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    A third Russian agent involved in the Novichok attack on Sergei Skripal is believed to have aborted his planned exit from Britain. The Russian military intelligence officer, using the false name Sergey Fedotov, travelled to the UK on the same day as the two hitmen who carried out the attempted assassination in Salisbury. Fedotov was booked onto the same flight back to Moscow with the would-be assassins but checked off the plane before its departure, according to reports on Wednesday night. Why he checked off the plane was not immediately clear but it raised the prospect he remained in the country after the nerve agent attack in March last year. Fedotov’s real identity remains unclear and his role in the attack is not known. Speaking to the Telegraph, an unnamed s...

    Senior Conservative Brexiteers are setting the prime minister up to fail in her mission to renegotiate the Brexit deal, a member of Theresa May's Cabinet has said, after the party's MPs ruled out backing the Withdrawal Agreement even if there are major changes to it. Jacob Rees-Mogg, who leads the anti-EU European Reform Group of Conservative MPs, said that they would not back May's deal, even if she secured a unilateral exit clause, or a time-limit, to the controversial Brexit backstop. The backstop is an insurance policy within the Withdrawal Agreement, designed to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland in all circumstances after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union. Neither a unilateral withdrawal or an end date solve the problems o...

    Prominent Labour MPs have warned their colleagues not to accept money for their constituencies in return for supporting Theresa May's Brexit deal. David Lammy tweeted they would be seen as cowards and facilitators and warned: History will be brutal. John Mannhas urged the PM to show us the money with transformative investment in areas that voted Leave. But the Labour MP, who backed Theresa May's Brexit deal, denied it amounted to transactional politics. The government is understood to be considering proposals from a group of Labour MPs in predominantly Leave-supporting constituencies, to allocate more funds to their communities for big infrastructure projects. It is thought the MPs have urged the prime minister to consider re-allocating the EU's regional aid bud...

    House price growth ground to a halt in during January, with property values showing close to zero growth for the year as Brexit uncertainty hit confidence. House prices edged up by just 0.1 per cent year on year in January, the smallest annual increase for the index for almost six years, and a sharp decline from 1.9 per cent growth in November, Nationwide said. As recently as January 2017, annual house price growth was running at 4.3 per cent. A no-deal Brexit would see house prices slump a further 5 per cent in 2019, according to predictions from Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club. Conversely, if a deal is agreed by March, prices could rise by 2 per cent, Mr Archer said. Bank of England governor Mark Carney told MPs in September that a d...

    Theresa May faces a clash with Brussels after the House of Commons backed her efforts to rewrite her own draft Brexit treaty, an attempt to break the deadlock at Westminster. The prime minister said she would never stop battling for Britain but, while her move rallied Brexiter Conservatives, it has been rejected by Brussels, which has repeatedly stated that the withdrawal agreement cannot be reopened. Two weeks after her Brexit deal was overwhelmingly rejected by parliament, Mrs May bowed to intense pressure from Eurosceptic Conservatives by agreeing to seek its dismantling. She urged MPs to give her a mandate to return to the fray in Brussels with only two months to go until Britain’s scheduled exit. The backstop is meant to prevent the return of a hard Irish bord...

    Hard-line Tory Brexiteers wrestled control of Theresa May’s plan to leave the EU as the PM won support from a majority of MPs to return to Brussels and renegotiate her deal. On a remarkable night in the House of Commons, of the eight votes that could potentially redefine the course of Brexit, seven of them were favourable towards Mrs May. In supporting the so-called Brady amendment by a slim majority of 317-301, MPs have given Mrs May a mandate to try to renegotiate the Brexit deal with the EU in which she will seek to replace the controversial Irish backstop with an as-yet unspecified alternative. Crucially, MPs also rejected a vote that would have forced Mrs May to delay Brexit to avoid crashing out with no deal. However, they also supported a separate vote that ...

    Prince Philip is reportedly struggling and looking visibly strained since his car crash at Sandringham earlier this month. The Duke Of Edinburgh was left with minor injuries after his Land Rover crashed into a Kia on the A149 near the royal estate in Norfolk. His 4x4 collided with the Kia, which was being driven by Emma Townsend, 28. Her nine-month-old daughter was unharmed but her passenger Emma Fairweather suffered a broken arm. Prince Philip has since apologised but a source said: He has been visibly more frail since he was pulled from the wreck. Prince Philip wrote her a letter saying: I would like you to know how very sorry I am for my part in the accident at the Babingley cross-roads. I have been across that crossing any number of times and I know very well...

    Almost all of the UK’s bestselling cars are at risk of keyless theft, a study shows. The vehicles can be unlocked and started in minutes using gadgets which can be bought cheaply online. Consumer watchdog Which? found that four out of five of the most popular cars in the UK last year were vulnerable to so-called keyless attacks. The investigation prompted Which? to accuse manufacturers of sacrificing the security of cars for a small added convenience. It comes as figures from the Office for National Statistics for the year to September showed car thefts up 10 per cent to about 110,000 in large part down to keyless entry. Many new cars now have keyless entry systems, or can have them added as an upgrade. It allows the driver to open and start the car without using ...

    A senior minister has edged close to ruling out Britain leaving the EU without a deal, predicting such a scenario will never become "government policy". Education Secretary Damian Hinds told Sky News he "didn't envisage" ministers signing up to the plan, but that it had to remain an option to stop MPs thwarting Brexit. In comments likely to rile Brexiteers, Mr Hinds also called the Irish backstop an "integral part" of the Brexit deal. That is the insurance policy to prevent a hard border reforming on the island of Ireland if a trade deal is not struck. It is the main concern of hardline Eurosceptic MPs who voted in droves against the withdrawal agreement in December. Some are trying to change the deal to make the backstop time-limited, given the UK has no unilate...