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No plan for a public fund to sound bells on UK’s exit from EU, despite PM’s assertions
An energetic if perhaps niche campaign to ensure the chimes of Big Ben sound at the moment of Brexit on 31 January appears doomed after Commons authorities played down the idea, while a funding plan promised by Boris Johnson to pay for it turned out to not exist.
Staunchly pro-Brexit Tories such as Mark Francois and some newspapers have called for lengthy restoration work on the parliamentary clocktower to be paused so the bell can sound at 11pm, marking the moment the UK leaves the EU.
Follow all today’s political developments as they happen
There were various news lines in that interview, but perhaps the most surprising line came when Johnson announced that he wanted to end country lines drug dealing. No one will question the merits of his ambition, but he is making a promise that will be very hard to deliver.
This is what he said on the topic.
I want to see crime come down. I want to see the county lines drugs gangs wound up, rolled up. They are reducing the quality of life for people across our country, they are killing young kids. I want to see that thing totally wound up.
Q: Will Ann Secoulas, the US diplomat accused of killing Harry Dunn in a road accident, face justice?
Johnson says the US are unlikely to send her back to the UK. That is not what they do.
Asked Nandy whether she’d work with the Greens/Lib Dems at future elections. She says she supports working “with the broadest possible alliance” but pours cold water on electoral alliances, telling me: “it’s a bit defeatist to say we can only win power through electoral pacts.”
This transition period stuff is catching. The Queen has just released a read-out of her talks at Sandringham about Harry and Meghan and it turns out that their breakaway is also going to involve a transition period. Doubtless there will be calls for it to get extended too.
Croatia’s prime minister, Andrej Plenković, hinted at move to ensure level playing field
The EU will be unashamedly “political” and block the City of London’s access to European markets if Boris Johnson tries to exempt the UK from its laws.
Croatia’s prime minister, Andrej Plenković, whose country is taking over the presidency of the EU, made the bloc’s intentions clear after the prime minister insisted the UK would not be aligned to the bloc’s regulations.
The ‘Beyoncé of the law’, who put a stop to Boris Johnson’s parliamentary suspension, talks equality, ego and spider brooches
In a year not short on drama, it was one of the great moments of 2019. After the Queen agreed to prorogue parliament for five weeks at Boris Johnson’s request, and after the English and Scottish courts could not agree whether the suspension was lawful, in September it was left to the supreme court to resolve the issue. And over the days of deliberation that followed, Brenda Hale came into her own. On 24 September, she announced the court’s blistering judgment: “The prime minister’s advice to her majesty was unlawful, void and of no effect… The prorogation was also void and of no effect. Parliament has not been prorogued.” Her tone was emphatic, delivered in an austere black dress with a huge silver spider brooch crawling up her right shoulder. The ruling delivered the ultimate slap down for Johnson; there was even talk that the prime minister might have to resign. MPs returned to work the following day.
For many outside the law, it was the first we had seen of Brenda Marjorie Hale, but already she had decades of experience as a glass-ceiling smasher. In 2004, she was made Britain’s first female law lord. In 2009, she became the first woman to serve on the UK’s new supreme court; in 2017, she became its first woman president. Already dubbed “the Beyoncé of the legal world”, after the prorogation ruling Baroness Hale of Richmond became a household name – a septuagenarian rock star. There were calls for the spider brooch to be given its own Twitter account, and fans could buy spider-brooch T-shirts and an illustrated children’s book celebrating Hale’s journey from Yorkshire schoolgirl to head of the UK’s highest court.
The US president announced on Wednesday that Iran appeared to be 'standing down' after it launched more than a dozen missiles at Iraqi bases hosting US and coalition troops.
While Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, showed his support for the US president, other world leaders struck a more cautious note. European commission president Ursula von der Leyen called for dialogue to replace the use of weapons.
In Washington, the US Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said Americans now feared for their safety.
Boris Johnson’s government has not signalled when select committees will sit again
Ministers and civil servants are not being properly scrutinised by parliament because of delays in setting up select committees, senior MPs have claimed.
Despite crucial Brexit policy passing through the Commons and the possibility of conflict in the Middle East, chairs of four committees have said they have not yet been given any indication by Boris Johnson’s government when they will be able to sit again.
Ursula von der Leyen expected to talk up future negotiations during visit to London
The EU’s opening negotiating position on the future relationship will lack detailed demands to avoid an early clash with Boris Johnson as both sides seek to take the heat out of the coming post-Brexit trade and security talks.
In that vein, the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, is expected to talk up the prospects of the coming negotiations during a visit to London on Wednesday.
Exclusive: leaked resolution by main political groups follows threats of deportation made by British minister
The European parliament will express its “grave concern” about the attitude of Boris Johnson’s government to the 3.3 million EU citizens living in the UK following threats of deportation made by a British minister.
In a leaked resolution drafted by the main political groups and due to be backed by MEPs next Wednesday, Johnson’s administration is accused of creating “anxiety” in recent months.
Prime minister also intends to press his Brexit bill through Commons in three days
Boris Johnson will host the president of the European commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, in Downing Street this week as he prepares to take Britain out of the EU at the end of this month, kicking off a race against time to secure a free trade deal.
The prime minister will use the comfortable majority he won at last month’s general election to press his Brexit bill through the House of Commons in three days when MPs return to Westminster on Tuesday.
Prime minister has spoken to Donald Trump about US drone strike on Iranian general
Boris Johnson has said that assassinated Iranian general Qassem Suleimani was “a threat to all our interests”, and that while “we will not lament his death” he called for de-escalation from all sides.
The prime minister spoke to the US president, Donald Trump, on Sunday after the US drone strike on Iran’s top military leader on Friday.
Boris Johnson’s chief adviser touts for ‘unusual’ applicants outside of the Oxbridge set
Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s chief adviser, has written a rambling blog calling for “weirdos and misfits with odd skills” to apply for new jobs within No 10.
In a move way outside the usual recruitment procedures of Whitehall, the key architect of Johnson’s election victory has outlined a set of “unusual” qualities he wishes to see in applicants in the blog post which runs to nearly 3,000 words.
PM talks up Britain’s future as he attempts to reach out to those who did not vote Tory
Boris Johnson has pledged to represent remainers and work with them as “friends and equals”, in a New Year’s Day message in which he sounded upbeat about the UK’s fortunes in the 2020s.
The prime minister, who is seeing in the new year on the private Caribbean island of Mustique, said he was “acutely aware” that millions of people did not vote for him despite the Tories’ landslide election victory.
Ursula von der Leyen airs concerns about PM’s refusal to extend negotiations past 2020
Boris Johnson should reconsider his refusal to extend the 11-month timeframe available for agreeing a deal on the UK’s future relationship with the EU after Brexit, Ursula von der Leyen has suggested.
The European commission president said she had “serious concern” about the limited time available for the negotiations and emphasised the need to keep all options open.
Irish PM says UK must pay for any bridge between Northern Ireland and Scotland
Ireland’s prime minister has said he will not dismiss the idea of building a bridge between Northern Ireland and Scotland, but insisted the UK must pay for it.
Boris Johnson and the Democratic Unionist party have spoken in favour of the idea.
Lawyers warn loss of reunion rights for unaccompanied refugee children will put them in danger
The loss of family reunion rights for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children will leave them with “no options” except taking dangerous routes and using smugglers, charities in France and Greece are warning.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, faced criticism after he told parliament he had dropped a promise to replace the EU law that allows child refugees stranded in Europe to reunite with family members in the UK after Brexit.
PM mingled with Russian elite amid claims of Moscow interference in UK politics
It was the equivalent of a V-sign cheerfully flashed at his critics. The day after his landslide election victory, Boris Johnson and his girlfriend Carrie Symonds dropped into a caviar-fuelled Christmas party in London hosted by former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev and his son Evgeny.
During the campaign Johnson had stubbornly refused to publish the Russia report, written by the last parliament’s intelligence and security committee.
Britain has taken a pivotal step towards leaving the European Union as Boris Johnson was rewarded for the Conservatives’ thumping general election victory with a majority of 124 for his Brexit deal in the House of Commons.
Addressing MPs on Friday morning, the prime minister sought to draw a line under three years of bitter parliamentary conflict, urging his colleagues to “discard the old labels of leave and remain”.
Brexit secretary Steve Barclay said the general election had delivered a clear instruction to parliament to leave the EU and so MP should respect that decision and back the bill.
This bill is not a victory for one side over the other. The time has come to discard the old labels to move from the past divisions and to come together as one United Kingdom.
Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary who is predicted to run for the Labour leadership, warned Conservative MPs to “be careful”. “Doing things because the government has a majority doesn’t mean those things are right,” he said.
He said that the move to water down commitments to child refugees is an example of that. “That is a moral disgrace,” he said.
I turn to my own benches. We may have lost the general election, but we have not lost our values and our beliefs and we must fight for them – day in, day out – in this parliament and we will.
That doesn’t mean that the deal negotiated by the prime minister is a good deal. It isn’t. It was a bad deal in October when it was signed. It was a bad deal when it was first debated in this House in October. It was a bad deal last Thursday and it’s a bad deal today.