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    The EU has unveiled a raft of measures to protect its vital interests in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The European Commission on Wednesday recommended 14 measures in a number of area including financial services, air transport, customs and climate policy. Among the plans are emergencies policies to avoid avoid full interruption of air traffic between the EU and the UK in the event of no deal. He told reporters in Brussels that the contingencies cannot replicate the benefits of the EU withdrawal agreement and certainly cannot replicate the benefits of EU membership. The measures unveiled by the Commission are all short-term and it says they should in principle not go beyond the end of 2019. A no-deal Brexit will happen if Theresa May is unable to get her Brexit ...

    Emergency no-deal Brexit contingency plans must now be implemented across government, cabinet ministers have agreed, including reserving ferry space for supplies and putting 3,500 armed forces personnel on standby to deal with any disruption. No 10 confirmed on Tuesday that cabinet ministers would “ramp up” no-deal planning, and that the departments would be expected to make it their main priority. Downing Street said it would send advice on preparing for no deal to all UK businesses and suggested they should begin implementing their own contingency plans as they saw fit. Theresa May’s spokesman said the cabinet “agreed that delivering the deal that the prime minister agreed with Brussels remains the government’s top priority and our best no-deal mitigation”. The ...

    Britain must downgrade its bedrock reliance on the US and recognise that the Trump administration is seeking to undermine British efforts to tackle the most critical challenges facing the world, a committee of peers has said. The Lords international relations committee said the Trump administration’s actions on issues including the Paris climate change deal, the Iran nuclear accord and steel tariffs had been contrary to the interests of the UK. After taking evidence over the past year from some of the country’s most senior diplomats, national security experts and foreign policy specialists, the committee says the UK needs to develop alliances elsewhere around the globe, including within Europe, to maintain reformed multilateral institutions. If it does not it will r...

    MPs should be invited to say what Brexit option they would agree if the Commons votes down Theresa May’s deal, the business secretary, Greg Clark, has said, becoming the latest cabinet minister to suggest this as a potential way out of the impasse. With numerous members of May’s cabinet pushing their competing Brexit plans in the final week of parliament before Christmas, Clark said it was time for MPs to be more proactive. One way or another, parliament has got to move from essentially being critics of the agreement, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. It is obviously easy to find things you don’t like. But I think every MP now needs to regard themselves as responsible participants. May will brief the Commons on Monday about her failed efforts to win new conces...

    The salaries of some London Tube drivers have broken the £100,000 barrier more than most airline pilots despite their jobs getting easier as many now only have to open and close the doors. The eye-watering figures, which include overtime, bonuses and employer pension contributions, show the highest paid driver in the year to November received £103,374 - 69% more than in 2012 while nine were paid upwards of £100,000. It comes before a wave of strikes that will bring misery to travellers during the Christmas period and lead to an estimated £8million in lost sales for struggling high street shops. The basic salary of an average Tube driver is now double that of a London nurse, reported The Sunday Times. They received another 4% boost this year despite five out of 11 l...

    Amber Rudd said it is possible Theresa May will ultimately be unable to persuade enough of her own MPs to back her deal, suggesting it is time to abandon outrage and accusations and try something different. Ms Rudd said a practical, sensible and healing approach was needed for MPs to coalesce around a deal to avert the danger of Britain crashing out of the EU. It comes as five Cabinet ministers are understood to be considering a second referendum if MPs cannot agree a deal in the next month. Ms Rudd, Philip Hammond, David Gauke, Greg Clarke, and David Lidington have all stepped up discussions over whether to back the poll following Mrs May's narrow victory in the confidence vote earlier this week, the Times reported. The Work and Pensions Secretary is the most sen...

    Theresa May’s Brexit plan was dealt another major blow at a meeting with EU leaders on Thursday night in a disastrous turn of events that resulted in them scrapping written commitments to help her pass her deal through parliament. After arriving in Brussels with promises to help the prime minister, European leaders were left amazed when she turned up without any developed requests or ideas. The 27 heads of state and government subsequently decided to delete lines from their council conclusions saying the EU stands ready to examine whether any further assurance can be provided” and that “the backstop does not represent a desirable outcome for the union. The key paragraphs appeared in leaked earlier drafts on the conclusions and their absence leaves a barebones state...

    A European conservative group co-founded by the Tories and led by Brexit campaigner and MEP Daniel Hannan has been asked to repay more than half a million euros of EU funds following an investigation into their spending, the Guardian has learned. In a rare negative finding touching a British political party in government, European parliament senior leaders on Monday night ordered the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE) to repay €535,609 (£484,367) of EU funds. The group will be denied a further €187,245, which had been withheld pending investigation. A formal demand for repayment will be issued to the ACRE next week, following a decision taken behind closed doors by the parliament’s top leaders on Monday. Hannan, who has championed Brexit for ...

    The prime minister’s spokesman said she did not regard the vote tonight as‪ deciding who is going to lead the party into the next election, but about who takes the country through Brexit. The key argument her critics have used against her remaining as leader, is that many of her MPs do not want her to lead the Conservatives into the next election. The move came after a confident performance by Ms May at prime minister’s questions in the commons, which her husband Philip watched from the public gallery. She was to follow the session with multiple meetings with MPs and then a critical group meeting with the backbench 1922 Committee of Conservatives. Her spokesman said Ms May doesn’t believe the vote today is about who leads the party to the next election. It’s ab...