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.
Continue reading...Exclusive: shadow foreign secretary says she warned party leaders going to polls would be ‘act of catastrophic political folly’
Emily Thornberry has declared she is entering the race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn, revealing she warned the Labour leadership that backing a Brexit election would be an “act of catastrophic political folly”.
The shadow foreign secretary set out her pitch to be the next Labour leader in an article for the Guardian, arguing she has already “pummelled” Boris Johnson across the dispatch box and knows how to exploit his failings.
Continue reading...Simon Hart named new Welsh secretary as prime minister announces that Morgan – who stood down as MP – will get life peerage
Here’s a host more middle and junior-ranking ministerial appointments just announced by No 10:
A mooted plan to merge the department for international development (DfID) and the foreign office (FCO) risks allowing British aid money to be spent on “UK foreign policy, commercial and political objectives”, rather than on helping the world’s poorest people, more than 100 charities warn.
Related: Johnson to tell new Tory MPs they must repay public’s trust
Merging DfID with the FCO would risk dismantling the UK’s leadership on international development and humanitarian aid. It suggests we are turning our backs on the world’s poorest people, as well as some of the greatest global challenges of our time: extreme poverty, climate change and conflict. UK aid risks becoming a vehicle for UK foreign policy, commercial and political objectives, when it first and foremost should be invested to alleviate poverty.
By far the best way to ensure that aid continues to deliver for those who need it the most is by retaining DfID as a separate Whitehall department, with a secretary of state for international development, and by pledging to keep both independent aid scrutiny bodies: the Independent Commission for Aid Impact and the International Development Select Committee.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Jeremy Corbyn was struggling to contain an open revolt by some of his most senior shadow ministers, MPs and party activists last night as anger over his refusal to back a policy of remaining in the EU threatened to wreck the Labour conference.
Related: What should Labour do about Brexit? Five key party voices
Continue reading...Labour leader’s call for ‘sensible’ deal is signal to party that he will resist call to pick sides
Jeremy Corbyn has set out the four pillars of a “sensible” Brexit deal he would negotiate with the EU, as he pledged to carry out whatever the people decide in a second EU referendum as Labour prime minister.
The Labour leader set out how he would go into an election offering to negotiate a Brexit deal involving a customs union, ahead of next week’s autumn conference where activists will launch a bid to shift the party’s position towards campaigning to remain in the EU.
Continue reading...Green MP urges 10 top female politicians to form cabinet of national unity to deliver fresh referendum
The Green MP, Caroline Lucas, has thrown down the gauntlet to 10 high-profile female politicians over blocking a no-deal Brexit, proposing a cabinet of national unity including Labour’s Emily Thornberry, the Liberal Democrat leader, Jo Swinson, and the former Conservative cabinet minister Justine Greening to seek legislation for a fresh referendum.
In an extraordinary proposal that will be viewed with scepticism by rival parties, Lucas offered to broker a deal with female MPs from all the main political parties in Westminster, as well as the SNP’s leader, Nicola Sturgeon.
Continue reading...To break parliamentary deadlock, deal has to be put to public vote, Labour leader says
Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to support a second referendum on any Brexit deal after the Labour leadership came under overwhelming pressure to halt the exodus of its remain voters who backed pro-EU parties at the European elections.
The Labour leader said he was “listening very carefully” to both sides of the debate after the party fell behind the Liberal Democrats and also lost ground to the Greens.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, as Theresa May’s cabinet met to consider the contents of the Brexit EU withdrawal agreement bill
PM’s speech is called ‘A new Brexit deal - seeking common ground in Parliament’
In the urgent question in the Commons earlier on British Steel, which is on the brink of collapse putting 5,000 jobs at risk, Andrew Stephenson, the business minister, said the government “leave no stone unturned” in supporting the UK steel industry. He said:
I can reassure the house that, subject to strict legal bounds, the government will leave no stone unturned in its support for the steel industry ...
We can only act within the strict bounds of what is legally possible under domestic and European law.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including PMQs
Here is the key quote from Sturgeon’s opening statement.
There are some who would like to see a very early referendum, others want that choice to be later.
My job as first minister is to reach a judgment, not simply in my party’s interest but in the national interest.
Asked if she is willing to drop her demand for an independence referendum, Sturgeon says she is genuinely open-minded. If other parties can come forward with another mechanism that will protect Scotland’s interests in the event of Brexit, she will consider that, she says. She stresses that she is “open-minded”.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Shadow foreign secretary also says it is likely Labour would pursue policy of leaving the EU in government
Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, has said Labour is considering calling another vote of no confidence in Theresa May’s government following parliament’s failure to pass her Brexit deal with 10 days before the UK is due to leave.
The prime minister survived a vote of no confidence in January, the day after her Brexit deal was rejected for the first time. Her deal has since been voted down two further times.
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