “coloured”. (See 2.42pm.)

Amber Rudd, the work and pensions secretary, has referred to Diane Abbott as “coloured”. As Patrick Maguire reports at the Staggers, she used the term in an interview with Jeremy Vine on Radio 2. Speaking about the abuse directed at MPs (see 1.12pm), Rudd said:

It definitely is worse if you’re a woman, and it’s worst of all if you’re a coloured woman. I know that Diane Abbott gets a huge amount of abuse, and I think that’s something we need to continue to call out.

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Backstop may threaten Northern Irish human rights, says Cox

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Attorney general’s claims met with incredulity as talks to break Brexit deadlock stall

Geoffrey Cox is facing a backlash in Brussels and Dublin after claiming the Irish backstop posed a risk to the human rights of people in Northern Ireland.

In the latest round of negotiations in Brussels, the attorney general told Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, the arrangement could potentially breach the European convention on human rights (EHCR).

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To deserve our respect, politicians must drop their populist rhetoric | Cas Mudde

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Talk of ‘the people’ and ‘elites’ is everywhere, Guardian research has revealed. It’s time to drop this simplistic discourse

Interactive: the rise and rise of populist language

An exciting new research project by the Guardian and Team Populism shows empirically what many have asserted and felt: the world is getting more populist. Professor Kirk Hawkins, from Brigham Young University in Utah, and 46 researchers analysed 728 public addresses by 140 presidents and prime ministers in 40 countries, in Europe and the Americas. This is the largest comparative project of this nature I am aware of, and a treasure trove for academics and journalists.

The study shows not just that the number of populist leaders has doubled, but that the average populist content of political leaders’ speeches has doubled too. Where political speeches were on average “not populist” in 2004, they are approaching “somewhat populist” today. To be clear, most of the political leaders studied were “not populist”, but that is to be expected of this particular subset of politicians, ie national leaders. Even today, populism is still primarily a feature of political challengers, who were not included in this study.

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