United Kingdom

    The Foreign Secretary told Parliament on Tuesday that the launch event for the Institute for Free Trade (IFT) which is run by Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan, a prominent Brexiteer was held as no cost to the public purse in one of the Government's most prestigious venues. Yet internal government emails, obtained by Greenpeace, have now revealed that Mr Johnson allowed the think tank to use an FCO suite for free for the event in September, which meant waiving the £6,000 commercial fee to hire the venue. It also emerged that Sue Gray, the government's head of ethics, raised concerns two days after the event and said the IFT should pay the full commercial rate for using the Map Room, which, as state property, should only be used for official government business. Despit...

    Jeremy Corbyn could use a key Brexit speech on Monday to pave the way for Labour to inflict a Commons defeat on the government, by backing a rebel Tory amendment seeking to keep Britain in a customs union. With Theresa May expected to unveil her vision for departure from the EU next week, following eight hours of talks with key ministers at the prime minister’s Chequers country retreat, she now faces the prospect of Labour sabotaging the carefully choreographed process. In what will be a closely watched speech, Corbyn is expected to signal that Labour is prepared to back the UK staying in a customs union with the EU. The party has said for some months that customs union membership is a viable outcome but a series of interventions from shadow cabinet members in rece...

    A benefit cheat who fraudulently claimed thousands of pounds despite having almost £40,000 in savings broke down in tears as she was sentenced. Abida Khan had denied the wrong doing but avoided jail after being convicted of four counts of fraud at Teeside Magistrates' Court, Gazette Live reports. The mother of four claimed she only had £650 in her bank - but the reality was she had £37,438 in savings across 12 undeclared accounts. The 52-year-old claimed income support, housing benefit and council tax relief over a period of four years, the court heard. She was overpaid £27,142.11 before being caught in an investigation by the Department for Work and Pensions. The fraudulent claims began after Khan, 52, split up with her husband, the court heard at a previous hear...

    Theresa May was forced to reassure jittery Brexiters on her own back benches on Wednesday as her 11-strong Brexit inner cabinet prepared to assemble for an eight-hour away day to thrash out a deal on Britain’s future relationship with the European Union. After another day in which Tory differences over Brexit were exposed, ministers were summoned to the PM’s country retreat of Chequers for talks scheduled to go on until 10pm. May’s challenge in reconciling the opposing views in her own party was underlined on Wednesday when Downing Street moved swiftly to deny that the government is seeking an open-ended transition period after Britain leaves the EU in March next year. Senior pro-Brexit MPs had sought reassurances from cabinet ministers, after leaked negotiating gu...

    EU net migration is falling as more European citizens leave the UK and fewer arrive in the wake of the vote for Brexit, new statistics show. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said overall net migration in the year to September was 244,000 – a similar level to early 2014 and down on record levels in the next two years. The number of European citizens arriving has plummeted since the EU referendum, while the number of people from outside the bloc has increased. Brexit could well be a factor in people's decision to move to or from the UK, but people’s decision to migrate is complicated and can be influenced by lots of different reasons. Almost a quarter of a million people arrived in the UK to work in the period 2017, with the number of EU citizens falling by ...

    Police have arrested a man on suspicion of murder after a body was found on the M20. Officers were alerted to the discovery between junctions 10 and 9 on the London bound carriageway of the motorway near Ashford in Kent on Tuesday. Paramedics were also called, but the person who has not been identified was pronounced dead at the scene. Motorists were redirected and the road immediately closed while emergency services remained at the scene, reopening on Wednesday afternoon. Detectives said they are no longer looking for a silver Nissan Qashqai after a man with the vehicle attended a police station on Wednesday night. He was detained on suspicion of murder and remains in custody while officers investigate the circumstances surrounding the death. Detective Chief In...

    The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said overall net migration in the year to September was 244,000 a similar level to early 2014 and down on record levels in the next two years. The number of European citizens arriving has plummeted since the EU referendum, while the number of people from outside the bloc has increased. Looking at the underlying numbers we can see that EU net migration has fallen as fewer EU citizens are arriving, especially those coming to look for work in the UK, and the number leaving has risen it has now returned to the level seen in 2012, said Nicola White, head of international migration statistics at the ONS. Brexit could well be a factor in people's decision to move to or from the UK, but people’s decision to migrate is complicated an...

    Asthma UK said that faulty inhalers could put people’s lives at risk as it called on patients to check whether their inhaler needed to be returned. The call comes after the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) urged asthma patients to replace specific batches of their Ventolin Accuhaler inhalers, used for the emergency relief of asthmatic symptoms, after it was discovered that a manufacturing issue resulted in some devices not delivering the full dose required. But the MHRA said that other asthma inhalers, including the more commonly used Ventolin Evohaler, are not affected. Bernadette Sinclair Jenkins, the regulatory assessment unit manager of the MHRA’s Inspections, Enforcement and Standards unit, said: It is important people check whether t...

    Kate Middleton has been spotted getting a tattoo today during her trip to Sunderland with Prince William. But don't worry it's not a permanent one. The Duchess was actually sitting for a henna tattoo, applied by young people at a new arts hub in the city. It will be two days before it washes off. And it's believed Kate reportedly asked for the henna design herself. The Duchess seemed delighted when Shajida Begum, 18, drew a black flower with a swirl. Miss Begum said: I said Would you like a design?' and she was like Yes, if you don't mind. She was saying that it was really pretty. I was just telling her how it works. I was telling her when she can wash it off I said 'when it becomes flakey'. Kate also asked the girls for a pack of bindis, which she said she w...

    The EU has ruled out the UK government’s preferred approach to a future trade deal, describing it as a risk to the European project, just as Theresa May is seeking to strike an agreement on the way forward within her cabinet. The inner cabinet is meeting at Chequers on Thursday to try to find an agreement among warring cabinet members on an approach sketched out to ministers by the prime minister’s Brexit adviser, Olly Robbins. Under what is understood to be the prime minister’s preferred model, the UK would stay lock-step in regulatory alignment with the EU in some areas while finding different ways to achieve the same outcomes in other sectors. Yet, with something close to incendiary timing, the European commission, hours ahead of the cabinet get-together, has pu...