Politics

A formal inquiry will take place into the leak of sensitive diplomatic memos detailing the “uniquely dysfunctional” and “inept” White House under Donald Trump. The documents detail UK ambassador to the US Sir Kim Darroch’s assessments of the Trump administration from 2017 to the present – and could prove highly embarrassing for the Foreign Office. Cabinet minister David Gauke condemned the “disgraceful” leak, which will now be the subject of a Civil Service inquiry, and said ambassadors should feel able to...

MPs are set to launch a fresh bid to block a no-deal Brexit during a Commons vote on Northern Ireland on Monday. The Government has tabled a Bill to delay any new election to the Northern Ireland Assembly while talks to restore powersharing are ongoing. Speaking to the BBC, former attorney general Dominic Grieve said this Bill was a “perfectly legitimate place” to explore ways to block a no-deal Brexit. He told Pienaar’s Politics: “We’re going to have, in the...

A no-deal Brexit would be “absolutely disastrous” for agriculture and could force shepherds to slaughter their flocks, the National Farmers’ Union president Minette Batters has warned. She said the prospect of losing access to European markets for British lamb could devastate the industry. A no-deal Brexit would be “catastrophic” for the farming sector as a whole, she said. https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1147792027767189504 “It would be socially and economically absolutely disastrous for this sector,” she told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday. Using sheep...

Department for Transport accused of ‘omitting key information’ in planning Civil emergency planners have described Chris Grayling’s Department for Transport as “unhelpful” and decried it for omitting “key” information when planning for a no-deal Brexit, according to letters obtained by PA. The leaders of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum (LRF) repeatedly wrote to the DfT expressing their frustration at its failure to engage with planning to prevent major delays to the motorway and shipping networks linking...

Boris Johnson pledged to create a tolerant “modern British culture” as prime minister after being challenged over his “arguably racist” comments about Muslim women. The would-be prime minister was questioned at a hustings in Nottingham about how he could represent minority groups following his “derogratory” remarks in a newspaper column comparing veiled Muslim women to “letter boxes”. Mr Johnson insisted he wanted a British culture based on respect and insisted he would lead a centre-ground administration. The former foreign secretary...

The UK is going through a “political nervous breakdown” with anxiety in Whitehall about the outcome of the Tory leadership contest and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour, a former MI6 chief has claimed. Sir John Sawers said the Brexit debate has left the country deeply divided and damaged the UK’s standing on the world stage, while the political turmoil in Westminster is adding to concerns about the direction the country is heading in. In an extraordinary intervention, Sir John said the UK...

Senior Tories have called for action to prevent party members voting multiple times in the election to choose the next prime minister after some were issued with more than one ballot paper. Members will vote to choose either Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt to become the next Conservative leader in a postal ballot, but the BBC, citing a party source, said more than 1,000 people could have received multiple forms in the contest. It added those affected could include people...

“schools just cannot cope anymore”

Treasury officials and lawyers are so overstretched they have splashed out £3 million hiring law firm Hogan Lovells to help with Brexit preparations, new documents show. The firm will spend a year working with the Treasury, to help navigate the “marked and continuing” increase in its legal work over Brexit and help in “establishing an effective and efficient customs regime”. The one-year contract was quietly signed in April with Chancellor Philip Hammond’s department and was uncovered by UK government contracts data provider...