Day: February 14, 2020

    UK negotiators have held trade talks with at least one unknown country in total secrecy, it has been claimed. The news emerged during a tribunal in central London, where campaign group Global Justice now is challenging the information watchdog to order ministers to publish data about government trade operations. During the hearing, government lawyers disclosed that some preliminary trade talks have not been made public as they were deemed too sensitive for public consumption, director Nick Dearden and Global Justice Now’s legal team have said. It comes amid widespread concern that public services, such as the NHS and the BBC, and consumer standards could be on the table. Dearden told HuffPost UK: The reason transparency is important is that trade deals today go mu...

    A British man left sleeping on foreign streets after being locked out of the UK by the Home Office has finally been allowed to return but been charged £100 to replace the passport they confiscated. Fatush Lala, 33, has been living rough in Brussels for more than three weeks after UK authorities voided his citizenship and blocked his passport while he was abroad on holiday with his family. But hours after The Independent reported on Mr Lala's plight he received a phonecall from officials saying he could come back. I went to the British embassy and they printed out the passport for me. But first I had to pay a fee of £100 for it, said Mr Lala, who has lived in Britain since he was 14 and naturalised. The British national had previously gone to the UK embassy in the ...