Countrywide warns over earnings hit as Brexit knocks housing market
The group is expecting underlying earnings to fall by around £5 million in its first half after income dropped 3% in the first quarter More Estate agency Countrywide has warned of a £5 million hit to first-half earnings as it said Brexit uncertainty was affecting Britain’s housing market. The embattled group – Britain’s biggest chain of estate agents – said Brexit worries were having an impact on both the residential and commercial property markets as buyer confidence has tumbled. It saw total group income fall 3% to £140.3 million in the first quarter. Shares in the firm fell more than 2% as it warned it is now expecting underlying earnings to fall by around £5 million in its first half, having previously expected a drop of between £3 million and £5 million. Countrywide said: “The ongoing uncertainties surrounding Brexit continue to weigh heavily on consumer confidence as a whole.
Brexit in focus as Lloyds next to report first quarter figures
Lloyds Banking Group is expected to report flat profits this week as bosses at the lender brace themselves for questions on the impact of Brexit and economic uncertainty.
Labour deputy Tom Watson walks out of shadow cabinet meeting amid Brexit divisions Labour deputy leader Tom Watson walked out of a shadow cabinet meeting after not being shown the party's EU elections manifesto.
Mr Watson is calling for the party to explicitly commit to a second EU referendum ahead of next month's European Parliament elections. His demand has piled the pressure on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to shift his party's stance before the 23 May polls. At present, Mr Corbyn has only said a fresh public vote on Brexit must remain among the options as parliament wrestles with the UK's divorce from the EU, in line with Labour's party conference motion from last September. In a demonstration of Labour's internal divisions over Brexit, Mr Watson left the gathering of Labour's shadow ministerial team on Tuesday after they weren't shown a draft of the party's EU elections manifesto. The manifesto will be decided formally at a meeting of Labour's ruling National Executive Committee later. A source told Sky News that Mr Watson saw "no point" being in the shadow cabinet meeting and so took the action to leave.
Brexit news: Attempt to get Labour to commit to second referendum shot down at party meeting
Labour supporters of a second Brexit referendum have failed to force Jeremy Corbyn to commit to the public vote in all circumstances, after a marathon five-hour meeting. The party’s ruling national executive committee agreed a manifesto for the European elections “fully in line with Labour’s existing policy”, a source said.
It means Labour is only pledged to support a fresh referendum if it cannot secure “the necessary changes to the government’s deal or a general election”.
The decision – widely criticised as a fudge – represents a victory for Mr Corbyn over shadow cabinet heavyweights including Tom Watson, his outspoken deputy leader.
The Labour leader is determined to avoid alienating his Leave voters by sticking to a policy of a referendum to prevent what he dubs a “Tory Brexit”, or a no-deal Brexit.
May to abandon Brexit talks with Labour if no deal by next week It leaves open the possibility, however slim, of Labour helping to force through EU withdrawal if the Conservatives concede a customs union and to his demands on the single market, plus worker and environmental rights.
However, in reality, that attempt looks doomed – after Theresa May set a deadline of just one week to agree a compromise, or she will abandon the cross-party talks.
For that reason, some pro-EU Labour MPs stopped short of criticism. Ian Murray, a former shadow Scottish secretary, said backing for a Final Say referendum had been “upheld at last”.
“Given there won’t be a general election and the Tories will not agree customs union and single market, the @UKLabour EU manifesto commits to a public vote,” he tweeted. Ben Bradshaw, a leading pro-referendum Labour MP, echoed the message, tweeting: “There won’t be an election cos Tory MPs won’t vote for one. #peoplesvote only thing left. Bingo!”
Labour’s pro-EU wing was also pleased that the party would now have to rapidly rewrite the controversial European election leaflet which made no mention of a fresh referendum.
Post-Brexit immigration policy could hit video games industry, MPs told
The video games industry in the UK could be negatively impacted by post-Brexit immigration policy, it has been suggested. On Tuesday, Westminster’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee travelled to Dundee, a world-leading city for games development, to evaluate what more the UK Government can do to support the industry. Concerns were raised that a proposal to introduce a £30,000 salary threshold for workers from outside of the UK could make it more difficult to recruit and retain staff.
No civil war Meanwhile, Brexit is back on the front pages with the Guardian reporting Jeremy Corbyn is facing a backlash after blocking calls for Labour to unequivocally back a new referendum.
The paper notes that the wording of the party's policy in its European election manifesto "falls well short" of the position set out recently by the deputy leader, Tom Watson, and the shadow Brexit secretary, Sir Keir Starmer. The website of the New Statesman says Labour has avoided a civil war - after the party's ruling body agreed the compromise position. It concludes that the National Executive Committee "has agreed to keep disagreeing". The Daily Telegraph reports that Eurosceptic ministers fear that Theresa May is about to "cave in" to Labour demands on Brexit. It says the prime minister's announcement that she wants to end the cross-party talks next week, has added to suspicions she is waiting until after this week's local elections before announcing a climb-down. The paper says the Chief Whip, Julian Smith, is understood to have told Cabinet ministers it was "time to get real", as they were presented with a document setting out the risks of holding another Brexit vote without Labour support.
Brexit latest: EU exit uncertainty DAMAGING Swiss-UK trade relations BREXIT uncertainty is affecting trade between the UK and Switzerland, with the question of future relations between the EU and Britain weighing down heavily on Swiss trade.
Fears Theresa May will bow to Labour and back permanent customs union with EU as chief whip 'tells Cabinet they must choose between that or new referendum to get Brexit deal passed' Smith reportedly spelled out the choice facing ministers at Downing Street It came as Government continues to hold talks with Labour over Brexit impasse But Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has rejected the idea, branding it 'bad policy'
Brexit latest: 'Customs union the only option left for Theresa May,' says Jeremy Corbyn ally
Theresa May has “no option” but to tear up her red lines on a customs union if she wants to pass her Brexit deal, one of Jeremy Corbyn’s closest allies said today. Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey spoke out as both Cabinet and Labour sources confirmed cross-party talks have moved significantly in recent days, pointing to a potential deal within a fortnight.
Brexit ferry fiasco costs taxpayers another £50m after Grayling cancels no-deal contracts Further embarrassment heaped on beleaguered transport secretary, who has faced repeated calls to quit over the controversy
Brexit: Jeremy Corbyn warned ‘demoralised’ Labour voters will boycott elections after second referendum fudge Labour leader demonstrates his iron grip over his party – but is told he will pay a price in looming poll
Corbyn’s taste for Brexit fudge leaves us facing a national trauma that only a Final Say referendum can remedy The Labour leader must understand what his party wants of him, and what Tom Watson has tried in vain to tell him
Whether he “stormed out” of the shadow cabinet meeting or rather took his leave politely and just nipped out to try and discover what Labour’s latest policy on Brexit is, Tom Watson’s frustration with his party’s attitude has long been more than apparent. He may express himself in sotto voce tones and measured terms, but Mr Watson ill-concealed irritation is justified: Labour is in a mess about Brexit. The national executive committee’s latest policy proposal is a familiar reworking of its usual fudge, and it is not good enough. Labour is betraying its own people, and the wider electorate, by failing to back a Final Say referendum on whatever the terms of Brexit turn out to be. It is quite something from a party that purports to be both democratic and socialist to want to betray the people and, in particular, working people and the most vulnerable in society – those who will suffer most from any form of Brexit.
So quite apart from anything else, and leaving aside base electoral calculations and internal party plotting, this is a matter of high principle on a matter of huge national importance. As The Independent has long argued, the people, having expressed (albeit narrowly and after a lamentable campaign) their wish for Brexit in the 2016 referendum, now have the right to confirm whether what awaits them is in fact what they voted for, and, in any case, what they now wish to see happen.
A decision of this magnitude cannot be taken by MPs alone – there is a democratic imperative at work here, as the hugely popular Put It To The People marches and other events have demonstrated. After almost three years of the most extensive exercise in deliberative democracy ever undertaken anywhere, the British people are now in a position to make their choice on a thoroughly informed basis.
Whatever government or prime minister ends up with the Brexit deal – Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn, Jeremy Hunt – the electorate has a right to give or withhold approval. Now we know what Brexit really is, we can decide in full possession of the facts. That was simply impossible in 2016
Pictures of a pensive Gavin Williamson leaving Westminster feature on many of the front pages - following his dismissal as defence secretary.
In what the Daily Mail describes as an "extraordinary" interview, he swears "on his children's lives" that he did not leak information from a National Security Council meeting to the media. "The prime minister has just sacked someone who is not guilty," he says, claiming he "dug her out of a few holes" when he worked as her chief whip. Several papers - including the i - report comments Mr Williamson made to Sky News, suggesting he had been the victim of a "kangaroo court" led by the head of the Civil Service, Sir Mark Sedwill. The Daily Telegraph adds that Downing Street has not offered proof Mr Williamson was behind the leak, and would likely "come under pressure to publish the evidence". The Daily Mirror says the sacking came as a surprise, not because Gavin Williamson "wasn't a likely suspect, but because Number 10 had collectively shrugged its shoulders at regular leaks". This has been "one of the most embarrassing and damaging episodes" of Theresa May's premiership, says Huffpost UK - and her refusal to let the police investigate "will rapidly become the next political headache". The Daily Mail's Peter Oborne thinks there should be a criminal investigation. "There is no more serious offence than leaking secrets," he writes. Writing in the Daily Express columnist and TV host Richard Madeley thinks Mr Williamson's political career is finished regardless. "When a prime minister essentially calls you a leaking liar, multiple doors quietly, but firmly, click shut," he writes.
Comments
The group is expecting underlying earnings to fall by around £5 million in its first half after income dropped 3% in the first quarter
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Estate agency Countrywide has warned of a £5 million hit to first-half earnings as it said Brexit uncertainty was affecting Britain’s housing market.
The embattled group – Britain’s biggest chain of estate agents – said Brexit worries were having an impact on both the residential and commercial property markets as buyer confidence has tumbled.
It saw total group income fall 3% to £140.3 million in the first quarter.
Shares in the firm fell more than 2% as it warned it is now expecting underlying earnings to fall by around £5 million in its first half, having previously expected a drop of between £3 million and £5 million.
Countrywide said: “The ongoing uncertainties surrounding Brexit continue to weigh heavily on consumer confidence as a whole.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/countrywide-warns-over-earnings-hit-074145871.html
Lloyds Banking Group is expected to report flat profits this week as bosses at the lender brace themselves for questions on the impact of Brexit and economic uncertainty.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/brexit-focus-lloyds-next-report-080054496.html
https://uk.yahoo.com/finance/news/no-deal-brexit-send-car-manufacturing-output-back-dark-days-1980s-063950222.html
Labour deputy leader Tom Watson walked out of a shadow cabinet meeting after not being shown the party's EU elections manifesto.
Mr Watson is calling for the party to explicitly commit to a second EU referendum ahead of next month's European Parliament elections.
His demand has piled the pressure on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to shift his party's stance before the 23 May polls.
At present, Mr Corbyn has only said a fresh public vote on Brexit must remain among the options as parliament wrestles with the UK's divorce from the EU, in line with Labour's party conference motion from last September.
In a demonstration of Labour's internal divisions over Brexit, Mr Watson left the gathering of Labour's shadow ministerial team on Tuesday after they weren't shown a draft of the party's EU elections manifesto.
The manifesto will be decided formally at a meeting of Labour's ruling National Executive Committee later.
A source told Sky News that Mr Watson saw "no point" being in the shadow cabinet meeting and so took the action to leave.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/labour-deputy-tom-watson-walks-shadow-cabinet-meeting-105900548.html
Labour supporters of a second Brexit referendum have failed to force Jeremy Corbyn to commit to the public vote in all circumstances, after a marathon five-hour meeting.
The party’s ruling national executive committee agreed a manifesto for the European elections “fully in line with Labour’s existing policy”, a source said.
It means Labour is only pledged to support a fresh referendum if it cannot secure “the necessary changes to the government’s deal or a general election”.
The decision – widely criticised as a fudge – represents a victory for Mr Corbyn over shadow cabinet heavyweights including Tom Watson, his outspoken deputy leader.
The Labour leader is determined to avoid alienating his Leave voters by sticking to a policy of a referendum to prevent what he dubs a “Tory Brexit”, or a no-deal Brexit.
May to abandon Brexit talks with Labour if no deal by next week
It leaves open the possibility, however slim, of Labour helping to force through EU withdrawal if the Conservatives concede a customs union and to his demands on the single market, plus worker and environmental rights.
However, in reality, that attempt looks doomed – after Theresa May set a deadline of just one week to agree a compromise, or she will abandon the cross-party talks.
For that reason, some pro-EU Labour MPs stopped short of criticism. Ian Murray, a former shadow Scottish secretary, said backing for a Final Say referendum had been “upheld at last”.
“Given there won’t be a general election and the Tories will not agree customs union and single market, the @UKLabour EU manifesto commits to a public vote,” he tweeted.
Ben Bradshaw, a leading pro-referendum Labour MP, echoed the message, tweeting: “There won’t be an election cos Tory MPs won’t vote for one. #peoplesvote only thing left. Bingo!”
Labour’s pro-EU wing was also pleased that the party would now have to rapidly rewrite the controversial European election leaflet which made no mention of a fresh referendum.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-labour-second-referendum-latest-jeremy-corbyn-public-vote-a8893361.html
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/premier-inn-owner-whitbread-sounds-090600037.html
The video games industry in the UK could be negatively impacted by post-Brexit immigration policy, it has been suggested.
On Tuesday, Westminster’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee travelled to Dundee, a world-leading city for games development, to evaluate what more the UK Government can do to support the industry.
Concerns were raised that a proposal to introduce a £30,000 salary threshold for workers from outside of the UK could make it more difficult to recruit and retain staff.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/post-brexit-immigration-policy-could-123139245.html
No civil war
Meanwhile, Brexit is back on the front pages with the Guardian reporting Jeremy Corbyn is facing a backlash after blocking calls for Labour to unequivocally back a new referendum.
The paper notes that the wording of the party's policy in its European election manifesto "falls well short" of the position set out recently by the deputy leader, Tom Watson, and the shadow Brexit secretary, Sir Keir Starmer.
The website of the New Statesman says Labour has avoided a civil war - after the party's ruling body agreed the compromise position. It concludes that the National Executive Committee "has agreed to keep disagreeing".
The Daily Telegraph reports that Eurosceptic ministers fear that Theresa May is about to "cave in" to Labour demands on Brexit.
It says the prime minister's announcement that she wants to end the cross-party talks next week, has added to suspicions she is waiting until after this week's local elections before announcing a climb-down.
The paper says the Chief Whip, Julian Smith, is understood to have told Cabinet ministers it was "time to get real", as they were presented with a document setting out the risks of holding another Brexit vote without Labour support.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-48114738
BREXIT uncertainty is affecting trade between the UK and Switzerland, with the question of future relations between the EU and Britain weighing down heavily on Swiss trade.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1120924/brexit-news-latest-eu-exit-switzerland-uk-trade-bilateral-relations
Smith reportedly spelled out the choice facing ministers at Downing Street
It came as Government continues to hold talks with Labour over Brexit impasse
But Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has rejected the idea, branding it 'bad policy'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6978189/Chief-whip-Julian-Smith-tells-Cabinet-choose-Labours-customs-union-second-referendum.html
https://www.pscp.tv/w/1vOxwqzpAkLGB?t=5
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/defence-secretary-fired-over-national-security-council-leak/ar-AAAM3OJ?ocid=spartanntp
Theresa May has “no option” but to tear up her red lines on a customs union if she wants to pass her Brexit deal, one of Jeremy Corbyn’s closest allies said today.
Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey spoke out as both Cabinet and Labour sources confirmed cross-party talks have moved significantly in recent days, pointing to a potential deal within a fortnight.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/brexit-latest-customs-union-the-only-option-left-for-theresa-may-says-jeremy-corbyn-ally/ar-AAALmNZ?ocid=spartanntp
Further embarrassment heaped on beleaguered transport secretary, who has faced repeated calls to quit over the controversy
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-news-no-deal-ferry-taxpayers-chris-gayling-latest-transport-eurotunnel-a8894271.html
Labour leader demonstrates his iron grip over his party – but is told he will pay a price in looming poll
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-jeremy-corbyn-european-elections-labour-party-vote-eu-referendum-a8893651.html
The Labour leader must understand what his party wants of him, and what Tom Watson has tried in vain to tell him
Whether he “stormed out” of the shadow cabinet meeting or rather took his leave politely and just nipped out to try and discover what Labour’s latest policy on Brexit is, Tom Watson’s frustration with his party’s attitude has long been more than apparent. He may express himself in sotto voce tones and measured terms, but Mr Watson ill-concealed irritation is justified: Labour is in a mess about Brexit.
The national executive committee’s latest policy proposal is a familiar reworking of its usual fudge, and it is not good enough. Labour is betraying its own people, and the wider electorate, by failing to back a Final Say referendum on whatever the terms of Brexit turn out to be. It is quite something from a party that purports to be both democratic and socialist to want to betray the people and, in particular, working people and the most vulnerable in society – those who will suffer most from any form of Brexit.
So quite apart from anything else, and leaving aside base electoral calculations and internal party plotting, this is a matter of high principle on a matter of huge national importance. As The Independent has long argued, the people, having expressed (albeit narrowly and after a lamentable campaign) their wish for Brexit in the 2016 referendum, now have the right to confirm whether what awaits them is in fact what they voted for, and, in any case, what they now wish to see happen.
A decision of this magnitude cannot be taken by MPs alone – there is a democratic imperative at work here, as the hugely popular Put It To The People marches and other events have demonstrated. After almost three years of the most extensive exercise in deliberative democracy ever undertaken anywhere, the British people are now in a position to make their choice on a thoroughly informed basis.
Whatever government or prime minister ends up with the Brexit deal – Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn, Jeremy Hunt – the electorate has a right to give or withhold approval. Now we know what Brexit really is, we can decide in full possession of the facts. That was simply impossible in 2016
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/brexit-jeremy-corbyn-tom-watson-momentum-referendum-final-say-a8893266.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-news-live-theresa-may-european-elections-labour-second-referendum-a8887191.html
Pictures of a pensive Gavin Williamson leaving Westminster feature on many of the front pages - following his dismissal as defence secretary.
In what the Daily Mail describes as an "extraordinary" interview, he swears "on his children's lives" that he did not leak information from a National Security Council meeting to the media.
"The prime minister has just sacked someone who is not guilty," he says, claiming he "dug her out of a few holes" when he worked as her chief whip.
Several papers - including the i - report comments Mr Williamson made to Sky News, suggesting he had been the victim of a "kangaroo court" led by the head of the Civil Service, Sir Mark Sedwill.
The Daily Telegraph adds that Downing Street has not offered proof Mr Williamson was behind the leak, and would likely "come under pressure to publish the evidence".
The Daily Mirror says the sacking came as a surprise, not because Gavin Williamson "wasn't a likely suspect, but because Number 10 had collectively shrugged its shoulders at regular leaks".
This has been "one of the most embarrassing and damaging episodes" of Theresa May's premiership, says Huffpost UK - and her refusal to let the police investigate "will rapidly become the next political headache".
The Daily Mail's Peter Oborne thinks there should be a criminal investigation.
"There is no more serious offence than leaking secrets," he writes.
Writing in the Daily Express columnist and TV host Richard Madeley thinks Mr Williamson's political career is finished regardless.
"When a prime minister essentially calls you a leaking liar, multiple doors quietly, but firmly, click shut," he writes.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-48128748