Corbyn staff asked to be copied in on antisemitism complaints, leak shows Emails seem to contradict Labour claims that process is separate from leadership
Key members of Jeremy Corbyn’s staff asked to be copied in on antisemitism complaints last year to give them an “overview” of sensitive cases, according to leaked emails obtained by the Guardian. The senior Labour compliance official involved in the email exchange says the views of Corbyn’s office will be “welcome where given, but formal comment not needed … as a matter of course in all cases”. The leaked exchange appears to contradict Labour claims that the complaints process has been kept separate from Corbyn’s staff since Jennie Formby took over as general secretary. In a letter to Margaret Hodge on Tuesday night, Corbyn conceded that during a short “transition period”, before Formby took over as Labour’s general secretary, “a very small group of staff in the leader’s office were approached”, and “asked for help in clearing a backlog of cases”. Formby took over at the beginning of April. In a message sent on 8 April, Corbyn’s chief of staff, Karie Murphy, asks for his political secretary to continue to be given an “overview”. Murphy thanks staff at Labour HQ for keeping her “in the loop on all these complaints”, during what she calls a “difficult period”. But it becomes clear in the course of the email exchange that key figures in Corbyn’s office would continue to be kept informed. “It’s important for Amy Jackson to have an overview of all complaints that involve elected politicians or candidates,” Murphy says
John McDonnell said Labour MPs would be ordered to vote for a second referendum Labour shadow minister admits organising to stop new Brexit referendum - despite party backing public vote Exclusive: Jeremy Corbyn accused of ‘complete lack of leadership’ if Gloria De Piero – his justice spokeswoman – is allowed to campaign against his policy
Brexit: Theresa May suffers humiliating Lords defeat as peers demand UK stays in a customs union
Supporters of the Labour-led amendment argued MPs should have the opportunity to 'think again'
Theresa May faces a fresh headache over her Brexit strategy after peers inflicted a defeat on the government in favour of keeping the UK in a customs union with the EU. The House of Lords supported a cross-party bid to keep Britain in a tariff-free trade bloc with Brussels, which means the legislation will bounce back to the Commons for approval.
Supporters of the Labour-led amendment to the Trade Bill argued MPs should have the opportunity to "think again" on the issue.
But Tory frontbencher Lord Bates pointed out the elected Commons had already rejected such a proposal, adding: "It doesn't need a chance to think again."
It comes as Brexit progress appeared to have ground to a halt after what both Downing Street and the European Commission admitted were "difficult" talks in Brussels on Tuesday.
The Daily Telegraph front page says that the cabinet is "resigned" to the prospect that Theresa May's deal will be defeated once again in the Commons next week. The paper suggests she could lose it by up to 100 votes and Downing Street is already making plans for a third vote on the agreement. A member of the European Research Group tells the Daily Express that a defeat is certain, "unless a miracle happens". A senior MP tells the Times that rejection of the deal had now been "priced in" and he expected parliament to vote for an extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process. The Daily Mail suggests what it calls a "super soft Brexit" looks more likely in the wake of Jeremy Corbyn's talks with Conservative supporters about a Norway-style deal. Writing for the Spectator website, Katy Balls suggests that Tory Brexiteers still believe they can put a "no deal" on the table either after the vote or during an extension of Article 50.
Ryanair boss calls Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn ‘idiots’ and says Brexit should be reversed Exclusive: ‘I hope in time there may be a second referendum or a general election that reverses Brexit,’ Michael O’Leary tells The Independent
Days before the UK is set to leave the European Union (EU), the boss of Ryanair has lambasted Theresa May’s government – and the Labour opposition. Michael O’Leary, who has led Ryanair from a small and struggling Irish regional airline to the biggest budget carrier in Europe, predicted that parliament would “fudge their way into approving Theresa May’s deal”.
Speaking in Brussels, he told The Independent: “That’s probably the best short-term outcome, in that the can would be kicked down the road for another 21 months to December 2020.”
But the airline’s chief executive warned: “It doesn’t resolve any of the fundamental issues. And that is: the same people – Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Liam Fox – who were promising us for the last two years that this trade deal will be the easiest one in history, have failed to deliver anything in the last two years.
“We’ll be back here again at the end of 2020 wondering what the **** are the UK government are going to do?” Mr O’Leary said he hopes that after a general election, “you might have some competent politicians leading both the UK government and the UK opposition parties [rather] than the idiots who are leading them now”.
Facebook refuses to disclose 'chuck Chequers' Brexit advertiser to UK parliament
Facebook has refused to provide the British parliament with the names of individuals behind a shadowy network backing an extreme 'no deal' Brexit outcome over a government-negotiated compromise. Since the June 2016 EU referendum vote, politics in the UK has been consumed by the question of how to implement a close vote to leave. And last year the UK's Electoral Commission confirmed the vote was tarnished by in influx of dark money ploughed into social media ads -- with platforms such as Facebook offering an unregulated route for circumventing democratic norms. Nor have the Brexit ads stopped since the referendum. An unknown group, called 'Mainstream Network', ran a series of political ads on Facebook's platform last year which targeted voters in key leave voting constituencies urging them to pressure on their member of parliament not to support the prime minister's approach to seek a withdrawal deal from the EU.
Pre-Brexit passport deadline this week – do you need to renew in case of no deal?
Holidaymakers are being warned to renew their passports before the weekend to guarantee travel in the event of a no-deal Brexit. If there is no deal, you will need at least six months left on your passport from your date of arrival in any European Union (EU) country. The Passport Office takes around three weeks to process the documents as standard. This means travellers should act now to be ready by the current Brexit date of March 29. But travellers with up to 15 months left on their passport may still need to renew. If you renew a passport before it expires, up to nine months from the old travel document can be added to your new one. But these nine months will not count if there is a no-deal Brexit, according to the Passport Office.
With the next Brexit votes just days away, the Guardian says Theresa May is to make a last-ditch attempt to persuade the European Union to give her a better deal. It claims she will plead with EU leaders to offer further concessions. But it predicts that Tory Eurosceptic MPs are set to vote down her deal for a second time next week. The paper quotes a former Conservative cabinet minister, who describes the current situation as "like the last days of Rome" - saying it's difficult to see how Mrs May can survive many more weeks. The Times says the prime minister is being warned by ministers who backed Remain that she will lose control of Brexit next week - unless she holds a series of what it calls "humiliating votes" on alternatives to her deal, if it's defeated again. It claims she's preparing to shift the blame on to the EU if the vote is lost. The Times adds that Downing Street is already preparing the ground for defeat, with Mrs May all but conceding that she will have to allow MPs a free vote on a no-deal Brexit and delaying the departure date. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, the Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg tells his colleagues to hold their nerve for a better Brexit deal. He calls for lower taxes and less regulation after Brexit, but cautions against attempts to deselect pro-EU Tory MPs, saying "the party needs to remain a broad church"
In what it labels an exclusive report, Huffpost UK says the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, has used what it calls "a highly controversial veto" to block the release of his correspondence with officials about bullying and harassment in Parliament. A number of papers focus on the Equality and Human Rights Commission's warning that it could start a formal investigation into the Labour party for discriminating against Jewish people. The Daily Mail says Labour could become only the second political party, after the BNP, to face action. The Telegraph says the EHRC will consider claims that Labour is "institutionally anti-Semitic". The Labour party has said that it will "co-operate fully" with the Commission.
QT audience ERUPTS as Raab warns of ‘DAY OF RECKONING’ if politicians BETRAY Brexit voters FORMER Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has warned that if politicians were to betray Brexit voters and not take the UK out of the EU there would be a “day of reckoning” for them.
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Emails seem to contradict Labour claims that process is separate from leadership
Key members of Jeremy Corbyn’s staff asked to be copied in on antisemitism complaints last year to give them an “overview” of sensitive cases, according to leaked emails obtained by the Guardian.
The senior Labour compliance official involved in the email exchange says the views of Corbyn’s office will be “welcome where given, but formal comment not needed … as a matter of course in all cases”.
The leaked exchange appears to contradict Labour claims that the complaints process has been kept separate from Corbyn’s staff since Jennie Formby took over as general secretary.
In a letter to Margaret Hodge on Tuesday night, Corbyn conceded that during a short “transition period”, before Formby took over as Labour’s general secretary, “a very small group of staff in the leader’s office were approached”, and “asked for help in clearing a backlog of cases”.
Formby took over at the beginning of April. In a message sent on 8 April, Corbyn’s chief of staff, Karie Murphy, asks for his political secretary to continue to be given an “overview”.
Murphy thanks staff at Labour HQ for keeping her “in the loop on all these complaints”, during what she calls a “difficult period”.
But it becomes clear in the course of the email exchange that key figures in Corbyn’s office would continue to be kept informed. “It’s important for Amy Jackson to have an overview of all complaints that involve elected politicians or candidates,” Murphy says
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/mar/06/corbyn-staff-asked-to-be-copied-in-on-antisemitism-complaints-leak-shows
Labour shadow minister admits organising to stop new Brexit referendum - despite party backing public vote
Exclusive: Jeremy Corbyn accused of ‘complete lack of leadership’ if Gloria De Piero – his justice spokeswoman – is allowed to campaign against his policy
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-gloria-de-piero-brexit-second-referendum-policy-jeremy-corbyn-a8810801.html
Supporters of the Labour-led amendment argued MPs should have the opportunity to 'think again'
Theresa May faces a fresh headache over her Brexit strategy after peers inflicted a defeat on the government in favour of keeping the UK in a customs union with the EU.
The House of Lords supported a cross-party bid to keep Britain in a tariff-free trade bloc with Brussels, which means the legislation will bounce back to the Commons for approval.
Supporters of the Labour-led amendment to the Trade Bill argued MPs should have the opportunity to "think again" on the issue.
But Tory frontbencher Lord Bates pointed out the elected Commons had already rejected such a proposal, adding: "It doesn't need a chance to think again."
It comes as Brexit progress appeared to have ground to a halt after what both Downing Street and the European Commission admitted were "difficult" talks in Brussels on Tuesday.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-theresa-may-lords-customs-union-eu-trade-a8811361.html
The paper suggests she could lose it by up to 100 votes and Downing Street is already making plans for a third vote on the agreement.
A member of the European Research Group tells the Daily Express that a defeat is certain, "unless a miracle happens".
A senior MP tells the Times that rejection of the deal had now been "priced in" and he expected parliament to vote for an extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process.
The Daily Mail suggests what it calls a "super soft Brexit" looks more likely in the wake of Jeremy Corbyn's talks with Conservative supporters about a Norway-style deal.
Writing for the Spectator website, Katy Balls suggests that Tory Brexiteers still believe they can put a "no deal" on the table either after the vote or during an extension of Article 50.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-47477946
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/03/07/brexit-latest-news-third-meaningful-vote-planned-cabinet-resigned/
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/06/britain-europe-adrift-brexit-talks
Exclusive: ‘I hope in time there may be a second referendum or a general election that reverses Brexit,’ Michael O’Leary tells The Independent
Days before the UK is set to leave the European Union (EU), the boss of Ryanair has lambasted Theresa May’s government – and the Labour opposition.
Michael O’Leary, who has led Ryanair from a small and struggling Irish regional airline to the biggest budget carrier in Europe, predicted that parliament would “fudge their way into approving Theresa May’s deal”.
Speaking in Brussels, he told The Independent: “That’s probably the best short-term outcome, in that the can would be kicked down the road for another 21 months to December 2020.”
But the airline’s chief executive warned: “It doesn’t resolve any of the fundamental issues. And that is: the same people – Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Liam Fox – who were promising us for the last two years that this trade deal will be the easiest one in history, have failed to deliver anything in the last two years.
“We’ll be back here again at the end of 2020 wondering what the **** are the UK government are going to do?”
Mr O’Leary said he hopes that after a general election, “you might have some competent politicians leading both the UK government and the UK opposition parties [rather] than the idiots who are leading them now”.
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/brexit-ryanair-michael-oleary-theresa-may-jeremy-corbyn-latest-a8810011.html
Facebook has refused to provide the British parliament with the names of individuals behind a shadowy network backing an extreme 'no deal' Brexit outcome over a government-negotiated compromise.
Since the June 2016 EU referendum vote, politics in the UK has been consumed by the question of how to implement a close vote to leave.
And last year the UK's Electoral Commission confirmed the vote was tarnished by in influx of dark money ploughed into social media ads -- with platforms such as Facebook offering an unregulated route for circumventing democratic norms.
Nor have the Brexit ads stopped since the referendum.
An unknown group, called 'Mainstream Network', ran a series of political ads on Facebook's platform last year which targeted voters in key leave voting constituencies urging them to pressure on their member of parliament not to support the prime minister's approach to seek a withdrawal deal from the EU.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/facebook-refuses-disclose-quot-chuck-132104559.html
Holidaymakers are being warned to renew their passports before the weekend to guarantee travel in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
If there is no deal, you will need at least six months left on your passport from your date of arrival in any European Union (EU) country.
The Passport Office takes around three weeks to process the documents as standard.
This means travellers should act now to be ready by the current Brexit date of March 29.
But travellers with up to 15 months left on their passport may still need to renew.
If you renew a passport before it expires, up to nine months from the old travel document can be added to your new one.
But these nine months will not count if there is a no-deal Brexit, according to the Passport Office.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/pre-brexit-passport-deadline-week-160013171.html
The paper quotes a former Conservative cabinet minister, who describes the current situation as "like the last days of Rome" - saying it's difficult to see how Mrs May can survive many more weeks.
The Times says the prime minister is being warned by ministers who backed Remain that she will lose control of Brexit next week - unless she holds a series of what it calls "humiliating votes" on alternatives to her deal, if it's defeated again. It claims she's preparing to shift the blame on to the EU if the vote is lost.
The Times adds that Downing Street is already preparing the ground for defeat, with Mrs May all but conceding that she will have to allow MPs a free vote on a no-deal Brexit and delaying the departure date.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, the Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg tells his colleagues to hold their nerve for a better Brexit deal. He calls for lower taxes and less regulation after Brexit, but cautions against attempts to deselect pro-EU Tory MPs, saying "the party needs to remain a broad church"
In what it labels an exclusive report, Huffpost UK says the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, has used what it calls "a highly controversial veto" to block the release of his correspondence with officials about bullying and harassment in Parliament.
A number of papers focus on the Equality and Human Rights Commission's warning that it could start a formal investigation into the Labour party for discriminating against Jewish people. The Daily Mail says Labour could become only the second political party, after the BNP, to face action.
The Telegraph says the EHRC will consider claims that Labour is "institutionally anti-Semitic". The Labour party has said that it will "co-operate fully" with the Commission.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-47491747
FORMER Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has warned that if politicians were to betray Brexit voters and not take the UK out of the EU there would be a “day of reckoning” for them.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1097284/Brexit-news-dominic-raab-BBC-question-time-brexit-secretary