Category Archives: Labour

Labour hints at backing Brexit deal without promise of referendum

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Shadow minister says if party’s demands are met she would not expect a second public vote

Labour is prepared to sign up to a Brexit deal with the government without the promise of a referendum attached if cross-party talks make significant progress in the coming days, one of the party’s negotiators has said.

With talks set to resume on Monday, Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary, made clear that if Labour’s Brexit demands were met, she would not expect the party to insist it be put to a public vote.

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Angry Labour activists threaten European election campaign boycott

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Local parties angry over Corbyn’s perceived lack of support for second referendum

Leading Labour activists are warning Jeremy Corbyn that they could boycott the party’s campaign for the European elections unless it backs a confirmatory referendum on Brexit, as pressure mounts on the leadership to support a fresh public vote.

The warnings come before a crucial meeting on Tuesday of Labour’s deeply split national executive committee (NEC) at which the wording of the party’s European election manifesto is due to be decided.

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Jeremy Corbyn declines invitation to state banquet for Donald Trump

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Labour leader says UK ‘should not honour president who uses racist and misogynist rhetoric’

Jeremy Corbyn has declined an invitation to attend a state dinner with Donald Trump when the US president visits the UK in June.

Trump has accepted an invitation to a long-delayed state visit, including a formal white-tie dinner hosted by the Queen.

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Tories and Labour accused of racial discrimination in Portsmouth

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Conservatives have launched inquiry into alleged racist incidents in local party

Portsmouth’s major political parties are struggling to contain claims they have racially discriminated against local minority ethnic council candidates.

The Conservatives have launched an inquiry into alleged racist incidents in the local party. A leaked letter shows a former council candidate for the party has claimed he was marginalised, bullied and racially abused.

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Brexit: cross-party talks to restart as Tories step up efforts to oust May

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Chair of 1922 Committee is reportedly planning to tell PM to leave by the end of June

Brexit talks between government ministers and Labour are due to resume on Tuesday amid distinctly limited expectations of a breakthrough, with the political focus likely instead to shift on to renewed Conservative efforts to oust Theresa May from Downing Street.

The executive of the 1922 Committee, which represents Conservative backbenchers, is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, with its chair, Graham Brady, reportedly planning to tell the prime minister she must depart before the end of June.

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Second referendum is only way to beat Nigel Farage, warns Tom Watson

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Labour deputy leader in shock intervention that threatens to ignite row at party’s highest levels

Labour will never defeat Nigel Farage if it continues to “sit on the fence” over Brexit and offers only “mealy-mouthed” support for a second referendum, the party’s deputy leader says today.

In an extraordinary intervention that exposes the tensions at the top of the party over Brexit strategy, Tom Watson warns that Labour will lose to Farage’s new “far right” Brexit party in May’s European elections if it continues to give the impression that “we half agree with him”.

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Labour MPs to urge Jeremy Corbyn not to ‘torpedo’ Brexit deal

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Second referendum would be ‘divisive but not decisive’, MPs will say in letter to leader

Jeremy Corbyn is to be urged by a group of Labour MPs not to “torpedo” the prospect of a Brexit deal with Theresa May by insisting on a second referendum.

The MPs, including Stephen Kinnock and Gloria De Piero, are set to send the Labour leader a letter early next week setting out their “deep-seated reservations about a second referendum”, which they believe would be “divisive but … not decisive”.

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Tory deregulation agenda stalling Brexit talks, says Corbyn

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Labour leader says there is no agreement yet on customs union or workers’ rights

Jeremy Corbyn has said Brexit talks with the government are stalling because of a Tory desire for post-withdrawal deregulation, including as part of a US trade deal.

Corbyn said Labour had been putting forward a robust case for a customs union during the talks over the past week but suggested he feared the two sides would not find common ground.

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Downing Street under pressure to close down Labour talks on Brexit

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No 10 scrambles to explore options before possible heavy losses in EU elections

No 10 is feeling the pressure to pull the plug on Brexit talks with Labour and move to an alternative plan, amid warnings that the opposition is in no hurry for a deal before the European elections.

With talks deadlocked and no sign that the government moving on its red lines, neither the Conservatives or Labour want to appear responsible for the breakdown in discussions.

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Brexit talks ‘will stall unless May shifts on customs union’

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Sources say prime minister’s red lines remain an obstacle in talks with Labour

Talks between Labour and the government are unlikely to advance much further in the coming week unless Theresa May moves on her red lines over a future customs union, sources close to the talks have suggested.

David Lidington, who is leading the government’s talks with Labour, said a compromise would have to be reached but played down suggestions that a government shift was imminent and added that Labour would also have to move.

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MPs tell Nancy Pelosi of antisemitism claims in Labour party

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Powerful US Democrat meets ex-Labour MPs to discuss why they left the party and Brexit

The senior US Democrat Nancy Pelosi met three former Labour MPs on Sunday and discussed their concerns about antisemitism in the party before a meeting with the party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

The House Speaker said she had met Mike Gapes, Chris Leslie and Ian Austin “to hear their perspective on Brexit, why they left the Labour party, and the importance of standing unequivocally against antisemitism wherever it is found”.

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David Lammy says comparing ERG to Nazis ‘not strong enough’

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Labour MP defends comments likening group to Nazi party and white supremacists

David Lammy has said comparing the hard-Brexit European Research Group of Tory MPs to Nazis and proponents of South African apartheid was “not strong enough”, and suggested that the Brexit debate had allowed proponents of hard right views to flourish.

The Labour MP, who is a vocal campaigner for a second EU referendum, was asked on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show whether a comparison he previously made to the election of Adolf Hitler’s party in Germany and to South African white supremacists was appropriate.

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Julian Assange should be extradited to Australia, father says

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WikiLeaks founder’s father says Australian government should ‘do something’ after his arrest in London

The father of the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has called on the Australian government to help his son and suggested he could be brought back to his home country.

John Shipton, who lives in Melbourne, urged Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, to step in following Assange’s arrest in London last week.

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Corbyn told to back new EU referendum or lose millions of supporters

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A generation of young people could desert the party, says Richard Corbett, leader of Labour MEPs

Jeremy Corbyn has been warned by Labour’s leader in the European parliament and other grandees that the party will be deserted by millions of anti-Brexit voters if it fails to clearly back a second referendum in its manifesto for next month’s EU elections.

The message from Richard Corbett, who leads Labour’s 20 MEPs, comes amid growing fears at the top of the party that it could lose a generation of young, pro-EU voters if it does not guarantee another public vote.

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Cabinet ‘in the dark’ over Theresa May’s plans for Brexit

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Cabinet source says PM negotiating with one hand behind her back, amid warnings long delay would cause ‘tremendous angst’

Theresa May is facing intense cabinet pressure to avoid the prospect of a long Brexit delay, amid increasing expectations that last ditch cross-party talks on a compromise departure plan will not produce anything concrete.

Before a crucial EU summit later this week, the prime minister is facing a fast-diminishing range of options that could split the Conservative party and prompt a mass cabinet walkout, or could result in the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal on Friday.

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Jewish Labour Movement passes no-confidence motion on Corbyn

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Labour defends antisemitism response after documents suggest party failed to act on hundreds of complaints

The Jewish Labour Movement passed a motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership on Sunday as the party came under renewed pressure over its handling of antisemitism allegations.

Labour disputed a report in the Sunday Times, which drew on leaked internal documents, that its system for dealing with complaints has been beset by delays, inaction and interference from the leader’s office.

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Hopes of Brexit progress fade as Labour says May has failed to compromise

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Opposition criticises PM after talks, while risk of EU taking tough line on extension rises

Theresa May’s prospects of cobbling together a cross-party majority to convince EU leaders to grant a short Brexit delay next week appear to be slipping away after Labour claimed she had failed to offer “real change or compromise” in talks.

The prime minister made a dramatic pledge to open the door to talks with Labour on Tuesday after a marathon cabinet meeting.

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Corbyn and May agree to more talks after ‘constructive’ first day

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Labour leader under pressure from Emily Thornberry to put any pact to a second public vote

Jeremy Corbyn will resume Brexit talks with the prime minister on Thursday, after Labour tensions over a second referendum burst into the open, with the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, writing to colleagues to insist any pact must be put to a public vote.

Both Labour and Downing Street described the discussions as “constructive” and said they would hold technical talks, facilitated by civil servants, on Thursday.

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Brexit: MPs pass Cooper’s Brexit delay bill with majority of one – as it happened

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments, where third reading of the Cooper bill seeking a Brexit delay passed 313 to 312

I’m going to wrap up now.

Here the latest key developments at a glance:

The Leave.EU campaign seems to be rather cross:

The "Conservatives" who voted to block Brexit this evening.

Are you a Conservative member in one of these constituencies? Sign up to our deselection campaign below and help us oust the Remainers!

‍♂️ Support us at https://t.co/iICfFb8qqg

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Brexit: Labour to back common market 2.0/Norway amendment for staying in single market – live news

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including the second day of Commons votes on alternative Brexit options

The indicative votes debate is now over.

John Bercow, the Speaker, is telling MPs that they have half an hour to cast their vote, on paper in the division lobbies.

MPs are now voting on four propositions for #IndicativeVotes2 on light blue coloured between 8pm-8.30pm:

(C) Customs Union - Clarke
(D) Common Market 2.0 - Boles
(E) Confirmatory Public Vote - Kyle/Wilson
(G) Parliamentary Supremacy - Cherry pic.twitter.com/550xBpSAMk

Vicky Ford, a Conservative, says she will back the custom union amendment. Being in a customs union is not the same as being in the customs union, she says. She says the UK would be out of the common agricultural policy and out of the common fisheries policy.

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