Category Archives: Politics

Grenfell survivors’ anger as police say no charges until 2021

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‘Extremely frustrating and disheartening’: investigation held up by public inquiry

Survivors and the bereaved from the Grenfell Tower fire have expressed their “extreme frustration” at the pace of justice after Scotland Yard admitted no charges were likely for at least two years.

Detectives investigating the possibility of manslaughter and corporate manslaughter offences said their investigation must take into account the public inquiry into the disaster, the second phase of which will not start until the end of this year. Inquiry lawyers have been swamped with 476,000 separate documents.

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Theresa May’s rhetoric can be as populist as Trump’s

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Brexit interventions have made British PM one of western Europe’s most populist orators

Theresa May has a reputation as a cautious and even robotic speaker. But a study that analysed speeches by world leaders has found that the British prime minister can be as populist – in her rhetoric at least – as Donald Trump, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán.

May’s public speeches were classified on average as at least “somewhat populist” in the research, which examined the discourse of prime ministers and presidents of all the major countries in Europe and the Americas in the last two decades. That made May the second-most populist female leader out of 138 heads of government since the turn of the century.

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Government defeated in Lords over meaningful vote on future trade deals – Politics live

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs

- The government are defeated on Labour’s amendment 13 in the House of Lords. The amendment makes it an “objective” of the government during negotiations to pursue a free trade deal allowing the UK to stay “in a customs union” with the EU after Brexit.

- The government was defeated on amendment 12 which called for parliamentary approval of future trade agreements.

Prince Charles has saluted the ”unparalleled bonds” between Britain and Ireland at a time of strained Anglo-Irish relations caused by Brexit.

The Prince of Wales was attending a special St Patrick’s Day dinner at the Irish embassy in London where British and Irish politicians mingled amid continuing uncertainty and recriminations over the Irish border issue in the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

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Javid: government must give police more resources to tackle knife crime

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Home secretary insists he will back chiefs despite cabinet clash with May

Sajid Javid has said the government must listen to police chiefs’ demand for more resources after they asked the home secretary for emergency cash to fund an immediate rise in the number of officers in England to tackle knife crime.

Javid met chief constables from seven of the areas worst affected by knife crime on Wednesday to discuss solutions to the problem, which has been described as a national emergency.

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Brexit meaningful vote will go ahead, says No 10, despite talks stalling

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PM’s spokesman says UK still looking for backstop changes after ‘robust’ discussions

Downing Street has insisted the meaningful vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal will go ahead as promised on Tuesday, despite negotiations in Brussels stumbling.

The prime minister’s spokesman repeated the line on Wednesday that the government is determined to secure “legally binding changes” to the Irish backstop, despite the attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, returning empty-handed from the talks.

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Donald Tusk claims anti-European forces meddled in Brexit vote

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European council president echoes Emmanuel Macron’s warning of malign influences

Donald Tusk has claimed external powers meddled in the Brexit vote as he called for EU member states to do more to protect the upcoming European elections.

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels with the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, the European council president said he agreed with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who used an editorial in the Guardian and other newspapers to call on European countries to be alert to malign influences.

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PM considers calls for vote on future relationship with EU

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Labour MP says idea could get dozens more MPs representing leave-voting areas to back deal

Theresa May is considering demands from Labour MPs for a parliamentary vote on the UK’s future relationship with the EU as the price for backing her Brexit deal, as she faces an uphill battle to win over Conservative Eurosceptics.

The prime minister has been told by Labour MPs that a package of greater guarantees for workers after Brexit, due to be unveiled on Wednesday, is only enough to convince perhaps three or four more to vote for her withdrawal bill.

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EU must learn from Brexit and reform, says Emmanuel Macron

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French president sets wide-ranging plans to overhaul EU in response to UK’s vote to leave

Dear Europe, Brexit is a lesson for all of us; it’s time for renewal

Emmanuel Macron has called for a new European agency to fight against international cyber-attacks and the manipulation of election campaigns, as well as a ban on foreign powers funding European parties, as he set out plans to overhaul the EU in response to Britain’s vote to leave.

The French president, a pro-European centrist, made the rare move of appealing directly to citizens across the bloc in a long letter published by the Guardian and 27 other newspapers.

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Chris Grayling’s terrible cost to the nation | Brief letters

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Chris Grayling | Otto Warmbier | Michele Hanson | Words for toilet | A Beatles Brexit

The likely cost of £2.7bn to the taxpayer due to Chris Grayling’s incompetence will ring hollow to the parents of disabled pupils in Leicestershire and across the country, who have been informed that their council can no longer provide transport to special schools and colleges post-16 due to lack of funds. The implications for these families, who already face substantial additional burdens of care due to cuts in respite and other services, may place another group in the foodbank queue.
Kate Warner
Claybrooke Parva, Leicestershire

• If Donald Trump genuinely believes that Kim Jong-un did not know of the brutal treatment of Otto Warmbier which led to his death (Report, 2 March), has he asked Kim to investigate the matter? And if not, why not?
Jeremy Beecham
Labour, House of Lords

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ERG warns May not to ‘bounce’ parliament over new Brexit deal

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Tory Eurosceptic group says at least two days will be needed to scrutinise new compromise on Irish backstop

Tory Brexiters are to demand at least two days to scrutinise any new offer from Brussels on the Irish backstop mechanism, warning the prime minister not to “bounce” the group into an early vote on her Brexit deal.

May has pledged that a vote will take place on her proposal, including any changes agreed in Brussels, by 12 March, though it is possible that Downing Street will seek to bring the vote forward to this week if changes can be secured.

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Brexit and bad weather puts UK farmers at risk of suicide, say charities

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Crisis networks report rise in number of farmers distressed by uncertainty over future

Charities have said British farmers are increasingly at risk of suicide owing in part to uncertainty over Brexit and the impact of bad weather.

Distressed farmers have made dozens of calls to crisis networks and some have been placed on “suicide watch”, according to the National Farmers’ Union (NFU).

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Estonia election: opposition Reform party wins but far-right support doubles

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Coalition-building begins after Kaja Kallas’s centre-right party wins 28.8% of vote

Estonia’s opposition liberal Reform party won Sunday’s general election, outpacing centre-left prime minister Juri Ratas’s party and a surging far-right that was buoyed by a backlash from mostly rural voters.

Led by former MEP Kaja Kallas, Reform garnered 28.8% of the vote, well ahead of Ratas’s Centre party on 23%. The far-right EKRE more than doubled its previous election score, at 17.8%, according to the full results posted on Estonia’s official state elections website.

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Revealed: Ukip membership surge shifts party to far right

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Investigation reveals exodus of party’s moderates and influx of more extreme newcomers

A surge in Ukip membership is shifting the party decisively towards the far right, as long-standing moderates are replaced by entrants attracted by an anti-Islam agenda based on street protest, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

Membership has risen by about 50% over the 12 months from a low point a year ago, rapidly reshaping the party in the image of its leader, Gerard Batten, who describes Islam as “a death cult” and has appointed the anti-Muslim activist Tommy Robinson as an adviser.

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US ambassador to UK under fire over defence of chlorinated chicken

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Critics say process Woody Johnson called ‘no-brainer’ is ‘harmful’ to nation’s health

The US ambassador to Britain, Woody Johnson, has come under fire from a leading food critic, a farming union and trade justice campaigners over his push to open up the UK to American farmers post-Brexit.

Jay Rayner, the BBC presenter, Observer columnist and MasterChef critic, said the UK should tell Johnson where he can stick chlorinated chicken, the US’s preferred approach for protecting consumers from pathogens such as salmonella and campylobacter.

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Meet the world’s first ‘minister for the unborn’

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The Welsh government has given Sophie Howe statutory powers to represent people who haven’t yet been born

Sophie Howe is a public servant with a particularly tricky constituency. The people she represents are remote and unresponsive and they never show up to voice an opinion or tell her if she’s doing a good job.

They don’t even vote. That’s because they haven’t yet been born. Howe is the world’s first – and only – future generations commissioner with statutory powers. She’s there to represent the unborn citizens of Wales.

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Barnier ‘working on legal add-on’ to Brexit deal to help May

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EU negotiator frustrated at UK demands over Irish backstop but is considering adjunct to deal

Michel Barnier has told EU ambassadors that he is having to repeatedly rebut British demands for a time limit on the Irish backstop but that he is working on a legal add-on to the Brexit deal to help the prime minister.

During a meeting on Friday in Brussels, the EU’s chief negotiator expressed frustration with the British demands after the latest round of talks. “The UK side keeps on insisting on the same two things,” one EU diplomat said following Barnier’s briefing after the latest week of talks. “And we keep on explaining why it won’t happen.”

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Grayling reaches £33m settlement over Brexit ferry fiasco court case

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Transport secretary agrees deal with Eurotunnel, which was suing government

The government has settled a high court case over the Brexit ferry fiasco after reaching an agreement worth up to £33m with Eurotunnel, which was suing it following the award of a contract to a company with no ships.

The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, said in a statement: “The agreement with Eurotunnel secures the government’s additional freight capacity, helping ensure that the NHS has essential medicines in the event of a no-deal Brexit.”

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Concern over food safety as US seeks greater access to UK markets

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US sets out aims for post-Brexit trade deal amid fears about chicken and beef standards

The US has outlined its objectives for a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK, demanding greater access to the food markets where products such as chlorinated chicken or hormone-fed beef are currently banned under EU rules.

The US laid out its aims for a trade deal to cut tariff and non-tariff barriers for US industrial and agricultural goods and reduce regulatory differences.

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May backs ally Jordan by underwriting $250m World Bank loan

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Prime minister in diplomatic push with King Abdullah II at major London conference

Britain launched an economic and diplomatic push to protect Jordan as an oasis of political stability in the Middle East by staging a major conference designed to rescue the debt-ridden country, and help its leader King Abdullah II, mainly by an injection of private sector investment.

The crowded London conference was attended by the Jordanian monarch the British prime minister, Theresa May, the bulk of the Jordanian cabinet, the US treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, and a host of economic experts.

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