Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
No 10 refuses to clear release of report into Russian political interference before election
Boris Johnson was on Monday night accused of presiding over a cover-up after it emerged that No 10 refused to clear the publication of a potentially incendiary report examining Russian infiltration in British politics, including the Conservative party.
Downing Street indicated on Monday that it would not allow a 50-page dossier from the intelligence and security committee to be published before the election, prompting a string of complaints over its suppression.
The Labour MP Stephen Doughty says he has tabled an amendment to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote.
I have now tabled my simple and straightforward #VotesAt16 Amendment. Thanks to all colleagues who have signed. The Government have unfortunately tried to make it as difficult to table, select and vote on amendments as possible. pic.twitter.com/xzxkKoDv6n
Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, is speaking now.
He says the SNP has been accused of trying to obstruct Brexit. “Guilty as charged,” he says.
My colleagues, Rowena Mason and Rajeev Syal, have been looking into what they’ve termed the “meltdown: at the People’s Vote campaign.
It’s embroiled in infighting after the chairman, Roland Rudd, fired two directors by email over the weekend. Today, Peter Mandelson – an Open Britain board member – has said:
Roland Rudd is like the captain of the Titanic demanding the passengers show him more respect as the iceberg carves open the hull and water gushes into the bowels of the ship.
Downing Street hints at bill-based path if MPs do not back election motion on Monday
The government could try to force a pre-Christmas election via a simple majority for a parliamentary bill, Downing Street has said, following a Liberal Democrat-devised plan to try to end the House of Commons impasse.
While ministers have dismissed a Lib Dem-Scottish National party idea to bring about an election on 9 December by amending the Fixed-term Parliaments Act as a “gimmick”, a Downing Street source said Boris Johnson’s government could consider a similar bill-based route.
Prime minister to table motion on Monday for early general election
Boris Johnson has abandoned his “do or die” pledge to leave the EU by 31 October and will ask MPs next week to back a pre-Christmas general election.
The prime minister has written to Jeremy Corbyn saying he will give parliament one last opportunity to scrutinise his withdrawal agreement bill and “get Brexit done” by 6 November.
Boris Johnson has been denied the opportunity to hold a second vote on his Brexit deal in the House of Commons after the Speaker, John Bercow, ruled that it would be “repetitive and disorderly”.
Bercow said it would break longstanding conventions for MPs to debate and vote on the agreement struck in Brussels last week, little more than two days after Saturday’s historic sitting.
Heavier sentences for violent criminals among policies aimed at wooing Labour voters
Violent and sexual criminals as well as foreign national offenders who return to the UK will face drastically heavier penalties under measures that will form the centrepiece of a Queen’s speech aimed at wresting the agenda away from the delicate Brexit negotiations.
With just days to go before the deadline for Boris Johnson to clinch a last-ditch Brexit deal in Brussels, the Queen will on Monday set out his government’s priorities for a new session of parliament, including 22 new bills.
EU may offer to extend Brexit talks to summer, despite PM’s insistence UK will leave on 31 October
Boris Johnson’s Brexit plan appeared to be all but dead on Tuesday night as the government admitted there was little prospect of a deal before 31 October, following a day of furious recriminations.
The prime minister spoke to the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, on the phone after a stormy 24 hours of briefing and counter-briefing, as concerns about his tactics were even raised in Johnson’s cabinet.
Boris Johnson’s aggressive Brexit rhetoric could incite violence against opponents, the former minister Amber Rudd has warned.
Rudd, who quit the government and resigned the Conservative whip earlier this month in protest at the prime minister’s policies, also told the Evening Standard that she might stand in London as an “independent Conservative” at the next general election.
Boris Johnson has refused to apologise in the face of criticism that he is inciting hatred against MPs, as he briefed his cabinet on preparations for a populist election campaign that will accuse his opponents of “surrender” to the EU.
In the face of widespread condemnation for his inflammatory rhetoric, the prime minister vowed to carry on referring to the Benn law against no-deal Brexit as the “surrender bill”.
Here is more from what Boris Johnson told Conservative backbenchers at his private meeting with the 1922 Committee.
From my colleague Rowena Mason
Boris Johnson told MPs at 1922 that he would carry on using the phrase surrender bill but did say MPs must all be careful about using language of violence
Boris Johnson left the 1922 to shouts of “Will you apologise?” from journalists - he scuttled off with no comment
In 1922 meeting there was a sombre moment when @PennyMordaunt told MPs she was with @BorisJohnson in 2016 when news came through that Jo Cox had died. She said 'Boris's reaction was so human'. "It was a moving moment in there," one Tory MP says.
Striking how few Tory MPs leaving 22 Committee with Boris after around 30 mins stopped to chat to reporters compared with the dying days of Theresa May’s premiership. Not many smiling faces either tbh.
Boris Johnson was described as ‘ebullient’ and ‘full of bonhomie’ by two walking out, others looked pretty sullen.
Jeremy Corbyn is speaking on this topic for Labour.
He says it is “extremely disappointing” that Boris Johnson is not here himself to answer the UQ.
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including the final day of the supreme court hearing to determine if Boris Johnson’s five-week suspension of parliament was lawful
From Joshua Rozenberg, the legal commentator
It looks as if Lady Hale hopes to produce a reasonably complete judgment over the weekend representing the view of the court — or of a majority if they are split. Individual sections could be written by different justices. Much better than a bald decision with reasons to follow.
Joanna Cherry says she would like the court to be as clear as possible about what should happen next if it finds against the government. She said parliament should sit again as soon as possible.
At the moment parliament is not due to reconvene until three weeks on Monday, 14 October.
Supreme court witnesses clash of two Tory PMs amid threats prorogation could be repeated despite verdict
Downing Street put out “misleading” statements about the prorogation of parliament and published excuses for Boris Johnson’s five-week suspension of the Commons that are “not the true reasons”, the supreme court has been told by a lawyer for the former prime minister John Major.
The extraordinary clash of evidence between a former Conservative prime minister and the current one surfaced on the third day of an emergency supreme court hearing before 11 justices about whether Johnson’s five-week prorogation of parliament was lawful.
Scottish lawyer at prorogation hearing says Johnson government has proved itself unworthy of trust
Boris Johnson’s government is unworthy of trust because it conspired to ensure that “the mother of parliaments” was closed down by “the father of lies”, the supreme court was told in an impassioned speech by a Scottish advocate.
In combative closing comments, Aidan O’Neill QC called on the 11 justices hearing the prorogation case to reject legal arguments advanced by the government that the courts do not have the power to intervene in the decision to prorogue parliament for five weeks.
Commons Speaker issues direct challenge to ministers threatening to ignore legislation
John Bercow has threatened Boris Johnson that he will be prepared to rip up the parliamentary rulebook to stop any illegal attempt by the prime minister to take the UK out of the EU without a deal on 31 October.
In a direct warning to No 10, the Speaker of the House of Commons said he is prepared to allow “additional procedural creativity” if necessary to allow parliament to block Johnson from ignoring the law.
Court backs MPs who said prorogation breached constitution
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Scottish appeal court judges have declared Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament in the run-up to the October Brexit deadline is unlawful.
The three judges, chaired by Lord Carloway, Scotland’s most senior judge, overturned an earlier ruling that the courts did not have the power to interfere in the prime minister’s political decision to prorogue parliament.
The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, has warned that there is “no such thing as a clean break” – Brexit deal or no Brexit deal – with difficult and complex negotiations on the future relationship with the EU whatever the outcome of talks. In a speech in Dublin to the British and Irish Chambers of Commerce, he has said:
If there is no deal – and I believe we may have to live with no deal for a period – then, at a certain point, we will have to begin negotiations again. The first and only items on the agenda ... will be citizens’ rights, the financial settlement with the EU and a solution to the Irish border.
Whatever happens, Ireland will not be dragged out of the single European market.
Recently, Prime Minister Johnson and I spoke by phone. We spoke of our shared desire to see the Northern Ireland political institutions reinstated. We shared our perspectives on the withdrawal agreement and agreed that our teams would establish one-to-one contact.
We will meet again in Dublin on Monday. Unfortunately, given political developments in the UK, there is a significant and growing risk of no-deal.
Here’s some more detail on the criticism of Johnson from the West Yorkshire police and crime commissioner, Labour’s Mark Burns-Williamson:
To use police officers as the backdrop to what became a political speech was inappropriate and they shouldn’t have been put in that position.
It clearly turned into a rant about Brexit, the opposition and a potential general election. There’s no way that police officers should’ve formed the backdrop to a speech of that nature.
Yes, because he’s used the pretence of an announcement around police recruitment for mainly a political speech.