Author: Sumon Admin

    Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal has cleared its first Commons hurdle with a thumping majority of 124, putting the UK on course to leave the EU on 31 January. The withdrawal agreement bill stripped of powers for MPs to avert the risk of a no-deal Brexit at the end of 2020 and scrutinise the future EU trade deal was given its second reading. It will now be given detailed scrutiny at its committee stage early in the New Year, but is not expected to be amended significantly before passing into law next month. The result was not in doubt, after Mr Johnson won an 80-strong majority at last week’s election, but the size of the victory hinting at around 30 Labour abstentions or absentees. The prime minister’s relaxed approach to the vote despite its seismic implications was u...

    The pound against the US dollar (GBPUSD=X) dropped by over 0.3% on Tuesday morning after prime minister Boris Johnson made a major move to guarantee Britain will be dragged out of the European Union by 2021. The pound held up over the key $1.31 mark, trading around $1.32, but has been steadily sliding since Friday when Johnson’s Conservative party secured a major win at the general election. The transition period. This is set to conclude in December 2020. It can be extended for up to two years, if both the UK and EU members agree. If that was to happen again, Brexit could be delayed. However, Johnson’s government is aiming to add a new clause to the Brexit bill to make it illegal for parliament to just that. This week, the House of Commons is set to vote on the am...

    The first day back in parliament after last week’s general election saw 140 excited new MPs travel to Westminster to start their new jobs. Less conspicuous were those quietly packing their offices and saying goodbye to the building that, in some cases, they had worked in for decades. Of the 73 sitting MPs to lose seats in this election, 46 were Labour, seven were Conservative and six were Liberal Democrat. After the blow of being turfed out by constituents, former members of parliament are given a week to pack up their belongings before their security passes stop working on 19 December. For Tom Brake, the longest-serving Lib Dem MP ahead of Thursday’s vote, his first task after losing his seat of Carshalton and Wallington after 22 years was to talk to his staff abou...

    Boris Johnson has fuelled fears that workers rights and environmental safeguards will be ditched after Brexit after the government watered down a promise to enshrine them in law. Downing Street suggested that the prime minister is no longer committed to pledges, made to MPs before the general election, to guarantee that standards will not be weakened when Britain leaves the EU. A promise that MPs would be given a vote on whether or not to extend the transition period at the end of 2020 to avoid leaving the EU without a trade deal has also been ditched and will not be included in a key Brexit bill to be reintroduced this week. The pledges were made by Mr Johnson and his team in October as they attempted to convince MPs to vote for the prime minister's Brexit deal. ...

    Emily Thornberry has announced she is taking legal action against ex-Labour MP Caroline Flint over the complete lie that she called Leave voters stupid. The shadow Foreign Secretary said she had given the ousted MP until the end of today to withdraw the claim made in a TV interview on Sunday but she refuses to. So that is what we are doing to do, we are having to take legal action, Ms Thornberry confirmed. The extraordinary spectacle of one senior Labour figure suing another comes after Ms Flint stepped up her criticism that a pro-Remain faction was to blame for Labour’s election disaster. The former Don Valley MP targeted Ms Thornberry, a North London MP, claiming: She said to one of my colleagues, 'I'm glad my constituents aren't as stupid as yours'. She and Ke...

    Two female Labour MPs are looking likely to throw their hats into the ring to replace Jeremy Corbyn as the party's leader. The high profile backbenchers, Birmingham Yardley MP Jess Phillips and Wigan MP Lisa Nandy, have both written in the Observer calling for change within the party. Their comments came on the same day that Jeremy Corbyn apologised to Labour supporters for his party crushing defeat in the 2019 general election and said he accepted his responsibility for it. In the Observer, Ms Phillips said she is “angry” that a generation will now be scarred and governed by a party that has done nothing to improve their lives. Working class people don't believe we're better than Tories The Birmingham Yardley MP made clear she believed her party needed to change...

    Michael Gove has categorically promised the UK will have a trade deal with the EU by the end of next year, despite deep reservations in Brussels about whether this is possible. The senior cabinet minister became the first in Boris Johnson’s cabinet to repeat that pledge after the election, saying transitional arrangements would definitely stop at the end of December 2020. He said discussions on the UK’s future relationship with the EU “will be concluded next year”. Speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Gove said: “Quite a lot of the details that we need to negotiate is already laid out in the political declaration, so a lot of work has been done. “And as a number of people have pointed out, there are areas where the European Union’s interests and the United Kin...