Politics

Theresa May wrote to Jeremy Corbyn last night and rejected the Labour leader's call for the UK to stay in a permanent customs union with the EU. She has effectively ruled out Labour’s ideas for a compromise Brexit plan. The PM stressed her objections to keeping the UK in some form of customs union, as this would prevent the UK making its own trade deals. This decision comes as business groups are warning that with under than 50 days to...

The ONS (Office for National Statistics) reported that the growth in 2018 was 1.4% down from 1.8% in 2017. Even more worryingly this is the lowest rate since 2012. According to the ONS, quarterly growth also slowed, falling to 0.2% in the three months to December - down from 0.6% in the three months to September. A decline in car production and factory output were some of the main factors that caused the slower growth. Head of GDP at the...

Conservative MP Christopher Chope who recently scuppered legislation against 'upskirting' - filming up women's skirts - has now blocked a bill to safeguard children from female genital mutilation (FGM). This bill was also a private members bill, and yet again Chope used parliamentary practice to object to a second reading of the bill in the House of Commons today.  The 71 year-old MP for Christchurch was rounded on for his latest "inhumane" intervention. Anti-FGM campaigner Nimco Ali said the Tory...

The government is preparing for "riots on the streets" in a No Deal Brexit , the former head of the UK civil service has declared. Lord Kerslake also said the UK is not ready to leave the European Union and pleaded for Article 50 to be delayed. He told the BBC: "It's unnecessary. "The government could stop this now. "I think they could say we think, as many of the cabinet have already said privately, that no deal Brexit is simply not a realistic...

The Bank of England seems to be losing faith in Britain’s economic strength and has slashed its outlook for the country yesterday as it opted to leave interest rates on hold. The bank expects growth this year to be just 1.2% - the slowest since 2009 when the economy was in recession. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said: "The fog of Brexit is causing short term volatility in the economic data, and more fundamentally, it is creating a series...

The Bank of England has downgraded its growth forecast for 2019 growth to 1.2%, which would be the smallest rise since 2009. Sterling tumbled on the news and was trading 0.6% down versus the US dollar at $1.285. Against the euro, the pound was down 0.3% at €1.134. The PM flew to Brussels today to push for concessions from EU leaders on the divorce deal agreed with them last year, which has been rejected by Parliament. Both Mr Tusk and...

The broadcaster reported claims from “authoritative" sources that President Petro Poroshenko’s aides had paid the US president’s then personal lawyer Michael Cohen to arrange the meeting.

Lies... there have been loads of them. And not all on the side of a bus. Banning bendy bananas... renaming Bombay Mix to make the snack politically correct... rolling out a one-size-fits-all “euro condom” - a certain section of the British press have shamelessly misrepresented the EU to invent the kind of myths that fueled the Brexit campaign. We reported this giant list of Euromyths last year. And now, with just 50 days left to avoid Britain leaving the EU in...

The Group - made up entirely of predominantly Tory backbenchers including Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nicky Morgan has been meeting in the Cabinet Office aided by Whitehall mandarins